Introduction
The more it changes, the harder it becomes to see the difference. And you know, it's not about Apple and the iPhone at all. It's where the industry has been heading for a while now. In the race for screen size and processing power, the major makers' flagships are like pro athletes finishing within milliseconds of each other. To get an extra edge, manufacturers will go in lots of directions - such as water proofing, bigger and sharper selfies, wireless charging, curved or borderless screens, whatnot.
The new iPhone, being an S model, naturally comes with more power under the hood, but also brings the long awaited camera upgrade. The main camera now uses a 12MP sensor capable of 4K video recording as well as 1080p at 120fps, there is a brand new 5MP selfie camera too. And, it's the same screen size and resolution but we think it's exactly what Apple meant with "the only thing that's changed is everything".
he first iPhone heralded the arrival of capacitive displays and multi-touch technology. The iPhone 6S is the first to have 3D touch - a screen technology that recognizes different levels of pressure for an extra dimension of interaction with a device.
A late tribute perhaps to resistive screens, which Apple itself sent to their doom. Not a particularly scientific statement although resistive technology did rely on actual pressure to work. Good enough for anyone with a penchant for the dramatic.
But if we are to stick to the facts, the iPhone 6s isn't the company's first device with a pressure-aware display, the Apple Watch is. Plus, phones like the Huawei Mate S and the ZTE Axon mini do deserve at least a mention as well. Anyway, this only highlights the difference between Apple and the rest. Cupertino has the habit - and in all fairness, the capability - to pick a niche technology and make it mainstream.
Design and bulid quality
It may be an entirely different device within, but the exterior of the iPhone 6s is absolutely identical to last year's iPhone 6. Packing just 4.7 inches of screen estate it is still one of the most compact flagships on the market, but its screen-to-body ratio is rather unimpressive (read too much bezel). Apple has been reluctant to do something about that for years now and things are now getting embarrassing - there are phones with 5+" screens that have the same footprint, while phones with equally sized displays usually come in notably smaller packages.
]
There are some good news though. The iPhone 6s unibody is cast out of 7000 series aluminum instead of last year's 6000 series and it's stronger. Latest tests revealed the iPhone 6S bends at much higher levels of pressure than the previous generation - almost triple actually. So, Apple has put bendgate firmly behind it and skinny jeans are no longer an iPhone's mortal enemy.
The front is covered by an ion-strengthened glass with oleophobic coating - those are pretty much the same specs as in the previous iPhone models and mean the glass is scratch and smudge resistant. The Ion-X glass creates the so-called 2.5D effect thanks to its rounded edge. By the way, Apple claims the new special ion-exchange process makes it the most durable screen glass among smartphones today, but early drop test didn't provide conclusive evidence for that.
There are some good news though. The iPhone 6s unibody is cast out of 7000 series aluminum instead of last year's 6000 series and it's stronger. Latest tests revealed the iPhone 6S bends at much higher levels of pressure than the previous generation - almost triple actually. So, Apple has put bendgate firmly behind it and skinny jeans are no longer an iPhone's mortal enemy.
The front is covered by an ion-strengthened glass with oleophobic coating - those are pretty much the same specs as in the previous iPhone models and mean the glass is scratch and smudge resistant. The Ion-X glass creates the so-called 2.5D effect thanks to its rounded edge. By the way, Apple claims the new special ion-exchange process makes it the most durable screen glass among smartphones today, but early drop test didn't provide conclusive evidence for that.
Display
While the display may hide an entirely new touch technology, it's still the same display in terms of size and resolution: a 4.7" unit with a resolution of 750 x 1334 pixels (that's 326ppi). It's a LED-backlit IPS LCD screen with RGB matrix.
The Apple iPhone 6s display offers deeper blacks than the iPhone 6 but unfortunately, it's not as bright at its maximum setting. Nevertheless, the new generation of iPhone managed to output an overall better contrast ratio of 1481:1.
The color rendition of the screen is generally accurate with a pretty low average deltaE of 3.6 (for the primary colors plus black and white), and it's the white and reds that show a somewhat higher deviation. The white is slightly on the cooler bluish side, but nothing major and certainly not noticeable without a reference.
As usual, display colors are a matter of personal taste and perception so if you don't need calibrated color output, you will probably be quite happy with the Apple iPhone 6s screen as it is out-of-the-box.
The Apple iPhone 6s display offers deeper blacks than the iPhone 6 but unfortunately, it's not as bright at its maximum setting. Nevertheless, the new generation of iPhone managed to output an overall better contrast ratio of 1481:1.
The color rendition of the screen is generally accurate with a pretty low average deltaE of 3.6 (for the primary colors plus black and white), and it's the white and reds that show a somewhat higher deviation. The white is slightly on the cooler bluish side, but nothing major and certainly not noticeable without a reference.
As usual, display colors are a matter of personal taste and perception so if you don't need calibrated color output, you will probably be quite happy with the Apple iPhone 6s screen as it is out-of-the-box.
Battery Test
The iPhone 6S is equipped with a non-removable Li-Po 1715 mAh battery, which is about 5% smaller than the one of the iPhone 6. iOS 9 introduced a Low-Power mode, which you can enable manually and should save your phone from dying faster once the charge drops below 20%.
We were eager to see how the new features will affect the battery life, especially when the battery unit got even smaller. The iPhone 6s posted very balanced score across all of our tests - it can do about 10 hours of 3G calls or video playback on a single charge, while you can browse on Wi-Fi for half a day.
So, the total ratting of the iPhone 6s is 62 hours - an hour better than the iPhone 6. This means 62 hours is how long a single battery charge will last you if you use the iPhone 6s for an hour each of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. Such usage pattern is of course entirely artificial, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices.
The iPhone 6S is equipped with a non-removable Li-Po 1715 mAh battery, which is about 5% smaller than the one of the iPhone 6. iOS 9 introduced a Low-Power mode, which you can enable manually and should save your phone from dying faster once the charge drops below 20%.
We were eager to see how the new features will affect the battery life, especially when the battery unit got even smaller. The iPhone 6s posted very balanced score across all of our tests - it can do about 10 hours of 3G calls or video playback on a single charge, while you can browse on Wi-Fi for half a day.
Connectivity
The Apple iPhone 6S comes with a bunch of wireless connectivity features. It supports faster LTE Cat. 6 (up to 3000Mpbs down, 50Mbps up) and has even wider LTE coverage. Regular 2G and 3G connectivity is all safely covered as well with a multitude of supported network bands.
The iPhone 6S also supports the latest Voice over LTE (VoLTE), HD Voice and Wi-Fi calling protocols, but those are carrier dependent features so not everyone will enjoy them.
Compared to the iPhone 6, the 6S now upgraded Wi-Fi functionality too - it supports all the current Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac standards but doubles the theoretical speeds thanks to the use of a 2x2 MIMO antenna. AirPlay is the only way to wirelessly cast your screen's contents to an HDTV, but you'd need to have an Apple TV for that.
Additional local connectivity includes Bluetooth 4.0 LE. There is also support for NFC, but its functionality is only limited to Apple's region-restricted Apple Pay.
The iPhone 6s uses a proprietary Lightning connector for wired data transfers and charging.
There is no support for USB On-the-go or USB host but you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard to the phone should you need this sort of peripheral.
The Apple iPhone 6S comes with a bunch of wireless connectivity features. It supports faster LTE Cat. 6 (up to 3000Mpbs down, 50Mbps up) and has even wider LTE coverage. Regular 2G and 3G connectivity is all safely covered as well with a multitude of supported network bands.
The iPhone 6S also supports the latest Voice over LTE (VoLTE), HD Voice and Wi-Fi calling protocols, but those are carrier dependent features so not everyone will enjoy them.
Compared to the iPhone 6, the 6S now upgraded Wi-Fi functionality too - it supports all the current Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac standards but doubles the theoretical speeds thanks to the use of a 2x2 MIMO antenna. AirPlay is the only way to wirelessly cast your screen's contents to an HDTV, but you'd need to have an Apple TV for that.
Additional local connectivity includes Bluetooth 4.0 LE. There is also support for NFC, but its functionality is only limited to Apple's region-restricted Apple Pay.
The iPhone 6s uses a proprietary Lightning connector for wired data transfers and charging.
There is no support for USB On-the-go or USB host but you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard to the phone should you need this sort of peripheral.
Apple iOS 9 - some new features, lots of potential
Sticking to its usual practices, Apple unveiled the new iOS 9 in June, but at that point it didn't cause too much excitement. Looking much like iOS 8 and bringing only a handful of new features, it didn't stay in the spotlight for long.
Now, a few months later things are different - the iOS 9 biggest update wasn't mentioned at the announcement for understandable reasons - it's the support of the new 3D Touch display and the API that will be available to game and app developers. Depending on how it goes with the early adopters, this feature alone has the potential to alter the way we interact with our phones the same way the first capacitive display and the multi-touch gestures did.
The support for 3D Touch allows for another level of interaction, press the screen for a bit longer (and harder). This gets you access to extra actions and contextual options and we can't wait to see how say, game developers put that to use in the months to come. We'll get back to examining Touch ID and its impact on iOS 9 in a short while, but first let's cover the basics of the new Apple platform.
iOS 9 brings a couple of new apps - News and Notes, while also enhancing Maps with public transit support. Mail and Messages got refreshed and there's a new system font. Meanwhile Siri got smarter, while Spotlight Search expanded its reach.
Visually iOS 9 looks the same as its predecessor. All of your apps are on the homescreen, you can group them in folders and there is the familiar dock that can take up to four shortcuts. System icons, color themes and transparency - everything is like we left it in iOS 8.
The lockscreen hasn't changed much either, but it now supports Live Photo wallpapers - they are either short animations or you can use one of thoseLive Photos that the iPhone 6s duo is capable of capturing. For the animation to activate, you need to press firmly on the screen, which is somewhat counterintuitive and we doubt it will be an oft used feature as nobody would really want to hard press the screen for 3 seconds just to see their lockscreen wallpaper move a bit.
Sticking to its usual practices, Apple unveiled the new iOS 9 in June, but at that point it didn't cause too much excitement. Looking much like iOS 8 and bringing only a handful of new features, it didn't stay in the spotlight for long.
Now, a few months later things are different - the iOS 9 biggest update wasn't mentioned at the announcement for understandable reasons - it's the support of the new 3D Touch display and the API that will be available to game and app developers. Depending on how it goes with the early adopters, this feature alone has the potential to alter the way we interact with our phones the same way the first capacitive display and the multi-touch gestures did.
The support for 3D Touch allows for another level of interaction, press the screen for a bit longer (and harder). This gets you access to extra actions and contextual options and we can't wait to see how say, game developers put that to use in the months to come. We'll get back to examining Touch ID and its impact on iOS 9 in a short while, but first let's cover the basics of the new Apple platform.
iOS 9 brings a couple of new apps - News and Notes, while also enhancing Maps with public transit support. Mail and Messages got refreshed and there's a new system font. Meanwhile Siri got smarter, while Spotlight Search expanded its reach.
Visually iOS 9 looks the same as its predecessor. All of your apps are on the homescreen, you can group them in folders and there is the familiar dock that can take up to four shortcuts. System icons, color themes and transparency - everything is like we left it in iOS 8.
The lockscreen hasn't changed much either, but it now supports Live Photo wallpapers - they are either short animations or you can use one of thoseLive Photos that the iPhone 6s duo is capable of capturing. For the animation to activate, you need to press firmly on the screen, which is somewhat counterintuitive and we doubt it will be an oft used feature as nobody would really want to hard press the screen for 3 seconds just to see their lockscreen wallpaper move a bit.
Apple A9 chip performance
The new generation of iPhones is powered by a brand new Apple A9 chipset, which packs a dual-core 1.85 GHz Twister processor, PowerVR GT7600 six-core graphics and 2GB RAM. The chips are made either by Samsung on 14nm process, or TSMC on 16nm process. All of these mean the A9 has more processing power, a stronger GPU punch, double the RAM and better thermal properties.
Apple has always focused on the single-core performance since it is the most important one when it comes to interacting with the iOS user interface and early tests showed that the 64-bit Twister core is the best and fastest CPU core currently on the market. On the other hand you are only getting two of those, so we'll see how it goes. In come the benchmarks.
The multi-core score of GeekBench 3 shows how powerful the new dual-core Twister processor is. It beats the Snapdragon 810 chips with their quad-Cortex-A57 CPU, but trails behind the Exynos 7420, which uses a similar architecture but a higher clock speed.
Both iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 used for the tests below are running on iOS 9.0.1.
The single-core results show you the difference. A single Twister does insanely better than any other CPU core on the market today. In fact, a single Twister core is equal to the 8-core Cortex-A53 performance on the Meizu m2 note.
Next - graphics performance. The new iPhone generation utilizes the six-core PowerVR GT7600 GPU, which is quite the beast. The 1080p off-screen benchmarks speak for themselves.
Apple A9 is a beast - there's no other way to put it. The iPhone 'S' series typically stand for Speed and the iPhone 6s is not only the fastest iPhone to date, it's probably the best performing smartphone too. Apple's choice of designing its own processor pays out every year and makes sure iOS users never have to worry about lackluster performance.
Apple A9 has the power to handle everything you can get on your phone today and is future-proof for the years to come with some huge power reserves under the hood.
Apple has always focused on the single-core performance since it is the most important one when it comes to interacting with the iOS user interface and early tests showed that the 64-bit Twister core is the best and fastest CPU core currently on the market. On the other hand you are only getting two of those, so we'll see how it goes. In come the benchmarks.
The multi-core score of GeekBench 3 shows how powerful the new dual-core Twister processor is. It beats the Snapdragon 810 chips with their quad-Cortex-A57 CPU, but trails behind the Exynos 7420, which uses a similar architecture but a higher clock speed.
Both iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 used for the tests below are running on iOS 9.0.1.
Apple A9 is a beast - there's no other way to put it. The iPhone 'S' series typically stand for Speed and the iPhone 6s is not only the fastest iPhone to date, it's probably the best performing smartphone too. Apple's choice of designing its own processor pays out every year and makes sure iOS users never have to worry about lackluster performance.
Apple A9 has the power to handle everything you can get on your phone today and is future-proof for the years to come with some huge power reserves under the hood.
Final Words
Apple promised three major updates with the iPhone 6s: 3D touch, camera and performance. Let's go through the checklist.
The A9 chip easily delivers. Already outstanding responsiveness and fluid handling are taken to the next level. No issues there. The 12MP stills and 4K videos may be late but they're executed in the typical Apple fashion. A long-awaited camera upgrade finally delivered. Not quite picture-perfect, without OIS and considering owners of 16GB iPhones may be running out of storage pretty soon. 3D Touch? Well, the new touchscreen is the beginning of the journey to a richer user experience but not quite the destination yet. We'll have to wait and to see the really clever implementations that developers are going to come up with.
We'd call that 2 and a half out of three - not a bad score card. The big stuff still missing: some sort of water resistance, wireless charging, higher screen resolution. Now, none of these could've been delivered in a phone that's re-using last season's design. The iPhone 7 perhaps? If ever.
Here's the deal. The regular iPhone models update the design, and once in a while, screen size. The S models focus on the insides. The iPhone 4S introduced Siri and the first big camera upgrade. The iPhone 5S brought about 64-bit processing and a fingerprint sensor. Alongside another camera upgrade, the big thing to look at in the iPhone 6S - and look forward to in Apple in general - is the pressure-aware screen that does add an extra dimension to how you interact with a device.
This is yet to reveal its full potential but looks like something developers will be keen to play with. It can be the new pinch zoom (something we do take for granted but which was a huge breakthrough back in its time). That said, Android makers are experimenting as well. ZTE and Huawei in particular - not the names you'd expect in the same review as an iPhone but it goes to show how the market has evolved.
We cannot help the thought either that someone at Apple was looking at the Samsung Note, the hovering S-pen and Air Command thinking, "We need to be able to do the same. With a tip of a finger. "
Apple promised three major updates with the iPhone 6s: 3D touch, camera and performance. Let's go through the checklist.
The A9 chip easily delivers. Already outstanding responsiveness and fluid handling are taken to the next level. No issues there. The 12MP stills and 4K videos may be late but they're executed in the typical Apple fashion. A long-awaited camera upgrade finally delivered. Not quite picture-perfect, without OIS and considering owners of 16GB iPhones may be running out of storage pretty soon. 3D Touch? Well, the new touchscreen is the beginning of the journey to a richer user experience but not quite the destination yet. We'll have to wait and to see the really clever implementations that developers are going to come up with.
We'd call that 2 and a half out of three - not a bad score card. The big stuff still missing: some sort of water resistance, wireless charging, higher screen resolution. Now, none of these could've been delivered in a phone that's re-using last season's design. The iPhone 7 perhaps? If ever.
Here's the deal. The regular iPhone models update the design, and once in a while, screen size. The S models focus on the insides. The iPhone 4S introduced Siri and the first big camera upgrade. The iPhone 5S brought about 64-bit processing and a fingerprint sensor. Alongside another camera upgrade, the big thing to look at in the iPhone 6S - and look forward to in Apple in general - is the pressure-aware screen that does add an extra dimension to how you interact with a device.
This is yet to reveal its full potential but looks like something developers will be keen to play with. It can be the new pinch zoom (something we do take for granted but which was a huge breakthrough back in its time). That said, Android makers are experimenting as well. ZTE and Huawei in particular - not the names you'd expect in the same review as an iPhone but it goes to show how the market has evolved.
We cannot help the thought either that someone at Apple was looking at the Samsung Note, the hovering S-pen and Air Command thinking, "We need to be able to do the same. With a tip of a finger. "
No comments:
Post a Comment