Just like every year, Apple has introduced new iPhones – iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus – to the masses. Even though the company released many other smart devices such as Apple TV, iPad Pro, iPad mini 4 and others, most fans were eager to know what the company will offer in the new smartphones. The lucky lot of critics got a change to play around with the new iPhone 6s. Here are a few reactions from those who’ve experienced the product:
The first thing one will notice in the brand new iPhone 6s is its design, which is sadly, the same as the previous models as expected. According to Gareth Beavis of TechRadar, the only marginal change is the additional thickness, very likely to facilitate the new 3D Touch technology on the screen.
He adds, “visually this is almost identical to last year’s redesigned iPhone 6, with the same ceramic metal feel and slightly protruding camera that means you can place it side by side with the iPhone 6 and not really notice the difference.”
The new iPhones feel, well, like iPhones. They have the same basic look as last year and still feel remarkably light. Apple claims that it has a new aluminium body and stronger glass on the front — but neither affects the basic textures of these devices. They look like iPhones, they feel like iPhones, and they act like iPhones, states Dieter Bohn from The Verge. It’s safe to say that Apple has indeed, not made any drastic improvements in terms of design. The look continues to be aesthetically pleasing and well received, just as before.
Apart from design, the brand new addition is the 3D Touch and critics had various opinions on Apple’s latest innovation. AnandTech‘s Joshua Ho points out that 3D Touch is actually impressive because of how well it effectively eliminates a lot of the user experience inefficiencies that come with traditional multi-touch. In addition, “the use of the Taptic Engine is actually quite helpful here as well, because it gives very obvious feedback as to what you can do with a force touch.”
Dieter Bohn from The Verge believes that the 3D Touch, is much better that expected. He stated, “I expected that 3D Touch would be a slew of hidden menus and options, but so far Apple is always giving you hints about what you’ll get: a peek into whatever it is you’re pressing on. Smart.”
MacWorld‘s Susie Ochs believes that 3D Touch gets even cooler once you open apps. He said, “I found myself 3D Touching a message, and then lifting my thumb to see what it says. But of course, the message preview vanishes, so I 3D Touch it again. And again, and again. It would be quicker to just tap the message to open it.”
In terms of camera, the iPhone 6s sports a 12MP along with the ability to shoot 4K videos. MacWorld‘s Susie Ochs stated that though ‘I didn’t get to fully test either in the demo room, of course, but the shutter speed is crazy fast, and zooming in on the demo photos on each device revealed tons of detail. Panoramas are up to 63 megapixels now, and I love how their dedicated album in iOS 9 shows you the whole panorama in each thumbnail.”
However, Gareth Beavis of TechRadar said that “Apple still hasn’t fixed the most annoying part of the camera (sliding the finger up and down to change the exposure as the only way of altering the photo, which is basic and actually quite hard to do) and I was hoping to see a manual mode here.”
Apple has introduced a feature called Live Photos that is on by default and lets you record a 1.5 second long video, before and after you have taken a shot. Another interesting addition is the Retina flash mechanism, where the display of the Apple iPhone 6s or 6s Plus lights up three times over its regular brightness and with regards to ambient lighting conditions so that you can click selfies in low light conditions.
Also, Beavis went on to add that Apple’s thrown in an upgraded chipset in the shape of the A9, and as expected it brings with it a number of changes. The phones come with the Apple A9 chipset with the M9 co-processor embedded into the A9 chipset. According to Apple, A9 offers a 70 percent speed bump with CPU heavy tasks and a 90 percent speed bump in GPU intensive tasks as compared to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones which sported the A8 chipset.
On the connectivity front, you will get LTE Advanced, 802.11ac Wifi, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, Wi-Fi calling, GPS and GLONASS. Other features such as TouchID has become two times faster, Apple Pay will be supported as well.
Overall, the iPhone 6s seems to have gained a positive feedback from critics with new and promising specifications along with features. One of major stand-out is that the device is available in a rose gold colour variant which looks good.
The launch date for the iPhones is set for 25 September. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available for pre-orders in twelve regions starting 12 September in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States of America (USA).
