Tick-tock, this is how many people describe the annual iPhone upgrade cycle. 2015 is no different and it turned out to be a S year. On September 9th, Apple introduced the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, then a few days later it was available for pre-order, and the phone officially launched on September 25th.
I went ahead and picked up the iPhone 6s with 64GB of storage, and yes I did get the Rose Gold color. I used the iPhone Upgrade Program, which essentially is Apple’s version of an installment plan which let’s you lease the phone. Plus, after 12 monthly payments you can upgrade to a new device, so come next year customers of the program can get the next iPhone.
But, for the time being the 6s and 6s Plus are the flagship devices coming out of Cupertino. While we aren’t seeing a complete redesign, we are seeing a solid update to the devices. For starters, we now have the equivalent of Force Touch, known as 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. It really is the landmark feature of the device in my opinion, and it adds another layer to the operating system. It make’s it easier to access specific sections of applications and makes the whole user interface more intuitive.
3D Touch is being added to third-party applications pretty quickly, it comes in handy with Instagram if you want to quickly post a picture or to see your activity. With Twitter you can easily send a new tweet or a direct message via the 3D Touch menu. For right now many of the elements using 3D Touch make it easier to get stuff done in applications, I think in the coming months we will see more advance features use it
The 6s is most certainly faster with an all new A9 chip and 2GBs of RAM, which is the most memory ever put into an iPhone. It really does make a difference, speed is a common thing you will notice on the device. Touch ID has a new sensor which is crazy fast, it recognizes it so quickly that I can’t use the home button to turn on my screen to see if I have any notifications any more. Apple did a superb job with speed on the iPhone 6s.
Another key area of improvement would have to be the cameras, and for those of you who enjoy taking selfies, you will be quite happy. You now have a 5 megapixel FaceTime camera on the front and pictures look much better. The device is also using the screen as a flash, or as Apple calls it a Retina Flash and it does make a big difference. On the back you have a 12 megapixel iSight camera which can handle up to 4K video recording.
Now any photos you take, whether it be using the front or the back camera, will be a Live Photo. While some of you feel this might be a gimmicky feature, it is not, it is really cool to say the least. It captures a few seconds of video before and after you take the picture, and you can play it back. Allowing you to truly have memories to live forever, Live Photos is a very neat feature. Plus, hopefully in the future apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook will add support for them.
Now this is not a full review, but this is my experience with the iPhone 6s for the first weekend. It was a very happy one and Apple has done it again, or at least they most likely have. My full in-depth review on the device will be coming soon, so if you are still on the fence about the device, you can wait for that. But, I will tell you that just from my first weekend with the device, the 6s is a worthy upgrade even from an iPhone 6 and it is now my favorite phone on the market.
