iPhone 6s Plus Hands-On: 10 Best Features
Apple's new iPhone 6s Plus is more than a simple update to last year's phablet. Here's our hands-on look at the smartphone's strongest offerings.
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Apple sold 13 million iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus smartphones during the first three days of availability. This feat, while impressive, shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone paying attention to Apple's slow progression forward each year. The company may take plodding steps, but the steps are often big ones. This year's iPhone 6s Plus is a good example of how large those forward, plodding steps truly are.
The 6s Plus carries over the design from last year's phablet, but almost everything else has been updated or improved in one way or another. Some of the marquee additions include the A9 processor, 3D Touch display, 12-megapixel camera with 4K video capture, and Touch ID sensor. These and other features make the iPhone 6s Plus the most compelling odd-year update Apple has ever fielded.
Beyond the hardware, iOS 9 adds a handful of refinements to iPhones old and new. Apple released the revised operating system earlier this month, and it has enjoyed swift uptake from the Apple faithful. The iPhone 6s Plus is able to take advantage of iOS 9 in unique ways to control the ever-more-powerful Siri personal assistant and other tools.
[ Make the most of Apple's latest mobile operating system. Read iOS 9: 10 Tips And Tricks. ]
Together, the iPhone 6s Plus and iOS 9 are a formidable threat to Google's Android-powered devices. Backed by iTunes and Apple's broad selection of apps, games, music, and movies, the ecosystem behind the iPhone 6s Plus is stronger than ever.
The iPhone 6s Plus is available in four colors (space gray, silver, gold, rose gold) and three storage variants (16GB, 64GB, and 128GB) this year. Prices start at $749 and top out at $949. Apple's latest smartphone is compatible with the networks operated by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon Wireless, and myriad others.
Is the iPhone 6s Plus for you? Here, InformationWeek explores the 10 best features of the iPhone 6s Plus. After you've reviewed the top features, tell us what you think. Are you planning to buy one? Are your employees already asking to upgrade? Tell us all about it in the comments section below.
The touchscreen of the Apple iPhone 6s Plus has an extra layer of technology that can sense microscopic differences in pressure on the glass. It's this technology that forms the basis of 3D Touch. The iPhone 6s Plus (and the smaller iPhone 6s) are able to offer alternate functions depending on how firmly people press the screen.
The screen responds to normal swipes, flicks, and taps as it has for years. When touched with a bit more force, the 6s Plus recognizes the difference and offers up secondary menus and tools depending on the app with which the user is interacting. For example, a 3D press of the clock will let you quickly create a new alarm, while a 3D press of the phone app will let you quickly call the last person who called you.
These small tools may seem insignificant at first, but their usefulness will grow over time as more third-party apps take advantage of the functionality. Already, marquee apps such as Twitter and Instagram have hopped on the 3D Touch bandwagon with new and exciting tools that make it easier to create new posts or message others.
3D Touch is the future, and it gives the 6s Plus a serious boost in power.
After using the iPhone 6s Plus for several days, one thing is abundantly clear: It is fast as hell. The A9 processor, M9 motion co-processor, and 2GB of RAM push the phone to new heights in terms of performance. Apps are incredibly quick to download and install, as well as launch. I was able to edit 4K video in iMovie with no stuttering, pausing, or buffering, and graphics-intensive games, such as Infinity Blade III, looked incredible. Apple doesn't normally spell out clock speeds and such, but the A9 is a 64-bit behemoth that can seemingly tackle anything.
Apple has offered the Touch ID biometric security feature since the 2013 iPhone 5s. The new-generation Touch ID built into the iPhone 6s Plus, however, is another animal altogether.
Touch ID can store multiple fingerprints and learns them quickly. Paired with the A9 processor, fingerprint recognition happens in an instant. On the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, using a fingerprint to unlock the phone or authenticate an iTunes purchase often required several attempts and was sometimes slow to process fingerprints. Not so on the iPhone 6s Plus. Touch ID works so quickly, the 6s Plus often blows right past the security screen and jumps straight to the home screen.
The iPhone 6s Plus has the best-ever cameras from Apple. The main sensor captures 12 megapixels and uses a host of new technologies to ensure the richest possible images. For example, Focus Pixels help the sensor deliver more accurate tone, while also keeping pixel noise to a minimum. Images look great.
The same is true of the user-facing camera, which has been improved from 1.2 megapixels to 5 megapixels. Not only does it deliver higher resolution photos, the Retina Flash helps produce accurate color when taking those all-important selfies.
New features, such as Live Photos and 4K video capture, make the iPhone 6s Plus a capable imaging machine.
Yes, the battery. The power cell in the iPhone 6s Plus may actually be smaller than the one in last year's iPhone 6 Plus, but new refinements in iOS 9 and the A9 processor help the 6s Plus push through nearly one-and-a-half days of solid use. Few smartphones can claim to offer that much battery life.
Moreover, the new low-power mode in iOS 9 lets you tone down notifications, background processes, and screen brightness to extend battery life even further.
Most of Siri's improvements are found in iOS 9, but the iPhone 6s Plus is able to do things with Siri that other iPhones cannot.
To start, uttering "Hey, Siri" even when the 6s Plus is unplugged will wake the iPhone and put Siri into listening mode. From there, it's easy to make any request of Siri. In other words, handsfree Siri is finally here. More importantly, Siri is capable of acting on a growing number of natural language requests. Siri also can interact with more third-party apps than ever.
Siri adds new search powers to the homescreen. For example, Siri offers contact and app suggestions based on the time of day and what people are typically doing in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Overall, Siri feels more complete.
iOS 9 and the 6s Plus make several updates to how you move through the operating system, and they are a big help. The multitasking screen now appears as a series of cards stacked upon one another. Thanks to the 6s Plus's quick processor, jumping forward and backward through recently used apps has never been faster. Moreover, a new feature called "back to" shows up in the upper-left corner of apps when multitasking. It lets you jump from the current app back to the previous app lickety-split.
Typing and editing text on smartphones can be a real pain, but it's now less frustrating on the iPhone 6s Plus. For example, the keyboard includes more obvious signals to indicate when you're typing uppercase versus lowercase letters. When held sideways, the 6s Plus offers up shortcuts for copy/cut/paste, as well as bold/underline, and jumping between open text fields.
The one big trick reserved for the 6s Plus is the highlighting function. In previous versions of iOS, moving the cursor around to make edits within words required a long press and an annoying roll-your-finger movement to put the cursor exactly where you want it. On the iPhone 6s Plus, a long press (3D Touch!) anywhere on the keyboard will activate a tool that lets you move the cursor around easily. It's life changing.
Apple improved the WiFi and LTE radios inside the 6s Plus. This means faster app downloads at home and when out on the road. In addition to the boosted wireless performance, the 6s Plus lets you control when and how the phone connects to LTE or WiFi. A tool called WiFi Assist will automatically drop a poor WiFi connection in favor of LTE. This will come in handy in several situations.
For example, say you're at the office on the company's fast WiFi network and head out to your car at the end of the day. You decided to check email before driving home, but the phone is trying to load your email over that one bar of janky WiFi, rather than switching over to speedy 4G. WiFi Assist can solve this experience.
The Apple iPhone remains a classy and well-made piece of hardware. The 6s Plus is ever-so-slightly thicker and heavier than last year's phone, but the added mass is put to good use.
Apple used 7000 Series aluminum to forge a much stronger chassis. There will be no bending the iPhone 6s Plus. The high-quality materials used in the display, buttons, and other parts of the chassis are put together cleanly and tightly. The 6s Plus may be big, but it's a good-looking phone and includes a great screen.
The Apple iPhone remains a classy and well-made piece of hardware. The 6s Plus is ever-so-slightly thicker and heavier than last year's phone, but the added mass is put to good use.
Apple used 7000 Series aluminum to forge a much stronger chassis. There will be no bending the iPhone 6s Plus. The high-quality materials used in the display, buttons, and other parts of the chassis are put together cleanly and tightly. The 6s Plus may be big, but it's a good-looking phone and includes a great screen.
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