Tech: Apple iPhone 6s Reviews - Updated Version

I test gadgets all the time, and I don’t typically find unboxings exciting. But there was a sense of anticipation opening the apple iPhone 6. Below are reviews of what i covered!

Apple iPhone 6s Plus
Pros
*.3D Touch is a smart, helpful addition
*.First-rate performance
*.Touch ID is faster and more accurate
*.Great camera helped by optical image stabilization
*.Solid battery life

Cons
*.Live Photos are hit-or-miss
*.Base model still only has 16GB of storage
*.Touch ID can be overly sensitive
*.Can be hard to use with one hand
Summary: The iPhone 6s Plus has 3D Touch, iOS 9, a pair of improved cameras and the powerful A9 chipset, just like its smaller sibling. A long-lasting battery and optical image stabilization for its 12-megapixel rear camera help give the iPhone 6s Plus a slight edge over the regular 6s, although we wish it were a little easier to hold.

Hardware: No, your eyes don't deceive you: The 6s and 6s Plus look nearly identical to last year's models, save for a new rose gold color option that oscillates between "vaguely lavender" and "shiny new penny" depending on the light.
The sleek, rounded aesthetic might not raise as many eyebrows as it did last year,

Camera and Live Photos
iPhones account for a huge chunk of the photos taken every day, so it's no surprise that Apple takes this camera business seriously. Thankfully, after several years, Apple finally traded in its 8-megapixel sensor in favor of a 12-megapixel main camera. Naturally, it's actually not so much the higher resolution that matters; it's all the other, more technical bits that should help improve photo quality. The folks in Cupertino went for smaller, more densely packed pixels (1.22µ, down from 1.5µ in the iPhone 6) that make for higher-resolution shots... with the added potential for more noise.

That's where Apple's "deep trench isolation" comes in: The company managed to separate the sensor's photodiodes to keep incoming photons from introducing interference into surrounding diodes. You don't really need to worry about that, though: It basically just means your photos should come out nice and crisp. Pair all that with a five-element lens and a familiar f/2.2 aperture and we've got ourselves another serious camera contender.

Performance and battery life

A new kind of touchscreen and some upgraded cameras are one thing, but what about the silicon running under the hood? This year, we've got a new 64-bit A9 chipset thrumming away inside both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which, according to some benchmarking tools, appear to be made up of dual 1.8GHz Typhoon CPU cores, the GPU and the updated M9 co-processor. Apple never comments publicly about how much RAM its phones have, but recent teardownsshow that the new iPhones have 2GB, just like the most recent iPad Air and Mini.

I spent most of my time testing the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus by restoring them from recent backups of an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and then using them side by side. The difference is obvious: Launching apps, firing up webpages and multitasking were all noticeably smoother on the newer iPhones. This performance gap can still vary a bit; the older iPhones would occasionally get close to 6s speed, but they never fully caught up.

The competition If you're on the prowl for a new smartphone and consider yourself platform agnostic, Samsung's Galaxy S6 linewould be a good place to start. Samsung shares Apple's fondness for sleek, metal-and-glass designs, and both the 5.1-inch S6 and curved-screen S6 Edge pack some of the fastest silicon I've ever seen in an Android handset. Both phones are also comfortable to hold despite being bigger than the iPhone 6s. And if comfort and big screens are your concern, there's a good chance the Galaxy Note 5'scurvaceous back will fit your palm better than the iPhone 6s Plus.

Then, of course, we've got some big-name options that aren't even available yet. There's a new pair of Nexus phones -- the 5X($379) and the 6P($499) -- that each offer potent horsepower at a reasonable price. Microsoft's eager to prove it's still in the smartphone game too, and is holding a keynotenext week where it's probably going to announce the first high-end Lumia phoneswe've seen in ages. There's no word on price, unfortunately, and none of these options are likely to sway ardent Apple fans, but people willing to jump ship are about to have a lot great choices on their hands. Conclusion: It's easy to say that these are the best iPhones Apple has ever made, but that's true every year. You can go for it!