iPhone 6s /6s Plus Thoughts


After playing around with the iPhone for the weekend here are just some thoughts.

3D Touch is probably one of two big tent pole features of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Basically it's force touch with with gradient levels. Initially 3D Touch is limited to what Apple has baked into iOS 9, but apps are rolling out some support quickly.

On the home screen, 3D Touch offers some shortcuts to functions without opening the app. I think of these as basically the contextual right-click option on OS X. For example, on the camera app you can jump to taking photos or a video. This is pretty handy since often I'm trying to get photos taken quickly. If the last use was a video, for example, I need to swap over to photo or visa versa. Other apps are utilizing this and we can probably expect most all apps to eventually offer some shortcuts using 3D Touch.

Another 3D Touch feature is "peek" where you can look into a link without opening. This is actually pretty handy since opening anything on iOS mean transitions the full screen to something else. If you press it longer it opens and if you release it goes back to the previous screen. In Safari it's probably not as practical. For example, since the peek needs to still pause to load the linked webpage, so it doesn't feel quite the time saver.

3D Touch seems to take a little skill to master. If you have a heavy touch-click, you might have to adjust a little if you just want to click things. Similarly you'll need to get a feel for how hard to press for a peek and how hard to open. You can adjust the sensitivity in the settings.

The other big new feature is probably the Live Pictures. While Live Pictures can be viewed on iOS 9 devices, you'll need the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus to take these photos. This feels a little like a novelty, kind of like panorama. To me, panorama is fun to do and pretty useful in certain circumstances, but I don't use it very often. One issue is the software picks your still for you out of 2-3 second capture. In my tests, that still isn't always what I wanted. So, I think I might want to keep the standard still mode on for photos, but play with the Live Pictures for something special. Otherwise, if I want video I'll just shoot video. I wish I could manually pick my photo, sort of like burst mode. If I could do that, that would change things, but I'm not seeing that option.

Touch ID got a big upgrade. It's super fast now. In fact, when I wake my phone with the home button, it seamlessly unlocks. From the lock or password screen, the second gen Touch ID seems fast, but not a game changer fast. From the sleep, however, it's kind of crazy because it completely skips the PIN screen. Basically it makes device security transparent.

I'm really liking the new Taptic Engine. Basically the Taptic Engine replaces the old vibrate buzz. It's fairly assertive, but quiet. Basically unless the phone vibrates on a table or something on a table, you likely won't hear the Taptic Engine. Also, not only does it replace the old vibrate, but it has more distinctive "taps," which you can actually set up in the iOS preferences.

The FaceTime camera needed an upgrade badly and is now respectable. While I do FaceTime video chats on occasion, I'm not in the selfie demographic. The new selfie flash, however, is all kind of neat. Basically it flashes the iPhone's display with color correction.

On the iPhone 6s Plus, Hey Siri can be activated without being plugged into power. Generally I only have my iPhone on the charger when I'm sleeping, so the "hey Siri" voice prompt didn't really do much for me. Now that's it's available all the time, I'm liking it.

Some things that will take some more time...

Battery. It seems about the same as the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. I'm still playing with it and it's only been a few days, but so far nothing alarming on the negative side.

The speed of the device is hard to really gauge. For every iPhone I always say I notice the speed when I go back to the older model. It's seems "snappy," but I didn't really have any complaints with the 6/6+.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus is about 10% heavier. It's not that big of a deal, but when you carry the phone all day every day you get pretty use to it. I would say my iPhone 6s Plus is noticeably heavier (I weighted it at 0.55 ounces heavier) but not an issue.

Lastly the I haven't really put the rear facing camera to work yet. It seems fine, although again, I think the 6/6+ camera is pretty good. In some tests, dark shots seem to a little less washed out and not as much noise in the darkest spots. So, I guess it's looking better. The rear camera now supports 4K video at 30 fps. I've been trying to figure out if I prefer 4K vs the old 1080p at 60 fps. I like the look of 60 fps, but 4K makes me feel like I'm future-proofing memories.