Hey guys this is Austin and today I’m here with my review of the iPhone 6s Plus. Put
the new iPhone 6s Plus side by side with the 6 Plus and not much has changed. It’s a
tiny bit thicker which is no big deal but it is noticeably heavier. This is mostly due
to the new 3D Touch display but Apple also switched to 7000 series aluminum this generation
thanks to Bendgate. UnboxTherapy put the 6s to the test and surprise surprise, it holds
up much better than the 6 Plus. Another change is the addition of a new Rose Gold color which
joins the same Space Gray, Silver and Gold options from the last gen along with a shiny
new S badge which is the best way to tell the new model apart. It is a little bit heavier
I think, that’s the only noticeable difference when I pick up the phone and hold it in the
hand so it’s a little bit of a heavier phone, especially because I use the 6s Plus. Otherwise
it’s a pretty simple, understated, clean, familiar design. It’s a nice design but
beside phones like the Galaxy Note 5 it’s not too impressive, it does have a nice feel
in the hand with a seamless curve but that also makes it a little slippery. I dropped
my 6 Plus a few times and if anything the extra heft makes the 6s Plus even easier to
get away from you. With a 5.5 inch 1080p screen the Plus dwarfs the normal 6s. If you’re
willing to give up some one handability you’re getting a nice screen, it can’t match the
terrific AMOLED display on the Note 5 but it’s got nice color, great viewing angles
and plenty of resolution. One of the big new features of the 6s is the addition of 3D Touch.
I was a little bit on the gimmick train with 3D Touch at first but the more I use it the
more I find myself liking it especially when you get into apps like Instagram or Safari,
just being able to preview a link or profile is something that I found really useful. Unlike
a normal long press this allows you to use varying levels of force to pull up different
options. This is useful in a few places, 3D Touch the side of the screen and you’ll
open the multitasking and by 3D Touching the keyboard you’ll pull up a cursor. The Touch
ID fingerprint scanner has also seen improvements. It’s now so fast that it’s hard to get
to your lock screen but I guess I can live with such a horrible problem. iOS 9 is largely
the same as on other iPhones but it runs noticeably faster here which leads me to one of the best
features of the 6s: performance. On paper the Apple A9 looks fairly tame with a dual
core 1.8 gigahertz processor paired with two gigs of DDR4 memory but this is one seriously
fast phone. I went in-depth in a video recently which you guys can check out but the 6s is
approaching laptops when it comes to performance, you should have no problem playing any game
out there for the foreseeable future. Performance wise it’s what you would expect, it’s
snappy, it’s quick, it handles whatever you throw at it. All this power means the
6s Plus does gets a bit warm under gaming though, nothing too crazy but it’s noticeable
next to a phone like the Note 5. In real use you’ll notice the speed but the biggest
difference is the extra memory. Older iPhones had to reload apps all the time where the
6s does a far better job of keeping things in memory. Where Apple didn’t improve is
with storage, the base iPhone still comes with 16 gigs which just isn’t enough. It’s
almost like the base model purely exists to get people to spend the extra $100 to upgrade
to 64 gigabytes. At least it is fast storage though, Anandtech dug into the hardware and
found the 6s is using what’s essentially a full SSD like in the 12 inch MacBook. One
of the biggest improvements are the new cameras. The rear shooter has been bumped up to twelve
megapixels and while it’s not a huge leap it’s still a rock solid performer. There’s
extra resolution which is helpful for cropping and the color remains nice and natural, Apple’s
camera app doesn’t give as much manual control as a lot of Android cameras but it’s quick
and reliably takes solid shots. The ten frames per second burst is still here which is great
for capturing action and it has a smart timelapse mode that can make for some very cool shots.
The 6s Plus has optical image stabilization which is helpful for low light but where it
really makes a difference is in video. I mean it’s almost revolutionary in terms of what
they were able to do, I mean footage almost looks like it’s on a Steadycam like it looks
really great. Alright so 4K in my opinion on an iPhone has been a long time coming.
This entire video has been shot on a 6s and as you can see it holds up really nicely,
with a mix of digital and optical stabilization the footage looks nice especially as it’s
now capable of 4K. You’ve also got solid slow motion options, you can shoot at 120
frames per second or even 240 FPS if you don’t mind bumping the resolution down to 720p.
The new front facing camera has also been bumped up majorly in quality, it now has five
megapixels. Paired with Apple’s new Live Photos which records a bit of video before
and after you snap a picture it’s a solid upgrade. It’s a far better looking camera than
the last generation and it can use the screen as a surprisingly usable flash. One of the
biggest advantages of the 6s Plus over the normal 6s is battery life. There’s just
no comparison, where I struggle to get through a full day of heavy use with the 6s the Plus
hasn’t let me down yet. Even with using navigation and shooting 4K video the 6s Plus
holds up really well on the battery front. While it’s not a massive upgrade the Plus
improves on a lot of the smaller issues with the last generation. It might be pricey but
the iPhone 6s Plus has definitely earned its spot as my new daily driver.
Did you just kiss your camera?