Smartphone Arena

Beautiful FullHD 5.5-incher

The Apple iPhone 6s Plus has a 5.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1,080x1,920 pixels resolution for a 401ppi density - well above Retina.
Our microscope shot brings no surprises and reveals a standard RGB matrix with an equal number of red, green and blue pixels.
The iPhone 6s Plus has an even brighter display than the iPhone 6s but due to the slightly brighter blacks, the contrast ratio on both devices is quite similar 1382:1 for the iPhone 6s Plus vs. 1481:1 for the iPhone 6s. The screen is not as bright at its maximum setting as the iPhone 6 Plus but the contrast ratio is about the same as the blacks are deeper in comparison.

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Apple iPhone 6s	0.10	148	1542	0.36	536	1481
Apple iPhone 6s Plus	0.10	150	1563	0.43	590	1382
Apple iPhone 6	0.17	207	1230	0.61	740	1213
Apple iPhone 6 Plus	0.17	208	1197	0.52	705	1361
Samsung Galaxy Note5	0.00	183	∞	-	439	∞
Samsung Galaxy Note5 max auto	-	-	-	-	620	-
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+	0.00	172	∞	-	410	∞
Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ max auto	-	-	-	-	540	-
LG G4	0.09	108	1240	0.43	532	1238
Sony Xperia Z3+	-	-	-	0.68	789	1158
Samsung Galaxy A8	0.00	169	∞	0.00	367	∞
Samsung Galaxy A8 max auto	0.00	-	-	0.00	560	∞
Motorola Nexus 6	0.00	149	∞	0.00	372	∞
HTC One E9+	0.14	205	1435	0.29	487	1657
OnePlus Two	0.16	180	1139	0.30	399	1334

Much like with the Apple iPhone 6s, the color rendition of the screen is generally accurate with a pretty low average deltaE of 4.1 (for the primary colors plus black and white), and it's the reds and magentas that show a higher than average deviation. The white is slightly on the cooler bluish side, but nothing major and certainly not noticeable without a reference.
As usual, display colors are a matter of personal taste and perception so if you don't need calibrated color output, you will probably be quite happy with the Apple iPhone 6s Plus screen as it is out-of-the-box.
There's a significant improvement in terms of sunlight legibility compared to the old model. The smaller models, both new and old, are still comfortably ahead. Even so, the iPhone 6s Plus has one of the highest ranking LCD panels in this test.

Sunlight contrast ratio

Apple iPhone 6s Plus battery life

The battery inside the iPhone 6s Plus has a 2,750mAh capacity, a modest decrease from the 2,915mAh of last year's model. Apple's claim is that the new model will last as long as the old one, and that's as specific as it gets.
We're a lot more into precise numbers and subjected the 6s Plus to the usual battery of tests and it actually performed better than the old Plus, though with the notable exception of 3G call times. The smartphone would die on us after 16 hours, two thirds of the iPhone 6 Plus' time.
Use the phone with the display on and it scores substantially better. A full 14 hours of video playback is nothing short of exemplary, and means that when the 6 Plus calls it quits, the 6s Plus can go on for another 2 and half hours. The Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ lasts 4 minutes shorter in this test, well within the margin of error.
Moving on to web browsing, we witness a 2 hours and forty-some minutes better longevity for this year's model, but more importantly an hour and a half of an advantage over the Galaxy S6 edge+.
Overall, the iPhone 6s Plus scores a combined endurance rating of 85 hours. Compare that to the 79 hours of the iPhone 6 Plus and you'll see that, indeed, the decrease in capacity hasn't adversely affected the battery life.
If anything, you'll actually get a better longevity with the new model if your usage is geared more towards surfing the web and watching videos rather than voice calls. Compared to the Galaxy S6 edge+, the differences in screen-on usage are smaller, though noticeable especially in web browsing. However, the Samsung phablet can last twice as long on voice calls, which obviously you should consider if that's your predominant use case.
If you've been paying attention, you'd have noticed that at half brightness (which is the setting we carry our battery tests on) the 6s Plus puts out less nits than the 6 Plus. That certainly helps its case, though it can't make all the difference, and improved efficiency has to account for a large part of the improvement. The phone is also perfectly usable at this setting thanks to its excellent contrast, and there's really no need to crank it up any higher unless you're outdoors in bright daylight.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.

Connectivity

The Apple iPhone 6s Plus comes with a host of wireless connectivity features. It supports faster LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300Mpbs down, 50Mbps up) and has even wider LTE coverage. Regular 2G and 3G connectivity is all safely covered as well with a multitude of supported network bands.
The iPhone 6s Plus also supports the latest Voice over LTE (VoLTE), HD Voice and Wi-Fi calling protocols, but those are carrier dependent features so not everyone will enjoy them.
Compared to the iPhone 6, the 6s now upgraded Wi-Fi functionality too - it supports all the current Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac standards but doubles the theoretical speeds thanks to the use of a 2x2 MIMO antenna. AirPlay is the only way to wirelessly cast your screen's contents to an HDTV, but you'd need to have an Apple TV for that.
Additional local connectivity includes Bluetooth 4.2 LE. There is also support for NFC, but its functionality is only limited to Apple's region-restricted Apple Pay.
The iPhone 6s Plus uses a proprietary Lightning connector for wired data transfers and charging. There is no support for USB On-the-go or USB host but you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard to the phone should you need this sort of peripheral. At least the 3.5mm jack is standard.

12MP is the new 8MP

The iPhone 6s Plus brings the long overdue camera resolution upgrade. After sticking to an 8MP sensor for four generations, Apple finally upgraded the iPhone's main camera to a 12MP imager. The front camera has received an upgrade to 5MP as well. Both cameras are paired with a lens with the same F/2.2 aperture.
The more powerful chipset and the new 12MP sensor allow the iPhone 6s Plus to capture 4K video recording among other new modes, plus it enables the so-called Live Photos. This is a familiar feature from the first HTC One - the camera captures 1.5s video either side of the moment you hit the shutter and saves it as an animated photos.
There is no magic here, this is actually a 3s 1,440x1,080px (1,280x960px from the front camera) video with sound, captured at 14fps. We are clarifying this in case you've expected gifs or similar formats. Those small files are usually 3 to 4MB of size and if you own a 16GB iPhone 6s Plus, this may turn a problem for you rather quickly. The good news is this new format is compatible with the Mac OS X El Capitan and all Force-enabled Apple devices will support the Live Photos (for now those are the MacBook Pro 2015 models, the new MacBook 12" and the iPhone 6s duo).
The front camera, as we said, is now 5MP, supports Auto HDR, and 1080p video capture. It can also use the screen as 'Retina' flash - the screen lights up the moment you hit the Camera shutter, with brightness 300% higher than the usual maximum. This helps if you are shooting indoors and up close.
The front camera is fixed-focus, but you can control and lock the exposure setting with tap and hold.
The camera interface is the same as before. If you tap to focus the phone will give you control over exposure through a slider. This way you can conviniently adjust exposure compensation depending on the scene. You can lock the focus and exposure as well.
Along the left side of the camera viewfinder you'll find controls for switching to the front-facing camera, setting up a timer (either 3s or 10s), choosing the HDR mode (Auto, off and on), turning Live Photo on/off and a settings for the flash (Auto, on or off).
On the right side on each side of the virtual shutter button you get swipe controls that will take you into the photo, square and pano mode on one side and video, slow-mo and time-lapse. To activate the Burst mode you just need to press the camera shutter longer.
Despite taking four years to add a 12MP sensor, the shots snapped with the iPhone 6s aren't quite as impressive as we hoped. The resolved detail is good, but it's not dramatically better than what the iPhone 6 offered and post-processing is rather heavy-handed - as noticeable in the sharpening halos and the prominent noise. Automatic exposure is a bit too overeager, which at times results in overexposed shots.
Now the good news - the colors and contrast are great, while the dynamic range is simply great. We've turned the Auto HDR off and yet the images came out great, which is really something given the tough weather conditions.
If it were 2014 we might have considered the samples among the best in the market, but today with great Galaxy S6 generation cameras and the impressive Xperia Z5 sensors, we just can't rate the iPhone 6s Plus camera so high. It's good, but not quite the best.
We shot with the iPhone 6s Plus and archrival Galaxy S6 edge+ side by side, so you can compare the samples. The obvious difference in aspect ratio aside, there's no denying that the iPhone 6s Plus can't quite match the Galaxy S6 edge+ resolved detail.
We waited out for night to set in and took a couple of shots with both smartphones. The two have markedly different approaches with the S6 edge+ going for a much higher ISO (1250 in both shots) and faster shutter speed. The iPhone 6s Plus, on the other hand, chose a 1/4s shutter speed in both instances with ISO either 125 or 250.
The Galaxy images are noticeably brighter with more detail in the shadows, but also less defined light sources with a glow around them. The iPhone 6s Plus is less noisy, but keep in mind that the Galaxy S6 edge+ is shooting at ISO1250, so its images are quite good for such a high sensitivity. That said, the iPhone doesn't feel the need to crank the ISO so high, instead relying on the OIS, and indeed, there's no camera shake despite the rather long exposure.
In fit-to-screen magnifications the Galaxy images have an arguably more consumer-friendly rendition though, being brighter and with a little warmer colors.
We tried a few HDR samples as well and they turned fine - they bring more detail in the shadows, without overexposing the highlights or sacrificing fine detail. It's a very subtle difference and while we appreciate the conservative approach, you may find yourself struggling to achieve that distinct HDR effect.
A nice touch is that you can set the iPhone to save a regular photo alongside the HDR one, so you can use the original should you choose to do so. That's perhaps part of the reason why the smartphone takes a brief moment of thought before you can shoot another image. It's nothing to be worried about as the camera is blazing fast to begin with.
Finally, the iPhone 6s Plus, thanks to the bigger sensor, offers even bigger panoramic images. Those still cover about 180-degrees, but now they can go up to 15,000 x 4,000 pixels or 60MP. The stitching is great, there are no artefacts, the dynamic range is amazing, and the color rendering is good, too. Those didn't turn out over exposed as the still images and generally are among the best panoramas we've seen.
We snapped a 5MP picture with the front selfie camera, in case you are interested in its quality. The resolved detail isn't that high, but it's certainly an improvement over previous gen iPhones and will do just fine for the social networks.
You can see that the focus is fixed nearby, so distant backgrounds are quite blurry. It's obviously the right way to go though, as selfies are typically taken at arms length. That's been the thought behind the Retina flash feature, which lights up the display at up to 3 times its usual maximum brightness to illuminate selfies in dark settings. It also tailors the tint to match the ambient light. It's better than nothing and can save you in extreme cases, as long as you don't expect miracles.
You can use our picture compare tool to put the iPhone 6s Plus camera head to head with other phones.

Apple iPhone 6s Plus in our photo compare tool

The iPhone can now shoot 4K video

Thanks to the higher-resolution sensor the new iPhone 6s Plus is now capable of recording 2160p videos at 30 frames in addition to 1080p capturing at 30 and 60 fps. There is a new mode as well - 1080p at 120 fps for slow motion purposes, in addition to the 720p at 240 fps low-mo videos. Naturally, there is a time-lapse option as well.
The camcorder UI is as simple as it can get, offering nothing but the flash setting. You can find the resolution switch in the Settings menu instead of having a shortcut in the viewfinder. True, it's a one-time switch for most users once you choose your preferred resolution but having it handy in the camera app is the more natural solution.
An interesting point is that our 64GB version came with 4K enabled by default, and we've heard that 16GB models are set to 1080p out of the box - a very intriguing way for Apple to address the inadequacy of the mere existence of a 16GB base model.
The 4K videos carry a bitrate of around 51Mbps, but audio is subpar recorded in mono at 81Kbps in AAC format. The 1080p videos at 30 fps have a bitrate of 17.6 Mbps, keeping the same audio, while the 60fps ones came out with 26Mbps bitrate.
The 4K videos are slightly less processed than still images - there is some noise, but less over-sharpening while the detail is decent if not quite class leading. Dynamic range is once again impressive and the frame rate is pretty steady, but the mono audio is disappointing.

Unboxing the iPhone 6s

The retail package of the iPhone 6s will hardly surprise anyone. The compact cardboard box contains the device itself, a well-packed pair of EarPods, an A/C adapter and a Lightning cable.
The 1A charger is very compact, but it's not going to win any speed competitions - in the day and age of Quick Charge, VOOC and other quick battery topping solutions, what Apple offers is rather disappointing. And if you live in the UK, Ireland, Malta, Hong Kong, or any other country that uses the British standard then you also lose the small size perk as the adapter there is huge.

Apple iPhone 6s 360-degree spin

The new iPhone 6S, as the 's' suggests, pretty much reuses the original design and only upgrades the internals. The additions of the 3D Touch technology and the bigger camera required some minor changes though.
For one, the iPhone 6s is a tad thicker and yet had to sacrifice some battery capacity to accommodate the layer of pressure sensors in the screen. Its dimensions are 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm, compared to the original 138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm. The difference is negligible but it's bad news if you had some tight-fitting cases for your iPhone 6 - they won't fit on the 6s.
What's more readily noticeable is that the iPhone 6s has gained some extra 14g of weight, again down to the pressure-sensitive layer. That's the kind of difference you can feel in your pocket and makes the phone heavier than the Galaxy S6 with its 5.1" screen.

Design and build quality

It may be an entirely different device within, but the exterior of the iPhone 6s is absolutely identical to last year's iPhone 6. Packing just 4.7 inches of screen estate it is still one of the most compact flagships on the market, but its screen-to-body ratio is rather unimpressive (read too much bezel). Apple has been reluctant to do something about that for years now and things are now getting embarrassing - there are phones with 5+" screens that have the same footprint, while phones with equally sized displays usually come in notably smaller packages.
There are some good news though. The iPhone 6s unibody is cast out of 7000 series aluminum instead of last year's 6000 series and it's stronger. Latest tests revealed the iPhone 6S bends at much higher levels of pressure than the previous generation - almost triple actually. So, Apple has put bendgate firmly behind it and skinny jeans are no longer an iPhone's mortal enemy.
The front is covered by an ion-strengthened glass with oleophobic coating - those are pretty much the same specs as in the previous iPhone models and mean the glass is scratch and smudge resistant. The Ion-X glass creates the so-called 2.5D effect thanks to its rounded edge. By the way, Apple claims the new special ion-exchange process makes it the most durable screen glass among smartphones today, but early drop test didn't provide conclusive evidence for that.
So, higher-grade durable glass and aluminum alloy should improve the overall resilience of the phone. It still lacks water and dust resistance, but seeing how Sony is changing its policy on those and Samsung gave up on it for the Galaxy S6 this is less of a disadvantage now than it was last year.
The back of the iPhone 6s is familiar - mostly aluminum, with two plastic bands covering the antennas and a slightly protruding camera ring. The new 12MP sensor is still protected by a small piece of sapphire glass, so you should worry more about scratching your wooden desk rather than damaging the camera piece.
Extra heft might have made carrying it a bit harder, but handling the iPhone 6s is pretty much the same pleasing experience. The phone feels great in hand thanks to the premium materials and finish but you still need to be extra careful as the thin and rounded edges don't have the best grip.

Controls

The iPhone 6S has the same control set as its predecessor. Above the display is where the earpiece, a couple of sensors and the new 5MP selfie camera are.
While the front facer doesn't come with a LED flash, Apple make up for it by letting you use the screen as one. If you turn on the so-called Retina flash the entire screen will light up in white and provide some extra light as long as you keep close to it. It's something we've seen other manufactufrers do for a few years now, but Apple went a step further and gave the backlighting a brightness boost of up to 300% compared to the usual maximum.
Below the display is the Home button, which also hosts the refined Touch ID sensor. It's noticeably faster than before. About time too! Although Apple brought the technology back from the dead, it's among the last to improve the performance of the sensor. In an ideal world we would have also got an always on mode so you don't have to press the button and wake the phone, but even so the iPhone 6s still has one of the better working solutions on the market.
The volume keys and the silencer are on the left, while the power/lock key and the nano-SIM tray are on the right as usual.
There is nothing on top of the iPhone 6s, while the bottom has the audio jack, the primary mic, the Lightning port, and the loudspeaker grille.
The iPhone 6s rear side is as familiar as it can get - the camera is there, the second mic and the dual-LED dual-tone flash. The new 12MP sensor allows for wider panorama photos and 4K video recording, while the more powerful hardware enables 120fps capture at 1080p resolution.

Apple iOS 9 - some new features, lots of potential

Sticking to its usual practices, Apple unveiled the new iOS 9 in June, but at that point it didn't cause too much excitement. Looking much like iOS 8 and bringing only a handful of new features, it didn't stay in the spotlight for long.
Now, a few months later things are different - the iOS 9 biggest update wasn't mentioned at the announcement for understandable reasons - it's the support of the new 3D Touch display and the API that will be available to game and app developers. Depending on how it goes with the early adopters, this feature alone has the potential to alter the way we interact with our phones the same way the first capacitive display and the multi-touch gestures did.
The support for 3D Touch allows for another level of interaction, press the screen for a bit longer (and harder). This gets you access to extra actions and contextual options and we can't wait to see how say, game developers put that to use in the months to come. We'll get back to examining Touch ID and its impact on iOS 9 in a short while, but first let's cover the basics of the new Apple platform.
iOS 9 brings a couple of new apps - News and Notes, while also enhancing Maps with public transit support. Mail and Messages got refreshed and there's a new system font. Meanwhile Siri got smarter, while Spotlight Search expanded its reach.
Visually iOS 9 looks the same as its predecessor. All of your apps are on the homescreen, you can group them in folders and there is the familiar dock that can take up to four shortcuts. System icons, color themes and transparency - everything is like we left it in iOS 8.
The lockscreen hasn't changed much either, but it now supports Live Photo wallpapers - they are either short animations or you can use one of thoseLive Photos that the iPhone 6s duo is capable of capturing. For the animation to activate, you need to press firmly on the screen, which is somewhat counterintuitive and we doubt it will be an oft used feature as nobody would really want to hard press the screen for 3 seconds just to see their lockscreen wallpaper move a bit.
The Control Center that's pulled up from the bottom of the screen keeps the same layout of toggles, shortcuts and media controls. The Notification Center drops from the top and features the same Today and Notification tabs. There are no new widgets or notification options.
The task-switcher interface loses its webOS flat cards look and opts for a cooler 3D carousel. Unfortunately, you are still able to only see just three apps, and it takes even more scrolling so we're not quite happy with this change.
The iPhone 6s supports quick app switching between opened apps via a Force Touch gestures. Just swipe from the far left side of the screen with a firm touch and you'll get to the app switcher. Upon choosing the app you want to go to, this gesture starts alternating your current app and the one you've selected. Say you are browsing and Facebook chatting simultaneously, you can switch between the two apps with just a firm swipe from the left. It sounds a bit complicated but it's actually quite intuitive once you try it.
The Spotlight search has been improved. You can invoke it by a downwards swipe from anywhere on the homescreen, or go to the leftmost pane. It has been updated and can now do simple calculations and conversions. It also supports finding sport scores and weather forecast information. And finally, you get shortcuts for making a call or sending a message to any of the contact results in the Spotlight searches.
Siri got smarter, too. In addition to all the cool stuff the intelligent assistant could do before, it can now search through your photos and videos based on dates, locations and the album names. It supports custom reminders from things you've been searching for in Safari, Mail, Notes and Messages and it got support for public transit navigation too.
Next, there is the new pro-active assistance available system-wide, which is more or less Apple's take on Google Now - it provides relevant information to you in advance - before you start typing something or before you leave for some place (work, home).
Finally, iOS 9 extends the overall language support for Siri, Spotlight, the predictive input, dictation support, dictionaries and spell check. Siri is now available in Austrian German, Belgian French and Norwegian, while Mexico gets its proper Spotlight support.
Predictive input is now available in Belgian French, Austrian German, Gujarati, Hindi, Hinglish, Punjabi, Mexican Spanish and Telugu. Finland and Korea get spell check. Last, but not least, dictation is now available for Belgium (Dutch and French), English for Ireland, Philippines, and South Africa, Austria (German) and Spanish for Chile and Colombia.
When it comes to predictive input, iOS 9 would gradually learn the way you type and search and would eventually become a passive yet very useful assistant. This will take off some pressure of Siri and yet make your interactions with the iPhone much easier and pleasant.

3D Touch aims to be the next big thing

Currently 3D Touch gestures are available only on selected system app. You can use it on the lockscreen, the homescreen and within apps. We already talked about the lockscreen gimmick, let's see what it does on the homescreen.
Force pressing on the Message icon pops up a balloon with a New Message shortcut and a short list of your most recent messaging contacts. Force clicking on the Phone app gives you a - Create New Contact key and a short list of recently contacted people.
Applying force on the Calendar pops up New Event option; on the Clock - New Alarm/Start Timer/Stopwatch; on Maps - Directions to Home, Share location, drop pin and search nearby; on the Stores - Redeem and Search; on the Camera - Take Photo, Take Selfie, Record Video and Record Slow-mo.
Continuing on Safari - you get Show Reading List, Bookmark list, New Private tab and New tab; Mail offers shortcuts to Inbox, VIP, New message and Search; Music has Play Beats; and Notes - New Note, New Sketch and New Photo note.
As you can see those force taps on the homescreen are indeed useful sometimes, but are hardly something you can't live without. What really matters is what you can do within the apps with 3D Touch.
3D Touch is meant to allow you to get more content than you normally get on a screen, so that you can give it a quick glance and let it go - all of this with just one firm long press.
If you press hard on an email within the Mail app, first it will be selected by blurring all the others. Applying slightly more force will pop its contents into a balloon for you to see it. Here you can either apply more force to open the whole email, or release your finger thus you'll be back on the email list.
While you are holding the Mail balloon open, you can swipe it up and you'll get advanced options such as Reply, Forward, Mark, Notify Me and Move.
You can do the same on Messages - a firm press opens a preview of your most recent messages with this contact and if you keep pressing you'll eventually open the full thread.
Tapping with force on a contact in the Phone app pops up Mail, Message and Call shortcuts. Tapping on a day in the Calendar pops up a preview of the day's events and will eventually open the full day view. The Notes app has the same logic.
Force touch on a photo in the gallery will pop up a photo preview. If you move your finger towards the top you'll reveal a menu with copy, share and delete settings. If you swipe down or just release, you'll put this photo back on the pile.
And if you opened the photo already, a strong Touch will invoke its Live Photo, if available.
Safari also takes advantage of Force Touch - hit a link firmly and you get a pop up with the linked page and if you like what you see you can press harder to open it, or just release it for discarding.
Finally, one of the most meaningful uses of the Force Touch is selecting text. If you do a standard tap and hold on text you'll begin scrolling through the words. And when you apply force to activate the Force Touch, you begin text selection from this very moment. This eases the entire text selection process tremendously - just scroll to your desired place and force touch from there and continue scrolling until you're done.
That's basically all of it at the moment - it's not much and certainly most of the functionality feels, if you pardon the pun, forced rather than intuitive and helpful. However, we get the feeling that Apple is simply trying to give hints to developers with those. Those are just ideas with the hope that developers will actually put the feature to great use in their apps.
Given the chance, 3D Touch may turn to be a breakthrough that will shape smartphone usage for years to come. Similar to what Apple did with multi-touch or the fingerprint sensor.
What does add more fuel to the 3D Touch fire is that other manufacturers began announcing phones with similar tech shortly before Apple's event, so there will be more companies that want to see it succeed and in turn more developers willing to give it a proper consideration.