IPhone 6S & IPhone 6S Plus - The latest features explained

The IPhone 6S & 6S Plus – What we now know

Apple opened with the line ‘the only thing that’s changed is everything’ but in reality what’s changed is actually very little. This is often the way with the release of the ‘S’ version of the IPhone. The main talking point from the Apple conference yesterday was the announcement of the new IPad Pro, which will come with a detachable keyboard and a whole host of new features which will be available in November. However there has been some noticeable upgrades to the IPhone 6 and 6 Plus;

3D Touch

Widely expected and mentioned in our ‘what to expect blog’ last month, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus will come with Force Touch, although it’s been rebranded to 3D touch. 3D touch will have 3 different touch settings which will each have a different command. The new ‘Peek’ and ‘Pop’ features are very similar to those used on the iWatch and those familiar with the iWatch will know how it works. For those unfamiliar a ‘Peek’ could be a pop-up of the contents of an email by pressing the more funvtion you ‘Pop.’ That’s when you jump to a new place in the operating system. This also works on the home screen too. By varying where you touch and how hard you can jump to different apps or execute different commands.  It sounds complex but it’s quite intuitive and some suggest will eventually lead to the end of the Home button completely.

It won’t bend

Apple’s latest additions have been made of sterner stuff than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In order to avoid another bendgate saga, the latest phones have been made out of the 7000 series aluminium which is used to make the iWatch. However we predict there will still be a whole host of will it bend videos out there from people with nothing better to do!

A Rose Gold version &  moving wallpaper

The latest version will come with the option of a rose gold colour. Many predicted that Apple would roll out a large variety of colours with this release but it hasn’t happened. After initial scepticism the gold version of the iPhone 6 was hugely popular and we can see the rose gold version going down a treat too.

Moving backgrounds and wallpapers as seen on the iWatch are hardly cutting edge innovation but they make a nice addition and whilst its nothing new, Apple’s animated backgrounds are some of the most striking & advanced on the market.

Better cameras

As widely expected the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus has vastly improved photo quality and megapixel count.  Apple’s new rear camera has gone from 8-megapixels to 12-megapixels and the new unit also features better optics, an improved flash system for low light photography and 4K video recording.

The front-facing camera has also had a facelift and is a huge upgrade on the current 1.2-megapixel front facing camera that is used on the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S Plus. The camera on the IPhone 6S & 6S Plus has been upped to 5-megapixels and supports full HD video as well as selfie panoramas.

Another awesome upgrade to the iPhone’s photography capabilities is the all new live photos. When the new iPhone captures a standard photo it now also takes a brief video. 3D touch on the photo and it will play an animated version which we think may possibly be our favourite feature.

The A9 Chip replaces the A8 chip

A common but most definitely welcome theme with iPhone releases is the improved processor chip. The new chip is meant to be 70% faster than the A8 chip and has 2 GB of RAM – Double that of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Touch ID has been greatly improved

The new iPhone’s will feature a far superior touch ID system. With Apple Pay becoming so prominent, the touch ID system was always going to get a revamp despite being one of the most sophisticated on the market already. The latest version features vast upgrades to security and is twice as fast to unlock.

Hey Siri

This one’s a little gimmicky and unlikely to be used much but still is a neat feature. With the Hey Siri feature enabled, Siri will always be listening for its owner to say ‘hey Siri.’ Even if the iPhone’s display is off Siri will still be able to respond and answer its users command. Great for lazy people or when you’ve literally got your hands full!

WiFi Assist

On the face of it this is a great new feature for IOS 9 and its available on all models that have IOS9 installed and not just the iPhone 6S Plus. When WiFi assist is switched on, your iPhone will automatically revert back to 3G/4G if the wiFi you're connected too has a weak signal. However quite a few people have been caught out and ended up with whopping phone bills. The problem being that you don't get a notification when your phone moves you back to your cellular data. Those who have been caught out have often paid the price whilst travelling abroad. To switch off WiFi assist go to; Settings > Mobile Data and then scroll right to the bottom of the screen, where you have the option to switch it off.

As predicted the latest version of the iPhone is undeniably a beefed up version of the previous iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models. However, whilst there might not be too many cutting edge innovations on Apple’s latest iPhone release, the models will be faster, have better functionality and is a step in the right direction. We’re certainly looking forward to getting our hands on one.