When Apple started paying out up to $500 million to settle a lawsuit over the infamous batterygate situation, people knew they'd get checks to make them whole. But it seems that actually cashing those checks might not be as easy as you might think.

According to one iPhone owner she has been unable to cash the check for $92.17 after her credit union reported that it had been returned by the bank that should have paid it out.

Now, she's left with seemingly little recourse and no clarification on exactly why the check bounced, despite inaccurate claims that it was simply too old to be used.

Something's amiss

Batterygate refers to a furor over the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s in relation to a software update that slowed their performance in an attempt to ensure that aging batteries were still able to produce enough power to prevent the iPhones from shutting down.

However, First Coast News reports that Clay County resident Desiree McNeil had issues cashing her check.

According to the report the check was returned to sender because it was "stale dated," suggesting that it was too old to be processed. The check was dated March 1, and had text printed on it that said it was valid until April 18. The woman tried to cash it on April 1.

To add to the confusion the woman says that she was told by her credit union that the check bounced because there were insufficient funds, although that wasn't what it said in a letter explaining the situation.

"By April 3rd, my credit union returned the check because for insufficient funds, they said that the litigants didn't pay it," McNeil said. 

As of now, there appears to be no way to fix this situation. First Coast News has reached out to the administrator of the account that is supposed to pay out the funds for help with no response at the time of the report's publication.

More from iMore

• Apple's 'batterygate' settlement: Why getting your refund could prove difficult
• You might soon receive your $65 from Apple's 'Batterygate' settlement
• iPhone BatteryGate is being settled but... why did it even start?

What you need to know

• Chris Evans, best known as Captain America, has shared that his trusty iPhone 6s has finally died.
• Evans has bought a new iPhone, but it isn't clear which.
• The iPhone 6s was released in 2015.

Captain America might have America's ass, but did you also know that he is the proud owner of America's iPhone 6s as well? Or, at least, he was. Because despite surviving the snap of Thanos it seems Cap's iPhone 6s has finally succumbed to time itself. Captain America needs a new iPhone.

While Marvel's Chris Evans might not be the first person you think of when you imagine someone carrying a seven-year-old iPhone around, that was apparently the case until very recently. The Apple TV+ actor took to Instagram to share the news that his beloved iPhone 6s had finally given up the ghost, seemingly paving the way for a shiny new iPhone 13. Don't tell him that iPhone 14 is just around the corner!

Something tells me he can probably spring for a new phone come September, although it'll be another seven years before he's due an upgrade!

So why was Evans walking around with such an old iPhone? If a Twitter post is any indication, he likes the Home button. Has one not heard of Apple's very own iPhone SE?

It's definitely fair to say that his new handset is one of the best iPhones for taking photos to ever come out of Cupertino, so hopefully the upgrade will be worth it!

Apart from playing the role of Captain America for Marvel, Evans is also part of the Apple TV+ universe — having starred in the launch title Defending Jacob a couple of years ago.

Haptic Touch is multitouch made multifunctional. With it, you can long-press to launch actions instead of apps, reply to notifications, preview messages and links, switch keyboards, switch apps, animate Live Photos, and more. It's like a wormhole through iOS that lets you do more without having to do more.

Haptic touch replaced 3D Touch in iOS 13 and every iPhone. Most of the functions are the same, but how you get to those functions is slightly different. You no longer "deep press" or "hard press" to trigger an action. Instead, place your finger on what you want to get more info or perform a new task and rest it there for two seconds. Then, tap the action you want to use.

Though some 3D Touch functions still work on devices built with 3D Touch (like triggering the cursor on the keyboard), they were redesigned in iOS 13 as Haptic Touch instead, which has carried on to iOS 14, too. Whether you're on an iPad Pro, iPhone SE, or a new iPhone 12, Haptic Touch works the same.

How to rearrange or delete apps on the Home screen with Haptic touch

The most significant change comes with rearranging or deleting apps on the Home screen. With 3D touch, you'd "deep press" the screen to trigger app actions, but you'd only rest your finger on an app for two seconds to trigger jiggly mode.

With Haptic touch, place your finger on an app for three seconds. After two seconds, haptic actions are triggered, but if you keep your finger on the screen for one additional second, you'll trigger that jiggly mode that allows you to rearrange or delete apps.

• How to rearrange your apps on iPhone

How to see Home screen actions with Haptic Touch

If you have an iPhone 6s or later, you can long-press firmly (Haptic Touch) on an app icon to bring up quick actions. All apps have quick actions, even if it's simply the standard App Store app shortcut that lets you share the app with someone else. Some apps have several quick actions, including dynamic quick actions that update based on the last person you contacted, an article you read, show you watched, etc. Tap on an action to go directly to that feature or content in the app.

For basic quick actions:

1. Long press (Haptic Touch) on the Home screen icon you want to open quick actions for.
2. Tap on the action you want to perform.

Dynamic actions work the same way; only the subject of the task will change based on recency, location, time, and other factors.

1. Long press (Haptic Touch) on the Home screen icon you want to open quick actions for.
2. Tap on the action you want to perform.

When you're downloading apps there are specific quick actions just for downloading, including prioritizing one app over all others, pausing downloads, and canceling them.

1. Long press (Haptic Touch) on the installation icon for the app you want to open quick actions for.
2. Tap on the action you want to perform.

Folders also have Haptic Touch actions. The default lets you rename the folder, but if apps have notification badges, you can see the count and tap straight into the app without having to open the folder.

1. Long press (Haptic Touch) on the Home screen folder you want to see quick actions for.
2. Tap on the action you want to perform.

Quick actions also work inside some apps. For example, you can see recommended contacts to quickly send an iMessage in Messages or open a new private tab directly in Safari.

• Messages: Long press to see contacts for people you've messaged with recently
• Calendar: Long press to see today's events.
• Photos: Long press to see your most recent albums, new Memories, and One Year Ago moments.
• Maps: Quickly mark your current location, send your location, or search nearby.
• Notes: Long press to scan a document, add a new photo, or create a new photo or note.
• Reminders: Triage your current reminders or add a new one to one of your pre-made lists.
• Books: Long press to quickly tap books you're currently reading
• News: Long press to see headline news or tap into the Today view.
• Safari: Long press to open a new tab, new private tab, show your bookmarks, or show your reading list.
• Phone: See your favorite contacts, view your most recent call or voicemail, search for a contact or create a new contact.
• Music: Long press to see your recently played songs.
• FaceTime: Long press to see your favorite contacts.
• Contacts: Long press to see your favorite contacts or create a new contact.

Many App Store apps also provide shortcuts. The best way to find them is to experiment by long pressing on all the things.

How to interact with notifications using Haptic Touch

Haptic Touch can be used to preview and interact with certain notification, from the Lock screen or Notification Center. Though the amount of interaction will vary depending on the app, from a simple preview to a full-on, persistent experience, the way it works is the same.

1. Long press (Haptic Touch) on a notification.
2. Type, tap, or otherwise interact with the notification.
3. Tap the X button or swipe down to dismiss the notification.

If you have Haptic Touch you can also clear all notifications from Notification Center.

1. Long press (Haptic Touch) on the X button above your notifications.
2. Tap on Clear All Notifications.

You can also manage preferences for an apps notifications using Haptic Touch.

1. Long press on the notification.
2. Tap the ... in the notifications' upper-right corner.
3. Tap Deliver Quietly, Turn Off..., or Settings to manage how notifications from that app are delivered.

How to see Control Center actions with Haptic Touch

Control Center has some additional accessible features you can use with Haptic Touch, including switching Wi-Fi networks, switching AirPlay speakers, and more.

You can quickly switch Wi-Fi networks using Haptic Touch in Control Center.

1. Swipe up from the bottom bezel onto the screen to bring up Control Center on iPhone 8 and older. Swipe down from the upper-right corner on iPhone X and newer.
2. Long press the Wi-Fi indicator.
3. Long press the Wi-Fi indicator again.

4. Tap a new Wi-Fi network.
5. Tap Wi-Fi Settings to jump into your Wi-Fi settings.

Many of the built-in Control Center widgets offer customizable controls when you use Haptic Touch to access more actions.

1. Activate Control Center swiping up from the bottom bezel onto the screen to bring up Control Center on iPhone 8 and older. Swipe down from the upper-right corner on iPhone X and newer.
2. Long press on the control that you want to use:
   • Long press on the Flashlight to set the intensity from bright to low light.
   • Long press on the Timer to set the interval from one minute to one hour.
   • Long press on the Calculator to copy the last result.
   • Long press on the Camera to go right to Selfie, Record Video, Take Portrait, or Take Portrait Selfie.
   • Long press on Screen Mirroring to select a device to mirror to.
   • Long press on Screen recording to select the Camera app or Skype to record. You can also turn on or off the microphone.
   • Long press on the Music controls to control playback, see your AirPlay devices, and switch between connected speakers to playback your music.
   • Long press Voice Memos to playback recent voice memos or start a new recording.
   • Long press Remote to control your Apple TV.
3. Tap the option you want.

You can also use Haptic Touch on the Home card to interact with your HomeKit-enabled accessories.

1. Long press the Home contorl button.
2. Tap an accessory to turn it on or off.
3. Long press on an accessory to pop up additional options, like brightness or color options for smart bulbs.

How to 'Peek' and perform quick actions with Haptic Touch

Haptic Touch lets you preview and jump into messages, weblinks, and automatic links (data detectors for dates, locations, airline information, etc.). Peek can also provide you with quick actions so you can act on it without having to launch the full screen or full app. If Peek is available, the link, image, or message will pop out to a new hovering window with actions listed below it.

1. Long press on the item or link you want to peek at. Additional information will pop out onto the screen.
2. Select the action you want to perform. In Safari, for example, you can:
   • Open in a new tab
   • Download Linked file
   • Add to reading list
   • Copy link
   • Share link
   • Hide link previews

If the Peek is enough, or the item or link isn't what you wanted:

• Tap outside the pop-out window to dismiss it.

To pop into a message and perform an action:

1. Long-press an email in your inbox list to view additional actions. Mail actions are:
   • Reply
   • Reply all
   • Forward
   • Mark...
   • Notify me
   • Mute
   • Move message
   • Trash message/Archive message
2. Tap an action to perform it.

To get back to your inbox:

• Tap outside of the pop-out window to dismiss it.

How to animate a Live Photo with Haptic Touch

Live Photos capture 1.5 seconds of motion before and after the photo, so you can see the smile emerge, the bird take off, the rain begin, or the stumble happen. They animate in when you swipe between them in the Photos app, but you can animate them at any time, including as your Lock screen wallpaper, with Haptic Touch.

1. Long press the Live Photo to see—and hear—it comes to life.
2. Peek and pop a Live photo by long pressing on it in while viewing all photos in an album. You can also perform the following actions:
   • Copy
   • Share
   • Favorite/unfavorite
   • Show in All Photos (if you are viewing from a specific album)
   • Delete

How to activate trackpad mode (trigger the cursor) with Haptic Touch

If you want to turn your digital keyboard into a virtual trackpad, you can do so with just a single press. With 3D Touch, you could press anywhere on the keyboard to trigger the trackpad, but now you must specifically use the Space Bar on the keyboard instead.

1. Launch the app you want to use and bring up the keyboard.
2. Long press on the Space Bar (Note: devices with 3D Touch support can still use any key to trigger the trackpad).
3. Drag your finger around to move the cursor.

How to customize Haptic Touch

If you're tripping Haptic Touch too easily, or you're having too hard a time engaging it, you can change the pressure sensitivity levels in Settings as well. You can test each setting using the peek and post demo below the setting. That'll make sure you get the best option.

1. Launch Settings from your Home screen.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Touch.

4. Tap Haptic Touch.
5. Tap Fast or Slow to adjust the time it take to trigger Haptic Touch.

Any Haptic Touch questions?

If you have any trouble with Haptic Touch or any additional questions, drop them in the comments below!

Updated October 2020: Updated for iOS 14 and iPhone 12 .

If you're after a cheap iPhone deal in order to pick up a backup device or a first phone for a kid, today is your lucky day with this one-day sale at Woot offering refurbished iPhone 6s models for just $114.99. There are plenty of color options available including space gray, silver, gold, and rose gold, all with 64GB of storage space, though some of the options will likely sell out as the day progresses. Note that these phones are either fully unlocked, so they will work with all major U.S. GSM and CDMA carriers, or GSM-only.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

These refurbished options from Woot aren't for everyone, but the prices are some of the best we've seen. If your teen is asking for a phone, but you don't want to drop a ton of money, or you'd like to have a secondary device around, you'll want to peruse this sale. These phones are listed as scratch-and-dent, so there'll be physical signs of use like scratches, dings, or dents. However, the device itself will work perfectly. Your purchase includes a 90-day warranty in case anything goes awry, and you can put some of your savings toward a third-party warranty for added peace of mind.

While the iPhone 6s isn't the latest and greatest, it's still a good phone. There's a 4.7-inch Retina display, an A9 chip, Touch ID, and 3D Touch as well as a 12MP camera. This model has a headphone jack, too, which is another reason why it'd be great for a teen. With 64GB of storage, there's plenty of room for music, photos, and more. The iPhone 6s series can run iOS 13 that rolled out last fall and will even be compatible with the just-announced iOS 14 coming later this year. For more on the iPhone 6s, head here.

The deals are good for today only or while supplies last, so be sure to act fast to avoid missing out on the phone you want. Some specific models have already sold out, so don't let that happen to the handset you want.

Woot charges $6 per order for shipping, though you can snag free shipping there by logging in with an Amazon Prime account before checking out. If you've never been a Prime member before, you can start a free 30-day trial to score free shipping at Woot and Amzon, along with access to all of Prime's perks like the Prime Video streaming service, exclusive members-only discounts, and more.

If you're after a cheap iPhone deal in order to pick up a backup device or a first phone for a kid, today is your lucky day with this one-day sale at Woot offering refurbished iPhone models from just $39.99. The sale features phones from the iPhone 5 through to the iPhone 6s Plus which could, despite not being the newest devices, serve a purpose for you, especially at these low prices. Many are unlocked to work with any carrier, though some are GSM only so be sure to choose carefully.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

These refurbished options from Woot aren't for everyone, but the prices are some of the best we've seen. If your teen is asking for a phone, but you don't want to drop a ton of money, or you'd like to have a secondary device around, you'll want to peruse this sale. These phones are listed as scratch-and-dent, so there'll be physical signs of use like scratches, dings, or dents. However, the device itself will work perfectly. Your purchase includes a 90-day warranty in case anything goes awry, and you can put some of your savings toward a third-party warranty for added peace of mind.

The iPhone 6s is the newest option in the sale and it starts at $89.99. While the iPhone 6s isn't the latest and greatest, it's still a good phone. There's a 4.7-inch Retina display, an A9 chip, Touch ID, and 3D touch as well as a 12MP camera. This model has a headphone jack, too, which is another reason why it'd be great for a teen. With up to 128GB of storage, there's plenty of room for music, photos, and more. The iPhone 6s series is also compatible with iOS 13 that rolled out last fall as well. For more on the iPhone 6s, head here.

The deals are good for today only or while supplies last, so be sure to act fast to avoid missing out on the phone you want. Some specific models have already sold out, so don't let that happen to the handset you want.

Woot charges $6 per order for shipping, though you can snag free shipping there by logging in with an Amazon Prime account before checking out. If you've never been a Prime member before, you can start a free 30-day trial to score free shipping at Woot and Amzon, along with access to all of Prime's perks like the Prime Video streaming service, exclusive members-only discounts, and more.

If you're after a cheap iPhone deal in order to pick up a backup device or a first phone for a kid, today is your lucky day with this one-day sale at Woot offering refurbished iPhone 6s models from just $79.99.

There are plenty of color options available including space gray, silver, gold, and rose gold, with storage options from 16GB to 128GB, though some of these specifications will likely sell out as the day progresses. Note that these phones are fully unlocked so they will work with all majot U.S. GSM and CDMA carriers. Shipping is free with your Amazon Prime membership.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

These refurbished options from Woot aren't for everyone, but the prices are a match for the best we've seen. If your teen is asking for a phone, but you don't want to drop a ton of money, or you'd like to have a backup device around, you'll want to peruse this sale. These phones are listed as scratch-and-dent, so there'll be physical signs of use like scratches, dings, or dents. However, the device itself will work perfectly. Your purchase includes a 90-day warranty in case anything goes awry, and you can put some of your savings toward a third-party warranty for added peace of mind.

While the iPhone 6s isn't the latest and greatest, it's still a good phone. There's a 4.7-inch Retina display, an A9 chip, Touch ID, and 3D touch as well as a 12MP camera. This model has a headphone jack, too, which is another reason why it'd be great for a teen. With up to 128GB of storage, there's plenty of room for music, photos, and more. The iPhone 6s series is also compatible with iOS 13 that rolled out last fall as well. For more on the iPhone 6s, head here.

What you need to know

• Apple is offering a free repair program for certain iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models.
• The issue may affect devices manufactured between October 2018 and August 2019.
• Apple said the program covers affected iPhone 6s and 6s Plus devices for two years after first retail sale.

If you own an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus that was manufactured between October 2018 and August 2019, your device may be eligible for a free repair.

Apparently, the affected models contain a failed part that may prevent them from turning on. As a result, Apple is offering a new repair program, and you can check if your device is eligible by inputing the serial number on Apple's support page.

Apple provides owners with a few different options. You can find an authorized service provider, go to an Apple Store, or contact Apple Support for mail-in service. If your device has a cracked display or any damage that "impairs the ability to complete the repair," you'll have to address that prior to service.

Owners who previously paid to service their iPhone 6s or 6s Plus to fix this issue can apply to receive a refund. Apple said the new repair program covers affected iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus devices for two years after the first retail sale.

What you need to know

• An iPhone was found after spending 15 months at the bottom of a lake.
• The iPhone was inside a plastic sleeve protect that took most of the damage.
• After finding it, the iPhone was returned to its original owner.

We've heard countless stories about iPhones getting accidentally dropped into a body of water, and just when the owner feels like they'll never see their old iPhone again, they somehow find it. Well, it's happened yet again.

YouTuber Nuggetnoggin was scuba diving in a lake when he came across something he didn't expect—an iPhone. The iPhone (which looks it was a rose gold iPhone 6s) was inside of a protective water sleeve that is meant to protect it against water damage. However, it does not protect against drops, which is what the owner did.

When the iPhone was found, the plastic sleeve was covered in grime and dirt, looking as if it had been down there for a while.

After taking it out, the iPhone was taken out and tested and somehow it still worked. That being said, it wasn't like new. The iPhone does turn on, but some perspiration seems to have found itself in, possibly due to humidity.

But it worked, and Nuggetnoggin was able to connect the owner and return the iPhone to her. She said she was devastated when she lost it because she had thought she lost access to a lot of information including the last text messages exchanged with her father before he passed away. It's a touching sentiment, but we also feel compelled to advice her to use iCloud and backup her phone.

The iPhone spent 15 months underwater and lived to tell the tale.

No lithium-ion battery lasts forever: As your iPhone ages, declines in battery life can cause unexpected shutdowns or render your device too slow to function. While Apple now has a number of ways you can address this problem including a new Battery Health section in Settings, if your battery has dropped below peak capacity, it's worth considering a replacement.

There are several ways to replace a bad iPhone battery, depending on your monetary situation and free time.

• Get Apple to fix it
• Fix it yourself
• Required tools and parts
• Open the iPhone
• Disconnect the cables
• Replace the battery
• Put it all back together

Make an appointment with Apple

Apple's $29 battery replacement program is simple and inexpensive for iPhone 6s owners — assuming you have the time to visit an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Representative and they have the parts in stock. (Some stores have a 2-3 month waiting list for certain battery replacements, including the iPhone 6s.)

Start a repair request

Repair the battery yourself

If Apple doesn't have your iPhone's battery in stock, never fear: You can swap out the iPhone 6s battery yourself using our handy DIY guide.

Always make sure to back up your phone before any repair.

• Always use good lighting - smart device components are small and you'll need plenty of light to see what you are doing.
• Maintain a clean, organized workspace so you don't lose or confuse any components.
• Group your screws so you can keep track of where they came from. Most screws cannot be interchanged.
• Apply enough heat to loosen adhesive but not enough to damage the device.
• At any point during a repair, if the adhesive becomes hard to separate, apply more heat.
• After separating adhesive, keep the housing and screen in close proximity until flex cable is disconnected.

How to replace a broken iPhone 6s battery

The iPhone 6s battery is difficult to remove and replace: Several flex cables can be torn easily, so proceed carefully.

Not only will need a new battery, you're going to need some tools if you're going to do this right. Or at all.

• iPhone 6s battery
• Metal spudger
• Phillips head srewdriver
• Pentalobe screwdriver
• Spudger
• Tweezers
• Adhesive
• Dehydrator, heat gun, or heat mat

While not required to repair your iPhone, we also recommend you use a magnetic mat and screw capsules to keep everything organized. You're going to be working with some tiny screws here; these will help you keep them on your table and not lost on the floor.

1. Remove the two pentalobe screws on the bottom edge of the phone. They are on either side of the lightning port.

2. Using the metal spudger, slowly and carefully separate the screen of the iPhone from the body. Start on the bottom edge by the Lightning port and proceed slowly.

3. Continue using the metal spudger or use playing cards or guitar picks to separate the adhesive from the sides and top. Don't push the metal spudger too far into the device.

4. The bottom side of the screen can now be pulled away from the body. The flex cable connecting the screen to the battery will still be attached near the top, so exercise caution.

1. Remove the two Phillips screws securing the battery connector EMI shield.

2. After the shield is off, use a plastic spudger to disconnect the battery from the logic board.

3. Remove the following four Phillips screws securing the display cable EMI shield and set the shield aside.

4. Use a plastic spudger to disconnect the front camera flex cable, digitizer cable, LCD cable and home button flex cable by prying it straight up from its socket on the logic board.

5. Remove the LCD assembly of the iPhone 6s from the body.

There are two strips of white adhesive underneath the battery. The best way to take out the battery is to roll and pull the strips out using tweezers.

1. Slide your tweezer tip under the black adhesive at the bottom of the battery as shown.

2. Push your tweezer tip about halfway across the bottom of the battery.

3. Roll your tweezers, pulling the white adhesive out from under the battery. At the same time, pull the tweezers away from the phone.

4. There is one more strip of adhesive under the battery on the 6s. Use the same roll and pull technique to remove the other strip.

5. If you snap a piece of adhesive, you will have to use a plastic spudger to gently pry the battery off the base. If you pry from the logic board side, do not use the logic board for leverage as you may damage it.

6. Remove the battery from the body of the phone.

7. Using adhesive tape, affix the replacement battery into place with gentle pressure.

1. Reconnect the front-facing camera flex, lcd cable, ditizer cable and home button flex cable to the logic board.
2. Screw in the display cable EMI shield using four Philips head screws.

3. Reconnect the battery connector. Use your plastic spudger to put it in place then press gently down with your finger to connect, distributing the pressure evenly to not damage the flex connector.

4. Screw in the battery connector EMI shield with two Phillips head screws. The larger screw goes in closest to the battery.

5. Fold the screen over the body. Insert the top of the screen into the frame first. Proceed carefully, it will click back into place but don't press too hard on the glass.

6. Screw in the two pentalobe screws that go on either side of the lightning port.

Run into trouble?

If you have any other questions about swapping out your iPhone 6s's battery, or if you find this iPhone 6s repair too complicated to attempt on your own, check out iMore's repair partner iFixYouri online at www.ifixyouri.com or at 888-494-4349.

Color is one of the most visually distinctive and personal things about a new iPhone, which makes it one of the most important choices you'll have to make. The original iPhone only came in aluminum and black, but now Apple offers iPhone 7 in silver, gold, rose gold, (matte) black, jet black, or (Product) RED.

If you're on the fence about which finish to get, here's what you need to consider!

• Distraction dangers
• Discoloration doubts
• Withstanding wear
• Slick vs. stick
• Cases closed
• Coolness concerns
• Who should get the (Product) RED iPhone 7?
• Who should get (matte) black?
• Who should get silver?
• Who should get gold or rose gold?
• Who should get jet black?
• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Distraction dangers

The (matte) black and jet black iPhones 7 have a black faceplate. That means when the display is off, dark, or filled with full-screen content like videos or games, the border fades away and you can immerse yourself in what you're doing. TV sets almost always have black bezels for a reason. It makes the frame easy to ignore.

The silver, gold, rose gold, and (Product) RED iPhones have white faceplates. That means when the display is lit up, especially for the standard iOS interfaces and for reading on the web, in ebooks, or in messaging apps, there's no dark border framing everything you do. It's why books are almost always uniformly light or white.

I've had iPhones of every color, used each for at least a year, and never found any of the faceplates to be distracting or distasteful. Everyone is different, though.

• If you watch a lot of videos or play a lot of games, the (matte) black or jet black iPhone might make things more immersive for you.
• If you read a lot of text or use a lot of standard apps, the silver, gold, or rose gold iPhone may make the pages feel broader and more expansive.

Discoloration doubts

One thing that shouldn't worry anyone anymore is the idea that the white faceplate on the silver, gold, rose gold, or (Product) RED iPhone could get stained or otherwise discolored.

We've all learned to be deeply anxious when we wear white clothes or have white furniture or carpets for that very reason. Apple, though, took an extra six months to ship the white iPhone 4 and in that time the company nailed it.

My iPhone 4 still looks as clean and crisp as the day I bought it in 2011, and all the subsequent iPhones I've bought with white faceplates have stayed every bit as bright.

Likewise the backs. All the space grays, silvers, golds, and the most recent rose gold have all kept their colors exactly.

• If you're worried about an iPhone with a white faceplate staining or discoloring, or the metallic finishes fading, stop. It'll be fine.

Withstanding wear

iPhones have aluminum bodies with anodized finishes. Apple's system is tougher than standard anodization but isn't gloppy looking like some of the ultra-tough treatments. They are metal, though, and so can be scratched.

On the silver iPhones, small scratches have less contrast, which makes them harder to see, depending on the lighting. Gold and rose gold iPhones are somewhere in the middle. (Matte) black iPhones have a higher contrast, so scratches are a bit more noticeable. Jet black? Shiny finishes scuff easily.

Some people won't care. To them, aging is part of what makes great objects great, like an old leather bag, favorite t-shirt, or the Millennium Falcon. Others don't ever want to see any wear.

• If you hate the look of scratches, silver iPhones are your best bet.
• If you like one of the other colors more, you can learn to love the wear or get a protective case.

Slick vs. stick

The (matte) black, silver, gold, rose gold, and (Product) RED iPhone 7 all have anodized aluminum finishes, same as the iPhone 6s and previous years, going all the way back to the iPhone 5. So, if you've used a previous generation iPhone, you know how they feel. iPhone 6s was slightly less slippery than iPhone 6, and iPhone 7 is slightly less slippery again, but if you're worried you may drop it, you'll want to get a case regardless of the color.

Except for the jet black iPhone 7. You'll still want to get a case to avoid scuffs, but the finish is so polished it's actually far less slippery than any other metal iPhone. It's almost... sticky.

• If you don't have a problem with metal phones, get any color or get a case and you'll be fine.
• If you want an iPhone that isn't as slippery, get the jet black iPhone 7 — though you'll likely still want a case.

Cases closed

If you're the type of person who immediately locks your new iPhone up in a heavy-duty case or wallet, you might think the color doesn't matter so much. Fair enough.

Most cases will still show some of the color though, be it the Apple logo, ports, edges, or the faceplate. In other words, just because you'll be wearing a jacket doesn't mean you the clothes beneath don't matter.

Cases can absolutely be used to change up a look, but you should still be happy with the basic look. Choose a color you love, then add a case you love to complete it.

• If you want your case to "pop", a black or silver iPhone will let the accessory be the star.
• If you want your case to complement or fade away, a gold, rose gold or (Product) RED iPhone will share the stage.

Coolness concerns

Silver has a classic elegance about it, and gold gets attention. (Its more champagne than chintz, though, so it doesn't come off as overly tacky.) Rose gold is similar, but for those who want to take it to the next level.

This year, though, black is back and it's doubly hot. There's "black", which has a matte finish, and "jet black", which has a gloss finish. Jet black will be the one that tells everyone at a glance you have the latest, greatest iPhone, so it'll be the one people get to impress.

• If you want a classic, stick with (matte) black or silver.
• If you want some extra flair, go with gold or rose gold.
• If you want to make a statement, consider jet black.

Who should get the (Product) RED iPhone 7?

If you want the latest hotness — literal five-alarm fire, all-the-hearts hottness — and kicking in an extra $100 above the base iPhone 7 price to support the charity and its work fighting AIDS, then you want the (Product) RED iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus.

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Who should get the (matte) black iPhone 7?

If you want a color that won't distract you when you game or watch video, that absolutely won't discolor, even if it does show wear and tear a little more visibly, that's closer to timeless even if it's also more reserved, then get the matte black iPhone 7 (or the space gray iPhone 6s or iPhone SE.)

It's the classic for a reason.

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Who should get the silver iPhone 7?

If you want a color that isn't so dark but still doesn't call a lot of attention to itself, and that doesn't show scuffs and scrapes as much, then get the silver and white iPhone 7 is for you (or silver iPhone 6s or iPhone SE.)

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Who should get the gold or rose gold iPhone 7?

If you like the luxury look, aren't distracted by white borders, don't mind the middle ground when it comes to how wear and tear shows, and basically know bling is your thing, get the gold or rose gold iPhone 7 (or gold or rose gold iPhone 6s or iPhone SE.)

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Who should get the jet black iPhone 7?

If you've always wanted an iPhone as dark and shiny as Darth Vader, if you want a singular object where you can barely see a seem or line, or if you simply want the latest and for everyone to know you have the greatest, then get the jet black iPhone 7 and enjoy!

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Still undecided?

If you're still not sure about which color you should get, jump into our iPhone forums and the best community on the web will happily help you out.

At the end of the day, the only real answer is this — get the color you like best. Nothing else matters. Just close your eyes, picture your iPhone in your hand, and pay attention to what color you're picturing. Then buy that. And if you change your mind later, you can get a case.

Once you've decided, tell me — which one are you getting?

Updated February 2017 to add new cases to the list.

Ultra-thin iPhone 6s cases are a great choice if you're looking for a product that doesn't distract from the beauty of your phone, keeping it thin and light and adding (at least) a bit of protection along the way!

There are dozens of options for super-thin cases out there, so we took a look at a few minimalist cases that'll add the least amount of heft to your iPhone 6s.

Here are the best and thinnest cases available for your iPhone 6s!

• PaperCase
• Shumuri Slim
• Peel Super-Thin iPhone 6s case
• The Veil
• Luvvitt ultra slim soft cover
• Spigen AirSkin

PaperCase

Incredibly thin, minimalist, and barely-there, the PaperCase from CrayCases is a super reliable option for your iPhone 6s!

Designed to hide smudges or fingerprints, and built to wrap securely and fit your iPhone 6s perfectly, the PaperCase is free of all branding and perfect for someone who not only wants a slim fitting case, but also a little additional protection around your iPhone 6s's camera lens: a slight bezel keeps your camera protected from scratches and scrapes.

Not only is the case super minimalist, but it only weighs around 4gs, making it ultra lightweight. You can pick up your PaperCase in gold, silver, space gray, and rose gold, so you can match your case perfectly to your iPhone.

Oh! And it's pretty inexpensive at only $15.99!

See at CrayCases

Shumuri Slim

The Shumuri Slim iPhone 6s case is incredibly thin and light, offering a great option if you want a minimalist-looking accessory for your iPhone 6s.

At just 0.3mm, the Shumuri Slim doesn't feel like it's adding anything to your iPhone's bulk but still manages to provide full-body protection from dust and small scratches — though it admittedly won't do much for drop protection. You might want to go with something a little tougher if that's your main concern.

But if you're looking for something super-skinny and stylish, the Slim's frosted texture comes in four different flavors: gray, clear, blue, and pink.

See at Shumuri

Peel Super-Thin iPhone 6s case

The Peel's super-thin iPhone 6s case is a case so inconspicuous and tiny, it acts like a second skin for your iPhone 6s.

Logo-free with four color options that mirror the iPhone's own – silver, Space Gray, gold, and rose gold – the Peel's case is perfectly formed to fit your iPhone 6s snugly and securely. At just 0.35mm, this ultra-thin case isn't the most protective, but a subtle raised bezel protects the camera lens from scratches and bumps.

If you want something that'll have people questioning if you even have a case on your iPhone 6s at all, then Peel's super-thin case is worth checking out.

See at Peel

The Veil

Thin and inconspicuous, the 0.35mm Veil is perfect for all the minimalists of the world who are tired of the unnecessary bulk and clutter of big, ugly cases.

You can pick up the Veil in either a classic matte black or an electric matte blue color, and with its lack of logos and glitz, The Veil is the perfect iPhone 6s case if you want something with a little extra pop of color but not too much clutter.

Like most ultra-thin iPhone 6s cases, the Veil isn't the most protective accessory for your iPhone, but a 0.7mm ridge bordering the Veil's camera cut-out prevents your lens from scratching while it's laying flat, and its precise design allows full access to all buttons and ports without taking the case on and off.

See at Amazon

Luvvitt ultra slim soft cover

You're bound to fall in luv with Luvvitt's ultra-slim soft cover for the iPhone 6s when you see how thin and form-fitting it is.

Designed with high-quality Japanese TPU/rubber, this ultra-slim case is only 0.6mm thick, making it the perfect companion for your iPhone if you're looking for something that acts like a second skin.

Luvvitt's clear case also comes with full access to all buttons and ports, so you don't have to take it off your iPhone 6s to charge it every night or run the risk of dropping it without the case securely on.

See at Amazon

Spigen AirSkin

With Spigen's 0.5mm iPhone 6s case AirSkin, you can keep the original shape, size, and beauty of your iPhone 6s intact.

Its hard polypropylene material is semi-flexible and securely fits onto your iPhone 6s for lightweight, bulk-free, and form-fitting protection. The case covers all sides for scratch protection, while a frosted finish delivers a translucent look for a sleek, minimalist style.

If you're looking for a case that's barely there, then check out Spigen's AirSkin.

See at Amazon

What's your pick?

Is there an iPhone 6s case that's so thin, it mid as well be plastic wrap? Let us know your top picks for the absolute thinnest iPhone 6s case in the comments below!

In addition to the brand new iPhone 7, Apple still offers the previous-generation iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and iPhone SE. That way, if you don't want the latest and the greatest, you have less-expensive alternatives. In terms of specs, many of them are similar — Touch ID, Apple Pay, Hey Siri, Live Photos. There are some major differences though, including 3D Touch, FaceTime camera, and size. Understanding those differences and figuring out which ones matter to you the most will help you decide between them. Here's what you need to know!

See iPhone at Apple

How to sell your old iPhone

Size

iPhone SE has a 4-inch screen with 1136x640 pixels at 326 ppi. That's the same size as the old iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. It means everything from apps to games to the web will look smaller, including text and pictures.

iPhone 6s has a 4.7-inch screen with 1336x750 pixels at 326 ppi, and the iPhone 6s Plus has a 5.5-inch screen with a 1920x1080-pixel screen at 401 ppi. That means, with iPhone 6s, you get more of everything, and with iPhone 6s Plus you get much more, including the ability to run iPad-style (two column) apps in landscape mode.

Here's how they compare:

Conversely, iPhone SE will more easily fit in your hand, your pocket, and your bag. It's 4.87 inches (123.8 mm) high, 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) wide, 0.30 inch (7.6 mm) deep, and weighs 3.95 ounces (112 grams).

iPhone 6s, by contrast, is 5.44 inches (138.3 mm) high, 2.64 inches (67.1 mm) wide, 0.28 inch (7.1 mm) deep, and weighs 4.87 ounces (138 grams). And iPhone 6s Plus is 6.23 inches (158.2 mm) high, 3.07 inches (77.9 mm) wide, 0.29 inch (7.3 mm) deep, and weighs 6.77 ounces (192 grams)

• If you want a bigger screen so you can see and do more, go for iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.
• If you want a smaller phone you can more easily hold and carry, go for iPhone SE.

Reachability

The 4-inch iPhone SE is small enough the most people can reach every corner of the display, even with a single hand and thumb. The 4.7-inch iPhone 6s and 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus, not so much.

To make up for the more expansive displays, Apple introduced Reachability mode. Simply tap — not press! — the Home button twice and the entire interface shifts halfway down so you can more easily access the controls at the top.

• If you want constant one-handed ease of use, get an iPhone SE.
• If you can manage the big or bigger sizes, Reachability mode can help with iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

Visual accessibility

If you don't want more pixels but just want bigger pixels, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus can do that too. Thanks to Display Zoom, you can tell an iPhone 6s to use the iPhone SE interface and magnify it up, or tell an iPhone 6s Plus to use the iPhone 6s interface and magnify it up.

• If a bigger interface is necessary for you to see and interact with your iPhone, get an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus and use Display Zoom.
• If physical accessibility is more important to — being able to comfortably hold the phone — get the iPhone SE if that fits you better.

Productivity

The iPhone 6s Plus has so many pixels that, in landscape mode, it acts like an iPad. Mail goes from one column to two columns. So does Messages, Notes, and a host of other apps. Safari gets tabs and the rest of the tablet treatment. It may not sound like much but it's a huge boon for productivity.

• If you like the idea of having a big iPhone in portrait and a tiny iPad in landscape, get the iPhone 6s Plus.

Camera

iPhone SE and iPhone 6s have the same rear-facing iSight camera. It's 12 megapixels and can shoot 4K video. They also share Apple's A9 image signal processor (ISP), focus pixels for faster image acquisition, and Live Photos, which lets you capture movement and sound along with the moment. iPhone 6s Plus adds optical image stabilization (OIS) to reduce motion blur, especially in low-light.

The front-mounted FaceTime camera, though, is a different story. iPhone 6s has 5 megapixels. iPhone SE, only 1.2.

• If you want the best camera of the bunch, that's iPhone 6s Plus.
• If selfies are important to you, you'll want iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus,
• If you just want a tiny pocket phone, iPhone SE will do you fine.

3D Touch + Taptic Engine

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have 3D Touch, which is the name Apple uses for pressure sensitivity on the iPhone. It's a shortcut system or "warp tunnel" through iOS that lets you do everything faster. You can press an app to go right to an action. You can press a message or link and peek at a preview. If it interests you, you can press deeper and pop into it. It uses the Taptic Engine, a form of haptics, to provide tactile feedback for the presses.

iPhone SE, despite all its other upgrades, didn't get 3D Touch.

• If you like the idea of 3D Touch, you'll need to go for iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.
• If you don't care about 3D Touch, get any of them, including iPhone SE.

Battery life

iPhone SE gets tremendously great battery life. Up to 14 hours of talk, 10 days standby, 13 hours of web browsing and video playback, and 50 hours of audio.

iPhone 6s gets just as tremendous battery life. Up to 14 hours of talk, 10 days standby, 11 hours of web browsing and wireless video playback, and 40 hours of wireless audio.

iPhone 6s Plus gets crazy good battery life. Up to 24 hours of talk, 16 days of standby, 12 hours of web browsing, 14 hours of wireless video, and 80 hours of wireless audio.

• If battery life matter most to you, and you don't want to use an external battery case or power bank, get the iPhone 6s Plus.

Who should get iPhone SE?

If you want the smallest iPhone available, one that'll fit into the smallest pocket or pouch, but still has a fairly recent processor and camera, you want iPhone SE.

See at Apple

Who should get iPhone 6s?

If you want an iPhone that's still a phone, with all the power but not all of the bulk, then you want iPhone 6s.

See at Apple

Who should get the iPhone 6s Plus?

If you want the biggest screen possible, the longest battery life available, and a camera with optical image stabilization, get iPhone 6s Plus.

See at Apple

Still undecided?

If you're still not sure about which iPhone to get, jump into our iPhone discussion forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out.

If you've dropped, smashed, or otherwise chipped your iPhone 6s or 6s Plus screen, you likely want to repair it. There are several ways to repair or replace a broken iPhone screen, depending on your monetary situation and free time. Here are a couple, in order of easiest (and cheapest) to most complicated.

Buy a screen protector

If your screen is shattered but relatively intact, you can put off a potentially costly repair by sealing the broken pieces behind a screen protector. I'll note that this is a temporary measure, and one I generally recommend for screens that are cracked, but not completely destroyed — it can keep the cracks from worsening or pieces of the screen from falling apart, but eventually you'll need to replace the screen.

• See at Amazon
• Best iPhone 6s and 6s Plus Accessories
• How to replace a tempered glass screen protector

Make an appointment with Apple

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus screens have complicated technology embedded within them, including the Touch ID sensor, Home Button, 3D Touch display, and FaceTime front-facing camera. As such, a cracked iPhone screen can be a real hassle to replace.

Luckily, if you purchased AppleCare+ with your iPhone, a screen repair is simple and inexpensive — assuming you have the time to send it to Apple. It's just $29 to fix a broken iPhone 6s or 6s Plus screen, and any Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Representative store you visit has the equipment necessary to properly remove, replace, and re-calibrate your iPhone for Touch ID.

Even if you don't have AppleCare+, repairs through Apple are often cheaper than attempting to buy and repair the screen yourself: An out of warranty iPhone 6s repair is $129, while an iPhone 6s Plus repair is $149. (This is also why I always recommend picking up AppleCare+ when you buy a new iPhone.)

Start a repair request

Repair it yourself

In past years, I would have recommended this option above making an appointment with Apple, but as the iPhone screen has gotten more complicated — and expensive, a home-brew repair can often hinder your device from full operability.

As for pricing, it varies: If you're replacing an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus screen under the AppleCare+ warranty, Apple's option is much cheaper; if you're out of warranty, however, you may be able to get a slightly better price buying third-party components. An iPhone 6s screen repair currently will run you about $130 between the screen and tools, while an iPhone 6s Plus screen repair costs $140-$150.

As the iPhone 6s ages and screen prices go down, this may change, but for now, I'd only recommend a screen replacement if you don't have an Apple Store near you and feel comfortable repairing your own devices.

If you want a detailed guide on repairing an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, you can watch JerryRigEverything's how-to explainer below.

Questions?

Have any questions about repairing your iPhone's screen? Have a better option? Let us know below.

If your iPhone 6s has been shutting down unexpectedly, Apple has a new service program aimed at fixing the problem. The company says that it only affects a limited range of iPhones manufactured between September and October 2015.

From Apple:

Note that you must go to an Apple Retail store or authorized service provider, as wireless carriers are not participating in this program. Before you take your iPhone in for this battery replacement service, you'll want to back up your iPhone to iTunes or iCloud, as you'll need to erase the data and settings on your phone and turn it off.

I originally wrote this explainer back in March, following some comparisons between the then-new Samsung Galaxy S7 and the then-6 month old iPhone 6s camera. Samsung and Apple both make great cameras but have very different philosophies. Apple keeps their built-in camera app as simple and easy to use as possible, and chooses to render their final photos in as natural a way as possible. Samsung, by contrast, prefers more options in their camera apps, and to crush the blacks and boost the saturation on their final photos to make them more appealing. It's a subjective rather than objective difference, and why people can disagree over which approach they like better.

Now that iPhone 7 has launched, we've gone through a new round of camera comparisons, and gotten the same kind of disagreement over the results. Some of us just love the way Samsung renders the photos, much as we love the way TV sets look in display mode on the shelves of big box retailers. Others prefer a natural base so we can choose to adjust them just the way we like, or not at all.

Six months ago, I spoke with Josh Ho from Anandtech and Lisa Bettany from Camera+ about Apple's choices when it came to the iPhone camera. You can read what they originally said below. To help frame where were are now, with iPhone 7, here's what Josh said in his Anandtech review:

iPhone 7 also shoots in DCI-P3 wide-gamut color, which means it captures better reds, magentas, and oranges than most other cameras. Thanks to the DCI-P3 displays on iPhone 7, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and the Retina 5K iMac, along with the color management built into iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, Apple also makes sure you can preserve that gamut from capture to display, and across multiple devices.

Now back to that explainer...

Balancing acts

A few years ago I was on a podcast with an optical engineer and smartphone reviewer and we were discussing cameras. What he said stuck with me — that given the wide range of options when it came to everything from pixel count to pixel size, from aperture to image signal processor, Apple was making smart choices and achieving the best balance possible.

That's proven to be true over time. We've seen cameras with too many pixels and too few, with the distortions of angles too wide and image signal processors too aggressive.

Apple, though, has steadfastly stuck with balance.

Rather than going for the highest megapixel number, even if it means shredding the pixel size, rather than over saturating and over sharpening, boosting shadows and exposure — rather than going for the hyper-real — Apple is obsessed with focusing on the really real.

As shown on 60 Minutes, Apple has a team of several hundred people working on the camera system. They look at hundreds of thousands of images of every scene type, in every scenario, to ensure everything from the sensor to the processor to the software is making the right decision every step of the way.

The goal is to capture an image as true-to-life as possible, with colors as natural as possible, and to make sure it looks accurate not just on the iPhone's display, but on your friend's or family member's phone, on a computer's display or a television's display, and on any prints you may choose to make.

If you want to apply effects, if you want to crush the blacks or boost the sat, Apple believes that should be your choice, not theirs. You should be able to add to it freely and not have to worry about taking it away.

Renowned iPhone photographer and co-founder of the acclaimed Camera+ app, Lisa Bettany, shared the following:

According to Joshua Ho, senior mobile editor at Anandtech, there's a lot going into that:

After effects

Apple is in the enviable position of both making their own chips, the A-series, and being able to deploy those chips in every phone, in every region. That leads to remarkable control of the complete pipeline, and remarkable consistency in results across the board.

Some companies put bigger lenses up front. Some put entire server farms at the end. Apple wants to take what it can capture up front and give you the best result possible before it gets uploaded anywhere, if it gets uploaded anywhere at all.

If you choose to, you can add filters and effects from a variety of amazing third party apps. You can even add external lenses like wide angle, zoom, fisheye, and more. That lets you get the best of all worlds — a natural, true-to-life image that you can modify if and as desired. Or not. It's entirely up to you.

When it makes sense and doesn't introduced disruptive complexity, Apple does bring new features like easy-to-take panoramas, time-lapses, iCloud Photo Library, manual controls, and most recently, Live Photos.

When technology matures, and Apple can maintain their balance and focus on naturalness, they increase megapixels or pixel size, or widen the aperture. If any of those things cause inconsistency or distortions, even if the numbers look great on a spec comparison, Apple waits.

Shots on shots

No one camera, like no one phone, will appeal to everyone, and it's important that we have many different companies trying many different approaches. That's what gives customers options and pushes everyone to do better.

There are things I'd love to see Apple add to the iPhone camera. Faster access would be terrific. A double click of the sleep/wake button, for example, could launch you right into shooting mode.

So would the ability to automagically save Live Photos, Bursts, or slide shows as videos or animated GIFs. Because, fun.

Lisa would love to see a way to further reduce or eliminate the blocky pixelation she still finds in images, especially in skin tones. Also:

Josh, clearly trolling, thinks Apple could elect to just go with a bigger camera hump. More likely, though:

One area where Apple is already doing exemplary work is accessibility. Where some might simply assume the blind wouldn't need a camera, Apple realized everyone has family and friends they may want to share photos with. So, Apple made the Camera and Photos apps accessible to the blind as well. I'm curious how much further Apple can take that?

Keeping focus

Regardless of where Apple goes next, it's the end result that has to matter most — that we're able to capture the memories and moments we want to capture, accurately and easily, and in a way that we can save and share them quickly whenever and with whomever you want.

Portrait mode for iPhone 7 Plus ships as part of iOS 10.1 this fall. Can't wait to see what the team does for iPhone 8

Wi-Fi Assist lets you automatically pop over to cellular data if you end up on a Wi-Fi network with a poor connection. That's great for maintaining your Netflix stream or Facebook browsing, but not so great for your data usage.

If you have an incredibly high or unlimited plan, you probably won't care about the data usage as long as you're always getting the best performance possible. If you're on a limited plan, however, especially one with hefty charges for overages, you can easily turn Wi-Fi assist off.

How to disable Wi-Fi Assist

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Tap Cellular.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and switch the Wi-Fi Assist toggle to Off.

If you want to quickly return to this toggle at any point to turn it on when you have bad Wi-Fi signal but good cell service, we recommend using the following Siri command: "Open Cellular preferences".

Questions?

Let us know below.

If all you do is text, stream, and access web portals, you'll probably be able to live on 32GB. If you shoot 4K video, download all your media, and want tons of apps, 256GB might be the only option. If you do a lot of different things or are anywhere in the middle, choosing which iPhone 7 storage size to get can be one of the hardest decisions you make. Here's what you need to consider!

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Price per gigabyte breakdowns

Many products are segmented from entry level to standard to premium. Appliances, gadgets, even food brands. Entry level gets you in the door, standard is what most people end up buying, and premium is for those who want or need more. Apple could segment iPhones based on processor speed or color but the company prefers storage size. It's easy for everyone to understand: More money buys you more storage.

This year Apple's doubled all their storage tiers, so here's the new break down:

iPhone 7, full price:

• 32GB: $649 or $21.31 per GB
• 128GB: $749 or $5.85 per GB
• 256GB: $849 or $3.32 per GB

iPhone 7 Plus, full price:

• 32GB: $769 or $24.03 per GB
• 128GB: $869 or $6.79 per GB
• 256GB: $969 or $3.78 per GB

So the lowest priced iPhones are just that, but the premium models give you the most gigabyte bang for your buck.

• If you can't afford anything more, 32GB gets you in the door.
• If you want the most bang for your buck, 256GB or 128 GB is a better value.

Local vs. Cloud storage

Apple's iCloud gives you free, unlimited storage for all your iTunes stuff. That includes iBooks, music, movies, TV shows, and apps. You also get 5GB of additional storage for backups, data, and photos. You can purchase more iCloud storage if you need it, and Apple has just dropped expanded their paid tiers:

• 5 GB - Free
• 50 GB - $0.99/month
• 200 GB - $2.99/month
• 1TB - $9.99/month
• 2TB - $19.99/month

iCloud integrates with iOS and macOS and otherwise keeps all your stuff connected and collected. Thanks to some really intelligent nearline management, iCloud can help make sure you're recent and frequently accessed content is instantly available, and your older and infrequently accessed content is only a tap and a download away when you need it.

If you prefer other solutions, there's also built-in storage provider support for Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, and more.

The Cloud still can't take the place of lots of on-device storage — you can't shoot 4K video straight to the cloud, for example — but it can help you get the most of what you have.

• If you use a lot of cloud services you may be able to eek the most out of 32GB.
• If you don't use or like the cloud, you'll want to stick with 128GB or 256GB.

Photos and videos

The current iPhone lineup includes 12mp cameras that can shoot 4K video. That means you can eat through a ton of local storage, very quickly. iCloud Photo Library can help nearline a lot of that for you, but then you have to pay for iCloud Photo Library. Even then, depending how much you capture and how often, it still might not be ideal.

• If you hardly ever shoot photos or video, 32GB may do you.
• If you shoot a ton of photos, and especially video, you'll want to consider 128GB or 256GB.

Media

iTunes movies can be 1 to 3 GB in size for standard definition. If you prefer watching HD, they can easily eat up 3 to 6GB of storage. TV shows can be a quarter to half the size of movies, but more than make up for it by the number of episodes typically available. Music files are generally quite small but can add up as well, especially if you have lots and lots of albums you want to keep with you everywhere.

Streaming services like Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Spotify, etc. use some storage for local cache but nothing piles up on your iPhone long term.

• If you stream almost everything, you might be able to get away with 32GB.
• If you prefer to download your movies, TV Shows, or music, you'll need 128GB or 256GB.

Apps and Games

Thanks to new technologies like app thinning — asset slicing, on demand resources, and bitcode — Apple and developers can do a lot to keep their apps and games slim and trim. Effectively that means not downloading anything they don't need to download onto your iPhone, unless and until they need to download it.

Still, not every developer is using app thinning yet, and not every app lends itself to significant thinning. So, if you download a ton of games or apps with a lot of graphics and video — hello Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! — you can still use up a lot of storage.

• If you keep your iPhone light on apps and games, you might be able to get away with 32GB.
• If you want to have tons of apps and games on your iPhone all the time, you'll need 64 GB or 128 GB of storage.

Who should get the 32GB iPhone 7?

If you really only want an iPhone for streaming, if you live on the cloud, if you only do light social and gaming, if you have an iPad or computer that stores your long-term data and collections, and you don't intend to keep a ton of content on your phone, then you'll be okay with 32GB.

• If you absolutely can't or don't want to pay a dime more, get a 32GB iPhone 7.
• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Who should get 128GB iPhone 7?

For most people, 128 GB will be plenty of space. It can store a ton of songs, lots of apps, a plethora of photos and video, and still feel like you can breathe. Thanks to iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Music Library, and App Thinning, you'll get more out of it than ever before.

If you're planning to use your iPhone 7 the way it was intended to be used, 128GB iPhone 7will serve you well.

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Who should get 256 iPhone 7?

If you really do want your iPhone to do everything, all of the time, and never (or rarely) have to worry about running out of space or going to the cloud, if you want to shoot a ton of 12 mp photos and 4K video without having to offload it, or if you simply want to make sure you're future proofed well into the future, then you've probably already decided on the 256GB iPhone 7, haven't you?

• How to sell your old iPhone
• See iPhone at Apple

Still undecided?

If you're still not sure about 32GB, 128GB, or 256GB, jump into our iPhone forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out!

Also, remember that if most places will allow you to exchange an iPhone if you get one that doesn't properly fit your needs. So, make sure you put your new iPhone through its paces as soon as you get it. Load up all the apps and games you want with you, load up your movies and TV shows, go out and take some photos and shoot some video. Use it like you're going to be using it.

If it feels like you got too much storage, say 128 GB, and you haven't even gone past 8 GB, or if you got too little, say you're already at 120GB GB of 128GB, then take it back and exchange it for one that better suits your needs.

I've just spent a week working with the Android Central team preparing for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the Korean giant's latest salvo in the large smartphone space. I read a lot of words about a smartphone that, instead of making overt changes, subtly builds on the success of its predecessor. And then, after using it, I realized that the sum of those parts is one of the most competitive and interesting smartphones to come out this year. So, how does it compare to the existing Apple flagship, iPhone 6s Plus, and what does it mean for the one coming up, iPhone 7?

Symmetry

The first thing that struck me about the Galaxy Note 7 is its symmetry, with the tight curves in its front and back meeting along the side bezels to form an unbroken connection — something that would have been impossible just two years ago, when the processes for curving glass over flexible AMOLED displays was in its infancy. Pundits similarly remarked on the elegance of Apple's curved metal chassis when the iPhone 6 debuted in 2014, and comparing both the iPhone 6s Plus next to the new Note 7, it's clear both companies are able to command enormous manufacturing advantages over much of the competition (though they are catching up).

While the the ports and speaker holes on the Note 7's bottom still don't line up, the rest of the phone is extremely well balanced, and beautifully engineered. It is narrower than its predecessor, the Note 5, and significantly easier to use with one hand than the iPhone 6s Plus, which is a full three millimeters wider. Indeed, the gulf in screen-to-bezel ratio between the iPhone Plus series and some of Android's biggest phones is widening, with products like the 5.5-inch ZTE Axon 7 approaching (but not quite reaching) the designation of "compact."

An unfair comparison

Of course, this is an unfair comparison given that the Note 7 is brand new and the iPhone 6s Plus eleven months old and nearing the end of its annual release cycle. For all we know, the so-called iPhone 7 Plus will shrink, as the Note series has over the past few years, while maintaining its 5.5-inch screen size, or it will merely offer a larger screen with the same dimensions. But Apple hasn't shown as fervent a concern with screen-to-bezel efficiency as it has with thinness and lightness — the iPhone 6s Plus is even slightly thicker and heavier than its 2014 counterpart — and there's no reason to believe that won't continue this year.

But the Note 7 has many of the features iPhone customers have been clamoring for since the early years of the this decade: water resistance; wireless charging; a high-resolution display; and a generous helping of internal storage as standard. And the return of the microSD card to the Note line will certainly attract a certain subset of core Android users who may have defected from Samsung in the 12 months since the Note 5's launch.

As different as they are, though, the iPhone 6s Plus and Note 7 share a number of truths about the smartphone industry in general: they are wholly iterative replacements for very innovative devices, and eschew gimmickry in favor of reliability and — more than anything — quality. To that end, the Note 7's Android software lacks much of the trickery that was so common just two years ago, opting for flat textures, white backgrounds, and thin, easy-to-read typography optimized for high-resolution displays. Even the announcement of an iris scanner lacked the fanfare such an inclusion would have three years ago; it's just another way to log in to your phone (and hopefully, with an impending API, other secure apps).

Pen vs. Pencil

One of the most interesting things about the Note 7 is its S Pen. Even five years after its debut, the S Pen has managed to retain its importance among a subset of Note users enthralled with its intuitive storage and wide app support. This year's version has 4096 points of pressure, similar in theory to the Apple Pencil to which it will inevitably be compared.

We won't know for a month yet if Apple plans to bring Pencil support to the iPhone, but we can safely say that it will not be stored in the chassis like a ballpoint. And while Samsung executives took a soft jab at Apple during the Note 7 keynote by saying that the S Pen needs no external power, nor a special slot in one's bag, the reality is that a feature that in 2011 was dismissed as frivolous has now been acknowledged in some way by the world's most influential smartphone maker. As much inspiration as Samsung draws from Apple in the software department, there is no question that Cupertino's recent flurry of investment in its accessory ecosystem, centred around the burgeoning Smart Connector port, is an idea well worn by other giants of tech.

Peak shine

The Galaxy Note 7 is shiny — not just in a physical sense, but in the way it reflects much of the phone industry's tepid growth and rapid maturity of the past three or so years. From the way its tightly curved glass edges curl to meet a color-matched metal bezel to its port cover-free implementation of IP68 water resistance, the Note 7 is an engineering marvel. Its design is also governed by different values than Apple's. But these differences are shrinking year after year, as Samsung's hardware prowess improves and Android's once-common idiosyncrasies subside.

As the resident cross-platform user at iMore, I'll be exploring the waning distance of these divergences in greater detail over the coming months, but suffice it to say Samsung has engineered its best phone ever with the Note 7, and likely one of the best smartphones, period. It's certainly raised the bar for Apple in the coming month, and that's a good thing for the industry in general.

Now if we could only get Samsung to launch phones with the latest Android version.

If you are in the market for an iPhone 6s Plus but don't want to pay full price, eBay has an awesome deal for you. The online retailer is offering a refurbished 64GB version of the phone in your choice of color for just $549, which is a savings of $300. For this price, you'll get an unlocked AT&T variant of the phone (model a1634) and it is listed as being in excellent cosmetic condition with a guarantee that it will be fully functional.

Whether you are looking to upgrade from an older iPhone, pick up the larger iPhone at a cheaper price or just like deals, you won't want to miss out on this one. We don't know how long this deal will run, so be sure to act quickly if you are interested.

See at eBay

Best Buy is currently running a special offer in the U.S. where people who buy or lease an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus can get $250 off any Apple Watch model. The special bundle offer ends on June 25.

That means you could get a 38mm Apple Watch Sport for as low as $49 with this offer. The deal works if you buy the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus outright, or if you activate it for a two year lease on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.

See at Best Buy

Sprint has announced that people who buy an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus from the carrier will be able to get another for free. The "free" part comes in the form of a monthly offset credit.

Here's how Sprint describes the offer:

This BOGO offer works if the customer adds one new line of service and is eligible for an upgrade. In addition, buyers of the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus can also save $200 if they also buy an iPad (iPad Mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad Pro 9.7, and iPad Pro 12.9) with a lease or monthly installments.

See at Sprint

It's been an eventful six months for iPhone and iOS: Though the 6s is just a half-year old, it's been joined by a 4-inch upstart — the iPhone SE — and iOS 9 has seen three significant updates, culminating with iOS 9.3. Is the iPhone 6s still best in class? Have any of our iOS wish list items been checked? Here's our six-month review.

First: Are you still happy with the iPhone 6s and iOS 9?

Rene

Yeah. Hell yeah. For the last couple weeks I've been shrink-graded to the iPhone SE, but my heart is still with iPhone 6s Plus. It's everything I loved about the bigger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus but with the convenience of 3D Touch and a much-improved camera. Oh, and ludicrous speed.

iOS 9 wasn't as transformational as iOS 7, which had a whole new design, or iOS 8, which changed the functionality game with extensions, but it's been solid. The biggest thing it's given me is compatibility with Apple Watch, which is huge but another topic entirely.

Serenity

Internally, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are just about perfect. They have a stunning camera for both photographs and video, blazing fast processor, and I almost never run into slowdowns, even when attempting somewhat memory-intensive tasks. When it comes to the exterior, however, I'm still not convinced. My iPhone 6s is rose gold and stunning — but you'd never know, because I've kept it in a case my entire time with the phone. The slippery rounded bezel is still too prone to slipping out of my hand for me to want to ever risk it caseless; my iPhone 6 still bears gravity's scars, and I'm not stupid enough to do it a second time. Instead, my 6s lives in Apple's Smart Battery Case, both to keep it protected and to extend its battery life. I had no qualms about my battery life on the 6s Plus, but once I returned to the 6s, mid-day drain became a definite problem for my power-user habits.

iOS 9 has continued to impress as Apple's internal team polishes. There are still bits that elude me — despite the Proactive system being a neat concept, I rarely use anything the phone suggests save for recently-opened apps — but the company has made big strides in solidifying the operating system and pushing forward great initiatives like Night Shift.

Bader

I haven't used the iPhone 6s as much as I thought I would back in September, largely because I immediately gravitated to its larger sibling, the 6s Plus. While I spent most of the previous year with the iPhone 6, thinking its Plus counterpart too big, something coalesced in the intervening 12 months, and now I can't get enough of the 5.5-inch screen.

It also helps that iOS 9, despite lacking picture-in-picture (which I believe to be a fundamental omission from the 6s Plus), feels more like a full-fledged desktop OS than ever before, even on a phone screen. Subtle things, like the interchange between 3D Touch-based multitasking and quick access to content through the Today menu in Notification Center, makes a huge difference in getting things done. And it's so much easier to type on the larger screen, especially in portrait.

Lory

I was never happy with Apple's decision to update its flagship phone exclusively as a larger device. That's why I never upgraded to the iPhone 6 or 6s. Thank goodness Apple launched the iPhone SE this year. I finally have a current model device, but it feels exactly the same as my favorite design, the iPhone 5.

As for iOS 9, overall, I'm pleased. Since updating to iOS 9.3, there are a few features that are even more impressive, like Night Shift mode.

Let's talk iPhone first. What size are you using right now?

Rene

iPhone SE, because shiny and new. But I used the iPhone 6s Plus from September until March, and I'll be back to using it again fairly soon. If the iPhone is a pocket-sized window into the internet and apps, then the iPhone Plus is the biggest such window that will still fit into most pockets.

That means, when I'm out and about, even if I don't have a MacBook or iPad Pro with me, I can still get some measure of work done. Oh, and watch surprise Star Wars or Marvel trailers at a decent size. That's invaluable.

Serenity

I just switched back to an iPhone 6s after months of using 6s Plus — and wow, does it feel better. Now, the 6s Plus has a lot of phone going for it: I love its optically-stabilized video and huge screen, and it's hard to say no to its incredible battery life. But I found that as nice as having an almost-tablet in my pocket is, it's also a bit dangerous if you have a job you can get done with a computer. I'd frequently spend longer amounts of time attempting to work on my 6s Plus rather than switch over to my iPad or Mac — even when the task made far more sense to do on the larger devices. I guess I'm device lazy. Switching back to the 6s has gotten me out of most of these bad habits, and I can't say I hate being able to put my phone comfortably into a pocket again.

Bader

iPhone 6s Plus! But also iPhone SE! And the contrast is so stark it's almost comical. Going between them, as I have been for two weeks or so, allows you to see the diversity of experiences inherent in using the same operating systems with a screen nearly 40% larger and with over two million more pixels.

Subjectively, going back to using a one-handed phone is a relief, but typing is cramped and reading is much more difficult (though it could be due to my quickly-aging eyes!). That said, I'm going to stick with the iPhone SE for a while and see what comes of it.

Lory

iPhone SE in the house!

Are you sticking with the 6s, or are you coveting the SE?

Rene

I'm using the SE because it's review season, and I want to give it a fair shot, and because it really is the fastest engine in the smallest body imaginable. But I'll be back on iPhone 6s Plus eventually.

The display size simply can't be beat for me, and that camera — including the optical image stabilization — is just aces.

And yeah, I do miss 3D Touch when it's not there. I've made it a point to use it to increase my navigational speed and so now I'm pressing hard on the SE and it kinda keeps looking at me like "What's your problem, pressy person?!"

Serenity

I thought very, very briefly about picking up the SE, but in the end, chose the 6s to return to. I love the design and form-factor of the 4-inch screen, but it's just a teensy bit too small for my purposes. 4.7-inch is the sweet spot for my enjoyment — and my pockets. And though most people may look at 3D Touch as a niche feature, I love having it on my iPhone. I use left-edge multitasking constantly, as well as the Settings app's 3D Touch shortcut to turn on Low Power Mode.

Bader

There are a couple of things keeping me from going SE full-time: the vibration motor, which sounds like a chainsaw compared to the Taptic Engine inside the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus; and 3D Touch-based multitasking, which I didn't realize how much I used until I no longer had it in front of me.

Six months in, what's your favorite feature?

Rene

The speed and optics. I'm cheating by bundling them together, but the A9 processor includes the Image Signal Processor (ISP) that helps make the camera so great.

I can grab my phone, take a picture, and have something not only usable, but natural and often times beautiful, without any fuss or muss. And when you just want to capture a moment, especially a fleeting moment, that's all that matters.

Bader

What I can capture with the camera still blows me away. Though Apple may not be alone at the top of the camera pile anymore, I still feel like the A9+12MP iSight consistently offers the best camera experience in the smartphone world. I'm also a huge fan of Live Photos and leave the feature on practically all the time, because I love seeing what little quirks those three seconds of video pick up on either side of the shutter.

Serenity

Seconding Bader. Camera and Live Photos are a constant delight. I've even taken some hero shots for iMore with my iPhone camera over my DSLR — camera you have with you, and all that — and they've come out great. I also really enjoy 3D Touch shortcuts, even if no one else does.

What are you less than thrilled with?

Rene

If Apple would just delete the bezels, double the battery size, and make it twice as light, it would be perfect. Oh, wait? You mean in a universe with physics and stuff. Okay…

I wish iPhone 6s also had OIS. I wish I could double-click the sleep/wake button to quickly access the camera. I wish it had four speakers like iPad Pro, so I didn't cover up the sound so freaking always. I wish the screen was 10-bit and DCI-P3 color space. (Yeah, sure, native @3x would be nice to avoid the scaling flicker, but only when it's power-efficient.)

But those are more hopes for the future than condemnations of the present. Apple made a lot of smart choices with the iPhones 6s, and it shows.

Serenity

Battery life on the 6s isn't great for power users, especially coming from a 6s Plus. The iPhone Smart Battery Case helps a ton, but if I have to hide my beautiful phone in a case, I sure wouldn't mind if Apple put out just a few more colors in its lineup: Rose gold case for Rose gold phone, maybe?

Bader

The iPhone 6s Plus is massive: it's heavier than its predecessor, and compared to other 5.5-inch phones on the market, it feels unwieldy. Apple has to, at some point, improve the screen to bezel ratio, which will hopefully cut down on the amount of extra space above and below the display. While I understand the home button is necessary for a number of tasks, I'm hoping it gets incorporated into display itself at some point — if not iPhone 7, then iPhone 8!

Lory

As I mentioned before, I'm less than thrilled with the size of the iPhone 6s. After watching Ren and Bader taking pictures with their iPhone 6s, I can admit that the larger screen does look like it is great for photography, but it is still too large to be comfortable for me.

What's your number one wish-list item for iPhone 7?

Rene

Lighter. Hey, stop laughing. Seriously. When I use an iPhone 6s Plus I use it constantly. I check messages while out walking, I read before going to bed, and it's still heavy enough that I feel the weight after a while.

Apple's "obsession" with thinness has always been a side effect of lightness, because lightness is core to usability. iPhone 6s Plus traded some lightness for 7000 Series aluminum, a Taptic Engine, and 3D Touch. Just like iPad 3 did for Retina. I'd like to see the Plus get that lightness back and then some. Just like iPad Air.

Oh, yeah, and even more waterproofing, inductive charging, dual cameras, and, of course, delete the bezels!

Serenity

I would not mind a case redesign for iPhone 7: The screen size is great, but those curved bezels will be the death of my phone if left caseless. With something as gorgeous as the rose gold iPhone, you want to feel like you can show it off, not hide it away in a case.

I'm also hoping for more depth of field in the iPhone 7's camera. When taking photo comparisons last month with the Galaxy S7, I definitely felt a bit jealous comparing my macro photos to the S7's gorgeous f/1.7 aperture — though Apple would need to first fix the light and pixel dilation problems a larger aperture would present.

Bader

As attractive as the iPhone 6s is, I believe Apple overcorrected from the 5s. The all-metal phone is too slippery, and often feels precarious while in the hand without a case. I don't worry about screen resolution or pixel density; I worry about the phone slipping from my hand and cracking on the concrete. Here's hoping the iPhone 7 has a more hand-friendly design.

Lory

Better be four inches is all I'm sayin'. No, actually, I'm certain the iPhone 7 will not have a four-inch model. But, if there is going to be a second generation iPhone SE released at the same time as the iPhone 7, I'd hope for 3D Touch.

Apple needs to go back to the drawing board on the EarPods. Those things are so uncomfortable (and the name is stupid) that I can't wear them for more than 10 minutes at a time. I know there are hundreds of third-party earbuds that are better, but I'd like to be able to use the freebies without them literally bruising my cartilage.

iOS: How's it been treating you?

Rene

Pretty great. I love the new deep and back links in iOS 9. They make it much easier to move into apps at specific places, and back out of them to exactly where you were before. The new typeface, San Francisco, is gorgeous and makes everything look fresh and elegant. News is a first step to what I hope will be a system-level news service. The new Spotlight stuff is really useful, though I'd love it to be a full-on, first-class Siri variant for text entry. And wow-bang do I love the new Notes app. The old one was a useful text sync tool. The new one lets me collect almost anything and have it available almost everywhere.

For iPad, everything from Split View to keyboard shortcuts makes working on an iPad much less work and much more productive. More of that, please.

Serenity

Even with its occasional bugs, iOS 9 is lovely to spend time in — and between iPhone and iPad Pro, I spend a lot of time in it. As with all operating systems, there are still bits that need improvement, but I'm overall quite happy with what I can do in iOS 9.

Bader

Never better! I've reached a point where I spend more time on my iPhone than I do on my laptop, and increasingly feel comfortable taking on tasks, from editing documents to filing tax returns, that I wouldn't have just a couple of years ago. Much of that can be attributed to the incredible developer community, but credit to Apple for sticking with its single-screen modality and adding features, such as Handoff, Today widgets and Extensions, that add considerable value for power users. It's a deft balancing act that continues to defy expectations.

Lory

I haven't had any complications with iOS 9. The only real issue I've had is remembering all of the cool features that weren't there in iOS 8.

Your favorite feature?

Rene

Oh, not fair! If I had to choose, it would be deep and back links on iPhone, and multi-window multitasking on iPad.

Serenity

On the iPhone, it's going to have to be iOS 9.3's Night Shift. I could never get into Fluxx on the Mac becuase the graphic designer in me saw nothing but "ORANGE!", but that feeling has gone away surprisingly quickly with iOS and Night Shift. Maybe it's because I'm largely viewing text and tweets at night, rather than photos and huge desktop screens, but I'm very thankful for the feature making bright white screens easier on the eyes. On the iPad, Split View is how I live my life. Without a Mac laptop, Split View and the keyboard's quick app switcher make my day-to-day work at iMore possible, and they've completely changed how I use the iPad, full stop.

Bader

It's a small thing, but being able to clear every notification from an entire day, rather than by app, has completely changed the way I interact with my iPhone. It took a long time, but I can finally say that Apple's notifications are as good as Android's, which was an area the OS underperformed for many years.

Lory

The app suggestion feature is one of my favorites. In the morning, the Remote app is on deck for me to control my Apple TV. When I connect my iPhone to my iHome iDL100 alarm clock at night, my sleep aid app, myNoise is right there on my Lock screen. I also love the additions to the Notes app. I'm all about making lists and the checklist feature in Notes is the best thing Apple ever did for productivity.

Your biggest frustration?

Rene

Most of my frustrations have been fixed over the last few years. I agree with Serenity and Bader that a better Home screen for iPad would be fab, and better custom keyboard support is overdue. I also wish Skype wouldn't ring on my phone after I've answered on my computer. Or call relay, same thing. More than anything, I'm looking forward to what's coming next.

Serenity

Notification Center, despite its helpful widgets, is a mess. Widgets are helpful. Notifications are helpful. But the current display is chaotic and highly unhelpful. I really want to see Apple take a redesign stab at it in iOS 10.

Also: Home screen redesign, anyone? The 12.9-inch row of home screen icons just looks farcical at this point.

Bader

Third-party keyboards are still treated as second-class citizens, which I don't understand. It feels like Apple threw the functionality in there with iOS 8 and forgot about it. But I want to swipe with SwiftKey and predict with Fleksy, but neither are stable enough to continue using for more than a few hours.

iOS 9.3: Improvement? Too many bugs?

Rene

I've had no major bugs with iOS 9.3. Night Shift is neat, and the education stuff is the beginning of something special. Notes lock is okay, but I want it on the system level for every app. And I want News in more countries. Feels like even Apple Pay is moving faster, and that's... demoralizing?

Bader

Night Shift! What an awesome addition. Subtle, yes, but it's meant to just work. I don't have any quantitative data to suggest I am sleeping better, but I believe it's taking me less time to actually fall asleep now, which I think is the goal.

Serenity

As mentioned above, I heart Night Shift. I'm also finding myself actually using the News app, now: The algorithms have been much improved, and I'm getting information I actually care about, rather than articles that seem to be pulled out of the sky.

Lory

Well, since Apple had to immediately pull the update for older devices, and then subsequently send out a second update to fix a bug with links in Safari, I'd say iOS 9.3 was off to a bad start. But, I haven't had any problems since the initial changes. I'm a big fan of Night Shift. I've been using Flux on my Mac for years, so I'm familiar with the concept. When my face is in front of a screen starting at 6:00 a.m., you'd better believe I don't want that harsh blue light burning my retinas first thing in the morning. So, yeah. I think the 9.3 update is an improvement.

Your top wish-list item for iOS 10?

Rene

. HEYO!

Serenity

Home screen redesign, home screen redesign, home screen redesign. Pretty please.

Bader

Let's start recognizing the Plus line for what it is: a small tablet. I want picture-in-picture and split-screen multitasking in landscape mode.

Lory

The only thing I can think of is better Handoff and Continuity. It is a source of frustration for me because sometimes Handoff and AirDrop works perfectly, and other times, I am stuck trying to figure out workarounds because I've lost the connection between devices.

What are your impressions?

Do you have an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus? How are you liking it, six months in? Let us know below.

After going big and bigger with the 4.4-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones, Apple has returned to the 4-inch screen size with iPhone SE, which concentrates down all the power of an iPhone 6s into a body that looks just like an iPhone 5s. That makes it the smallest iPhone of this generation... in every way.

So, how does reachability and pocketability balance against visibility and scalability? Let's find out!

Display sizes

All modern iPhones have a 16:9 aspect ratio, the same as high-definition television (HDTV). Here are the screen sizes:

• iPhone SE: 4 (3.48 × 1.96) inches .
• iPhone 6s: 4.7 (4.1 × 2.3) inches .
• iPhone 6s Plus: 5.5 (4.79 × 2.7) inches.

Pixel counts

The amount of pixels you get on each screen works out to:

• iPhone SE: 1136 x 640 (727,040 total) at 326 ppi.
• iPhone 6s: 1334 x 750 (1,000,500 total) at 326 ppi.
• iPhone 6s Plus: 1920 x 1080 (2,073,600 total) at 401 ppi.

iPhone 6s Plus is actually 2208x1242 internally (2,742,336 total) but scaled down for display. That makes it, internally, almost iPad big:

That internal pixel count makes designing easier. It's exactly 3x the base iPhone resolution compared to iPhone SE's 2x. Aside from needing to drive and scale down all those pixels, though, they're not very meaningful to us right now.

Interfaces

What is meaningful is how they all work. Here's how text and the keyboard look in portrait mode:

And here are photo collections:

Because of the extra space, there are a few cases where you get an expanded interface in portrait mode:

It's in landscape where the differences become... more different. The keyboards on the bigger iPhones get more keys as well.

Tabs get a special treatment in Safari.

And on iPhone 6s Plus, there's support for iPad-style split view layout, which means two columns side by side.

How important that ends up being to you will depend on how often you use your iPhone in landscape, of course.

Where the smaller size helps enormously, however, is one-handed ease of use — reaching across the screen to reach any area on the screen.

Hands-on

The big and bigger iPhones 6s offer more information — or bigger information in zoom mode — but they're not as easy to use one handed. iPhone SE doesn't give you as big a window into apps and the web, but wow but it's easy to handle.

So it all comes down to what's most important to you, the small, super-convenient size, or the big, super-powerful screen.

Culinary magazine Bon Appétit is the latest publication to experiment with iPhone-only photography, shooting all of the photos for its March issues on the iPhone 6s. The photographers hired for Bon Appétit's "Culture Issue" were told to shoot everything from photos of food to portraits of restaurant owners using Apple's latest phone rather than their normal DSLR cameras.

The magazine interviewed its photographers, Damon Gardner, Matt Haas, Cait Oppermann, Michael Graydon, and Nikole Herriot, about the experience of shooting with nothing but an iPhone:

Among the difficulties, the photographers cited a lack of manual controls over aspects such as depth of field and keeping light consistent. Herriot also noted notifications, which aren't an issue on a standalone camera, kept popping up and distracting her from the shoot.

While none of the photographers are planning on using an iPhone professionally again any time soon, a few of them expressed noted that they'll be using their phone's camera more often.

You can find the March issue of Bon Appétit on newsstands now.

Source: Bon Appétit

Apple is beginning to launch a new World Gallery as a way to bring some attention to the amazing photographers from across the globe that have been shooting on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Billboards are currently going up, and if last year's #ShotOniPhone6 campaign is any indication, this year's World Gallery is going to be every bit as inspiring.

The gallery includes 53 photos from 41 photographers that will be featured in 85 cities in 26 countries around the world. The overarching theme this year, if there is one, appears to be people — children, women, and men living their lives, doing their jobs, and being in the moment. While some of the artists featured are professionals, others are everyday people inspired by the world around them and able to use the iPhones 6s to capture what they see and feel.

The iPhones 6s feature an all-new 12 megapixel iSight camera with an Apple A9-powered image signal processor (ISP) that makes it easier than ever to pull your iPhone out, snap a picture, and get the best possible results in the widest range of conditions. That kind of "everyday photography" makes shooting great pictures more approachable and accessible to everyone, and it makes me want to stop writing this and get out and shoot.

So, while I do that, check out the list of photographers and the gallery of photos, and then grab your iPhone and start shooting your own amazing images!

• Ashish Parmar, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• Athia Renee, Canton Michigan
• Chris Hamill, The Maldives
• Christopher Anderson, Brooklyn, NY
• Cielo de la Paz, Livermore, CA
• Dustin Cohen, Brooklyn, NY
• Erin Brooks, Lakewood, Washington
• Gianluca Colla, Belle Usine, Fully, Switzerland
• Hollyn Baron, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
• Jake Debruyckere, Mt. Davidson, San Francisco
• Jirasak Panpiansin, Chaiyaphum Province, Thailand
• Jirasak Panpiansin, Chaiyaphum Province, Thailand
• Kevin Mao, Shanghai, China
• Melissa Casillas, Querétaro, México
• Pierre Babin, Plateau Mont-Royal Neighborhood, Montreal, Canada
• Timothy Mulcare, Harvest Moon Orchard, North Salem, NY
• Zak Noyle, Honolulu, Hawaii

Comprised of both a durable plastic shell and a shock absorbent inner layer, the CandyShell from Speck blends both protective layers together beautifully. It's 100% transparent, even around the thicker edges, and offers a smooth feel when installed around the iPhone 6s that's not too slippery to handle. Although the case as a whole is slightly thicker than I expected, its see-through design helps to maintain a slim and sleek appearance with the iPhone 6s inside.

With the case being as stiff as it is, installation proved to be more challenging than anticipated. The CandyShell meets MIL-STD-810G drop test standards, meaning it's good to go without question for when your iPhone 6s inevitably hits the floor. The back of the case features a Speck logo below the camera cutout. The glossy case isn't perfect when it comes to preventing fingerprints and smudges; the smooth plastic does a decent job at hiding them though, and is easy to do a quick wipe-down when necessary.

Around the edges are clear rubber covers for the volume and power buttons that add a firmness when pressed. The mute switch, speaker, Lightning port, and headphone jack are all left open and easily accessible. As mentioned before, the edges of the CandyShell make it slightly bulkier than other clear cases of its kind, but as you can see — it definitely still meets the mark for slim.

The raised bezel on the front grants plenty of clearance for the display of the iPhone 6s while faced down. Speck advertises this case as being UV and scratch-resistant, and from my time with the CandyShell, I have no reason to dispute those claims. While there have been reviews of yellowing over time, I haven't encountered the problem personally. I can say for certain that it's excellent against scratches after consistently pocketing the phone with my car keys, whereas most plastic clear cases start to show wear almost as soon as you take them out of the box.

For a clear case that adds a little more drop protection than average offering, the CandyShell is one worth considering. There's enough grip to help keep the iPhone 6s in your hand and there's not a lot going on in terms of texture, allowing more opportunity for the phone's design to shine through. It also comes with a 1-year warranty from Speck, which is a nice bonus if you run into any issues.

See at Amazon

I'm the kind of guy that likes my iPhone 6s to have enough protection to handle a serious drop without bulking it up. This hybrid case from Urban Armor Gear fits the bill perfectly and it comes in a clear option that shows off the original design of the iPhone 6s.

Built to meet military drop-test standards, the Urban Armor Gear case packs a polycarbonate shell with a rubber bumper that's most prominent at the top and bottom of the case. A hexagonal pattern on the inside remains visible through the transparent shell and is accompanied by 5 mock rivets that are there to simply add to the case's rugged aesthetics.

Included with the case was a plastic screen protector, small cleaning cloth, and an applicator card to help push out air bubbles after application. The screen protector worked great with the case installed and didn't lift up around the edges as some others do.

The lip around the front of the case kept the display of the iPhone 6s from rubbing against surfaces while faced down. Urban Armor Gear managed to utilize dual protective layers in a slim form factor that's also incredibly lightweight. The smooth polycarbonate shell had a nice amount of grip and the crevices that extend to each corner definitely assist in the grip factor.

Around the rear camera lens and flash is a thick rubber bezel that keeps them from getting scratched. With the exception of the mute switch on the side, the volume and power buttons are part of the rubber edges that aid in providing a more precise press when the case is installed around the iPhone 6s. On the bottom are standard openings for the speaker, Lightning port, microphone, and auxiliary port. Although I prefer when case manufacturers leave their logos off the cases they create, the blocky chrome UAG logo in the middle actually compliments the rest of the case very well.

The Urban Armor Gear case for the iPhone 6s comes in a variety of different color options, but if you like some transparency to your cases both the Ice (as pictured) and Ash (slightly darker) are your best choices for the Gear case line. I couldn't be happier with this cover; it provided everything I was after in a solid case without fattening up the sleek iPhone 6s. The included screen protector with the case is a nice bonus, too.

See at Amazon

In our first look at the purchase interest and intent of the Mobile Nations' communities, we tapped into the level of demand for tablets, watches, and TV boxes being offered by the biggest smartphone providers. But the smartphone itself remains the primary digital device for many, and plenty of companies have debuted offerings in the past few months that vied to become holiday purchases — or at least a last-minute buy before the calendar flips over.

So late last month, we asked over 5,700 readers of Android Central, CrackBerry, iMore and Windows Central to share their thoughts on what could be taking their calls. Even the smartphones that garnered the most interest didn't muster the same amount of attention as some of the hot (and newer) non-smartphone products like as Android Wear, Apple TV and the Surface Book.

There are likely numerous reasons for this. First, there is far greater competition in the smartphone market and so there's more to dilute consumer interest in any given model. Second, unlike the new platforms and novel form factors discussed in our last article, the staid monoblock form factor has dominated the smartphone landscape for years now. Third, the contracts that once suppressed holiday season smartphone purchases have been replaced by upgrade plans that have a similar effect of spreading out smartphone purchases throughout the year. Therefore, particularly for devices that debuted earlier in the year, such as the LG G4 and Galaxy S6, many who may have been interested in those devices may have already purchased them.

All this said, some phones certainly fared better — and dramatically so — when it came to whether early adopters were interested in purchasing them or intended to purchase them before the end of 2015.

Android

One clear trend among Android phone owners in our community is that their next phone is likely to be large and true to stock Android. Three of the five top Android phones on their list featured screens over 5.5". In addition, three of them (the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Moto X 2015 Pure Edition) embrace Android as Google has conceived it, with a fourth (the BlackBerry Priv) coming pretty close both in terms of both stock purity and phablet contention.

Given BlackBerry's long history in mobile (many of you likely had a BlackBerry as your first smartphone) and the quiet clamoring of a subset of users for a good Android keyboard phone, it's not too surprising to see such a strong embrace of the Priv. Indeed, among Android phones, it ranked the second highest in terms of imminent purchase intent, with 6% of current Android phone owners (including perhaps some former BlackBerry owners) planning to lay down dollars to pick up the privacy-focused keyboard slider.

The big dog by far, though, was the Nexus 6P, with nearly half of Android phone owners interested in purchasing it and 13 percent planning to buy one before the end of 2015. Indeed, nearly twice as many Android phone owners would opt for the Nexus 6P versus the 5X. The 5X, though, was no slouch, ranking third overall and attracting purchase interest from nearly a quarter of Android phone owners.

Sandwiched between them was the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, which nearly 30% of Android phone owners said they were interested in purchasing. 2015 saw a significant redesign of the historically plastic Note and improvements to its S Pen stylus. These seem to have been enough to stave off some competition from its stablemate, the Galaxy 6 edge+, which boasts a thinner, and arguably cooler, curved screen design. The newcomer virtually tied with the LG G4 in terms of of both purchase interest and intent and fell below the even newer video-focused LG V10, which also offers an extended secondary display for quick access tools.

Both of the larger Samsung phones placed higher than the smaller and older Galaxy S6 devices which, as noted earlier, may have already been purchased by those eager to snap up Samsung's current generation of Galaxy S devices. While its screen may be shatterproof, demand for the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 was not. The Motorola flagship variant for Verizon had to contend with both carrier exclusivity and the software meddling of Verizon, despite Motorola having convinced Big Red to ease back a bit on the customizing. Also featuring a lighter skinning touch than in years past is the HTC One A9. The device, which hews closer to the iPhone's design than previous One devices like the M8 and M9, just isn't showing the overall muscle of more popular, larger devices.

iPhone

In contrast to the clear preference for bigger phones shown by Android users, iPhone users were split just about evenly between the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. A middling 14 percent of current iPhone owners planned to upgrade to one of Apple's newest smartphones in the near future. The relatively low number could be due in part to the relative burst of upgrades that accompany the launch of a new iPhone, landing well before the holiday season, with Apple showing record numbers for those upgrading early. However, at Apple's volumes, even 14% would represent a lot of shiny fruit logos moving quickly out of small white boxes.

Apple also likes to talk up how many Android owners are switching to iPhone. We saw some limited evidence of that, with nearly 10% of Android phone owners considering jumping ship for the iPhone 6s Plus although immediate purchase intent was quite low. As for those crossing over the other way, only the Nexus 6P and Galaxy Note 5 — the same two phones most likely to woo Android users — came close to having a similar level of appeal to iPhone owners as the iPhone has to Android phone owners. The Note 5 fared particularly well, with 12% of iPhone users expressing interest in purchasing it. Only 1%, though, were prepared to do so before the end of 2015. In other words, while both Android and iPhone users may flirt with their main competitive OS, they're very rarely willing to commit to changing their relationship status.

Windows Mobile

The Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are the first Windows flagships to not only bear the Microsoft brand, but also the first to drop the "Windows Phone" operating system in favor of Windows 10 Mobile. The prolonged wait for a new king of the Windows phone hill has resulted in some pent-up demand, with about a quarter of current Windows Phone owners expressing interest in both the 950 and 950 XL and a high 9% saying they were planning to upgrade to the larger Windows device by the end of 2015.

The better news for Microsoft, though, was that a similar if not higher percentage of Windows PC owners — a far larger group — expressed similar sentiment. The company's message of ecosystem integration may be paying off even as Microsoft embraces rival mobile operating systems more fully. Windows PC owners may also like the idea of recreating (much of) their desktop OS experience using the new phones' Continuum feature.

On the other hand, as with iPhone owners, the Note 5 also held a lot of appeal with 20% of Windows Phone owners expressing interest in it; the number was even higher (39%) for Windows PC owners. Also as with the iPhone owners, though, a minuscule percentage of Windows Phone owners actually saw themselves picking one up imminently.

BlackBerry

We already noted the BlackBerry Priv's appeal among current Android phone owners. BlackBerry owners, though, were even more eager to embrace the first smartphone that eschews BlackBerry 10 for Google-flavored Android. About 30% of current BlackBerry owners expressed interest in purchasing a Priv.

What was more impressive, though, was the number of BlackBerry owners planning to pony up for privacy, privilege and (Google) Play. About 11% of BlackBerry owners said they intended to buy a Priv before the end of 2015. That was the second highest intent percentage overall among the four phone ownership camps, trailing just Android phone owner intent to purchase a Nexus 6P.

Indeed, BlackBerry owners' interest in the Priv did not extend to other Android phones. No other phone — not even the otherwise strongly-embraced Note 5 — drew interest from more than 10% of BlackBerry owners, and no others tempted even 1% of BlackBerry owners to purchase them before the end of 2015. The BlackBerry flock may be smaller than in years past, but it's dedicated to BlackBerry regardless of their choice of OS.

For this article, Mobile Nations surveyed 5,757 Web site visitors from the U.S. and Canada between November 25th and December 5th, 2015.

Apple has just announced the Smart Battery Case for iPhone 6s and... it has a big, abrupt hump on the back. That's led to a lot of internet noise about it being bump-ugly and jokes that Industrial Design must have hit the eggnog extra early this year. So what's going on?

$99 from the Apple Store

Let's start with the assumption that Apple isn't, as a rule, stupid. Maybe that's a bad assumption, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Then, let's speculate about the choices that led to the Smart Battery Case and what the possible alternatives might have been. That way, even if we still disagree with some or all of those choices, we can do it in an informed way. We can hate smart.

Why make an Apple battery case?

There have been third-party battery cases for years, so why would Apple choose now to enter the market?

1. There's money that's been left on the table for years by not offering one.
2. Apple has and are now willing to spend the resources to do it.
3. Brand visibility and integration can potentially achieve more than third-party offerings.

Why not build in more battery?

Theoretically, everyone wants more battery in their phone. Practically, almost nobody would enjoy living with the tradeoffs that more battery requires.

1. Batteries are insulators and not radio transparent, so including more cells demands other concessions, like larger sizes to better dissipate heat.
2. Which is why Apple already offers an iPhone with a bigger built-in battery—the iPhone 6s plus.
3. Which lets people choose between battery and bulk, as does a case—people can put it on when they need it and take it off when they don't.
4. Because batteries add more weight than they do power, and lightness translates to usability.

Why a hump?

Once Apple decided to make a battery case, we can look at some existing third-party battery cases and see what trade offs they've made.

1. They use hard materials and so, to easily put them on and take them off, they need to break into two pieces.
2. They're bulky and often make it harder to pocket the phone.
3. They can interfere with cellular signals.
4. They don't let you charge the case and the phone at the same time.
5. They offer hardware components for checking charge level.

Assuming Apple didn't want to simply replicate an existing product philosophy and case, they could figure out what different trade offs could be made.

1. They could use a flexible material that peels on and off and lets them keep a one piece design.
2. They could minimize bulk to keep it as pocketable as possible.
3. They could mitigate antenna interference as much as possible.
4. They could let you charge both the case and the phone at the same time.
5. They could offer a software-based way for checking charge level.

So, the Smart Battery Case?

Apple decided to go with as naked a battery as possible, just a cell package, some silicone, a Lightning port and connector, and a light. That allowed them to hide a hinge inside, which makes getting it on and off easy even without breaking it apart.

It also means less material to interfere with radio signals. Add a passive coupled antenna inside the case, and cellular reception is impacted as little as possible.

Likewise, the reduced bulk keeps the overall size as small as possible so you can hold it and fit it in pockets as comfortably as possible.

Because Apple is Apple, they also used a fully featured Lightning pass-through that lets the case and phone charge at the same time, and maintains compatibility with other Lightning accessories like the Dock.

Also, while an amber-to-green light will show status while charging, Apple can also show it on the Lock screen and Notification Center at any time.

But the hump, the humpty-hump?!

In a perfect world there'd be a Smart Battery Case that in perfectly matched the space grey, silver, gold, or rose gold finishes, that doubled or quintupled charge capacity, and that was as thin and elegant as the standard silicone case. But we live in this horrible real world, where physics is a jerk and where every choice made comes with an egregiously equal and opposite opportunity cost.

By prioritizing a minimalist, one-piece design, the Smart Battery Case becomes something of a throwback to the early days of smartphones with their extended battery humps—which, like bell bottoms and big beards, instead of succumbing to extinction are now cycling back around.

You can absolutely hate the way it the Smart Battery Case for iPhone 6s looks and, after you've tried it, hate the way it works too. Or you can love it more than any of the battery packs that have come before.

Personally, I'm waiting until I get one. From some angles it looks okay, from others it looks like Luke with Yoda on his back. In the real world, using it day-in, day-out? We'll see.

The point is to consider the choices and the alternatives and to decide if, in the end, they're better or worse for you. Because that way, unlike the dumb stuff that clogs up the 'net, you can hate or love it smart.

$99 from the Apple Store

Apple has released a new color for its cases for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, with the leather models now coming in red. These cases join Apple's red silicone cases as part of the (Product) Red campaign, which donates a portion of the proceeds from participating products to fight AIDS.

Apple has been a participant in (Product) Red since its inception almost ten years ago. The company has offered products ranging from cases and covers to (Product) Red iPods in its support efforts.

You can grab Apple's new red leather iPhone 6s case for $45, while the 6s Plus case will run you $49.

• $45 from Apple
• $49 from Apple

Carphone Warehouse has announced its Black Friday deal, through which the UK retailer is discounting £100 off the upfront cost on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s. The deals are valid through November 30.

During the sale, you can get a 16GB iPhone 6s on EE for £32.49 per month with an upfront fee of £50, which nets you 1,000 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB of data. The 16GB iPhone 6 from O2 can be bought for £28.50 per month and no upfront fee, with the monthly plan offering 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data. Finally, the 16GB iPhone 5s is available from Vodafone with a £50 upfront fee and a monthly plan that offers 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 500MB of data for £17.

Carphone Warehouse iPhone sale

This entire Rugged Capsule Cover is made of a flexible TPU that features glossy accents with a carbon fiber texture on the back to enhance its rugged look. It's definitely a step up from your traditional skin case, offering excellent grip with its busy design along with Spigen's protective Air Cushion technology that can be found on all 4 corners of the case.

There's easy access to everything the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s has to offer, including the rear camera, mute switch, charging port, speaker, microphone, and auxiliary port. You'll find that the side buttons are covered in TPU for a more comfortable press while the Rugged Capsule is worn. The display is also protected from scuffing on flat surfaces thanks to the raised lip. Since the case doesn't utilize any extra layers, installation and removal is easy with that flexible material.

Inside the case is a glossy web pattern matched with the case's overall matte finish to keep the back of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s protected. Each corner is slightly thicker than the rest of the skin to ensure the major impact points are well guarded. On the back is a Spigen logo slapped in the middle with a couple mock screws on each side to compliment its overall design.

As mentioned before, although the name insinuates that the case is rugged, there's not a whole lot of serious protection going on. That doesn't mean the case won't handle a drop or two, because Spigen does show that it comes with a MIL-STD 810G military grade drop test rating. For severe impacts, however, you may end up wishing you went with hybrid solution. We certainly can't complain about the grip the Rugged Capsule Case provides — it feels comfortable and secure in your hand any way you hold it.

For a low profile skin case that adds an armored look your iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, the Spigen Rugged Capsule Case is one worth checking out. It's a good balance of grip and protection that doesn't go overboard on bulk. You'll only find this cover in black and it's available for $10.99 if you want to scoop one up.

$10.99 at Amazon

The Ultra Hybrid Case case features a thin polycarbonate shell on the back that's surrounded by a clear TPU bumper — easy to install and remove when necessary. The bumper has cutouts for the charging port, microphone, speaker, auxiliary port, camera, and mute switch. The side buttons, however, are slightly raised for an easy press while the case surrounds your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s.

The Spigen Ultra Hybrid is incredibly slim, making sure not to bulk up your iPhone. It doesn't add an incredible amount of grip to the device, but the TPU bumper does help. The major drawback would be how easy that clear polycarbonate accumulates fingerprints. It's not solely an issue with this cover, since fingerprints are always noticeable on clear cases. Other things to expect are scratches and scuffs to start appearing after the first week or so of use. Granted, unless it's a deep scratch it won't be very noticeable.

In terms of drop protection, the Spigen Ultra Hybrid will do a decent job at mitigating damage to your iPhone. Obviously this case is pretty slim and there aren't any separate layers to do a lot of shock absorption. Still, the few times my iPhone has managed to take a tumble it's stayed inside the case and no damage was done to phone. You can also lay the iPhone face-down on any flat surface without worry of the screen scraping thanks to the raised bumper on the front.

For casual protection against minor drops the Ultra Hybrid Case is a good choice for showing off the original design of your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s. If you're someone who tends to be a bit rougher with their device you may want to opt for something with more bulk. This case is available in clear (as shown), or with a black, mint, rose, or space bumper.

From $10.99 at Amazon

The Spigen Tough Armor for the iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 6 Plus is a two-layer case with a flexible rubber core and a hard plastic outer shell. We were happy with how it held up with day to day use, though not perfectly.

Form and function

Installing the Spigen Tough Armor is a total breeze. Just pop out the rubber interior from the case, wrap it around your iPhone, then clip on the hard plastic section. The shell is on the glossy side, leaving little influence on grip. If anything, the additional thickness gives a little more to hold onto, but the texture itself doesn't necessarily help. The rubber extension across the top and bottom do give your palm something to catch onto.

The sharp bevel of the edge affords the Tough Armor case a decidedly military look, but also mitigate impact intelligently. Black, grey, gold, and pink color options are all available, ensuring your case matches your iPhone 6s Plus. Admittedly, the case's blocky style clashes with the iPhone's curvy tendencies and isn't nearly as ergonomic. Small raised bumpers on the rear provide clearance for the case itself when placed flat on a table. A tiny dimple on the inside of each corner of the case provides a tiny air cushion, where the case can safely collapse on impact without applying pressure to your iPhone 6s Plus. Pass-through buttons provide easy access to volume keys and power keys, plus there are roomy cutouts for the mute switch, lightning connector, headphone jack, camera, speaker grille, and Apple logo.

In terms of pure protection, I was amply satisfied with what the Tough Armor case had to offer. There's enough padding there to cover day-to-day drops, and the lip raises up enough over the screen to protect from face-down spills. My biggest issue was with the built-in kickstand. It's nearly impossible to pop it open with a fingernail, which means you'll have to have a slim tool to get it open. This is far from convenient, and generally resulted in me not bothering with using it. That said, the kickstand is very secure, and if it's not a thing you anticipate using very often, it can happily be ignored.

Bottom Line

Though the design is a bit stern and the kickstand is impractically difficult to prop open, the protection offered by the Spigen Tough Armor is hard to ignore. With this case on your iPhone 6s Plus or iPhone 6 Plus, you really won't have a thing to worry about.

$34.99 from Amazon

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus went up for pre-order in South Korea on Monday, and both phones are already proving popular with consumers. Both devices sold out with the first few minutes of availability, on South Korea's three mobile carriers, SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Inc.

KT saw 50,000 pre-orders within the first 10 minutes of availability, according to the Yonhap News Agency:

SK Telecom is also thought to have seen around 50,000 pre-orders, closing its order applications within 30 minutes. LG Uplus reportedly saw similar numbers, and closed its pre-orders after five minutes.

Pre-orders were initially scheduled for last week, but were delayed on the advice of telecom regulators. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will officially go on sale in South Korea on Friday, October 23.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

With its screen off, you'd be forgiven for thinking the iPhone 6s hasn't changed all that much from its year-ago predecessor, save for a color tweak: After all, it still sports a 4.7-inch display, curved aluminum casing, dual cameras, and Touch ID sensor.

But just as you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, you shouldn't overlook this year's iPhone on appearance alone: Almost every internal component has seen an upgrade, and that "same-old" exterior design? It's tougher than last year's model, with better materials. Combine that with Apple's latest version of iOS and iPhone 6s-exclusive software features, and you're looking at an entirely new device hidden within the shell of its predecessor.

"Okay, Apple's new phone is its latest and greatest yet, blah blah blah. Is it the right smartphone for me?" Well, dear reader, I spent fourteen days juggling an iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 6, and 5s to help you answer just that very question. Whether you're curious about speed, camera improvements, Touch ID magic, or just how cool 3D Touch and Live Photos actually are, you'll get your answer here. So, without further ado, I bring you: Two weeks with an iPhone 6s.

• A blazing-fast smartphone
• Low-light photography and the option to shoot in 4K
• A smaller iOS device
• Pressure sensitivity
• Great selfies for days

• Bigger screens
• Optical image stabilization on photos and video
• A longer battery
• Huge cameras or physical keyboards
• Wireless charging
• Budget phones

Bottom Line

The iPhone 6s is chock-full of great improvements over previous models—along with the 6s Plus, it's the best smartphone Apple has built yet. 3D Touch is a game-changer, and the photography and video improvements make this a great smartphone for just about anyone looking to hop into Apple's ecosystem. If you need more battery life, want to shoot a ton of video, and price is no obstacle, you'll want the iPhone 6s Plus. But if you're looking for a gateway into Apple's world, this is the best phone in which to do it.

iPhone 6s Table of Contents

• Review video
• Evolution
• Design
• Speed & Performance
• 3D Touch
• Cameras
• Live Photos
• Ecosystem
• Conclusion

iPhone 6s Video Review

We put the iPhone 6s through its paces in downtown Providence, RI, and even considered doing a water resistance test. (Accidentally.) This was all shot and edited on the iPhone 6s Plus. Want to know how we did it? Check out our behind-the-scenes explainer here.

iPhone Evolution

	iPhone	iPhone 3G	iPhone 3GS	iPhone 4	iPhone 4S	iPhone 5	iPhone 5c	iPhone 5s	iPhone 6	iPhone 6 Plus	iPhone 6s	iPhone 6s Plus
Code Name	M68	N82	N88	N90	N94	N41	N48	N51	N61	N56	N71	N66
Model Name	iPhone 1,1	iPhone 1,2	iPhone 2,1	iPhone 3,1	iPhone 4,1	iPhone 5,1	iPhone 5,3	iPhone 6,1	iPhone 7,2	iPhone 7,1	iPhone 8,1	iPhone 8,2
Launch OS	iPhone OS 1.0	iPhone OS 2.0	iPhone OS 3.0	iOS 4	iOS 5	iOS 6	iOS 7	iOS 7	iOS 8	iOS 8	iOS 9	iOS 9
Screen Size	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	4.0 inches	4.0 inches	4.0 inches	4.7 inches	5.5 inches	4.7 inches	5.5 inches
Screen Resolution	480x320 (163ppi)	480x320 (163ppi)	480x320 (163ppi)	960x640 (326ppi)	960x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1334x750 (326ppi)	1920x1080 (401ppi)	1334x750 (326ppi)	1920x1080 (401ppi)
Screen Type	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD
System-on-a-chip	Samsung S5L8900	Samsung S5L8900	Samsung APL0298C05	Apple A4	Apple A5	Apple A6	Apple A6	Apple A7	Apple A8	Apple A8	Apple A9	Apple A9
CPU	ARM 1176JZ(F)-S	ARM 1176JZ(F)-S	600MHz ARM Cortex A8	800MHz ARM Cortex A8	800MHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9	1.3GHz dual-core Swift	1.3GHz dual-core Swift	64-bit 1.3GHz dual-core Cyclone	64-bit 1.38Ghz dual-core Typhoon	64-bit 1.38Ghz dual-core Typhoon	64-bit 1.85Ghz dual-core Twister	64-bit 1.85Ghz dual-core Twister
GPU	PowerVR MBX Lite 3D	PowerVR MBX Lite 3D	PowerVR SGX535	PowerVR SGX535	PowerVR dual-core SGX543MP4	PowerVR triple-core SGX543MP3	PowerVR triple-core SGX543MP3	PowerVR G6430	PowerVR GX6450	PowerVR GX6450	PowerVR GT7600	PowerVR GT7600
Co-processor	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	M7 Motion	M8 Motion	M8 Motion	M9 (Integrated)	M9 (Integrated)
RAM	128MB	128MB	256MB	512MB	512MB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB	2GB	2GB
Storage	4GB/8GB/16GB	8GB/16GB	16GB/32GB	16GB/32GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/64GB/128GB	16GB/64GB/128GB	16GB/64GB/128GB	16GB/64GB/128GB
Cellular Data	EDGE	3G 3.6	HSPA 7.2	HSPA 7.2	HSPA 14.4	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE Advanced 150	LTE Advanced 150	LTE Advanced 300	LTE Advanced 300
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.2	Bluetooth 4.2
Wi-Fi	802.11b/g	802.11b/g	802.11b/g	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac MIMO	802.11a/b/g/n/ac MIMO
GPS	none	aGPS	aGPS	aGPS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS
SIM	Mini	Mini	Mini	Micro	Micro	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano
Rear Camera	2MP	2MP	3MP/480p	5MP/720p, ƒ2.8, 1.75µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ	8MP/1080p 60fps, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ	8MP/1080p 60fps, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ OIS	12MP/4K, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.22µ	12MP/4K, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.22µ OIS
Front Camera	none	none	none	VGA	VGA	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	5MP/720p, ƒ/2.2, BSI	5MP/720p, ƒ/2.2, BSI
Sensors	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer
Mic	Single	Single	Single	Dual	Dual	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple
Connector	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning
Height	4.52 inches (115mm)	4.55 inches (115.5mm)	4.55 inches (115.5mm)	4.54 inches (115.2mm)	4.54 inches (115.2mm)	4.87 inches (123.8mm)	4.91 inches (124.8mm)	4.87 inches (123.8mm)	5.44 inches (138.1 mm)	6.22 inches (158.1mm)	5.44 inches (138.3 mm)	6.23 inches (158.2 mm)
Width	2.40 inches (61mm)	2.43 inches (61.8mm)	2.43 inches (61.8mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.33 inches (59.2mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.64 inches (67.0mm)	3.06 inches (77.8mm)	2.64 inches (67.1 mm)	3.07 inches (77.9 mm)
Depth	0.46 inches (11.6mm)	0.48 inches (12.3mm)	0.48 inches (12.3mm)	0.37 inches (9.3mm)	0.37 inches (9.3mm)	0.30 inches (7.6mm)	0.35 inches (8.97mm)	0.30 inches (7.6mm)	0.27 inches (6.9mm)	0.28 inches (7.1mm	0.28 inch (7.1 mm)	0.29 inch (7.3 mm)
Weight	4.72oz (135g)	4.69 oz (133g)	4.72oz (135g)	4.83oz (137g)	4.94 oz (140g)	3.95oz (112g)	4.66oz (132g)	4.30oz (122g)	4.55 oz (129g)	6.07 oz (172 g)	5.04 ounces (143 grams)	6.77 ounces (192 grams)
Battery	1400mAh	1150mAh	1219mAh	1420mAh	1440mAh	1440mAh	1510mAh	1560mAh	1810mAh	2915mAh	1715mAh	2750mAh
Colors	Aluminum	Black, White	Black, White	Black, White	Black, White	Slate, Silver	Blue, Green, Pink, White, Yellow	Space gray, Silver, Gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold, Rose gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold, Rose gold
Launch Price	$499/$599 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$99/$199 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$299/$399/$499 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$299/$399/$499 on contract
Release Date	6/29/2007	7/1/2008	6/19/2009	6/24/2010	10/14/2011	9/21/2012	9/20/2013	9/20/2013	9/19/2014	9/19/2014	9/25/2015	9/25/2015

• iPhone 6s Plus review
• iPhone 6 Plus review
• iPhone 6 review
• iPhone 5s review
• iPhone 5c review
• iPhone 5 review
• iPhone 4S review
• iPhone 4 review
• iPhone 3GS review
• iPhone 3G review

iPhone 6s Design

Let's get this out of the way: In addition to its space grey, silver, and golden hues, the iPhone 6s now comes in, yes, rose gold.

Or... is it pink?

Metallic copper?

Rosé?...

Honestly, there have been so many different color monikers to describe Apple's newest iPhone shade that you'd think we were seeing the next generation of Buzzfeed's "gold and white or black and blue" debate.

But having spent several weeks with the decidedly pinkish device, I understand why. The rose gold iPhone 6s, like its golden predecessor, takes on slightly different hues depending on how light hits that beautiful new 7000-series aluminum case.

In bright lighting, it looks almost like champagne; in dark, husky lighting it appears as pink as pink can be. But, like the golden iPhone 6, the case's many shades look anything but obtrusive: They hit on a subtle, shimmery red-gold spectrum, and I found the color growing on me the more time I spent with the phone.

It's not just for those of a feminine styling, either, if the opinions of my male friends are any indication: When the 6s was announced, I had three different male friends—including my boyfriend!—declare their love for the pink casing. (I'm half-convinced he's going to steal the phone from my charging dock one day and claim it as his own.)

As with last year's specialty color, you're getting a white faceplate with your rose gold iPhone. No black faceplate for you. Last year, I thought this was going to be a deal-breaker for me when I bought the gold iPhone 6. A year of white faceplates later, I don't mind it nearly as much as I thought I would. It's not too distracting to the eye, and it's a lot easier to keep clean. (Still, were Apple to ever release a custom-color-with-black-faceplate iPhone, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.)

Aside from color, the iPhone 6s appears relatively unchanged from last year's model. I say "appears," because there's quite a lot going under the hood—including, well, a new, stronger hood.

There's the aforementioned tougher aluminum casing: The 7000 Series material first used earlier this year in the construction of the Apple Watch Sport (and also, Apple brags, the material used in the aerospace industry). While the Internet is rife with speculation that Apple upped its aluminum game because of a small number of iPhone models bending under pressure, I'm choosing to believe instead that Apple saw the procession of dented, cracked, and pockmarked iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 models flowing into their Genius Bars and decided to make their lives easier.

Same goes for the glass screen: Apple claims it's the strongest smartphone glass in the world, thanks in part to a new dual-ion-exchange process—again, borrowed from the Apple Watch Sport. And as someone who broke two iPhone 6 models last year in quick succession after never having previously broken a screen—not to mention the scratches and nicks I picked up on my third model—I'm especially thankful for this improvement.

We didn't do drop tests here at iMore because we have weak stomachs where destroying technology for fun is concerned, but I have been regularly storing the iPhone 6s in my pocket or bag with scratch-inducing materials and seen no nicks or impressions in the otherwise glossy screen.

There's been much made of the fact that the iPhone 6s is a bit hardier than past iPhone models when it comes to submersing it into a pool of water. This isn't something Apple's publicly advertising, and for good reason: Companies generally don't want to encourage you to intentionally dip expensive electronics into death-inducing liquid.

But rain, spills, and the dreaded toilet dunk have all happened to iPhone users past, and, as with the aluminum and glass improvements, Apple appears to want to make a bad day in an iPhone user's life slightly less terrible. Now, should you be unlucky enough to drop your iPhone in a toilet, it has a slightly better chance of survival thanks to new adhesives within the display and silicone seals on vital cable connections.

No, these improvements won't save every water-damaged iPhone, but they're an awfully nice bonus for clumsy consumers.

Underneath that glass, we've got that same beautiful 1334-by-750-pixel Retina HD screen from last year. Yes, it's still LED—no OLED switch this year. Nor are we seeing a 2K or 4K pixel density improvement in the display. But I don't mind. When it comes to actual, game-changing features, I vastly prefer the path Apple chose to take: incorporating pressure sensitivity into its displays.

From my colleague, Rene Ritchie's iPhone 6s Plus review:

We'll talk more about that and 3D Touch later on in the review. But on hardware construction alone, I'm impressed that Apple was able to cram in all that extra screen functionality with essentially no change to the iPhone's dimensions—the 6s sports a 7.1mm depth to the 6's 6.9mm, but otherwise, the phones are virtually identical in size.

The iPhone 6s feels a bit less slippery in your hand, too, courtesy the improved aluminum finish. It's still not nearly as cozy in the hand as the iPhone 5s, but that's in large part to the curved sides of the 6-series casing: Save for a redesign or garish rubber bumpers, those corners are here to stay.

Are these improved materials going to stop you from dropping your phone? Probably not. Is the phone going to survive every drop now? Also unlikely. But, as Rene said in his iPhone 6s Plus review, anything that enhances the odds of a drop not annihilating your phone is a good improvement, and makes you feel far luckier than you may actually be.

That said, I'm still going to rock Apple's silicone and leather cases on my iPhone 6s. Yes, they cover up the vast majority of that gorgeous rose gold shimmer, but better a covered-up rose gold iPhone than a smashed-to-bits rose gold iPhone—especially given my track record with this model of iPhone.

iPhone 6s Speed and Performance

Apple's tagline for this device is "The only thing that's changed is everything," and tongue-in-cheek or no, there's a lot under the hood that's been vamped and rethought. You may be eyeing the new iPhone for its 4K video or camera improvements or 3D Touch, but its sheer speed is the feature I keep coming back to.

"But, Serenity," you say. "Every generation of iPhone is faster than its predecessor. It's kind of how the 'upgraded iPhone' thing works."

And you'd be right. But the 6s feels noticeably faster, weeks into ownership—with a full load of third-party apps and custom settings!—than any other previous upgrade. In part, this is due to iOS improvements, but the real hero here is the A9 processor, Apple's latest system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The A9's 1.85Ghz dual-core chip is so speedy, it comes close to outpacing the 2015 MacBook, and benchmark tests from Anandtech and Geekbench show it at the top (or near it) on the single-core and multi-core charts.

Apple boasts it's 70 percent faster than the iPhone 6, and I wholeheartedly believe that: Everything is snappier, smoother, and cleaner—and that's coming from an iPhone that was pretty fast in its own right. Hiccups I'd regularly trigger on the iPhone 6—like pulling down on a Messages notification banner to reply—are effortless on the 6s.

The GPU year-over-year is even better, according to the folks at Cupertino: a 90 percent speed increase. And again, I'll agree. I spent 48 hours editing a 7 minute 4K video on an iPhone 6s and 6s Plus—a task that would make almost any GPU cry out in pain—and rarely saw a hiccup or lag in playback, rendering, or moving clips around. In contrast, my two-year-old iMac attempted to play five frames of a 4K clip from my iPhone 6s Plus in Final Cut, then abruptly quit. It's a strange world we live in where I now prefer editing on a smartphone to my desktop, but here we are.

Silently assisting all of the iPhone 6s's tasks is 2GB of RAM, a doubling from last year's model. The active benefits from this much memory are less obvious on the 6s than the 6s Plus—landscape mode on the larger device renders multiple scrolling targets in a flash—but still very beneficial in apps like Safari, where you no longer have to worry about background tabs re-rendering every ten minutes.

RAM is one of those things no user should ever have to notice or worry about, and with 2GB, this feels true on the iPhone at last.

If you're not a benchmarks person, that's understandable: Charts and graphs are nice, but often headache-inducing if you don't know what you're looking for. Instead, let's talk about my favorite way to demonstrate the speed of the iPhone 6s: Touch ID.

Touch ID was introduced with the iPhone 5s as a more secure way to unlock your device—and later, a way to use Apple Pay, buy things on the iTunes and App Stores, and protect your sensitive data within apps. It's always been fairly quick to authenticate with the on-device Secure Element; no one would have ever used it over a passcode if it weren't.

But the iPhone 6s feels like a game-changer for Touch ID adoption and active use. It's so quick now that you can turn off your iPhone 6s, press the Home button, and your Home screen or app of choice will appear almost immediately. App purchases are faster. Apple Pay is speedier. Partial thumbprint recognition (putting the side of your thumb on the Touch ID scanner) is so much better.

In unlock tests against every other previous Touch ID model, the iPhone 6s smoked the competition: Seconds faster than the iPhone 5s and milliseconds better than either the 6 or 6 Plus. I don't know how many users with Touch ID-capable devices are still opting for passcodes over thumbprint authentication, but I'm hoping that the 6s will win over quite a few of the holdouts. It makes entering a password or lock screen code look downright archaic, in contrast.

There is one downside to Touch ID's lightning-quick unlock: If you're used to using your Lock screen as a notification collector, you'll need to start waking your iPhone with a non-Touch ID finger on the Home button, or use the On/Off button to turn the screen on. Otherwise, you'll find yourself accidentally on the Home screen before you can read whatever snarky Slack barrage happened in your absence.

(iOS 9 has a smart work-around here, too: Sort by date is now an option in Notification Center, so you can catch up on any alerts you may have accidentally dismissed—in the order you'd normally see them on the Lock screen.)

Apple's voice-activated assistant has gotten a speed boost on the iPhone 6s, too: These days, Siri's wit isn't the only thing snappy about it.

Apple's personal assistant is now faster at responding to your queries than ever before, listening immediately upon a Home button press, no double-buzz or beep required. That buzz or alert returns when you hook your iPhone up to a Bluetooth controller of some sort, due to the natural lag between the wireless connection and your iPhone. But if you're speaking to the iPhone itself, you can begin delivering your query before the Siri screen even appears.

Atop that, Apple has solved its "Hey Siri" battery drain problem by shunting the brunt of that work over to the dedicated M9 co-processor: Now, if you have a 6s, you can trigger "Hey Siri" wherever you want—whether your iPhone's plugged in or not.

I've had the trigger phrase both enabled and disabled since receiving the 6s, and haven't been able to discern any notable battery differences between the two states: The power draw appears to be minuscule, the user benefits great.

If you're worried that auto-on Siri is going to cause a lot of hilarity at parties when five friends' iPhones 6s mis-understand a "Hey Siri," don't be: "Hey Siri" is now mapped to your voice. When you first set up your iPhone, it runs you through a voice-mapping simulation, giving the co-processor time to analyze your voice patterns and execute accordingly. My voice is my passport, indeed!

I've had a bunch of friends try to trigger my iPhone with "Hey Siri," and only one success—via a friend of mine who speaks in a similar timber to my own. So while Apple's tech may not be perfect for a vocal passcode, it certainly works well enough to deter most foreign voices from accidentally lighting up your smartphone.

The phrase (usually) won't trigger your Apple Watch: Because of battery concerns, the watch only listens upon initial screen wake. I have my watch set to wake on tap to preserve battery life, and thus have had few problems with unintended Siri triggers. Rene, who has his watch set to wake on wrist raise, has run into this problem a few more times. (I have, however, triggered both my review iPhone 6s and 6s Plus simultaneously when they've been in the same room.)

The A9's speed doesn't just improve hallmark features like Touch ID and Siri: It can be found all over iOS, whether you're in a third-party app, on websites, or connecting to a network. For example, turning off Airplane mode, a multi-second wait on the iPhone 6, is so blisteringly fast here that you'll likely be up and connected to your cellular network before you drop the Control Center pane.

This is a double effort from both the A9 processor and the iPhone's cellular radios—which have grown yet again this year. The iPhone now sports an LTE Advanced spectrum that offers up to 300 megabits download speed per second (mbps) if you're in a city that supports it. And if you're on Wi-Fi, that gets even better: 886 mbps using multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) antennas. Your Wi-Fi networks may not ever be that fast—mine certainly aren't—but the extra channel space lets the iPhone roar through website load times when it has the option. Even discounting iOS 9's content blockers, the iPhone 6s just feels faster on the web. That 2GB of ram helps, too, letting me load more websites and not worrying they're going to spontaneously reload if I look at too many other pages.

Not a radical redesign or a functional revolution, iOS 9 instead focuses on making the iPhone smarter, more polished, more well-rounded, and more productive than ever. Here's all the information on all the new features:

• iOS 9 review
• iOS 9 help

iPhone 6s 3D Touch

That A9 processor and extra RAM also help power the cornerstone feature of the iPhone 6s: 3D Touch.

I've been asking for it for years, and Apple has at last delivered—we have, in our hands, a pressure-sensitive screen. And yes, that means pressure-sensitive drawing with either a finger or stylus. Currently, the drawing pressure APIs are available only in the Notes app, but third-party apps are coming soon, and I can't wait.

This implementation is a little different from the upcoming iPad Pro: For the Pro, all the 3D Touch pressure functionality is hidden away in the Pencil tip; the actual iPad screen is as vertical-pressure-challenged as it always had been. On the iPhone, the entire screen is mapped for 3D Touch. You can press anywhere on the display, at varying levels of pressure, and get different reactions.

I've been doodling a lot in the Notes app since receiving the 6s, and have absolutely loved what I've been able to do with the new screen. The lag is better—though still noticeable—and pressure, combined with zoom, lets you sketch some amazingly detailed and fluid lines and colors.

There's no official "levels of pressure sensitivity" report from Apple to compare it to something like, say, a Wacom tablet, though developers have done some snooping:

Ten One Design's Peter Skinner output the data the 3D Touch API was reporting and got a reading of 400 levels of pressure. To put it in perspective, that's about half the levels of an entry-level Wacom tablet, which has 1048 levels. It's much more than I was expecting on a smartphone screen, however. (I honestly don't think you can discern the quality difference when it comes to basic sketches beyond 500 levels, but that's me.)

If 3D Touch was only about pressure-sensitive drawing, I'd be head over heels. But Apple wasn't content to stop there. Instead, 3D Touch uses that pressure data to create smart actions that expand far beyond doodles and sketches.

On the Home screen, you can use it to access commonly-used actions by pressing on app icons. Press lightly on an applicable link or button in any program, and you can physically peek into that content, or press just a bit harder to pop right into the app. Those presses, peeks, and pops all come with happy haptic feedback for each level, letting you know just how far you've come.

Not only is this a great move for touch-based accessibility, it's just fun. Transitioning from peek to pop reminds me a bit of puncturing bubble wrap—you get that same kind of ripple pop, and it feels oh so good in your hand.

It's also the best implementation of shortcuts I've ever seen on a mobile device. We've seen this since the iPhone's release: Intuitively, to explore iOS, there's a lot of exploratory tapping and swiping. When you add in vertical movement, there's a whole extra level of discovery and whimsy: "Pop! Hey! My phone buzzed when I did that. Why? Oh, I pressed on this app? Oh, what else can I press?"

Once you know they're there, it's so simple to discover 3D Touch shortcuts that I can easily see the general population picking it up a lot faster than your typical OS X obscure keyboard commands. Finding out, on your own, that Command-Q equates to quit? It's a lot more obtuse than pressing and swiping.

I haven't seen any "babies discover 3D Touch" videos yet the way we saw "babies discover multitouch" in past years, but I'm really excited for the first one. I suspect 3D Touch is like multitouch before it: It's the kind of device improvement that's going to be so blindingly obvious to the younger generation, they'll wonder how we ever survived without it. (I'm already wondering that myself.)

There are a lot of cool system tricks you can pull off with 3D Touch's various shortcuts, peeks, and pops, most of which Rene has cataloged in his review. The real game-changer will come as more third-party apps incorporate 3D Touch across the board into their apps. So far, I've only seen a handful, and those mostly just offer Quick Action menus when you press on an app from the Home screen. The few apps I've seen with extensive 3D Touch support, however, are the ones I want to spend my most time in.

In case you haven't guessed by now, 3D Touch is one of my favorite features in recent memory, and its shortcuts are genius: a side-screen press shortcut to the multitasking screen; a peek into your past camera roll photos by pressing on the Camera Roll button; a peek into your calendar when you press on a date or time. That said, I do have a few nitpicks.

Because of legacy iPhone models, the tap and hold gesture still exists. It does things like send you into Edit mode on your Home screens, but it's much harder to trigger in the world of Peek and Pop—especially without any sort of haptic feedback.

There's actually very little haptic feedback outside of the stock 3D Touch actions, and some of that feedback is inconsistent across iOS, which is a disappointment. If you tap on a non-3D Touch app on the home screen, for example, it shakes and the haptic motor sends a quick double-buzz. But I'd love to see that "uh-uh" warning incorporated across the board if I attempt to Peek or Pop on something un-3D-Touchable.

Even taking nitpicks and lack of apps into consideration, though, 3D Touch is an incredible leap forward by iOS's user interaction team, paved by the pressure-sensitive models seen in the Apple Watch and MacBook trackpad.

iPhone 6s Cameras

(Or why selfie-lovers will flip over the iPhone 6s.)

Apple's S-models have always had excellent camera improvements—the very first S-model I bought, the iPhone 3GS, introduced video recording and a higher megapixel camera—and the iPhone 6s is no exception.

This year, the iPhone gets a long-awaited megapixel boost to both its cameras: The rear camera now sports a 12 megapixel sensor with improved low-light technology and local tone mapping, while the front camera received a huge boost in the form of a 5 megapixel sensor and a faux-flash option called Retina Flash.

When it comes to well-lit shots, the iPhone 6s's rear camera and that of the iPhone 6 are very competitive. Where the 6s shines is in harsh HDR lighting or low-light conditions: It attempts to brighten and smooth even the darkest shots and corners. Panoramas, too, have better and softer lighting detail.

• iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6s camera shootout: Time to upgrade, iPhone 5s users

If you're into selfies, you'll love the new and improved front-facing FaceTime camera: up from 1.2 megapixels last year to a full 5 megapixels with low-light processing, it simply blows away front-facing photos and video from previous-generation iPhones. The addition of Retina Flash—which illuminates the device's 4.7-inch screen when you snap a shot—gives just a little bit extra light on your faces when photographing a scene without underexposing out the background. It's not the best flash in the world by a long shot, but it's a nice bonus.

Whether you're shooting from the front or back, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users have access to Live Photos: Apple's new way of making moving pictures.

Yes, the Cupertino company has seemingly rebranded and introduced "short videos" to the world in the form of Live Photos. Snap a photo with the Live Photos indicator on, and in addition to a 12- or 5-megapixel image, you'll also get a 3-megabyte 45-frame video with 22.5 frames captured before and after your original shot.

Gimmicky? Gif-like? Absolutely. But also a lot of fun—especially if you're shooting kids, dogs, or selfies. There's a certain magic to Live Photos that's hard to explain in text: Swiping through your Camera Roll and seeing just a hint of movement in each picture, 3D pressing on that picture to pop back into the memory of the scene...

The whole process reminds me a lot of the popular one-second-video collages used to capture the movement of a year. I tried to follow the fad at the beginning of 2013, but gave up on capturing video after about a month—it was just too difficult to actively think of "interesting" new things to shoot in my fairly non-adventurous daily life. With Live Photos, you're capturing those sorts of videos without even thinking about it. I can't wait to see the first person's "Year in Live Photos" video. I'm sure it will be beautiful.

Of course, that's the rub with Live Photos right now: You can't really show or send them anywhere outside of Messages on iOS, your Lock screen, or the Photos app in OS X. Eventually, you'll be able to export Live Photos to Instagram or Facebook via Apple's API, but it requires the companies incorporating support for Apple's format. (That format, for those curious, is actually just a JPG bundled with a 2-3MB movie.)

As a work-around, you can download any 3-second Live Photos movie file using Image Capture on your Mac, but it removes the still-image-transition-into-video you'll see with an actual Live Photo.

• How to create GIFs of Live Photos and share them to Instagram and Facebook

Enough about faux-moving pictures. Let's talk about the real video star here: 4K. Yes, the new iPhone can shoot a 3840x2160-pixel frame, and yes, it can even handle dual-stream editing of those 4K shots in iMovie. That's better than my two-year-old iMac—it barely knows what to do with all those pixels, crashing half the time I attempted to load a 4K clip into Final Cut.

Let's get one thing straight, though: 4K isn't going to create revolutionary imagery of your family reunions. It's simply a bigger picture with more detail. It's also stuck shooting 30 frames per second to 1080p-recording's 60, so you won't have extra movement detail in your film, and its files are gigantic: 375 megabytes per minute. But for anyone who regularly shoots video on their iPhone, 4K offers a lot of latitude for post-production cropping and zooming, and will come as a great additional tool in their toolbox.

• How I shot and edited my iPhone 6s review on the iPhone 6s Plus--in 4K!

My big camera bummer: The iPhone 6s still doesn't get the optical image stabilization of its big brothers, the 6 and 6s Plus. C'mon, Apple—if the camera's going to stick out from the casing anyway, might as well put in that extra hardware.

Additionally, Slo-Mo is still stuck at 720p if you want a full 240fps, though low-light and coloration are much better in those shots.

iPhone 6s Battery life

With all that the iPhone 6s can do, it's understandable that battery life is a concern: No one likes seeing their smartphone drain to 30 percent before noon. As someone who regularly exsanguinates iPhones of their power, I was a little hesitant about the battery life on the iPhone 6s: Technically, the batteries inside the 6s are ever so slightly smaller than their predecessors, which I expected to mean, real-world, around 8-10 hours of power.

But the iPhone 6s has an ace up its sleeve that makes its battery life oh-so-much more manageable: iOS 9 and Low Power mode. The feature lets you disable a host of battery-draining options on your smartphone with the tap of a switch. I've jokingly said before that I'd live on Low Power mode if Apple let me—the switch automatically turns off when you're at 80 percent battery or above—because it's given me so many more hours of browsing time.

Previous iPhone models can take advantage of Low Power mode too, of course, but the 6s has the benefit of both having a brand-new battery and the latest battery management tricks from Cupertino on the processor side. In my tests, I've turned my device on at 8AM, heavily used it throughout the day, and had it last me until 10 or 11PM without a charge thanks to Low Power mode. Those who don't live on their smartphone should see even longer battery life.

It's easy to say "Low Power mode makes it all better and gives me X extra hours" and be done with it, but it's not just about hypothetical benchmarks: It's the real-world benefits. People heading home from work after a heavy smartphone day and needing that last 20 percent of battery to last them their commute home. Taking a hundred photos you wouldn't otherwise be able to snap. Getting 10 percent to last you the hour you need to get to a charging station.

Do I wish the iPhone 6s battery offered more power? Absolutely. But the compromise there would have necessitated either a slower processor or a casing redesign for a thicker shell, and I don't think either of those is in Apple's goals right now. The company is happy, instead, to hit or slightly improve last year's benchmarks while it looks to push the boundaries of its processors and software ever-further.

That's not going to thrill everyone. But for those folks, Apple offers the battery-laden iPhone 6s Plus, or third-party battery cases. And if 24-hour battery life is really all that important to you—moreso than Apple's ecosystem: There are other brands out there with bulkier smartphones and longer batteries.

iPhone 6s Ecosystem

As Rene mentioned in his 6s Plus review, the ecosystem surrounding the iPhone 6s is as much a part of why you'd want an iPhone as the technology of the smartphone itself. If you have a Mac, other iOS products, or an Apple Watch, you can interact seamlessly with those devices using Continuity and Handoff. You can connect up your Music and Photo libraries across all your devices. You can even hook your iPhone up to any number of cloud services, including Google, Dropbox, and Microsoft.

The real kicker, though, is the app ecosystem: A million-plus apps, ready and waiting for your personal needs. The "App for that" campaign may be long gone, but the truth behind it remains: No matter what you need to do, the store likely has an app for you.

You can build a life, career, social media sphere, camera club, and so much more on your iPhone. I've downloaded thousands of apps since I purchased my first iPhone in 2008, and while some of them have been more helpful than others in the long run, they've all helped me try something new on my device.

I'm not even counting Apple's ever-growing list of stock apps:

• Camera
• Photos
• Health
• Messages
• Phone
• FaceTime
• Mail
• Music
• Wallet
• Safari
• Maps
• Calendar
• iTunes Store
• App Store
• Notes
• News
• Contacts
• iBooks
• Game Center
• Weather
• Reminders
• Clock
• Videos
• Stocks
• Calculator
• Voice Memos
• Compass
• Podcasts
• Watch
• Tips
• iCloud Drive
• Find My iPhone
• Find My Friends

Like third-party apps, I prefer some of these over others—I'll use Fantastical over the stock Calendar any day, but I keep coming back to the stock Maps and Notes apps. For you, it all comes down to preference and experimentation: What do you like to do? What do you want your smartphone to help you with? How can this piece of glass improve your day-to-day activities?

One of the nice things about the S-line keeping the same basic shape as its predecessors is not having to wait for manufacturers to come out with "iPhone 6s" specialty cases and accessories. Pretty much everything out there—excepting a few cases with tight space tolerances—with a 6 branding will work with the 6s, including Apple's silicone and leather cases.

I've picked up quite a few of these over the last year, and they're one of the nicer lightweight options on the market. They also have new colors to match the new rose gold iPhone as well as the new Apple Watch bands: On the silicone side, you've got white, charcoal gray, stone, antique white, blue, turquoise, midnight blue, lavender, pink, orange, and product red; leather colors include midnight blue, saddle brown, rose gray, brown, and black.

Apple's other accessories should work just fine as well, including the Lightning Dock from earlier this year. Should you want to color match, however, Apple has also made the dock available in new, matching metallic finishes of space gray, silver, gold, and rose gold.

Those panicking about 3D Touch nullifying plastic and glass screen protectors: don't. Screen protectors still work with 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s, and Apple and other retailers are specifically labelling the ones they sell as such. Always check with the manufacturer, however, if you have any specific concerns.

• iMore store iPhone 6s accessories
• Amazon iPhone 6s accessories

With new versions of the aluminum Apple Watch Sport available, I'm actually rather surprised that the company isn't making a bigger push to pair new iPhone models with a new Apple Watch. You need an iPhone to use an Apple Watch, and the new rose gold and gold watches match the aluminum iPhone casings to a tee.

If you haven't picked up an Apple Watch yet and you're debating its merits alongside a potential new iPhone purchase, I can't recommend it highly enough—if you think you have a use for it.

Just like with the iPhone, the Apple Watch has a myriad number of potential uses, but unless they're relevant to you, you may find the only use you have for it is "in the bottom of a drawer."

In part, I love my Apple Watch as an iPhone companion because it frees me from being addicted to that beautiful 3D Touch screen. Yes, it may seem silly to buy a new iPhone and then be glad not to pull it from your pocket, but there are circumstances where I'd much rather glance at my watch than have my iPhone on the table.

Add to that the convenience of custom clock face complications, Siri on my wrist, Live Photos on my watch display, health tracking, and so much more, and it's simple to see why the little wrist gadget is my perfect iPhone 6s companion. It may or may not be yours—but it's worth a consideration.

Apple includes 5 GB of iCloud storage with every Apple ID. That now includes iCloud Photo Library for pictures and video, and Apple Music Library for songs. Both use a nearline model which means more frequently used and recent files are kept locally while infrequently and older files are kept on Apple's servers, only a tap and a download away.

iCloud is also used for backup, email, contacts, calendars, iCloud Drive documents, and more. So, the 5 GB might not go very far. Apple hasn't seen fit to bump the free tier yet, but this year they did slash the cost of the paid tiers by half. That means you can now get additional iCloud storage for:

• 50 GB: $0.99/month
• 200 GB: $2.99/month
• 1 TB: $9.99/month

Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and other popular storage providers, as well as Google Photos, Flickr, Spotify, Rdio, and all major photo and music services are also available.

Apple Stores, especially when combined with iCloud and the extended warranty service, AppleCare+, provide remarkable customer support for iPhone 6s Plus owners. Apple specialists can help you test a phone to make sure it's what you want, help you set it up, teach you how to use it, and if anything goes wrong, help you fix it. It's a feature not always included on competitive checklists but anyone who's ever needed to avail themselves of it knows just how important a feature it is.

With AppleCare+ you can walk in with a damaged iPhone, get a replacement, restore from backup, and walk out with all your data, just the way you left it. It's one of those things few people appreciate until they're in desperate need of it.

New this year, the iPhone Upgrade Program essentially lets you get 0 percent financing—provided by Apple through Citizens One in the U.S.—for 24 months, with an option to upgrade to the next iPhone in 12 months. You have to pick one of the four major carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon at the time you buy, but the phone itself is unlocked. (The carrier requirement is likely to prevent fraud and gray market export.)

The iPhone Upgrade Program is more expensive than some carrier options, but it includes AppleCare+ which makes it highly competitive overall.

• 16GB for $36.58/month.
• 64GB for $40.75/month.
• 128GB for $44.91/month.

If you're interested in upgrading every year, and you want AppleCare+, the iPhone Upgrade Program looks terrific.

Not sure whether to upgrade or what color, capacity, or carrier to get? Just get an iPhone 6s Plus and not sure how to get set up and started? Our ultimate guides can help:

• iPhone 6s buyers guide
• iPhone 6s users guide

iPhone 6s Bottom Line

This generation of iPhone models is, quite rightfully, Apple's best yet. They've come farther in speed, photography, build quality, and smarts than ever before. The iPhone 6s stands apart from the 6s Plus with its smaller 4.7-inch stature and lack of optical image stabilization, but it's also easier to carry and use, and still a powerful member of the iPhone line.

Is it right for you this year? Depends on what you want.

If you're upgrading from an iPhone 5s or feature phone, this is the granddaddy of iPhone updates and absolutely worth your money. Going from a 5s to a 6s, almost everything is improved tenfold or more: Bigger, more beautiful screen; incredible camera; blistering speed; 3D Touch; faster Touch ID; wireless Hey Siri... It's hard to believe that the company has done so much in two years, and even harder to believe what they'll do to top the 6s in 2016.

Is the camera, speed, or 3D Touch worth an upgrade from the iPhone 6? For me, I'm going to say no unless you're a 4K or selfie fiend or desperate to try out 3D Touch. The 6s is better than the 6, for sure, but I'm not sure it's so much better that it's worth ditching your 6 along with a bunch of your hard-earned cash. If you really want the yearly upgrade, I'd actually upsize to the 6s Plus: You'll get a bigger battery and optical image and video stabilization, both of which have the potential to be huge upgrade incentives, if that's what you're looking for.

If you're on Android and considering a switch, it's all about the ecosystem: Do you want to live in a world of iOS apps, iCloud services, and OS X interaction? If so, the iPhone 6s is the best device yet for entering Apple's world.

Indecisive about the iPhone 6s versus the 6s Plus? Rene talks about its virtues in our iPhone 6s Plus review, but here are my thoughts: If you need optical image stabilization, a bigger screen, better battery life, and you can afford the extra $100, then get the 6s Plus. If you prefer a phone that's sized more like a phone, the iPhone 6s is a wonderful upgrade for those looking to do so.

And both iPhone 6s models are speedy, oh-so-3D Touchable, and available in beautiful, beautiful, rose gold.

(But really: pink.)

Ahead of their launch in India on October 16, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are up for pre-order. A slew of online retailers, including Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, Infibeam, and Paytm, are now accepting pre-orders for the phones, along with Vodafone. Here's how much the new iPhones cost in India:

• 16GB - ₹62,000 ($940)
• 64GB - ₹72,000 ($1,093)
• 128GB - ₹82,000 ($1,244)

• 16GB - ₹72,000 ($1,093)
• 64GB - ₹82,000 ($1,244)
• 128GB - ₹92,000 ($1,396)

Most stores are offering launch-day delivery for customers pre-ordering the handsets. Vodafone is offering 4,000 minutes, 3GB of 3G data and 1,500 text messages a month for 6 months to all customers purchasing a Vodafone Red plan along with the new handsets.

• Pre-order iPhone 6s, 6s Plus at Amazon
• Pre-order iPhone 6s, 6s Plus at Flipkart
• Pre-order iPhone 6s, 6s Plus at Snapdeal
• Pre-order iPhone 6s, 6s Plus at Infibeam

Pre-order iPhone 6s, 6s Plus at Vodafone{.cta .shop}

How many of you are looking to pre-order the iPhone 6s or the 6s Plus?

• iPhone 6s review
• iPhone 6s Plus review

For those looking to buy the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus unlocked, Apple has started selling SIM-free variants of both handsets. The unlocked version of the iPhone 6s has the model number A1633, while the 6s Plus is A1634.

From Apple:

You can also use the device on a wide variety of international carriers.

The caveat here is that going SIM-free entails full upfront payment for the phone, with no carrier incentives available. Here's how much you'll be shelling out for the new iPhones:

• 16GB - $649
• 64GB - $749
• 128GB - $849

• 16GB - $749
• 64GB - $849
• 128GB - $949

• Buy SIM-free iPhone 6s at Apple
• Buy SIM-free iPhone 6s Plus at Apple

iPhone 6s buyers guide

Last year Apple sourced the Apple A8 system-on-a-chip (SoC) exclusively from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a change from previous generations sourced from Samsung. This year, in order to meet the ever-increasing demand for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the Apple A9 is being sourced from both. That's led some to wonder out loud if there was a difference between the TSMC and Samsung chipsets. So, is there?

Doesn't Apple make their own chips?

Apple designs their own chips, and have been since the the Apple A4 in 2010. They've also been designing their own custom CPUs since the Apple A6 Swift in 2012. But Apple doesn't own their own fabrication plants (fabs) to manufacture the chips. For that, they've outsourced to Samsung or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

Typically it's been one or the other. This year it's both.

Why both?

Apple sells a lot of iOS devices. A lot, a lot. It's likely no single fab can manufacturer enough chips at one time to meet demand. So, like Apple has done with display panels, memory, storage, and other components over the years, they're using two or more manufacturers.

That way they have more chips, and hence more devices, available to make sure they can fulfill as many orders as possible.

Wouldn't the Samsung and TSMC chips be identical?

Yes and no. Since both are being made by different fabs which use different processes, the resulting chips will have some differences. The differences would have to be slight enough, however, that they still meet Apple's incredibly standards and pass their rigorous quality assurance tests.

Think of it like iPhone cases. Some might be a micro-millimeter tighter, others looser, but all of them still need to fit your iPhone.

Otherwise, like any component, if they're found wanting they get tossed out. That's why there sometimes aren't enough of some devices to meet initial demand.

So, why are people talking about this?

Technology aficionados will often try to figure out how to tell which component they have and groups will try to determine a favorite. While there might be a slight edge one way or another, in most cases it makes no real difference to mainstream customers.

Sometimes one manufacturer does manage to exceed requirements, other times manufacturers leak false information to try and jockey for contracts and market position.

It's a messy business which is why, again, normal humans should steer clear unless and until there's a demonstrable problem.

Then what should I do?

Not worry about it, at least for now.

If your iPhone meets the specifications Apple provided, it doesn't matter who made what component inside it.

If it doesn't, run through the troubleshooting and, if you still have issues, contact Apple.

And the Apple A9...?

Remains ludicrously fast regardless.

Hey, iMore! By now you've probably already seen Rene's mammoth iPhone 6s Plus review. My written review of the iPhone 6s (far less mammoth) is almost ready, but I wanted to chat a bit about my video review, which premiered today alongside Rene's written review.

First of all, I hope you guys watch and enjoy it—it was a ton of fun to make. And yes, it was made entirely on the iPhone 6s Plus: shot, edited, and produced! In fooooooooour kaaaaay.

How'd we do it? Read on.

The plan

While Rene and I were in New York, shooting our iPhone 6s and 6s Plus preview, we joked about making our official review videos on the devices we were reviewing. "It'd be a good real-world test of that 6s series 4K quality, after all."

So I did it, because I'm a crazy person. Heck, I've edited on an iPhone before—how bad could shooting and editing a 6-7 minute voice-over video on the 6s Plus be?

First, I prepped my equipment. As nice as the new iPhone 6s Plus optical video stabilization is, trying to free-hand shoot the entire video would have been a nightmare: If I ended up with a bouncy shot, I couldn't even digitally correct the stabilization, because iMovie for iOS doesn't offer that as an option.

I ended up packing:

• The iPhone 6s Plus, of course. I'm rocking a 128GB model—pretty key for 4K shooting, since a minute of video takes up a whopping 375MB of space.
• The iPhone 6s, the star of the show.
• The Adjustable Glif, $30, an adjustable tripod mount for iPhone models and pretty much my best friend for shooting on the go with a smartphone.
• The Joby GorillaPod Magnetic, which I use as a miniature tripod when traveling, but also as a makeshift Steadicam when filming handheld shots.
• The Movo Microphone, just in case we wanted to get any on-site audio.
• The stock Camera app. There are many other options in the App Store for shooting video with more manual control, but for our review, I really wanted to see what we could get out of the camera using its stock configuration—no manual ISO settings or custom exposure options allowed.

I also opted not to bring fill lights, fancy lenses, or anything else to further weight down my bag in the hopes of doing a quick guerilla daytime shoot on the streets of Providence, RI. Besides, I wanted to really test out the 4K capabilities of the iPhone, and that meant no fancy image gimmicks—much as I love my Olloclip lenses.

The shoot

Friday morning, I shanghaied my gentleman friend (who you can see in a few of those shots) into being my makeshift camera operator. (Also, my "Keep Ren from dropping four iPhone models into the water" wrangler.) From there, we spent a few hours running around Providence and grabbing shots near the waterfront using the 6s Plus, Glif, and GorillaPod.

As I say in my video review, 4K isn't some magic panacea to make your shots instantly great, nor will the 6s Plus's optical video stabilization save you from shakycam syndrome. You still need to know basic video techniques to shoot really great content with an iPhone, just like you would on any other camera.

Where 4K shines, however, is in helping a competent camera operator get shots they wouldn't otherwise be able to get with an iPhone lens. For the first time since I began shooting video with an iPhone in 2009, cropped iPhone content doesn't look horrendous.

During this shoot, I was able to intentionally get wide shots I knew I could crop later in editing; previously, getting closer shots would have required hanging precariously over waterfronts or getting the iPhone lens and body obnoxiously close to a subject. Post-production shot cropping is never the ideal option, but when you're working with an iPhone on the go, it's a huge benefit.

Optical video stabilization, too, is incredible if you understand its limitations. It won't make you look like you're shooting on a Steadicam the way that Hyperlapse appears to, but it smooths over many of the bumps and rattles of handheld shooting. It's night and day over the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and I honestly don't know if I can use an iPhone 6s as my daily driver after seeing what the Plus can do with video.

I also had my shot list and rough script on my iPhone 6s Plus, which meant one less device to juggle: Whenever we locked a shot, I'd pop over into Notes and check the setup for the next scene, then swipe back to the Camera app to resume shooting.

Editing and upload

Once we finished shooting and hopped back in the car, I immediately began reviewing the footage we shot, tagging and cataloging accordingly. (In limiting myself to stock apps, my tagging and cataloging amounted to a list of shots in the Notes app alongside my script, but it was stil helpful.) I also used the car ride to finish writing my voiceover script.

When I got home, I fired up my Mac. While my Movo microphone is good in a pinch for voiceover, my phantom-powered microphone still only works properly with OS X, as the Camera Connection Kit—which would let me hook up my mic interface to my iPhone—is still iPad-only.

I recorded my voiceover in a great little cross-platform app called Just Press Record, which offers iCloud Drive storage for notes and memos on any device you record from—Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. Once I'd finished my takes, it was a cinch to import that audio into iMovie—under the Audio tab, there's now an "import from iCloud Drive" option.

Imported audio drops into your timeline by default as a background soundtrack, but I quickly attached it to a video clip—that way, you can overlap any cuts you make to the audio to speed it up.

The actual editing is a joy: I love cutting video on iOS because of multitasking gestures, and importing new clips (or portions of clips) is simple as can be. The best part about editing on the iPhone 6s Plus, however, is speed: iMovie flies, even when working with 4K video. In contrast, I had to import a 4K file into Final Cut on my two-year old iMac for a different project, and the poor computer couldn't play it faster than 5 or 6 frames per second.

As with any editing program you grow to know well, I do have my nitpicks when working in iMovie on the iPhone: For one, I want more granular control over where I drop audio after dragging it—right now it just plops down sort of randomly unless you're in the furthest zoom mode.

I'd also like to see waveforms on audio, and be able to batch change volume (or titles, please!) on clips—doing this one-by-one is a pain.

And just for good measure, let's see more speed options: Final Cut lets me speed clips up to 20x for true timelapse action; I'd love that on the iPhone. (The only way you can do it right now in post-production is speed 2x, export, speed exported clip 2x, export... not worth it.)

Finally: Duplicating projects. For experiments' sake.

The experience, or "Why would you do this when you have a DSLR?"

I filmed and edited our review on the 6s Plus largely because I wanted to see if I could create a product as good as our DSLR-produced work. Because the iPhone is so portable and its accessories likewise so, it's a great makeshift camera for live events. Moreover, I can edit quick video (under 10 minutes) on my iPhone and come up with a finished product much more rapidly than if I had to import to my Mac, load in Final Cut, cut my video, and export it to YouTube or elsewhere.

If you're editing projects longer than ten minutes, I hold that the iMovie for iPhone timeline currently just isn't feasible to work in: too much pinching, zooming, and panning, and the wrong tap can bring you all the way to the start or end of the film. But for our work, it's a great tool. (And honestly, I can't wait to see what Apple does with it when the iPad Pro launches.)

4K video on the iPhone 6s Plus looks just as good as my Canon, if not better, in daylight. In night or low-light scenes, my Canon still has the edge; it's also going to beat the iPhone any day when it comes to soft-focused vistas or macro shots.

But for me, the benefits of shooting on an iPhone vastly outweigh the tradeoffs. Not in every situation, sure. But I'm glad I took a gamble and shot our review on the 6s Plus: It gave me a great idea of how it can fit into my video workflow, and I'm looking forward to using it in the future.

Tick tock. S-year. Enough already. None of that has mattered since 2011. When it comes to the iPhone, each year, every year, Apple sprints flat out. This year that includes a new casing, new glass, new chipset, new cameras, new radios, new input technology, and the list goes on and on. Apple's tagline is "the only thing that's changed is everything" and they mean that sincerely. That not only makes the iPhone 6s Plus interesting, it makes it exciting.

But does it make it new and exciting enough for you? If you have an older iPhone, if you have an Android or other phone, if you have last year's iPhone, is the iPhone 6s Plus a big enough leap forward that you should upgrade? Let's find out!

• Big 5.5-inch screen.
• Optically stabilized 4K video.
• Pressure sensitivity.
• Ludicrous speeds.

• Smaller phones.
• Huge cameras or physical keyboards.
• Wireless charging.
• Budget phones.

Bottom Line

The iPhone 6s Plus is stronger, faster, sharper, and deeper than ever. That includes tougher casing and glass, the most advanced chipset in mobile, a 12 megapixel camera that shoots 4K video, and 3D Touch, which makes multitouch multidimensional. If you prefer smaller phones, get an iPhone 6s. But if you want to go big, the Plus gives you even more to love.

iPhone 6s Plus Table of Contents

• Review video
• Evolution
• Design
• Cameras
• Performance
• Connectivity
• 3D Touch
• Live Photos
• Ecosystem
• Conclusion

iPhone 6s Plus Video Review

Give us 6 minutes and we'll give you the iPhone 6s Plus!

iPhone Evolution

	iPhone	iPhone 3G	iPhone 3GS	iPhone 4	iPhone 4S	iPhone 5	iPhone 5c	iPhone 5s	iPhone 6	iPhone 6 Plus	iPhone 6s	iPhone 6s Plus
Code Name	M68	N82	N88	N90	N94	N41	N48	N51	N61	N56	N71	N66
Model Name	iPhone 1,1	iPhone 1,2	iPhone 2,1	iPhone 3,1	iPhone 4,1	iPhone 5,1	iPhone 5,3	iPhone 6,1	iPhone 7,2	iPhone 7,1	iPhone 8,1	iPhone 8,2
Launch OS	iPhone OS 1.0	iPhone OS 2.0	iPhone OS 3.0	iOS 4	iOS 5	iOS 6	iOS 7	iOS 7	iOS 8	iOS 8	iOS 9	iOS 9
Screen Size	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	4.0 inches	4.0 inches	4.0 inches	4.7 inches	5.5 inches	4.7 inches	5.5 inches
Screen Resolution	480x320 (163ppi)	480x320 (163ppi)	480x320 (163ppi)	960x640 (326ppi)	960x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1334x750 (326ppi)	1920x1080 (401ppi)	1334x750 (326ppi)	1920x1080 (401ppi)
Screen Type	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD	DD-IPS LCD
System-on-a-chip	Samsung S5L8900	Samsung S5L8900	Samsung APL0298C05	Apple A4	Apple A5	Apple A6	Apple A6	Apple A7	Apple A8	Apple A8	Apple A9	Apple A9
CPU	ARM 1176JZ(F)-S	ARM 1176JZ(F)-S	600MHz ARM Cortex A8	800MHz ARM Cortex A8	800MHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9	1.3GHz dual-core Swift	1.3GHz dual-core Swift	64-bit 1.3GHz dual-core Cyclone	64-bit 1.38Ghz dual-core Typhoon	64-bit 1.38Ghz dual-core Typhoon	64-bit 1.85Ghz dual-core Twister	64-bit 1.85Ghz dual-core Twister
GPU	PowerVR MBX Lite 3D	PowerVR MBX Lite 3D	PowerVR SGX535	PowerVR SGX535	PowerVR dual-core SGX543MP4	PowerVR triple-core SGX543MP3	PowerVR triple-core SGX543MP3	PowerVR G6430	PowerVR GX6450	PowerVR GX6450	PowerVR GT7600	PowerVR GT7600
Co-processor	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	M7 Motion	M8 Motion	M8 Motion	M9 (Integrated)	M9 (Integrated)
RAM	128MB	128MB	256MB	512MB	512MB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB	1GB	2GB	2GB
Storage	4GB/8GB/16GB	8GB/16GB	16GB/32GB	16GB/32GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/64GB/128GB	16GB/64GB/128GB	16GB/64GB/128GB	16GB/64GB/128GB
Cellular Data	EDGE	3G 3.6	HSPA 7.2	HSPA 7.2	HSPA 14.4	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE Advanced 150	LTE Advanced 150	LTE Advanced 300	LTE Advanced 300
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.2	Bluetooth 4.2
Wi-Fi	802.11b/g	802.11b/g	802.11b/g	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac MIMO	802.11a/b/g/n/ac MIMO
GPS	none	aGPS	aGPS	aGPS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS
SIM	Mini	Mini	Mini	Micro	Micro	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano	Nano
Rear Camera	2MP	2MP	3MP/480p	5MP/720p, ƒ2.8, 1.75µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ	8MP/1080p 60fps, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ	8MP/1080p 60fps, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ OIS	12MP/4K, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.22µ	12MP/4K, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.22µ OIS
Front Camera	none	none	none	VGA	VGA	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	5MP/720p, ƒ/2.2, BSI	5MP/720p, ƒ/2.2, BSI
Sensors	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint, barometer
Mic	Single	Single	Single	Dual	Dual	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple	Triple
Connector	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning
Height	4.52 inches (115mm)	4.55 inches (115.5mm)	4.55 inches (115.5mm)	4.54 inches (115.2mm)	4.54 inches (115.2mm)	4.87 inches (123.8mm)	4.91 inches (124.8mm)	4.87 inches (123.8mm)	5.44 inches (138.1 mm)	6.22 inches (158.1mm)	5.44 inches (138.3 mm)	6.23 inches (158.2 mm)
Width	2.40 inches (61mm)	2.43 inches (61.8mm)	2.43 inches (61.8mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.33 inches (59.2mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.64 inches (67.0mm)	3.06 inches (77.8mm)	2.64 inches (67.1 mm)	3.07 inches (77.9 mm)
Depth	0.46 inches (11.6mm)	0.48 inches (12.3mm)	0.48 inches (12.3mm)	0.37 inches (9.3mm)	0.37 inches (9.3mm)	0.30 inches (7.6mm)	0.35 inches (8.97mm)	0.30 inches (7.6mm)	0.27 inches (6.9mm)	0.28 inches (7.1mm	0.28 inch (7.1 mm)	0.29 inch (7.3 mm)
Weight	4.72oz (135g)	4.69 oz (133g)	4.72oz (135g)	4.83oz (137g)	4.94 oz (140g)	3.95oz (112g)	4.66oz (132g)	4.30oz (122g)	4.55 oz (129g)	6.07 oz (172 g)	5.04 ounces (143 grams)	6.77 ounces (192 grams)
Battery	1400mAh	1150mAh	1219mAh	1420mAh	1440mAh	1440mAh	1510mAh	1560mAh	1810mAh	2915mAh	1715mAh	2750mAh
Colors	Aluminum	Black, White	Black, White	Black, White	Black, White	Slate, Silver	Blue, Green, Pink, White, Yellow	Space gray, Silver, Gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold, Rose gold	Space gray, Silver, Gold, Rose gold
Launch Price	$499/$599 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$99/$199 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$299/$399/$499 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$299/$399/$499 on contract
Release Date	6/29/2007	7/1/2008	6/19/2009	6/24/2010	10/14/2011	9/21/2012	9/20/2013	9/20/2013	9/19/2014	9/19/2014	9/25/2015	9/25/2015

• iPhone 6s Plus review
• iPhone 6 Plus review
• iPhone 6 review
• iPhone 5s review
• iPhone 5c review
• iPhone 5 review
• iPhone 4S review
• iPhone 4 review
• iPhone 3GS review
• iPhone 3G review

iPhone 6s Plus Design

The iPhone 6s Plus keeps the same design as last year's model. The rounded rectangular shape, the curved edges, the antenna lines, the buttons, the ports, the camera ring. Same. Same. Same. The way a lot of it has been put together, though, has changed.

Some of those changes are measurable. The 2015 iPhone 6s Plus is 0.01 inches (0.1 mm) taller, 0.01 inches (0.1 mm) wider, 0.01 inches (0.2 mm) deeper, and 0.70 ounces (20 grams) heavier the 2014 iPhone 6 Plus. The size increase has to do with new materials. The weight, the new pressure sensing technology.

Similar to the move to Retina display in the iPad line, that Apple is willing to allow an increase in what they've spent generations decreasing, indicates just how strongly they believe in these new technologies.

The iPhone 6s Plus uses 7000 series aluminum for its casing. Like the Apple Watch Sport, the company is using their own custom composition, but it's similar to what's used in the aerospace industry. Alloyed with zinc, it creates the highest tensile strength possible.

Though not a direct reaction to the bending controversies of last year—it's been in the works far longer than that—it does make the iPhone 6s Plus far less susceptible to deformation, both accidental and intentional.

It's finished differently as well. There's a greater friction to it which makes it even easier to grip and hold on to. I never had a problem with the iPhone 6 Plus; even without a case it never once slipped from my hand. But for anyone who did, the iPhone 6s Plus is better.

Apple has also increased the strength of the glass. The iPhone has been using chemically strengthened glass—historically Corning's Gorilla Glass—since Steve Jobs scratched the plastic screen on an early prototype. The process involves submerging the glass in a high-temperature bath where the sodium ions are exchanged for potassium ions. The larger potassium ions create a tension that makes the glass tougher. Apple is using a new dual ion exchange process that the company claims makes it tougher still.

Apple hasn't revealed what that process is, but Corning has been investigating dual exchange for half a century. That includes exchanging lithium ions for sodium ions first, and then exchanging for the potassium ions. More larger ions, more tension, more toughness.

Implementation details aside, during the frenzy of filming our video in New York City, I accidentally dropped my iPhone 6s Plus review unit onto the pavement a few times and from several feet. It not only survived, there's not a mark on it as far as I can tell. (All the photos in this review are post-drops). It's tempting to chalk that up to luck but, as the old saying goes, the more something is prepared, the luckier it is.

The 7000 series aluminum and dual ion-exchange glass, of course, also provide an ideal amount of rigidity and durability for Apple's new 3D Touch pressure sensitive display technology.

The iPhone 6s Plus uses the same in-cell Retina HD display technology as last year's model. That includes full sRGB for color accuracy; a dual domain in-plane switching (DD-IPS) panel for a better, wider field of view; light emitting diode (LED) illuminated, photographically aligned, liquid crystal display (LCD) for crispness and clarity; and an improved polarizer so you can use it more easily with sunglasses.

It's also still 5.5 inches and 16:9 aspect ratio. Internally, the resolution remains 2208 x 1242, scaled down to a physical pixel size of 1920 x 1080 (1080p) at a density of 401 pixels-per-inch (ppi).

Even though Apple has never changed a display during an s-year before, I did wonder if they would try to squeeze a physical 2208 x 1242 display into the iPhone 6s Plus. There are already over a dozen devices with 2560 x 1440 displays—typically referred to as 2K or Quad HD— and Sony is busily trying to cram a 3840 x 2160—4K or Ultra HD—display into a phone.

It's arguable whether those densities offer any real visual benefit to humans. It's inarguable that lighting up and pushing that many pixels comes at the cost of power efficiency. Still, a move to 2208 x 1242 physical pixels would make for an ever sharper display and would remove the need for scaling—and the minor flicker that comes with it when scrolling pixel-thin lines.

Apple is sticking with LCD for the display technology rather than transitioning to organic light-emitting diode (OLED), which they used with a system-wide dark theme to great power-saving effect on the Apple Watch. That means no auto-on ambient informational display.

Perhaps that'll come in a future version, or perhaps Apple will skip OLED entirely on the iPhone and go straight to something like quantum dot. Given how quantum dot can improve LED, given the drawbacks of OLED, and given how Apple is using LED for 3D Touch this year, it's certainly interesting to consider.

The way 3D Touch works at a hardware level is through an array of capacitive sensors integrated into the LED backlight system. They measure microscopic changes in the distance between the array and the cover glass—the kind of changes created by pressure from your finger.

That's combined with data from the accelerometer, which knows how your iPhone is moving through space, and with data from the capacitive multitouch sensor, which knows where your finger is on the horizontal and vertical planes, so Apple's algorithm can provide for the precise, linear, and continuous tracking of pressure events.

The result is the X and Y axis of traditional—can't believe I'm calling it that already—capacitive sensors now adds an Z axis as well. And, at the risk of repeating myself for what must be the millionth time, the effect really is multitouch made multi-dimension.

The iPhone 6s Plus is available in the same finishes as last year: space gray with a black faceplate, and silver and gold with white faceplates. It's also available with a brand new rose gold finish, also with a white faceplate.

Two years ago, when Apple introduced the anodized gold—more Champagne than Cartier—for the iPhone 5s, some mocked it. Then they lost their minds when they couldn't buy it at launch. Apple had figured out that a new color could be every bit as compelling as a new design. That's why it should come as no surprise that this year, the anodized rose gold—somewhere between cool pink and copper—is getting a ton of attention.

Some would no doubt prefer the gold and rose gold finishes with black faceplate. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw those at some point. For now, though, Apple is matching the lighter, brighter look and feel of recent versions of iOS. That means, for video watching, the faceplate doesn't face away. But for standard interfaces, web browsing, and more, it absolutely does.

The rose gold is warmer than the gold, just like the gold is warming that the silver and space gray. It's not the (product) red or deep pink of the iPod touch line, or the rich, 18K rose gold of the Apple Watch Edition either. It does match the new, anodized rose gold Apple Watch Sport, and both manage to pull off a restrained flair.

One of the most interesting aspects of the color is that, depending on the light, it can look silver or gold or copper or deeper pink. And it can shimmer between them as you turn it in your hand.

Rose gold certainly won't be the color for everyone, but it will be for everyone who either wants something different or wants to show off that they have the new iPhone.

iPhone 6s Plus Cameras

The iPhone 6s Plus represents one of the most significant upgrades Apple has ever made to their flagship cameras. Yes, cameras. iPhones are at least as much cameras as phones now, perhaps more, and Apple is now not only one of the biggest phone companies in the world, but one of the biggest camera companies.

A lot of iPhone's imaging power comes from the custom image signal processor (ISP) in the Apple A9 chipset (see below). It's what lets Apple do the focus, white balance, exposure, face detection, dynamic adjustments, and sorting that produces the best automatic photos possible. (Manual controls remain available through App Store apps.) This year, however, Apple has also substantially augmented the sensors as well.

Once upon a time there was a megapixel war. Camera vendors made pixels smaller and smaller so they could fit more and more of them on the sensor, so they could slap the biggest count possible on their boxes and in their blurbs. The result was less light and more noise. Photos got bigger but not better. Eventually, the industry was smartened up, and we started moving past pure megapixel count as a measure. Until the advent of camera phones. Then history once again repeated itself.

Apple was one of the few that held the line. For years, they stuck with 8 megapixels for the rear-facing iSight camera all the while increasing the size up to 1.5µ. They also went to a 5-element lens, ƒ/2.2 aperture and, for the iPhone 6 Plus, optical image stabilization (OIS). It all resulted in a phenomenal-for-its-time camera.

But times change and technology improves. If Apple could increase mega-pixel count and maintain pixel size, there'd be definite advantages. Not just bigger images but better images when digitally zoomed, cropped, or down-sampled. More than quantity, it would provide for flexibility.

Keeping pixel size and adding pixel count doesn't just increase the image size, though, it increases camera size. You can strap a monstrous sensor on the back of a phone, but most people don't want that. Most people—including those in industrial design—aren't happy with the bump we have.

So, if you want to increase pixel count but can't increase physical size, something has to give. For the iPhone 6s, that's pixel size. In going up from 8 to 12 megapixels, Apple also had to go down from 1.5µ to 1.22µ. The gain is more than the loss because Apple didn't just shrink the pixels down, they packed them closer together.

To prevent artifacts and cross-talk—where the color of one subpixel bleeds into another—Apple is filling the space between the red, blue, and green elements with opaque material to produce "deep trench isolation". Apple has also moved the color filter down, so it sits on top of the photo diodes.

Apple has also increased the number of pixels used for phase detection autofocus by 50%, added temporal multi-band noise reduction, and enhanced local tone mapping as well. It all works together to improve color accuracy, maintain sharpness and detail in low and mid-level light, and preserve texture and edges in bright light. In other words: to maximizes the advantages of the higher pixel count while minimizing the impact of the lower pixel size.

• iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6s camera shootout: Time to upgrade, iPhone 5s users

My colleague, Serenity Caldwell, did more encompassing camera tests and comparisons as part of her iPhone 6s review, but here are some samples from my recent trips. These were all shot on the iPhone 6s Plus:

• Full-size crops

And here are some low-light and back light shots to show the difference between iPhone 6 Plus (left) and iPhone 6s Plus (right):

• Full-size crops

For panoramas, the boost results in up to 68 megapixels images, depending on crop. Here's a similar low light, backlit comparison between iPhone 6 Plus (left) and iPhone 6s Plus (right):

• Full-size crops

Apple has never had the craziest camera specs on paper. What they've had is amazingly smart compromises for the real world. That remains true with the iPhone 6s Plus. Megapixel count, pixel size, aperture—all the parts—are all well balanced and singularly focused on taking the best everyday photos possible in the widest range of conditions possible.

In that regard, Apple has not only succeeded in making the iSight camera bigger but in once again making it better.

4K video, commonly called UHD (ultra high definition) and equating to 2160p, has been available for years, but mainstream adoption is still low. That'll change as people upgrade their televisions and computer monitors. Apple isn't just doing 4K for the sake of future-proofing, though. There are tangible benefits to be had right now, today.

Just like when "affordable" 4K video cameras began hitting the market a few years ago, in addition to shooting more pixels, they can also let you do more with those pixels. Once you have a 4K shot, you can down-sample to 1080p, but you can also zoom, crop, pan, and otherwise move around in post-production while still maintaining HD quality. It may never be as good as capturing the movement in camera, but it can be far, far better than being stuck with static shots.

So it is with the iPhone 6s Plus. You can shoot in 4K, sure. But you can pull that footage into iMovie and edit it right on your phone. Mind-bogglingly, you can edit up to two streams of 4K at once, with style, and then upload it straight to YouTube or do whatever else you want with it.

Two and a half years ago it took us a RED camera and an aggravating amount of processing time to produce a short podcast in 4K. Now I can do it, easily and quickly, on my phone.

The iPhone 6s Plus can also shoot slow-motion video in 1080p at 120 frames-per-second (fps). That's up from the 720p at 120 fps of last year's iPhone 6 Plus. For ultra slow-motion, however, the resolution remains 720p at 240 fps.

For 4K, slow-motion, and time-lapse, Apple is taking the optical image stabilization (OIS) they introduced last year for stills and using it this year for video. Because the lens "floats", it can correct not just for the shaking that happens while trying to take a photo, but the far greater displacement that happens when shooting a movie.

Here's a short sample of iPhone 6 Plus in 1080p with no OIS (left) and iPhone 6s Plus in 4K with OIS (right).

Watching it on an iMac with Retina 5K display, the difference is remarkable.

The iPhone 6s Plus also received a tremendous-if-long-overdue update to the front FaceTime camera. It's gone from 1.2 megapixels to 5. Aperture is the same at ƒ/2.2, but Apple has added a flash now as well. A Retina selfie flash.

Apps have been doing screen-based flash for a while but since Apple makes the hardware, they can optimize for it. That means a special chip with just one job: to light up three times normal brightness when a low-light FaceTime photo is taken. Because, of course, Apple would build that.

Like the True Tone flash on the back, the Retina Flash will also try to match the ambient lighting, so you get as accurate colors as possible, especially for flesh tones.

I've tried it in a variety of situations, inside and outside, and its worked well. Again, Serenity Caldwell is doing the comprehensive camera comparisons, but here's a sample to show the difference, in low-light and backlight, between iPhone 6 Plus (left), iPhone 6s Plus (center), and iPhone 6s Plus with Retina Flash (right).

• Full-size crops

A flash is never ideal, but then conditions are never ideal. Since selfies are a thing, making them as good as possible as often as possible absolutely needs to be a thing. The new FaceTime camera delivers just that.

iPhone 6s Plus Performance

At the heart of the iPhone 6s Plus is the Apple A9 system-on-a-chip (SoC). Once upon a time, Apple debuted their new SoC on the iPad line, starting with the original. For the last few years, though, the iPhones have been getting them first. And they've been getting them at a pace that, frankly, makes the rest of the industry look flummoxed, flatfooted, or both.

The Apple A9 includes Apple's third-generation 64-bit central processing unit (CPU), called Twister. It follows the A7 Cyclone and A8 Typhoon, and that naming convention should more than hint at the type of power being sought after here.

Twister is a 1.85Ghz dual-core chip based on the ARM v8 instruction set, and it's an even more significant year-over-year improvement than the previous generation—Apple claims 70%.

For the graphics processing unit (GPU), Apple is reportedly using Imagination's hexa-core PowerVR GT7600. We'll have to wait and see if or until that's confirmed but, regardless, it's also a significant year-over-year improvement—Apple claims 90%

I'll save the benchmarks for Anandtech and Geekbench, but A9 is scoring impressively higher than the A8, scary close to the Intel Broadwell-Y chipset in the 2015 MacBook, and not far behind—for single thread—the Intel Haswell Core i5 in the 2014 MacBooks Air.

It's also scoring twice as fast as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 on single thread, and roughly on par for multi-thread. When you consider the A9 is dual-core and the Galaxy devices, octo-core, that's crushing.

Apple is achieving these levels of performance for a number of reasons. They had the foresight to put together a team of incredibly talented chip designers. They don't sell chips, so don't have to leave a generation on the shelf for as long as possible just to eke out as much profit as possible. They only support one platform, so don't carry any unnecessary burdens and can optimize specifically for their devices. And, of course, as a culture Apple isn't content to squander their lead, and so they let their platform architecture team race forward as fast as they possibly can.

In other words, Apple has the luxury of only having to worry about making the best chips possible for iOS devices, and it shows. The iPhone 6s Plus is ludicrously fast. You can feel it in every launch and ever transition. You tab or swipe something, and it's just there, ready and waiting for whatever you want to do.

Some of that is the increased efficiency of iOS, but a lot of it is the raw speed of the silicon and it's beyond impressive.

Yes, the iPhone 6s Plus has 2 gigabytes of RAM. (I'll pause while everyone collectively exhales a "finally".) Because the iPhone 6s Plus doesn't have Split View apps the way the latest iPads do, the benefit isn't as easily seen. But it's absolutely felt. Sure, Apple doesn't have to worry about the overhead of a third-party, non-optimized, interpreted, garbage-collected operating system and development stack, which means iOS can do more with far less. But it also means when you give it more, it can do much more.

With 2 GB of memory, for example, Safari tabs don't reload when you return to them after doing anything else. Part of that is perceptive—when Safari does have to re-render now, it's not redrawing the screen until after it finishes—but part of it is the extra room afforded by the extra overhead.

Likewise, big apps feel less fragile now. Even the Facebooks and Skypes of the App Store no longer seem to be constantly teetering on the edge of jettison.

Since the iPhone went 64-bit and since the iPhone 6 Plus went to an internal resolution of 2208x1242, the memory constraints have made its seem like it was running right on the edge. Now, with the extra memory, the iPhone 6s Plus simply feels like its running flat out.

The M9 is Apple's third-generation sensor fusion hub. The M7 and M8 were separate chips tasked solely with gathering accelerometer, compass, gyroscope and, more recently, barometer data. The M9 is integrated into the Apple A9 SoC, can measure pace, and also enables always-on "Hey Siri!" voice activation.

The integration helps with power efficiency, allowing the M9 to stay awake, recording motion and "listening" for Siri commands, for long periods of time without excessive drain on the battery.

Because Siri is always listening, and because we now live in a world where other iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and soon Apple TVs can also be listening, Apple has introduced something akin to "Voice ID".

When you set up your iPhone 6s Plus, if you want to use "Hey Siri!", you're asked to read several phrases so that it can isolate and identify your voice. That way saying, "Hey Siri!" won't light up every Apple device in the room. It will only light up yours.

It's not perfect. I used "Hey Siri!" to call a friend of mine the other day and, because I was moving my arm to stretch at the same time, my Apple Watch picked it up instead of my iPhone 6s Plus. Perhaps custom triggers or some kind of continuity intelligence could help with that in the future.

It's also not meant for security but for convenience. If someone records your voice saying "Hey Siri!" and plays it back, it'll work. So, if security is more important to you, or if the idea of always-listening voice activation creeps you out, you can turn it off in settings.

Apple is sticking with their intense focus on privacy, though, and is doing all the processing for "Hey Siri!" right on the device. That way no ambient conversation or noise ever gets sent up to Apple's servers.

If the convenience is worth it to you, if you want to activate your iPhone while cooking or tending to children, or any time your hands are otherwise occupied, "Hey Siri!" is terrific.

Touch ID is Apple's name for their fingerprint identity scanner. The technology debuted with the iPhone 5s, improved slightly with the iPhone 6s, and has now gone second-generation with the iPhone 6s Plus. Apple claims a 2x improvement in performance.

The speed gain is thanks to a new capacitive sensor that detects fingerprints much, much faster. On previous iPhones you'd touch the Home button, wait a moment, and your iPhone would unlock. Now it feels like your iPhone is unlocking as your touch.

Moisture is still an issue, but it's been minimized. A wet finger still won't work but a slightly damp finger seems to no longer be a problem. I'm not sure if that's due to better algorithms or something else, but as long as it can get a read it's fast. It's so fast that, if you want to read Lock screen notifications, you need to wake your iPhone with the power button or they'll be gone as soon as they appear.

iPhone 6s Plus has the same storage options as last year: 16 GB, 64 GB, and 128 GB. Many people in the tech industry have complained about 16 GB still being an option. For them, it's a justifiable complaint—they all need more. The answer to that is to buy a higher capacity iPhone. For people outside the tech industry, not surprisingly, the answer is more nuanced.

While there are absolutely people who'll buy the 16 GB iPhone and then run out of space, there are also people who won't ever fill up 16 GB. Perspective-taking is really hard, but use-cases vary.

Apple no doubt has hard numbers one how many of each storage size they sell, and perhaps even statistically relevant numbers on how much storage people are using. Anecdotally, I use about 40 GB, mainly because I download movies and TV shows to watch while on airplanes. That means even a 32 GB iPhone would be a non-starter for me.

Also anecdotally, my mother uses around 9 GM on her iPhone 5c and our videographer, Anthony, uses around 10 GB on his iPhone 6. They'd be fine with a 16 GB iPhone, as would people with enterprise or education-provided iPhones, bought in the hundreds or thousands, that only access internal apps and web portals. Use cases vary.

My guess is people who stream and don't take many photos or videos fall towards the very low end of storage needs while people who download and do take a lot of photos or videos fall towards the upper mid-high end, and there's very few people in between.

Also, with iCloud (see below) and new technologies like app thinning, the iPhone 6s Plus can fit more apps and more media into whatever storage capacity you get.

All that said, unless you know for a certainty that you'll only ever be streaming and won't ever be taking a lot of photos or videos, I'd still strongly, strongly recommend going with 64 GB. That way, even if circumstances change, you'll have a ton of free space available. Last year Apple dropped the price on 64 GB and added 128 GB, and this year there are new financing plans (see below), so going to at least 64 GB is even more affordable than ever. Consider it insurance.

Apple's Lightning connector still remains at USB 2.0 speeds, though. In years past NAND read/write wasn't sufficient for it to make a difference, but now a move to USB 3.0 seems like it would benefit anyone transferring large amounts of data over the cable, including media and backups.

The world is increasingly wireless and, as we'll see below, the iPhone 6s Plus has serious wireless speed. But it'd be nice for the wire, as long as it does exist, to keep up as well.

Especially considering that, according to Anandtech, Apple has significantly improved I/O performance. They speculate Apple is using PCI-E and NVMe to essentially make the equivalent of the MacBook SSD controller for the iPhone, and that it handles a hybrid SLC/TLC NAND setup ideal for the types of usage seen on mobile.

What that means is the iPhone 6s Plus can write and read data, from frequently changing bits to massive 4K blobs, like a champ.

Apple had to a fit a Taptic engine into the iPhone 6s Plus and, as a result, there was less room for battery: 2750 mAh compared to 2915 mAh found in last year's model. After having used it for almost two weeks, including while roaming in the U.S.—which hits the battery like a very small locomotive—I haven't noticed much difference.

The first 24-48 hours on any new iPhone, especially when you restore from backup as I did, can be rough. You're re-downloading a lot of content, which means the radios stay on, and you're re-indexing that content, which means the processor stays on. After that, things settle down considerably.

With the iPhone 6 Plus, I routinely had power left at the end of the day. So much so that, if I forgot to plug it in at night, I was still fine well into the next day. The same has held true for the iPhone 6s Plus. I've left it off the charger a few nights in a row just to test and it's never dropped more than 4% by morning. My guess is the extra power efficiency of iOS 9 makes up for the smaller battery size of iPhone 6s Plus.

On those rare occasions where roaming reception was terrible, and I could feel the iPhone 6s Plus getting hot as the radios amped up to try and grab a signal, the new iOS 9 Low Power Mode got me through.

Most days I plug in while in the car or at my desk while working, so I never drop very low. I had to make a conscious effort this week not to do that.

There's no wireless charging yet, like there is on the Apple Watch. The technology needed to wirelessly charge through metal casings is relatively new, though, so that's something to keep an eye on for the future, not the present.

Instead of making the iPhone 6s Plus battery slightly smaller while maintaining the same battery life, there are likely many people who wish Apple would make the battery bigger. Much bigger.

Battery geometry just doesn't work that way, though, and even if it did, lightness is more important for usability than battery life. People may think they want longer battery life, but the truth is, no one wants a heavy phone. Other manufacturers have tried. They don't sell.

By keeping the iPhone 6s Plus as light as possible, you can use it one handed more easily. You can read with it, play games, or watch videos on it for longer. You can always add a battery case or a rugged case if you need extra juice or extra protection. You can't slice off half your phone when you don't.

iPhone 6s Plus Connectivity

When I read the radio specs on the iPhone 6s Plus I think I understand what it's like to have a big Lambo on a city street. All that potential speed… and no way to release it.

The iPhone 6s Plus can get up to 300 megabits per second (Mbps) on LTE Advanced. In other words, if the previous iPhone had twenty lanes open to it, this one has twice twenty.

I've gotten over 100 Mbps from Rogers in my living room for over a year, but there's no LTE Advanced yet in my city, so there's no real way to test the new radio. (I did go to Toronto in hopes of getting faster results but a Taylor Swift concert meant the local towers were in gridlock.) Hopefully I'll be able to test that in the future.

Likewise, the iPhone 6s Plus can get up to 886 Mbps on multiple-in, multiple-out (MIMO) Wi-Fi but my local cable connection can't go anywhere nearly that speed. It probably helps with things like Wi-Fi sync, but even if I used it, I wouldn't be sitting there waiting for it.

But, just like having a big Lambo on a city street, I still love that I have it, and I still keep running speed tests in the hope that, at some point, all those lanes will just open up for me, and I'll go.

If you live in a magical place where such speeds are available to you, I envy you. And I can't wait to visit.

Not a radical redesign or a functional revolution, iOS 9 instead focuses on making the iPhone smarter, more polished, more well-rounded, and more productive than ever. Here's all the information on all the new features:

• iOS 9 review
• iOS 9 help

iPhone 6s Plus 3D Touch

Apple first showed off pressure sensitivity combined with tactile, haptic feedback—powered by what they call a Taptic engine—over a year ago on the Apple Watch. Because of the small display size it was limited in scope: press and you get a context-sensitive set of options. On the new MacBook, released in March, we got a hint at the potential of multiple levels of force on multiple points of a surface. Now, on the iPhone 6s Plus, we get to see what's possible when you combine the direct interaction of the former with the scope of the latter.

It's important because the iPhone home screen remains an icon launcher and, for most apps in portrait mode, a single column view of computing. It doesn't enjoy the split view controller of the iPad, which lets you quickly tap lists and glance at the details beside it. Instead, you have to tap, check, and if you went to the wrong place, tap back. Even is landscape mode on the iPhone 6s Plus, the lack of column height makes it less efficient than on iPad.

3D Touch works around all that. Or rather, through it. It folds interface almost like a wormhole does space. It lets you jump directly to actions, or look or leap through to preview or transition to entirely different views and apps on the other side.

That might sound strange but, functionally, it's genius.

Home screen quick actions let you press an app icon and get a list of shortcuts that let you skip launching an app and go straight to launching a feature. For example, instead of tapping Camera, then tapping to switch to the front-facing camera or slow-motion video mode, you simply press the Camera app icon, tap the Selfie or Slo-Mo options, and click away.

There are two kinds of quick actions:

• Static quick actions, which are available immediately when you install an app.
• Dynamic quick actions, which are available after you've launched the app.

As the names imply, static quick actions are always there and always the same, while dynamic quick actions are optional and can change according to conditions. That's why it's important to launch an app at least once before checking to see if it has Home screen actions—the dynamic ones need to load first.

Many of Apple's built-in apps support quick actions:

• Messages
• Calendar
• Camera
• Photos
• Clock
• Maps
• Video
• Wallet
• Notes
• Reminders
• iTunes Store
• App Store
• iBooks
• News
• Phone
• Safari
• Mail
• Music
• FaceTime
• Podcasts
• Game Center
• Voice Memos
• Contacts
• Find My Friends

Up to four quick actions can be assigned to any app. Static quick actions get displayed first and then, if there's any slots left, dynamic quick actions. So, for example, Messages can show you a static "New Message" action, and dynamic actions based on the last three people you texted.

Each quick action can include up to two lines of text and an icon to help make them faster to visually parse and acquire. They also support VoiceOver for visual accessibility, which is great.

Delightfully, if no quick actions are present, you get the haptic equivalent of the "head-shake" interaction, which tells you pressing is an option even if pressing that particular app gives you no options. It's an encouragement to try pressing more apps.

Overall, Home screen quick actions don't reduce the Home screen's (Springboard's) roll as the gateway to apps, but it does transform it from an app launcher to a feature launcher, which is perceptively a much, much faster paradigm for when you're starting from Home.

It also makes one-handed use easier as well. Instead of having to balance while moving around to tap several different areas in succession, you can press an icon and then tap an option that's right next to it. Much less getting there, much more being there.

Peek and Poke—technically hint, peek, and pop, because there's a hover-like state for discoverability—let you preview items and, if you want to, jump right to them. Again, it's a warp tunnel—er, shortcut—through iOS that cuts out a lot of the moving back and forth between views and apps and lets you find and go to exactly what you want, when you want.

• Hint lets you know something is there. It blurs out the rest of the screen so that only the list item or link (including those automatically created by data detectors) is visible.
• Peek lets you preview the contents of the item or link. It keeps the rest of the screen blurred and overlays it with a remote view of the item's or link's content, whether from the same app or a different app.
• Pop lets you commit to going to the contents of the item or link. It works similarly to how tapping a list item, or link has always worked but, since the view is already open, it simply expands to fill the screen.

For example, you can press the title of an email in your inbox to peek inside and then press harder to pop right into it. In that email, you can press a linked location to peek at it on a map and press harder to pop right into it in the Maps app. There you can press a restaurant's location to preview it and press harder to pop right into Safari. Then, well, you get the idea.

Built-in apps with peek and pop include:

• Mail
• Messages
• Camera
• Maps
• Calendar
• Photos
• Safari
• Weather
• Music
• Video
• Notes
• iBooks
• News
• Find My Friends

The great thing about peek is that you can abort at any time. If you decide the preview is enough, and you don't want to pop in, you simply let go. There's no need to navigate back because you stopped before you actually navigated away.

Peeks can also have actions. Swipe up and the preview will lock into place show you a list of common tasks for that view or app. For example, flag a message, add a webpage to Reading List, or FaceTime a contact.

Mail gets a couple of custom actions as well. Thanks to its existing gestures and use as a way to triage emails on the go, you can also swipe sideways to get to mark and trash buttons. These behaviors aren't available to other apps, at least not yet, but show how more complex options could eventually be mapped.

Quick actions inside peeks include:

• Messages: Slide up for contextual responses.
• Calendar: Slide up to accept or decline a calendar invite.
• Photos: Slide up to copy, share, favorite, or delete a photo.
• Notes: Slide up to share, move, or delete note.
• iBooks: Slide up to share or show a book in iBooks store.
• News: Slide up to like, save, or share a story.
• Safari: Slide up to open a link in new tab, add it to reading list, or copy it.
• Music: Slide up to play album/playlist, shuffle, add/remove to My Music.
• Find My Friends: Slide up to get directions or notifications about change of location.

There are also quick actions inside apps that behave more like the Home screen quick actions, where you press instead of swipe:

• Search: Press a contact for additional ways to connect (call, message, etc.)
• Maps: Press on a pin or location for directions, option to call, open homepage, or share location.
• Messages: Press a contact for additional ways to connect (call, message, etc.)
• Reminders: Press on individual reminders for actions.
• Phone: Press on contact name in favorites or recent calls for additional ways to connect.
• FaceTime: Press contact for additional ways to connect (call, message, etc.)
• Contacts: Press contact for additional ways to connect (call, message, etc.)

Peek and pop are also available for the web, for both standard and data detector generated links. They work in Safari, in the new Safari View Controller, and in the older WKWebView and UIWebview controllers. That means apps from the latest social networking clients to third party browsers like Chrome can all implement them.

What matters most, though, is the time peek can save you. Get asked about a movie, peek at your calendar, see if you're free, and answer right away without switching apps. Check on a flight, glance at a link, see if you recognize a location—all of it, faster and more conveniently than ever before.

In addition to Home screen actions and peek and pop, Apple has also provided a way for developers to get direct pressure data as well. Apple shows it off in the iPhone 6s Plus version of the new Notes apps, in the markdown feature in Mail, and in Chinese character input.

For example, when you use the Sketch tool in Notes, you can increase or decrease the line thickness by increasing or decreasing the pressure you put on the screen. It doesn't work as well as the iPad Pro and it's dedicated Apple Pencil, but it works.

There's potential beyond drawing apps as well. Smule has already added pressure sensitivity to their Magic Piano app, for example. And, of course, games will no doubt come up with all sorts of creative ways to implement pressure into their controls as well.

There are a couple of other things you can do with 3D Touch. You can press on the keyboard to transform it into a trackpad and press deeper to select text. It's similar to the iOS 9 trackpad feature for iPad, but feels even more natural. It took iOS three generations to get basic text editing, but iOS 3 nailed it for multitouch. iOS 9 and 3D Touch have already nailed it for multipress.

You can also press and swipe across the screen to go back an app. It's similar to the universal back gesture introduced in iOS 7 but works inter-app instead of intra-app. You can also let go halfway across to invoke the new fast app switcher, whose iOS 9 redesign suddenly makes much more sense. In both cases, since view transition is a separate gesture from app transition, the lack of conflation makes for a more predictable, enjoyable experience.

You can even peek and pop in the AirPrint preview to go right into a PDF you can then share immediately.

It hints at the range of 3D Touch and why it has so much potential. Prior to iOS 8, most interfaces were "pull". You had to leave where you were and go hunting for the app that contained the feature you wanted to use. Post-iOS 8, thanks to Extensibility, interfaces started to become "push". Actions, widgets, and more would come to you where you already were.

Peek and pop take it even further. Instead of "pull" or "push" they're closer to "teleport". They let you pull in what you want to see, right where you are, and then push into it, and simply by increasing the pressure on the screen.

If we consider pre-iOS 8 interfaces as being pull and post-iOS 8 interfaces as being push, then peek and pop make those distinctions seamless. Now the interface can both come to you and you can go to it simply by varying the degree of pressure you put on the screen.

The interface is consistent and incredibly well considered, and it works phenomenally well with the hardware, including the Taptic Engine. It feels like you're pressing when you press and on what you're pressing.

It might take time for the really important options to become perfectly chosen and placed for each and every app, but even at launch it's obvious it's going to be transformative.

It's one of those things that makes an interface, especially a single-column interface like the iPhone perceptively much, much faster. And I've long felt that when it comes to mobile, convenience is always the killer app.

Live Photos

It may seem silly. It might even seem lame. But when your significant other smiles, your child laughs, your pet looks up at you, the trees rustle, the waters fall, the cars race by, the dancers twirl, the batters swing—when you see the moments that matter to you come to life, it may still be silly, but it's also wonderful.

Live Photos work by taking a 12 megapixel image, and associating it with a ~15 fps video that starts 1.5 seconds before the image and continuing 1.5 seconds after. The image is a JPG, the video an MOV, and the result a hybrid. The iPhone 6s Plus uses the first 1.5 seconds of animation to ease in when you swipe between photos and plays the full 3 seconds when you press using Touch 3D.

The trick, then, is not to think of it as a movie that you tap to start and tap to stop. Rather, think of it as a still that you tap to capture at the perfect moment. Then let the animation take care of itself. I think that's why Apple is so determined to reenforce that they're not videos—to get them right you really have to think of them as photos. Photos that just happen to animate

You can turn Live Photos on or off right from the Camera app, and when you take one, a yellow indicator comes on. Wait until it goes off before moving. Apple will be pushing a software update to automatically end a Live Photo if the accelerometer detects significant movement but trust me, you want the whole thing.

You can share Live Photos the same way you share any photo, but devices and apps that don't support them will only get the JPG, not the MOV part. You can also choose right in the Share Sheet to only share the JPG if you don't want to send the Live Photo.

You can't take Live Photos on older iOS devices, but you can view them. You just tap and hold instead of pressing. You can also use them as clock faces on Apple Watch and view them in the Photos app for OS X El Capitan. And that means grandparents and parents, friends and loved ones—anyone with a recent iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad—can enjoy them as well.

• How to create GIFs of Live Photos and share them to Instagram and Facebook

The Live Photo indicator used on the Share Sheet is missing in the thumbnail views in Photos and Albums, sadly, which makes it impossible to tell if a photo is a Live Photo or not without swiping through the full screen view and looking for the animation. There's also no Live Photo album the way there is a screenshot, selfie, video, and almost every other type of album. Both seem like obvious omissions so, hopefully, they're coming in an update as well.

Apple is also providing a way for developers to handle Live Photos in App Store apps, and Facebook has already been named as one of the services implementing them. Hopefully, Instagram and others will follow quickly.

That's all the mechanics behind-the-curtain, though, and I almost hate elaborating on them because when you use Live Photos all you see is the magic.

I tried it out doing goofy faces in New York City, and then with action shots of my godkids at home. One of my favorite moments, however, was when I took pictures of my mother's garden and sent them to her without really thinking about it. She saved them to her iPad and started swiping through them in the Photos app.

Then she exclaimed: The flowers, they're moving!

Such silly, wonderful, magic.

iPhone 6s Plus Ecosystem

As much as the iPhone 6s Plus is terrific mobile computer featuring state-of-the-art technology, it's also part of a much larger family of hardware, software, and services. With Continuity, the iPhone 6s Plus can work seamlessly with the Mac or iPad. With AirPlay, it can beam audio and video, and mirror its display through the Apple TV. Thanks to pairing, it can also extend notifications, activity, remote control, and more through the Apple Watch.

There's also the iTunes Store and App Store, a wide range of accessories, digital services like iCloud and Apple Music, and customer services like the Apple Store and AppleCare+.

You can use the iPhone 6s Plus with a Windows PC and Google Services, as well, and many people prefer to. Apple hopes, however, that the sum of the value it all creates goes well beyond any single part.

The iPhone 6s Plus has access to more apps than any iPhone in history. That includes not only the 1.5 million now available in the iOS App Store, again including the best of Google and Microsoft, but an increasing amount built-in by Apple.

• Camera
• Photos
• Health
• Messages
• Phone
• FaceTime
• Mail
• Music
• Wallet
• Safari
• Maps
• Calendar
• iTunes Store
• App Store
• Notes
• News
• Contacts
• iBooks
• Game Center
• Weather
• Reminders
• Clock
• Videos
• Stocks
• Calculator
• Voice Memos
• Compass
• Podcasts
• Watch
• Tips
• iCloud Drive
• Find My iPhone
• Find My Friends

Some people begrudge the built-in apps, bury them in a folder, and wish Apple would let allow them to be hidden and deleted. I'll admit to wanting to bury Tips and salt the earth. It's something Apple has been considering for a while, but many of the apps act as front-ends for deeply integrated features of the operating system, including serving as information brokers for Siri.

Moreover, hidden or deleted apps create problems. People forget what they've hidden or deleted and then become upset when they can't find them. Apple has, however, made the iCloud Drive app hide-able in Settings. If that's not the last remnants of the resistance to anything resembling a file system on iOS, it could be a sign of more hide-able apps to come.

One of the most interesting aspects of the "Plus" line of iPhones is the ability to show split view apps in landscape. Not to be confused by the new multi-app multitasking feature of the same name, splitview apps show a two-column (horizontal regular size class) iPad-style interface on the iPhones Plus in landscape mode. In other words, they let you turn the iPhone into a tiny tablet.

Last year few apps beyond Apple's own took advantage of the feature but this year many, many more have updated. Also, apps that were once iPad-only have now launched for the larger sizes iPhone, chief among them, Paper by 53.

Those interfaces and apps make the iPhone 6s Plus even more valuable, letting it work like a big phone or, with a simple turn, a small iPad.

The iPhone 6s Plus should be compatible with most if not all iPhone 6 Plus accessories. The tiny difference in height, width, and depth shouldn't be a problem unless a specific case's tolerances are unusually tight. Apple has made new versions of their silicon and leather iPhone 6s Plus cases available. Silicon colors include white, charcoal gray, stone, antique white, blue, turquoise, midnight blue, lavender, pink, orange, and product red. Leather colors include midnight blue, saddle brown, rose gray, brown, and black.

The Apple Lightning Dock, launched earlier this year, fits the iPhone 6s Plus perfectly. Apple, however, has also made the dock available in new, matching metallic finishes of space gray, silver, gold, and rose gold.

Screen protectors still work with 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s Plus, and Apple and other retailers are specifically labeling the ones they sell as such. Always check with the manufacturer, however, if you have any specific concerns.

With Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the iPhone 6s Plus is also compatible with the latest wireless accessories, including the Apple Watch.

• iMore store iPhone 6s Plus accessories
• Amazon iPhone 6s Plus accessories

Apple includes 5 GB of iCloud storage with every Apple ID. That now includes iCloud Photo Library for pictures and video, and Apple Music Library for songs. Both use a nearline model which means more frequently used, and recent files are kept locally while infrequently and older files are kept on Apple's servers, only a tap and a download away.

iCloud is also used for backup, email, contacts, calendars, iCloud Drive documents, and more. So, the 5 GB might not go very far. Apple hasn't seen fit to bump the free tier yet, but this year they did slash the cost of the paid tiers by half. That means you can now get additional iCloud storage for:

• 50 GB: $0.99/month
• 200 GB: $2.99/month
• 1 TB: $9.99/month

Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and other popular storage providers, as well as Google Photos, Flickr, Spotify, Rdio, and all major photo and music services are also available.

Apple Stores, especially when combined with iCloud and the extended warranty service, AppleCare+, provide remarkable customer support for iPhone 6s Plus owners. Apple specialists can help you test a phone to make sure it's what you want, help you set it up, teach you how to use it, and if anything goes wrong, help you fix it. It's a feature not always included on competitive checklists but anyone who's ever needed to avail themselves of it knows just how important a feature it is.

With AppleCare+ you can walk in with a damaged iPhone, get a replacement, restore from backup, and walk out with all your data, just the way you left it. It's one of those things few people appreciate until they're in desperate need of it.

New this year, the iPhone Upgrade Program essentially lets you get 0% financing—provided by Apple through Citizens One in the U.S.—for 24 months, with an option to upgrade to the next iPhone in 12 months. You have to pick one of the four major carriers, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon at the time you buy, but the phone itself is unlocked. (The carrier requirement is likely to prevent fraud and gray market export.)

The iPhone Upgrade Program is more expensive than some carrier options, but it includes AppleCare+ which makes it highly competitive overall.

• 16GB for $36.58/month.
• 64GB for $40.75/month.
• 128GB for $44.91/month.

If you're interested in upgrading every year, and you want AppleCare+, the iPhone Upgrade Program looks terrific. I can't wait until it's available internationally.

Not sure whether to upgrade or what color, capacity, or carrier to get? Just get an iPhone 6s Plus and not sure how to get set up and started? Our ultimate guides can help:

• iPhone 6s Plus buyers guide
• iPhone 6s Plus users guide

iPhone 6s Plus Bottom Line

After spending almost two weeks with the iPhone 6s Plus, "the only thing that's changed is everything" rings absolutely true. Apple has rebuilt one of the most popular phones in history and done it in way that makes it stronger, faster, sharper, and deeper than ever. That shows intense consideration but also betrays immense confidence. Apple knows who their customers are. They know to such a degree it lets them offer only two new phone models a year. And they stay that course, every year, concentrating not on making different for the sake of different, but making better for the sake of better.

At 5.5-inches the iPhone 6s Plus is still just as much tiny tablet as big phone, and transforms between the two with nothing more than a turn. A year later, though, and now the rest of the world has caught up with it, providing software to take advantage of the hardware.

There's no ultra HD display, no wireless charging, and no Apple Pencil support. There's 3D Touch, a technology that takes one of the biggest breakthroughs in modern mobile history, multitouch, and gives it a whole new dimension.

Like capacitive touch, 3D Touch is one of those things that you never really think you need until you have it, and then suddenly you wonder how you did without it for so long. Whether or not it ultimately ends up being as transformative only time will tell, but judging by the iPhone 6s Plus, it's off to truly impressive start.

If you have one of the iPhones 5 or older and want to a screen that's bigger, either for accessibility, creativity, or productivity, the iPhone 6s Plus is a phenomenal upgrade.

If you have a large screen Android phone and Apple's focus on security and privacy, software consistency or depth of ecosystem appeals to you, thanks to the new Move to iOS app, it's never been easier to make the switch.

If you have an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, it'll come down to how compelling you find the new camera or 3D Touch, and how enticing you find the new yearly upgrade plans.

Over the course of the last year, I've used the iPhone 6 Plus the vast majority of the time. Fitting it in a pocket was never a problem, and so the increased battery life and productivity easily won out. The iPhone 6s Plus takes everything that was great about it and makes it better, in the case of the camera, or beyond, in the case of 3D Touch.

The iPhone 6s Plus is not only a better big phone, it's a funner big phone to use. And that's an achievement.

For those days when battery life becomes an issue, you can't always rely on a wall or car charger to give you the boost you need. Having a reliable iPhone 6s battery case on hand can make the difference between a dead device and one that will keep on keepin' on — no matter what. While some manufacturers are still crafting their battery cases, there are already a handful of options available for your new iPhone 6s that are worth scooping up early.

And, if you're unsure about investing in a battery case, you can check out some easy fixes for subar battery life on the iPhone 6s that may be of some help in the meantime.

Supcase Beetle Power Battery Case for iPhone 6s

Our first and favorite of the bunch is the MFI-certified Supcase Unicorn Beetle Power Case for iPhone 6s, packed with enough battery life to suit the most demanding power users. This iPhone 6s battery case manages to provide enough protection against impacts while enhancing grip to prevent them in the first place. Inside is a 3,200mAh battery that keeps things going, covered by a dual-layer casing that features an interchangeable bumper for swapping colors on the fly. It recharges by a microUSB port on the bottom and comes bundled with a handy holster for clipping to a belt or pocket. You can't argue with the easy access to ports and buttons of the iPhone 6s, either.

The Unicorn Beetle Power Case comes at a reasonable $49.99, which is substantially cheaper than some of the big-name competition.

Buy for $49.99 on Amazon

PhoneSuit Elite Battery Case for iPhone 6s

Surprisingly thin for an iPhone 6s battery case is the PhoneSuit 3,000mAh Elite. This cover has been crafted to be incredibly sleek with a reinforced construction, strong polycarbonate, and metallic rubber composite materials. On the back is an LED battery indicator that lights up to show how much of the 3,000mAh inside remains. You'll get at least a couple extra charges from this iPhone 6s battery case and enjoy its low-profile design when you see how comfortable it is to use despite packing a battery beneath.

The PhoneSuite Elite for iPhone 6s comes in black, blue, or red for slightly steeper $97.

Buy for $97 on Amazon

Trianium Battery Case for iPhone 6s

Trianium has built-up quite the reputation on Amazon with its MFI-certified 3,100mAh iPhone 6/6s battery case, and for good reason — it works and it's affordable. Its durable build doesn't have many frills, but rather sports a more simplistic design that does its job of keeping your iPhone 6s going for the long haul. There's a handy LED battery indicator on the back that lights up by tapping the power button beside it, and the special sync-through technology allows you to connect to a computer without popping the battery case off your iPhone 6s. There's even a microUSB charging cable and 3.5mm headphone extension adapter included for good measure.

The Trianium 3,100mAh Battery Case for iPhone 6s comes in a handful of colors to choose from starting at $35.99.

Buy for $35.99 on Amazon

Spigen Volt Pack Battery Case for iPhone 6s

Next up is Spigen's Volt Pack Battery Case for iPhone 6s that uses a 3,100mAh battery inside to provide an extra 150% of battery life. The strong polycarbonate shell is great for mitigating damage if and when your iPhone 6s takes a tumble while wearing the battery case. The frame is actually detachable if you decide you want to change colors and the 4 LED lights on the back give a clear approximation of how much battery life is left at any time. Measuring only 15mm in thickness, it's not overly bulky and still leaves access to the ports and buttons of the iPhone 6s.

You can snag the Spigen Volt Pack for iPhone 6s for $35.99, which includes a microUSB charging cable and 3.5mm headphone extension adapter.

Buy for $35.99 on Amazon

Anker Ultra Slim Battery Case for iPhone 6s

Packing a 2850mAh battery inside its amazingly slim polycarbonate shell is Anker's Ultra Slim Battery Case for the iPhone 6s. It's MFi certified and able to used for syncing up to your PC or laptop through the case without removing it. The matte exterior enhances grip, helping to prevent unwanted drops, and charging LED's light up on the back to show how much battery life remains after use. Included with the case is a microUSB charging cable, 3.5mm headphone extension cable and welcome guide.

The Anker Ultra Slim Battery Case for iPhone 6s is currently available on Amazon for $39.99 that includes an 18-month warranty.

Buy for $39.99 on Amazon

The Ballistic Case Company has announced a new lineup of cases for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The Jewel, Jewel Spark, Urbanite, Explorer, Tough Jacket, Tough Jacket MAXX and Hard Core Tactical Series are all meant to provide heavy-duty protection against drops, and have all been drop test certified. All of these cases will also fit the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Protection ranges from the basic Jewel and Jewel Spark cases, which cost $19.99 and $24.99, respectively, to the hardcore, with Ballistic's Hard Core Tactical Series offering heavy-duty, multi-layerd protection for the iPhone 6 and 6s for $99.99. While most of these cases are available for both sizes of phone, the Jewel Spark, Explorer, and Hard Core Tactical are only avaialble for the iPhone 6 and 6s.

You can grab all of these cases directly from Ballistic Case Company.

• Buy the Jewel series from Ballistic
• Buy the Jewel Spark series from Ballistic
• Buy the Urbanite series from Ballistic
• Buy the Explorer series from Ballistic
• Buy the Tough Jacket series from Ballistic
• Buy the Tough Jacket MAXX series from Ballistic
• Buy the Hard Core Tacitcal series from Ballistic

The iPhone 6s isn't waterproof, but that doesn't mean that Apple didn't put additional effort into protecting it from the elements. iFixit, known for its repair guides and device teardowns, opened up Apple's latest phone once again to investigate its potential water resistance.

iFixit found adhesive around the iPhone 6s display, which they say wouldn't have been necessary to keep the display attached. iFixit believes that it could function as a gasket, keeping liquid out, rather than keeping the display on. They also found that every cable connector on the logic board had a seal.

All of this doesn't make the phone waterproof. Other parts of the 6s, including power and volume buttons, have been redesigned to be waterproof, for instance. However, the added water resistance means that you might not have to get your phone repaired or replaced the next time you accidentally drop it in a sink.

Source: iFixit

Over 13 million iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models were sold in its first three days worldwide, according to a newly issued press release from Apple. That number is a new sales record for the iPhone; in 2014, Apple announced it had sold over 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models in their first three days around the world.

One interesting wrinkle is that while the sales of these phones will be recorded through September 26 on Apple's next quarterly financial report in October, the sales numbers on Sunday, September 27 will have to wait until Apple's January 2016 financial report.

Here is Apple's full press release:

Apple Announces Record iPhone 6s & iPhone 6s Plus Sales

iPhone Available in 40 Additional Countries Beginning Friday, October 9

September 28, 2015 08:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time

CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apple today announced it has sold more than 13 million new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, a new record, just three days after launch. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in more than 40 additional countries beginning October 9 including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan. The new iPhones will be available in over 130 countries by the end of the year.

"Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history"

"Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Customers' feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can't wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9."

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus bring a powerful new dimension to iPhone's revolutionary Multi-Touch interface with 3D Touch, which senses how deeply you press the display, letting you do essential things more quickly and simply. The new iPhones introduce Live Photos, which bring still images to life, transforming instants frozen in time into unforgettable living memories. Live Photos, 3D Touch, 12-megapixel iSight camera, 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera with Retina Flash and more are powered by the Apple-designed A9 chip, the most advanced chip ever in a smartphone, delivering faster performance and great battery life. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are designed with the strongest glass on any smartphone and 7000 series aluminum, the same alloy used in the aerospace industry, in gorgeous metallic finishes that now include rose gold.

iOS 9, the world's most advanced mobile operating system, brings more intelligence to iPhone with proactive assistance, powerful search and improved Siri features, all while protecting users' privacy. Built-in apps become more powerful with a redesigned Notes app, detailed transit information in Maps*, and an all-new News app for the best news reading experience on any mobile device. The foundation of iOS is even stronger with software updates that require less space to install and advanced security features to further protect your devices.

Customers are encouraged to check the Apple Store app or Apple.com to receive updates on availability and estimated delivery dates. Every customer who buys an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus at an Apple Retail Store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store and more, so they'll be up and running with their new iPhone before they leave the store. Customers can also learn more about iOS 9 and their new device through free workshops at all Apple retail stores worldwide. In the US, the new iPhones are also available through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and additional carriers, and select Apple Authorized Resellers including Best Buy, Target and Walmart.

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will roll out worldwide to more than 40 additional countries and territories beginning October 9 including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Maldives, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan. On October 10, countries include Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in India, Malaysia and Turkey on Friday, October 16 and in over 130 countries by the end of the year.

Sales completed by Saturday, September 26 will be included in Apple's 2015 fourth fiscal quarter results, and sales completed on Sunday, September 27 will be included in Apple's 2016 first fiscal quarter results.

Pricing & Availability

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are available in gold, silver, space gray and the new rose gold metallic finishes for $0 down with 24 monthly payments starting at $27 (US) and $31 (US), respectively, from Apple's retail stores in the US, Apple.com, select carriers and Apple Authorized Resellers.**

Apple-designed accessories including leather and silicone cases in a range of colors and Lightning Docks in color-matched metallic finishes are also available.

Exclusively at Apple's retail stores in the US, customers can choose their carrier and get an unlocked iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus with the opportunity to get a new iPhone annually and AppleCare+ on the new iPhone Upgrade Program. Monthly payments start at $32 (US) and $37 (US), respectively. For more information on the iPhone Upgrade Program visit www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program or a US Apple Retail Store.***

Customers can visit Apple.com to reserve their iPhone for pick-up at their local Apple Store, based on availability. Most Apple stores also have iPhone available for walk-in customers each day. *Transit information in Maps will be available in select major cities including Baltimore, Berlin, Chicago, London, Mexico City, New York City, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto and Washington D.C., as well as over 300 cities in China, including Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai. News app availability varies by country.

**Prices are rounded to nearest dollar and are based on 24 monthly installment payments. Taxes and activation fees may be due at sale. Carrier terms and eligibility may apply.

***The iPhone Upgrade Program is available to qualified customers only with a valid US personal credit card. Requires a 24-month installment loan with Citizens Bank, N.A. and iPhone activation with a national carrier — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon. Full terms apply.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, the Mac and Apple Watch. Apple's three software platforms — iOS, OS X and watchOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iCloud. Apple's 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Source: Apple

The new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are already proving themselves fabulous phones in many aspects, but their camera features are a special highlight: I've been doing hands-on testing with both phone cameras, and wanted to share some of our early results.

The video above displays the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus's timelapse features, digital and optical image stabilization, and examples of all the different shooting modes and sizes: 720P, 1080P, and 4K. I've also included a few comparison shots in each mode from my iPhone 6 camera.

I deliberately chose harder-than-usual lighting situations to truly test the range of the sensor, and both phone models performed admirably.

Timelapse mode on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus largely shows improvement in lighting definition; colors are subtler with a slight advantage in definition.

Color definition is also better in the 6s's 720P and 1080P shots, and the 6s Plus's optical image stabilization simply shines. My bike path tests were done on skates, actively striding, with the phones free-form in my hands. The 6 and 6s showed mild to moderate bouncing and shaking as I skated, but the 6s Plus came through with only light bobbing and weaving. The end result largely looks as if I was shooting with Hyperlapse, rather than the stock Camera app.

For the true stabilization test, I took the phones and my skates across an old wooden bridge. Skating that bridge even without shooting video feels shaky—the tiny slats in the bridge aren't the most fun to roll across. Equipped with the three phones, I shot three segments while rolling across the bridge. The iPhone 6 and 6s employed digital image stabilization valiantly—the shakes from my body and hands as I rolled across were much reduced in the resulting video. Again, though, the iPhone 6s Plus blows both smaller phones out of the water: The video looks almost as smooth as regular bike path skating. It's incredible, and makes me even more excited to use an iPhone 6s Plus this upgrade year.

We'll have more video tests (slo-mo!) and a full range of camera tests coming soon. If you want us to test something camera-related (or anything else), give us a shout in the comments!

On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus you can use 3D Touch to get quick actions right from the app icons on your Home screen. But what if you want to move or delete those app icons instead? How do you do that? The answer is: the same as always... just a little more carefully!

How to move or delete apps on iPhone 6s

Even on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and even with 3D Touch, you still move and delete apps the same as always. You just have to be more careful about it. 3D Touch works with pressure, app moving and deleting does not.

Previously, to touch and hold to put your apps into "jiggly" editing mode, you could press as hard as you want. Pressing even made it easier to maintain contact for long enough to engage jiggly mode. No longer. Now if you press hard, you engage 3D Touch. So the trick is to not press at all. Just touch.

1. Go to your Home screen.
2. Touch your finger down lightly on an app icon you want to move or delete.
3. Wait a few seconds.

If the screen blurs or the quick actions pop up, you're pressing too hard. Lighten up and try again. You'll get the hang of it, it just takes a little time.

You can also adjust your 3D Touch settings to make it easier or harder to trigger, as needed.

How to easily enter edit mode using a folder

Since folders can't have quick action, it doesn't matter how hard you press on them. So if you're having trouble entering load pipe touching an icon, you can press on a folder as hard as you want for as long as you want, to get the jigglies jiggling.

1. Go to your Home screen.
2. Find a folder like the default Extras.
3. Touch or press down on the folder as lightly or firmly as you want.
4. Wait a few seconds.

Thanks to Paul Kafasis for this tip.

When interactions collide

3D Touch is new and touch-and-hold is old. Previously pressure didn't matter, only time. Now pressure and time both matter. It's a collision, but that often happens when new conventions are introduced. It's the price of innovation, but it's also something Apple will likely iterate on as 3D Touch becomes more prevalent, established, and understood.

The iPhone 4s brought us the Siri virtual assistant. The iPhone 5s brought us the Touch ID fingerprint identity scanner. Both, transformative. The same is true of 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

• iPhone 6s + iPhone 6s Plus: The ultimate guide

3D Touch

Technologically, it makes multitouch multidimensional and take the capacitive screens we've been enjoying since the original iPhone to a whole new level. Or rather, depth. With 3D Touch, you don't just swipe and tap anymore. You press. And thanks to the Taptic engine, you feel like you're pressing.

Functionally, it makes the iPhone faster and more convenient. Instead of tapping an icon to launch an app, you press to jump right into it.

Apple calls these Quick Actions; you can have up to four per app icon. They can be static for tasks you do all the time, like taking a selfie or getting directions home. They can also be dynamic, so you can go straight into a recent text chat. Instead of tapping back and forth to read mail or preview maps or web pages, you can press into list items or links to peek at them, lighten up to back out, or press deeper to pop right in.

Previews and actions can even be combined together: When you peek, you can swipe up to get a list of quick actions and tap on them immediately. You can even swipe sideways in Mail to quickly triage on the go.

You can press the keyboard to turn it into a trackpad, the side of the screen to switch back to previous app, a Live Photo to animate it, and the list goes on. Apple has also given developers direct access to the dynamic pressure sensitivity data, as shown off in the new Notes app. That'll be great for everything from drawing to gaming.

It does take some getting used to. The difference between a tap, long press, and 3D Touch can be tricky at first. But the haptics and interface are well tuned and once you get the hang of it, it's like you have a warp tunnel through iOS. It accelerates everything.

• How to use 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s + iPhone 6s Plus

Cameras

The cameras have seen substantial improvements as well: The rear iSight is now 12 megapixels with "deep trench isolation" to make sure those new pixels produce crisp, clean images.

It also shoots 4K video.

Not by default—you have to enable it—and many people won't need it. But for pros, being able to shoot—and more importantly zoom, stabilize, and crop—with that many pixels is a huge benefit.

• How to use 4K video on the iPhone 6s + iPhone 6s Plus

The front FaceTime camera is now 5 megapixels and it comes with a special chip that lets the Retina display flash at three times brightness—the equivalent of a TrueTone flash.

• How to take Live Flash Selfies on the iPhone 6s + iPhone 6 Plus

The iPhone 6 still lacks the optical image stabilization of the 6s Plus, but the 6s Plus can now use its OIS for rock-steady video.

Live Photos

They can also both take Live Photos. They're not videos but 12 megapixel captures 1.5 seconds before and after, so that when you transition or 3D Touch them, they animate and come to life.

Again, it takes practice to nail the timing and make sure you get the beginning and end of a smile, cheer, stumble, flare, or twirl, but when you do…. magic.

You can use Live Photos as wallpapers on your iPhone or Apple Watch, and share them to the Mac when OS X El Capitan launches at the end of September.

Apple will be making it easy for developers to add Live Photos to apps as well, but like with any new technology we'll have to wait to see how far and how fast it spreads.

• How to use Live Photos on iPhone 6s + iPhone 6s Plus

Touch ID + Apple A9

The Touch ID sensor is now in its second generation and quicker than ever, and the Apple A9 chipset is significantly faster. 70% for processing and 90% for graphics. It's the kind of results you get when you don't have to support multiple architectures and you can match the silicon directly to the software.

It also directly integrates the new M9 coprocessor, making motion and fitness tracking more energy efficient and enabling—optionally—"Hey Siri!" even when you're not plugged in.

Same with the radios. LTE has gone to 23-bands, including band 12 in the U.S., and up to 300 megabits per second on LTE Advanced. Bluetooth is now 4.2 and Wi-Fi can go to 866 megabits per second on 802.11ac.

Design + rose gold

While the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus may look like last year's models, to support the increased pressure of 3D Touch they're now made out of stronger 7000 series aluminum and the glass has been hardened with a new dual ion-exchange process for added durability.

And it comes in rose gold.

It's more rose than gold. Truthfully, it's metallic pink. But it's restrained pink. Like Apple's gold has always been more of a champagne. It's warm but not hot and while it may not be for everyone, it will be for everyone who wants to make a statement. It also shows, once again, how a new color can prompt just as much interest as a new design.

The displays are still 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches, so those hoping for a return of the smaller phone sizes will have to keep hoping for at least another year.

Likewise those demanding thicker phones. Battery geometry isn't like pumping frosted filling. Adding more mass, thermal insulation, and RF interference for minimal power isn't a smart tradeoff. And lightness is absolutely essential for usability. You can add a rugged case or power pack when you need it. You can't tear off half your phone when you don't.

That's why Apple's sticking with the essentials and continuing to use software advances like universal gestures and 3D Touch to improve one-handed use, and facedown detection and low power mode to maintain battery life—even with a battery made slightly smaller to fit the Taptic Engine.

Should you upgrade?

If you have an iPhone 4s or one of the iPhones 5, it's a major upgrade and you should strongly consider it.

If you have an Android phone and Apple's security, privacy, ecosystem, and ease of use have become increasingly compelling to you, thanks to the new Move to iOS app, switching has never been easier.

• How to switch to iPhone from Android

If you have an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, it'll come down to how badly you want 3D Touch and that new camera, and how enticing the new yearly upgrade plans are to you.

Apple calls iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s the most advanced phones ever. What matters, though, is that they're among the most thoughtful and useful.

That's why, for most people, most of the time, the iPhone remains the best phone you can buy.

• Complete buyers guide for iPhone 6s + iPhone 6s Plus

More to come!

We'll be back with in-depth iMore-style reviews of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus shortly. So, if you have any questions, let us know!

iCloud, iTunes, and App Thinning

Once upon a time—before the era of iCloud and Wi-Fi Sync—you backed up your iPhone to your computer via iTunes. All those apps downloaded locally to your computer, taking up valuable computer space, but you also could restore those programs to your devices even if they got removed from the App Store.

Flash forward to the present day: Whether you make an iCloud backup or an iTunes backup, the backbone of the app is stored remotely when you do a restore. Your personal app data is stored inside your iCloud backup; the app itself is stored on the App Store server, ready to be re-downloaded when needed.

This is in part due to App Thinning, iOS 9's smart allocation system that lets you create one universal app for iPhone and iPad (but not have to make the iPhone users download the iPad assets, and vice versa): If your iPhone only has half of the app's package, it can't back up the full binary to your computer via iTunes. So instead, it relies on the cloud.

How to troubleshoot missing apps on your iPhone

Unfortunately, this means that if iCloud is slammed, your third-party apps may not immediately restore. (It also means that any apps you own which are no longer stored on the App Store can't be restored from a backup.) If you've run into this problem, here are some things you can try.

Restoring over cellular is a painful and not very speedy process. If your apps don't seem to be doing anything post-restore, it's time to check if you're on a Wi-Fi network. If not, your apps may hang until you get coverage.

If your third-party app icons are visible, just darkened, try tapping the app icon in question to jump it to the top of your download queue. This doesn't work every time—when your apps are outright missing, for instance, this is useless—but can often be all the troubleshoot you need in this situation.

If tapping the icon isn't doing anything, try doing a tap and hold to activate Edit mode. With luck, you'll see an X next to the offending app; tap it and redownload from the App Store to keep everything copacetic.

Your device may be stuck on an iCloud path that's clogged up or otherwise immovable. You can try to reboot the process by force rebooting your iPhone—just hold down the Power and Home buttons until the screen flashes and you see the Apple logo.

If your app has vanished completely, there might be an error with the backup. You can try re-restoring the entire phone if you have some time, or try redownloading a single missing app from the App Store > Updates > Purchased section. In theory, your app's data should still be available once redownloaded, but it depends on whether the backup was in error or not.

Other thoughts and questions?

Run into this bug? Have any advice for those who are? Drop it in the comments.

Ally Kazmucha contributed to an earlier version of this article about apps and iCloud.

If you want your iPhone's notifications in Notification Center to mirror notifications on your Lock Screen, you can at last do so as of iOS 9, thanks to a handy preference in the Settings app.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Select Sort Order.
   
   
   

4. Tap Recent, then tap the back button.
5. Turn off Group By App.
   
   

Now, when you pull down Notification Center, you'll see your notifications as organized by time, rather than by specific app.