Apple Introduces The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus

As most of us had expected, Apple announced the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus during today’s media event, and they can be summed up beautifully with a single quote from Apple CEO Tim Cook: “While they may look familiar, we have changed everything about these new iPhones.”

While the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are practically indistinguishable from last year’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, pretty much everything (alloy casing, glass display, camera, processor, etc) is new and improved. Take a deeper look at iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and you’ll find innovation on every level.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are built out of the same 7000 Series aluminum alloy as the Apple Watch Sport, which is stronger and more durable than the 6000 series used in the iPhone 6 / 6 Plus and should alleviate any bending concerns. They’ve also introduced a new Rose Gold aluminum finish, which accompanies the traditional Silver, Space Gray, and Gold color options. Apple also updated the devices with a stronger cover glass, made using a dual ion exchange process.

Apple has added a third dimension to the new iPhones with the addition of their 3D Touch (or Force Touch as it’s known on the Apple Watch) feature, Now in addition to recognizing a tap, sensors in the iPhones can also recognize pressure, enabling a range of new shortcut gestures that Apple’s calling the “Peek” and “Pop.” And it gives you real-time feedback in the form of subtle taps from the all-new Taptic Engine.

Both phones receive some camera improvements as well. Both devices have a 12-megapixel camera with some internal improvements to preserve color accuracy and speed up autofocus. With the improved camera, 4K video at 30 FPS is supported, and the iPhones can capture 63MP panoramas. And selfie fanatics will be excited by the 5-megapixel front-facing FaceTime camera with a True Tone Retina Flash feature that lights up the display of the iPhone just before a photo is captured.

But the most novel camera-based feature available for the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus is Live Photos, a feature that captures 1.5 seconds of movement before and after a photo is taken. Live Photos is designed to add a sense of vitality and life to still photos.

Under the hood, the iPhone 6s is powered by Apple’s new A9 processor, which it says is 70 percent faster than the A8 at CPU tasks and 90 percent faster at graphics work. The new chip also has an upgraded M9 motion co-processor built right on (before it was a separate chip), and this time it’s always on.

And when it comes to connectivity, both LTE and Wi-Fi speeds have been improved significantly. With LTE Advanced, LTE is twice as fast at up to 300 Mb/s, and 23 LTE bands are supported. Users on Wi-Fi will also enjoy speeds twice as fast as before.

That’s honestly about it. As with previous “S” iPhone models, the 6s is more about refinement than massive design leaps. While most iPhone 6 users will simply wait until the iPhone 7 comes out, it’s a great option for those people who are still rocking the iPhone 5/5s (or worse) and want to upgrade to something more current.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will be available for pre-order on Saturday, September 12 at 12:01am PST, with an official launch taking place on Friday, September 25.

What do you think of the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus?