First Impressions of the iPhone 6s
I did something I’ve never done before: I pre-ordered an iPhone.
My first smartphone was the iPhone 4, purchased a few months after Verizon started carrying Apple’s mobile devices. Two years later, I upgraded to the iPhone 5. Both times I opted for the 16GB base model. Both times, I elected to choose the previous model to what Apple was currently shipping. Both models have served me well. The iPhone 5 was a good phone, particularly for its small form factor, but the lack of storage space was really becoming an issue for me over the past several months. For my new smartphone, I wanted a capacious unit that could comfortable hold my apps, my entire music library, and have plenty of storage left over for photos and video.
On Friday, my Space Gray 64GB iPhone 6s arrived. I chose the 6s over the 6s Plus, because of the 6s’s small form factor. The iPhone 6s Plus is simply too big for me to carry around in my pocket. Size, of course, is a personal preference. My wife has a 16GB iPhone 6 Plus, which she absolutely loves.
Below are some unboxing photos of my iPhone 6s. It was, as usual, a delightful experience. Included with the iPhone 6s is a quick start pamphlet, a pair of Apple headphones, a Lightning cable, a power adaptor and two Apple stickers.
The 6s vs the iPhone 5
The iPhone 6s weighs in at 5.04 ounces, while the iPhone 5 comes in at 3.95 ounces. The extra ounce in the iPhone 6s isn’t a problem for me, given the increase in screen real-estate. The 6s feels comfortable to hold in my hand and is easy to grip. The rounded edges on the iPhone 6s take some getting used to. Most impressive is how thin the iPhone 6s is (7.1 mm) compared to the iPhone 5 (7.6 mm).
The iPhone 6s Home button is less recessed than that of the iPhone 5 and has a comfortable tactile feel. The Home button also doubles as a fingerprint authenticator, making it not only easy and fast to login, but secure as well. On the 6s plus, users can also login via entering a 6 digit password – up from the 4 digit password requirement in the iPhone 5.
The Sleep / Wake button is now on the right edge of the iPhone 6s, instead of on the top like the iPhone 5, making access to it within easier reach when gripping the unit.
On the bottom side, the speaker grille appears on the right, with a 3.5mm jack and extra microphone input on the left. the speaker grilles are wider in size on the iPhone 6s compared to the iPhone 5, which will (hopefully) make it easier to clean when dust accumulates.
The 6s’s volume adjustment buttons are considerably larger than those found on the iPhone 5. Given my thick fingers, the larger volume buttons get my thumbs up.
The right side on both units includes a SIM card slot, with the Wake / Sleep button in its new location on the iPhone 6s.
After playing with the iPhone 6s for two days, my initial impressions of the unit are positive.
Performance-wise, I feel that the iPhone 6s is a huge step up from the iPhone 5. Opening and closing apps on the iPhone 6s is both fast and fluid. The camera feels responsive, free from the perceptible lag I would see on the iPhone5. The 3D Touch feature in iOS9 took some getting used to, but now that I’ve had a chance to play with it on a few key apps, I want it everywhere. The extra space has finally allowed me to store my entire music collection onto my new device, with 33GB of space left over for additional apps, photos and videos. I finally have one device that consolidates all my apps and music in one place.
The iPhone 6s sports a larger screen real-estate compared to the iPhone 5. Working with both units, I have come to prefer the extra real-estate on the 6s – particularly when it comes to using the keyboard. I feel like my typing is more accurate because the keys are a bit bigger. Size-wise, the iPhone 6s still fits in my pocket… though it might be a tight fit after I add a protective case.
On a related note, it baffles me that Apple continues to market and sell the 16GB versions of the 6s and 6s plus. In my view, this isn’t enough storage space for the average user. Like others, I would have expected the base model iPhone to have at least 32GB. Since that’s not going to happen anytime soon, my advice for those of you who might be considering an iPhone is to skip the 16GB model altogether and go for the 64GB unit instead.
In summary, if you’re running an iPhone 5 or older model iPhone, the iPhone 6s is a no-brainer upgrade, as long as you skip the base model.
-Krishna
Kevin Rubin
September 27, 2015 at 5:49 pmThe change I don’t like from the 5 series to the 6 series (I have a 6 Plus) is the sleep/wake button on the side. Because it’s directly across from one of the volume buttons, I often hit both when squeezing it to sleep, snapping a picture that I didn’t intend to take.
Karl
October 15, 2015 at 5:10 pmMy kids surprised me with an early birthday present….an iPhone 6s 64GB! The one thing I have noticed, and am frankly baffled by it, that the first charge lasted 84 hours, the second 76 hours, the 3rd dropped down to 48 hours and now after 39 hours and 12 minutes of standby, it is at 22% I haven’t done anything different in those periods between charges and don’t plug it in right away when it reaches 20% warning (some of the charges I have waited until around 9-11%) and let it fully charge before unplugging it. I’ve gone through and made the recommended changes to help save battery life and the things on the list that show the most battery usage have been mail (which I have now changed from push to fetch every 15 minutes). I know my wife has seen how anal I have become about the battery life, but after not having to charge the phone the first few times for over 3 days, I was hoping this was a feature that would last (my 4s barely got 21 hours of standby time in its final days of use). Perhaps the 84 & 76 hour standbys were flukes, perhaps there is something running in the background that is draining power (I’ve even turned off Wi-Fi and only use it when I need to update apps) that I am missing. But I am perplexed as to what it could be.
Have you experienced extra long standby times at first and now see a decrease in length of time with each new charge cycle?