Aanandtech's iPhone 6S Review

[mikegg]

It's finally up.

Performance is blowing everything else out of the water.

 

[Anubis]

I would be saying this same thing if it was any other phone so im not hating on apple but the performance is pointless for 99% of phone users

impressive from a tech perspective yes
useful for the masses - not so much

 

[poofyhairguy]

I think everyone saw this coming. Android SoC's are a letdown in 2015. The real competition will be the 820.

 

[ChronoReverse]

With that said, javascript benchmarks isn't the best choice to show this.

Geekbench, with all its flaws, would be a better choice and you can see where the A9's single thread performance is stratospheric.

 

[Red Storm]

Read this:

but my primary phone continues to be an HTC One M7

And immediately face palmed. The reviewer is saying that out of all Android phones out right now, he still prefers his M7. That's a nice opinion for him to have, but it's a terrible thing to say for what should be an objective review. The M7 falls quite short compared to modern flagships, but the reviewer has seemingly set the Android bar as the M7.

I think Apple deserves plenty of praise for the impressive SoC in the new 6S, but there's SO much more to a smartphone than its SoC/benchmark scores. The slow charging (and no wireless option), the heavier build, the are-you-kidding-me-it's-2015 16GB base storage, the lack of highlight iOS9 features like split screen on the iPhone. Some of these get a sentence or two in the whole review. Mind you even with these downsides, it's still a very good smartphone, but seriously the AT reviewers need to grow a pair and be a bit more stern. When it's good stuff they love to gush, when it's negative it's like they're walking on eggshells. It's fine to be that way if it's going to be consistent with their other product reviews, but it isn't.

I really miss Anand. He preferred Apple devices but he did not let that preference get in the way of his investigative journalism.

 

[Oyeve]

Read this:



And immediately face palmed. The reviewer is saying that out of all Android phones out right now, he still prefers his M7. That's a nice opinion for him to have, but it's a terrible thing to say for what should be an objective review. The M7 falls quite short compared to modern flagships, but the reviewer has seemingly set the Android bar as the M7.

I think Apple deserves plenty of praise for the impressive SoC in the new 6S, but there's SO much more to a smartphone than its SoC/benchmark scores. The slow charging (and no wireless option), the heavier build, the are-you-kidding-me-it's-2015 16GB base storage, the lack of highlight iOS9 features like split screen on the iPhone. Some of these get a sentence or two in the whole review. Mind you even with these downsides, it's still a very good smartphone, but seriously the AT reviewers need to grow a pair and be a bit more stern. When it's good stuff they love to gush, when it's negative it's like they're walking on eggshells. It's fine to be that way if it's going to be consistent with their other product reviews, but it isn't.

I really miss Anand. He preferred Apple devices but he did not let that preference get in the way of his investigative journalism.

Well said. I too miss Anand.

 

[mikegg]

Read this:



And immediately face palmed. The reviewer is saying that out of all Android phones out right now, he still prefers his M7. That's a nice opinion for him to have, but it's a terrible thing to say for what should be an objective review. The M7 falls quite short compared to modern flagships, but the reviewer has seemingly set the Android bar as the M7.

I think Apple deserves plenty of praise for the impressive SoC in the new 6S, but there's SO much more to a smartphone than its SoC/benchmark scores. The slow charging (and no wireless option), the heavier build, the are-you-kidding-me-it's-2015 16GB base storage, the lack of highlight iOS9 features like split screen on the iPhone. Some of these get a sentence or two in the whole review. Mind you even with these downsides, it's still a very good smartphone, but seriously the AT reviewers need to grow a pair and be a bit more stern. When it's good stuff they love to gush, when it's negative it's like they're walking on eggshells. It's fine to be that way if it's going to be consistent with their other product reviews, but it isn't.

I really miss Anand. He preferred Apple devices but he did not let that preference get in the way of his investigative journalism.

The reviewer did acknowledge all of those things and has benchmarks to show for him.

1. It's slow charging and as an iPhone 6s owner, I wish it charged faster too.
2. The 16GB sucks but I've managed to live with it by using iCloud & iTunes Match which are very affordable.
3. It's slightly heavier but it isn't an issue.
4. Why would anyone ever want split screen on an iPhone? I work as a Product Manager for a highly used app and I can't think of any way to design a good app with only half the screen space on a phone.

In my opinion, these are all minor things. The 16GB has been beaten to death. We know... Apple just wants users to pay $100 extra for the 64GB. It's a business decision.

What else do you think Anandtech should have covered?

 

[mikegg]

Read this:



And immediately face palmed. The reviewer is saying that out of all Android phones out right now, he still prefers his M7. That's a nice opinion for him to have, but it's a terrible thing to say for what should be an objective review. The M7 falls quite short compared to modern flagships, but the reviewer has seemingly set the Android bar as the M7.

I think Apple deserves plenty of praise for the impressive SoC in the new 6S, but there's SO much more to a smartphone than its SoC/benchmark scores. The slow charging (and no wireless option), the heavier build, the are-you-kidding-me-it's-2015 16GB base storage, the lack of highlight iOS9 features like split screen on the iPhone. Some of these get a sentence or two in the whole review. Mind you even with these downsides, it's still a very good smartphone, but seriously the AT reviewers need to grow a pair and be a bit more stern. When it's good stuff they love to gush, when it's negative it's like they're walking on eggshells. It's fine to be that way if it's going to be consistent with their other product reviews, but it isn't.

I really miss Anand. He preferred Apple devices but he did not let that preference get in the way of his investigative journalism.

I agree that there's more to performance than SoC. But correct me if I'm wrong but one of the major arguments against Apple's products is that you get less for what you paid for in terms of spec.

But the iPhone 6S has top notch specs from SoC, storage speed, fingerprint, 3D though screen, finish, etc. Yet, it actually costs less/same as the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge which has inferior specs and polish.

I'd rather see more unbias, objective arguments from you than from Anandtech.

 

[senseamp]

Is it good enough to drive a 750p screen?

 

[Zink]

They just about doubled RAM, NAND, CPU, and GPU throughput, noticeably improved camera performance, and improved the touchscreen with haptics and force sensitivity.

I'm happy with the screen, 326 ppi is plenty for me and LCD performs better than AMOLED at low brightness.

iPhone 7 wish list:
- better durability
- better water resistance
- reduced weight
- dual cameras
- longer battery life
- higher charging speed

 

[core2slow]

Apple should expand their portfolio to the super-phablet territory. If they come out with a 6-6.5in screen I would buy it in a heartbeat.

 

[Midwayman]

iPhone 7 wish list:
- better water resistance

http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/iphone-6s-waterproof/

 

[Commodus]

What surprises me is just how... authoritative the performance lead is. The only areas where it isn't really out in front are 3DMark's physics and flash performance in some circumstances.

I'll agree that this performance is overkill for most people, but I suspect this is as much about futureproofing as anything else. More than anything, I feel sorry for those Android OEMs that don't make their own processors: they've had no choice but to settle for sub-par performance the entire year, even before the iPhone 6s cleaned their clocks.

 

[Commodus]

Apple should expand their portfolio to the super-phablet territory. If they come out with a 6-6.5in screen I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Can't see Apple going that route, at least not any time soon. 5.5 inches isn't exactly tiny, and if you want something really big... well, Apple will gladly sell you a cellular-equipped iPad mini. Part of why Samsung is in so much trouble these days is because it pursued that every-niche-must-be-filled strategy, releasing phones that were never going to do well simply because there was a chance a competitor might release a product at that size.

Me, I'd rather have Apple focus its energy on two common screen sizes than branch out, even if there is an appeal to an extra-large iPhone.

 

[core2slow]

Can't see Apple going that route, at least not any time soon. 5.5 inches isn't exactly tiny, and if you want something really big... well, Apple will gladly sell you a cellular-equipped iPad mini. Part of why Samsung is in so much trouble these days is because it pursued that every-niche-must-be-filled strategy, releasing phones that were never going to do well simply because there was a chance a competitor might release a product at that size.

Me, I'd rather have Apple focus its energy on two common screen sizes than branch out, even if there is an appeal to an extra-large iPhone.

it's a unicorn of a wish, I know, but they once swore not to go bigger than 3.5 inch.

 

[Anubis]

the 6+ is already a phablet

if they made the screen any larger the phone would be a foot long, DEM BEZELS

 

[core2slow]

It'll most likely be a departure from their big bezel, large round button design if they wish to go bigger than the Plus.

 

[Anubis]

It'll most likely be a departure from their big bezel, large round button design if they wish to go bigger than the Plus.

agree, itll be interesting if we see it vanish on the 7, i know its iconic but its making the phone kinda huge when it doesn't need to be

 

[GTRagnarok]

I'm quite jealous of the SoC and storage speed, but I'm still not going back to iPhone until they start using amoled displays (hopefully with smaller side bezels).

 

[Aristotelian]

Seems like a fast SoC but since I don't game on phones I'm not sure how relevant that is for me. On the review, I agree with earlier posters - there's only so many times I can read 'the best', or - per the OP - 'blows everything else out of the water'. On the former - self explanatory; on the latter 'everything else that Anandtech has reviewed'.

I'm not referring to the SoC comparisons here viz. what Anandtech has (or more importantly - not) reviewed - but camera/video quality, battery life, etc - there are numerous areas where the 6plus does not blow numerous other phones 'out of the water'.

These days I tend to skip reviews like this completely.

 

[openwheel]

new phone beats old phones, and the cycle continues. Glad the iPhone 6S continues the trend of raw performance, but not happy with the mediocre camera improvement. Even the S6 lineup still beats it by a hair.

I second those who miss the old days with Anand and Brian Klug, they wrote much better reviews.

 

[Red Storm]

The reviewer did acknowledge all of those things and has benchmarks to show for him.

1. It's slow charging and as an iPhone 6s owner, I wish it charged faster too.
2. The 16GB sucks but I've managed to live with it by using iCloud & iTunes Match which are very affordable.
3. It's slightly heavier but it isn't an issue.
4. Why would anyone ever want split screen on an iPhone? I work as a Product Manager for a highly used app and I can't think of any way to design a good app with only half the screen space on a phone.

In my opinion, these are all minor things. The 16GB has been beaten to death. We know... Apple just wants users to pay $100 extra for the 64GB. It's a business decision.

What else do you think Anandtech should have covered?

16GB is unacceptable in 2015, even more so on one of if not the most expensive smartphones in the market. It may be been beaten to death in forums, but in product reviews is where it needs to be highlighted, Apple cares more about reviews than forum discussion, so that is where they need to see stern wording about this greedy practice.

The phone got heavier and the battery got slightly smaller. That's going in the wrong direction IMHO.

I guess you've never used a Note? Split screen is definitely doable on a phone and works just fine. It is the most useful feature of the Note line IMHO.

Here's what I would expect from AT. If they're going to focus so much on the faster SoC, then do us a favor and show more than benchmarks. Show us the actual performance advantage. Apple put an awesome SoC in the 6S, so give us real life numbers! How many seconds faster does it install apps, load webpages, process voice requests, etc.? How much faster is it at loading games compared the iPhone 6? I want to know how much of an improvement the beastly SoC translates to in the real world, and I think a lot of people would like to know the same.

 

[openwheel]

so Siri in iPhone 6S can provide wrong information faster than ever?

Technically, all doctors recommend the latest iPhone because it helps your digestive system when the games load faster while you are on the loo.

 

[Anubis]

The phone got heavier and the battery got slightly smaller. That's going in the wrong direction IMHO.

.

I have to partially disagree here, Smaller battery is bad
however slightly heavier is good

phones have gotten too damn light, this coupled with the obsession with "thin at all costs" is the wrong direction

 

[gorcorps]

I guess you've never used a Note? Split screen is definitely doable on a phone and works just fine. It is the most useful feature of the Note line IMHO.

Just curious, what do you use it for? I've never found a good use for it, and ignore it entirely. It's easy enough to switch between apps that I'd rather bounce between two full screen apps than have a half screen of both.