The reviews are in for Apple’s latest iPhones, and unsurprisingly, everyone seems to love them. With a faster processor, a better camera and 3D Touch capabilities, the iPhone 6s is a step up over the iPhone 6, but not quite the revolution we see with the standard numbered models every other year.
So now that we’ve heard all the praise, it’s time to find the other side of the story.
FROM EARLIER: The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus reviews are in!
In The Wall Street Journal’s video review for the iPhone 6s, Joanna Stern brings up the first major complaint that consumers are sure to level against the iPhone 6s: it’s battery life isn’t noticeably better than that of the iPhone 6.
“The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus lasted just as long on my web surfing test as the previous models, but because of the new camera tricks, I actually felt like I was charging the phones more frequently.”
was similarly disappointed with the things that didn’t change, highlighting the less-than-ideal design that Apple carried over from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 6s:
“These are welcome tweaks, but it’s too bad that the iPhone 6 design remains Apple’s least elegant design since the plastic blob of the iPhone 3G and 3GS, thanks to its slippery shape, camera bulge, and weird antenna lines. The 6S Plus feels particularly surfboard-y in comparison to the Galaxy Note 5, LG G4, and Moto X, which all manage large screens in less ungainly packages.”
3D Touch has generally been well-received, but USA Today’s Ed Baig notes that there is a bit of a learning curve with the new feature:
“3D Touch is something I think you’ll ultimately embrace, but don’t expect to master it immediately, even with subtle touch feedback. Even after several days, I sometimes pressed too hard or too gently or wasn’t precise enough. For example, on the iPhone 6 when I press along the left side of the display to get to a multitasking view, I sometimes inadvertently summoned a search screen instead. I also struggled to get the icons on the home screens to wiggle so that I could rearrange them as on older iPhones.”
Finally, in a world where 4K phones have perplexingly become a thing, TechRadar is thoroughly unimpressed with the resolution of the iPhone 6s display:
“The screen on the iPhone 6S seems to be identical to last year’s: we’re talking a 4.7-inch affair with 750p resolution, which keeps it firmly in the ‘Retina’ range that the firm debuted all the way back with the iPhone 4.
It’s hard to rate the display, as while it fails on resolution (quite spectacularly actually – phones a seventh the cost of the iPhone 6S offer 1080p screens, Samsung’s cheaper phone has four times the resolution of the 6S and Sony has, inexplicably, just launched a 4K phone) it doesn’t drop too badly on performance.”
These are all reasonable issues to have with the iPhone 6s, but all of these reviews have one thing in common: they all conclude that the iPhone 6s is one of (if not the) best phones on the market.
