I have always wanted an iPhone, ever since Steve Jobs announced it in 2007. However, back then, I was 11 years old and there was no way my parents were buying me an iPhone, and there was nothing I could do to convince them. And trust me, I tried plenty of methods to persuade them, and none of them did the trick.
Nevertheless, I did get to use it and play with it quite a lot, because my Dad bought one, for himself. Sigh. I mean, how can a parent do that to his kid, right? It’s like, you can play with it, but you can’t put your SIM card in it and truly make it your own. And if you mess something up, you’re doomed!
In 2010, my Dad bought a Samsung Galaxy S and I fell in love with its Super AMOLED screen and the Android OS. And, finally, in 2011, I bought my first ever Android-based smartphone: Samsung Galaxy S II — I saved for seven months until I had enough to buy one. Since then, I have exclusively only used Samsung’s flagship smartphones as my daily drivers; upgrading every year to the latest model as soon as it came out.
Moreover, as I have been in the media industry for more than three years now, I have also tested a plethora of Android smartphones from other manufacturers as well. But I have never owned an iPhone, until now.
Mainly because, before the iPhone 6, Cupertino refused to manufacture an iPhone with a bigger screen than 4-inches. While on the Android side, we were rocking devices with screen sizes ranging from 5 to 5.7-inches and sporting a display resolution much higher than that of the iPhone’s Retina Display. There was no way I could use a smartphone with a such a small display.
So whenever my colleagues or friends used to ask for my opinion on the iPhone, I used to say to them: as soon as the company launches a bigger iPhone, I’ll buy one instantly. And Apple ultimately did it. It launched two variants of the iPhone 6, one with a 4.7-inch display and the other with a 5.5-inch display. On launch day, I tried to get one by queuing outside my local Apple Store; I queued for two hours, yet I wasn’t able to score one. Apple ran out of all 64GB variants of both, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. After that, I gave up and never bothered getting one.
My good friends over at MobileFun.com have been following my work for quite some time now and sent me a 64GB, Silver, 4.7-inch iPhone 6S for this editorial. I have been using it for more than six weeks now, and I’m ready to give you my thoughts on the current state of the iPhone — a perspective from an Android user.
Now, this piece won’t be like my usual comprehensive reviews, it will be more like the things I like and don’t like about the product, and what I think Apple needs to do in the future.
Design and build quality
There was a time when if somebody wanted to buy a smartphone with a premium design and exceptional build quality, they would just get the latest iPhone without thinking much about it. And, to be honest, I would have done the exact same thing, because Apple was one of the few manufacturers — if not the only one — who focused on the form of its smartphone, not just the spec sheet.
With that being said, nowadays, the tables have turned and almost every Android OEM is producing their smartphones by keeping the design at the centre of the development process. We have passed the point where one device is significantly faster or powerful than the other in its category, so the design is what often plays the differentiating factor in the consumer’s buying decision. Hence, the iPhone 6S’s design doesn’t excite me.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it’s a poorly designed smartphone; It’s just that it doesn’t have the wow factor we all expect from an iPhone, at least in my opinion. And as it’s a flagship Apple design, it’s blatantly being ripped off by other companies to sell their own smartphones, which in return has made Cupertino’s design a bit too generic.
The iPhone 6S’s design language to me is very reminiscent of the original iPhone. It features 7000-series aluminium back (no more bendgate issues) with rounded corners and curved edges, which seamlessly connects with the 2.5D glass on the front; the glass is also curved at the edges.
The entire body is extremely slippery with almost no grip whatsoever; I have actually almost dropped it a few times while taking it out of my inside jacket pocket. In my experience, a glass back provides a bit more grip over a metal back, even though it’s more prone to get shattered once dropped on to the ground. Furthermore, I’m not a big fan of the antenna lines at the back, they break the consistency of the overall design. I really hope the company figures out a way to get rid of them in the next iteration of the device.
As far as the build quality is concerned, I think we all are very well aware of the fact that Apple doesn’t joke around when it comes to the quality of its products. And just like its other products and previous generations of the iPhone, the iPhone 6S’s build quality is top notch. I have been using the 6S without a case since day 1, and there’s not a single scratch or dent to be found anywhere on the enclosure — even the stainless steel Apple logo is so far scratch-free.
Display
Believe it or not, the new 6S is a tad taller, wider, thicker, and heavier than its predecessor — 138.3x67.1x7.1mm, 143g (compared to the 6: 138.1x67x6.9mm, 129g) — and that’s because it’s equipped with Apple’s new pressure-sensitive display technology, which is called 3D Touch. And, in my opinion, it’s the best characteristic of the iPhone.
With 3D Touch, Apple has taken software interaction to a whole new level, it has basically developed a right-click for the iPhone. As the display is now pressure-sensitive, the device detects how hard you’re pressing the screen and acts accordingly.
For instance, if your friend sends you a link to a website, you can light press on the link and a preview window will open up, giving you a peek at the website itself. And if you like what you see, you can increase the pressure of your thumb and it would pop open the website inside Safari.
Just like that, 3D Touch works throughout iOS 9, with the same peek and pop principle. My most-liked 3D Touch feature, however, is being able to change the position of the curser while in a textfield. Almost all the 3rd party apps I use have already been updated to support 3D Touch, except a few Google apps — mainly Gmail and Hangouts.
A very limited number of Android OEMs have also tried experimenting with pressure-sensitive displays, but their implementation hasn’t been as great as Apple’s — won’t get the push from Android app developers. Nevertheless, Google has recently confirmed that Android N will have native support for pressure-sensitive displays, so that sounds like a step in the right direction.
Speaking of the display, the iPhone 6S is packing a 4.7-inch IPS HD (1334x750) panel with a pixel density of 326ppi, which makes it a Retina Display. Sure, the display isn’t boasting a Quad HD (2560x1440), or even Full HD (1920x1080), resolution or is of an AMOLED variety, it’s still sharp enough and gorgeous to look at.
I must say, before making the switch, I was a bit skeptical about the iPhone’s display, as I had been using Android flagships with much, much higher resolution displays. Nonetheless, I’m glad to report that Apple has sourced one of the best LCD panels in the business. The only issue I had was with the brightness of the panel, it doesn’t perform really well under direct sunlight. And the auto-brightness system isn’t that great too.
I have also been using Night Shift — introduced in iOS 9.3 — which allows the user to manually control the colour temperature of the display, it can also automatically activate and deactivate upon sunset and sunrise or a custom timeframe. Technically, it should have helped me sleep better, but I don’t think it has affected my sleep at all. In spite of that, I did notice that the warmer temperature was less straining on my eyes.
Camera
Apple’s smartphones have always been known for their superb camera systems, and the 6S didn’t disappoint at all. There are three things you need to know: the resolution of the sensor has been increased from 8 megapixels to 12 megapixels, it can shoot 4K video at 30FPS, and there’s a new Live Photos feature. Furthermore, just like its predecessor, the iPhone 6S isn’t equipped with optical-image-stabilisation, while the Plus model is.
Here’s the thing with the camera: the image quality isn’t as impressive as Samsung’s flagship Galaxy devices, but it’s extremely close, and the software isn’t as feature-rich as LG’s G4/V10. By default, 4K video recording is disabled and has to be enabled from the settings, probably because of the 16GB variant Apple is still selling in 2016. Overall, the camera experience is pretty solid — it’s easy-to-use and the sensor is capable of taking great pictures in almost all lighting conditions. However, if you do a lot of low-light photography, I would advise you to put your money on the Plus model instead, as it has OIS built-in.
As for the Live Photos feature, I only found myself using it just for the sake of testing it, actually. I disabled it a week later, as it took double the amount of storage compared to a standard, single image. If you aren’t already familiar with the feature, it’s basically a GIF with audio. What it really does is, it records a 1.5 second video before and after you capture a picture, so you can relive the moment every time you view it. This is actually also the primary marketing trait for Apple’s 3D Touch technology, because in order to preview a live photo, you need to press down hard on the display.
Hardware and software
In terms of hardware specifications, the iPhone 6S is a mid-range device on paper, yet it’s the fastest and smoothest smartphone I have ever used in my life. And that’s because Apple builds the hardware and software itself, so the entire platform is heavily optimised. I don’t think I need to say anything else regarding the performance.
Software-wise, my experience with iOS was mostly pleasant, but sometimes frustrating as well.
The best thing about iOS is that it seamlessly interlinks with OS X on the Mac. As I use a Macbook Pro as my computer of choice, iOS allowed me to make and receive calls directly through my computer, and switch from the mobile app to the desktop one and pick up right from I left off. For example, I could start writing a text on my iPhone, while walking towards my desk, and continue with it on my MacBook, and vice versa. Moreover, I was finally able to use FaceTime and iMessage to converse with my friends and family, who use these specific Apple services regularly.
Furthermore, almost all of my banking apps support Apple’s Touch ID for authentication, so it was super convenient using Touch ID to log into them, as I no longer had to type in a password or a pin number in public places — which potentially is a security risk. Speaking of Touch ID, Cupertino’s fingerprint sensor is insanely fast and accurate. I almost never saw my lock screen, it’s that fast.
I have to say, the user interface is pretty basic and intuitive, it’s so simple that even my grandmother could use it without asking for my help after 5 minutes — it’s brilliant. However, I did miss not having Weather and Google Calendar widgets on my home screen from time to time. Also, not having a permanent back button was a big issue for me. In order to go back to the previous screen, some apps required me to swipe to the right or press the back button on the top left or press the ok button on the top right; it got really confusing sometimes.
The company should take some cues from Android for its notification system, as it’s somewhat deficient. It dismisses notifications from the lock screen as soon as you unlock the device, and if you have already attended a notification but haven’t accessed it directly from the notification centre, it won’t get removed. Additionally, I would have liked if there was a built-in file manager to access my local files and a file extractor to unzip/unrar compressed files.
I live in the UK and we don’t yet have Android Pay or Samsung Pay, but we do have Apple Pay. So it was really an experience using the iPhone to pay for a meal. With that being said, It wasn’t able to completely replace my wallet, due to it being not that reliable. I’m not talking about the service, but the iPhone 6S as whole. I say that, because the battery life on this thing is a joke. It doesn’t even last an entire working day, usually dies on me around 6PM, so I have to charge it at least twice a day. And as it doesn’t have fast charging, it takes more than 2 hours to fully charge it.
Conclusion
Now it’s time for the magic question: will I be using the iPhone 6S as my daily driver? As I mentioned earlier, I don’t really have a daily driver; perks of being a technology writer and reviewer. I’m always testing something new and exciting. However, these days I’m thinking of getting a separate work line, and If I do get one, the iPhone will get my vote for a second smartphone.
Should you get one, you may ask? Well, If you want your smartphone to just simply work, you should get an iPhone. If you own a Mac, look no further and get the iPhone. If you have been using Android for quite a few years now and love customising your software experience, it’s better that you stick to Android for now.
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