iPhone 6s ~ Technology Tester

INTRODUCTION & DESIGN

Apple's tagline for the iPhone 6S is 'the only thing that's changed is everything', highlighting that the brand knows this is a phone that looks an awful lot like 2014's model.

It makes sense that Apple would try its hardest to show that, despite the handset looking identical to the iPhone 6, there have been loads of changes under the hood that make this an attractive phone in its own right

The chassis is stronger, the camera sharper – with a new Harry Potter-esque way of capturing your snaps – and there's even a completely new way of interacting with the screen. On paper, it's an impressive upgrade.

CAMERA

The camera app on the iPhone 6S is very similar to previous years, with a few small tweaks to add in new features.

The first is Live Photos, which takes a 1.5 second picture before and after the snap and turns it into a small video you can play to capture the memory. Apple's clearly realised that you can only do so much to enhance the camera in terms of image quality and started to work out how to capture more of the moment you're after.

It's hardly a new idea though - although the integration here is impressive and is less onerous than trying to use the Zoe mode on the HTC One series, for instance. The speed with which you can take a photo hasn't diminished either, so you can take multiple pictures in quick succession and the iPhone's A9 processor can work out what needs to be saved to create the Live Photo.

BATTERY

The battery life in the iPhone 6 was finally not terrible and while the iPhone 6S hasn't really pushed that ability on any further, it's still in the mix with the top smartphones on the market.

That doesn't mean it has stellar battery life by any stretch though, as it will still struggle to last the day. It's only saved by the fact that most of the other top phones - the HTC 10, Huawei P9 and LG G5 - all can't manage the same thing either, the handsets all desperately trying to fire more pixels in the screen or update more apps to provide a richer experience.

What is cool is that Apple now provides more info as to what's going on behind the scenes with the battery. Not only does it tell you what's been nabbing all your power in the last 24 hours / week, but it will also tell you how much of that was background and foreground effort.
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Finally, iOS 9 offers the chance for you to extend your iPhone battery life further by simply tagging an option in the settings.

The move will disable certain aspects like the phone constantly listening out for you saying 'Hey Siri', or keeping your mail updated in the background.

In fact, if you're not bothered about the phone constantly listening for your 'Hey Siri' voice command, I couldn't really see a problem with using Low Power Mode all the time - apart from the fact the battery colour moves from green to yellow to signify that the phone is in the lower effort mode.

There's no option to toggle it on and off in the Control Centre at the bottom of the screen, which means you'll need to head into the settings to disable it. However, when your phone reaches around 80% charge the iPhone will automatically offer to turn it off for you, as it's decided that it's got enough power to see it through whatever you're going to be doing next.

It's a real shame that the iPhone 6S' battery life isn't a little bit better - it's making me wonder how much that 3D Touch system is impacting on the power management. If it's a lot, then you'll have to hope that the improvement in the interface as developers get on board is worth it.