iPhone 6s

Design

Most obviously, the design is identical to the iPhone 6. It’s got the same rounded edges, same rounded corners, the same buttons, all in the same place. I even took the case off my old iPhone 6, and it snaps right on the new 6s. In fact, the only way I could tell my new and old phones apart is the slight increase in weight, probably thanks to the new 3D Touch screen and fancy Taptic Engine force-feedback. Granted, it’s not enough to be annoying because we’re talking about a measly 15 grams here. But yes, the 6s is a bit more hefty.

You won’t notice it, but there is one difference with the case. It’s now made of the same 7000-series aluminum alloy used in the Apple Watch Sport. That should make the phone stronger, which I’m sure is in no way related to those bendy iPhone 6es.

Using It

There is one big thing that’s changed with the 6s, and that’s how you navigate around iOS. 3D Touch, as Apple dubs its pressure-sensitive screen and the software that goes with it, makes moving through the OS a much faster experience.

Peek on an email in the Mail app, and you’ll see a preview; press harder, and you’ll ‘pop’ into the message proper. (It’s the same thing in the Messages app.) My favorite 3D Touch interaction is probably with hyperlinks. ‘Peek’ on a link in Safari (or Mail), and you get a preview of that webpage. If you don’t like what you see, you let go, and return to your original page; press harder, and you link through.

It’s kinda like what a mouse hover-over does on a PC, but only better.

3D Touch also lets you get at stuff faster from the home screen. All of Apple’s apps (and an increasing number of third-party apps) offer shortcuts to simple actions if you press hard on them. It’s basically right-clicking for context menus but for your iPhone.

None of this is going to change your life, but it is immensely satisfying. You know the rush you get when you can zip through a desktop program with a well-orchestrated series of keyboard commands? Well, that’s what 3D Touch feels like. Going back to a phone without it feels a little like having to use Edit—> Copy all over again. In some ways, it’s the most PC-like iPhone ever.

Besides 3D Touch, the iPhone’s other “touch” branded feature, the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, also sees a big improvement on the 6. It’s much faster and consistently more accurate.

Other than those things, using the 6s feels much like using its one-year-old sibling. There’s a much faster processor and more RAM inside, but day-to-day use is exactly the same. Also just like the 6, the phone is never lagging or struggling to keep up thanks to optimization between iOS and the iPhone’s hardware. So when it comes to iPhones, more RAM isn’t always the answer.

Speaking of internals: the battery on the 6s is actually smaller than the one in the 6, but the processor is also less power-hungry. The result is a wash: you’ll still get a very full day of use, but don’t go dreaming about charger-free overnight trips.

The 6s excels at one thing, though—battery life when you’re not using it.

Like

Almost everything. The iPhone 6s doesn’t feel so much like a new device, but that’s not a bad thing. The iPhone 6 was a slam-dunk of a smartphone, with excellent features across the board with no deal-breaking flaws and Apple’s well-stocked App Store.

The 6s takes all of those positives and builds on them with a genuinely useful new interaction mode, more future-proof guts, and a camera that can keep up with the competition (at the very least). All the added perks, like always-on Hey Siri and the many small software updates that iOS 9 brought, make the overall experience even better.

No Like

At the moment, 3D Touch feels like a work in progress. With the exception of the already excellent ‘peek’ previews, it feels like untapped potential. It will take more app makers getting fully on board to make it more than just a glorified right-click. I imagine that much like widgets with iOS 8, we’ll see a steady stream of app updates in the coming months that take advantage of 3D Touch’s context menus, but right now it’s a little bare.