The iPhone 6S is one of only a handful of smaller premium smartphones and promises fast performance, a great camera and new pressure-sensitive touchscreen.
In a world of smartphones with screens larger than 5in, the 4.7in iPhone 6S is in the minority. Most smaller smartphones are cut-down budget models with Sony’s 4.6in Xperia Z5 Compact the exception.
The iPhone 6S is the spitting image of last year’s iPhone 6. Side-to-side, back-to-back the only visible difference is a small “S” printed on the back and an extra 0.2mm in thickness. A pink version is also available, of course, if you want everyone to know you have the very latest smartphone.
At 143g the iPhone 6S is 14g heavier than last year’s model and the larger 5.1in 138g Samsung Galaxy S6 and the 138g Sony Xperia Z5 Compact. The difference is negligible.
It feels reassuringly solid and smooth in the hand compared to the iPhone 6, and it is slightly less slippery. It’s right on the limit of what I can use with one hand and still reach the top of the screen, which you need to be able to do within iOS.
The iPhone 6S’s screen, with 326 pixels per inch, has a relatively low pixel density compared to most other flagship smartphones. The denser the pixels, the crisper the screen appears. Lower density is particularly noticeable around text and the edges of icons.
The iPhone 6S’s 4.7in screen is noticeably less sharp than the 5.5in 401ppi screen of the iPhone 6S Plus, or the 577ppi 5.1in screen of the Samsung Galaxy S6.
While it is similar to the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact’s 323ppi screen and you may not notice the reduced clarity unless you put it side by side with a phone like the Galaxy S6, it really is time Apple increased the pixel density of its smaller flagship phone to at least match that of its phablet.
The iPhone 6S has the same dual-core A9 processor and 2GB of RAM as the 6S Plus and performs similarly.
It’s as snappy as an Apple smartphone can currently be, limited by the fixed duration of iOS 9’s animations, all of which are as smooth as they were on the iPhone 6. It’s not nearly as snappy as Samsung’s Galaxy S6, which is not held back by the same animation speed limit.
A couple of larger apps and heavier processes, such as video or photo editing, are slightly faster to load and get work done than last year’s iPhone. Switching between apps is also slightly faster and the Siri suggest screen on the left-most homescreen within iOS 9 also loads faster on the iPhone 6S compared to the iPhone 6.
Apple claims the A9 is 70% faster than last year’s A8 but not many apps are available yet to take advantage of the extra speed.
I found the iPhone 6S became warmer than the iPhone 6S Plus, particularly when downloading or accessing content via the mobile broadband connection rather than Wi-Fi.
Call quality was excellent and reliable, with no dropped calls in my testing on EE’s mobile network in London. Wi-Fi calling was also excellent and only took around a second to log on when connecting to Wi-Fi.
The iPhone 6S costs £539 for 16GB of storage, £619 for 64GB and £699 for 128GB in silver, dark grey, gold and pink.
Competitors such as the Samsung Galaxy S6 costs £400 for 32GB of storage and Sony Xperia Z5 Compact is available for pre-order costing £450 for 32GB with expansion support.
No one should buy the 16GB storage version as it is just not enough space for today’s apps, music, photos and video, particularly if shot in 4K or taking Live Photos.
Battery life is the iPhone 6S’s biggest problem. During the week the phone failed to make it past 11pm after leaving the charger at 7.30am in the morning.
I used the iPhone as my primary device, receiving hundreds of emails and push notifications, conducting 2.5 hours of browsing, three hours of music playback via Bluetooth headphones, taking a couple of pictures and playing the odd game of Angry Birds 2 on the train home.
At the weekend it spent most of the day sitting on a table untouched, but I still went to bed with only 30% charge left. Apple’s new Low Power Mode made little appreciable difference in real-world use.
Apple has chosen weight and thickness over battery life, which is a poor choice. Your experience may vary, but I suspect you will have to charge the iPhone 6S twice a day.
Pros: fast fingerprint scanner, good camera, Taptic Engine, solid build, great feeling
Cons: poor battery life of less than a day, expensive, 16GB is not enough storage, no OIS like the 6S Plus, vibration not intense enough to reliably notice incoming texts