Apple finally launched its latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus in
India a few days ago and we played with a shimmery gold iPhone 6s.
With a price tag that starts at Rs 62,000 and goes up to Rs 92,000, the latest iPhones ought to make jaws drop. To see if the upgrade to the iPhone 6 had the same effect, we toyed with the device for a while and here are our first impressions of the first iPhone with 3D Touch.
Despite the brouhaha around the new ‘Rose Gold’ finish, the reactions of
Apple fans at the store awaiting the unboxing of their Rose Gold model
tell a different story. Their expressions visibly turned from hope to
shock to despair. The finish is a rather unflattering one and takes away
the charm from an otherwise sleek and beautiful device. The idea behind
introducing a Rose Gold finish was to match it with the Apple Watch in
same finish. But it seems the ‘pink’ iPhone is a little shocking for
some to absorb. Is it a cultural thing and India is perhaps not the
market for ‘Rose Gold’ in iPhones? We’ll be able to answer that one
after if and when Apple releases its sales report for India.
Coming back to the iPhone 6s, the phone is 0.28-inch in thickness,
and has been built from 7000 Series aluminium which is claimed to be the
strongest alloy ever used for an iPhone. While that might help you feel
little less worried in case you drop the device, at 143 grams the phone
feels a slightly heavy owing to the 3D Touch technology layered beneath
the display.
The iPhone 6s has a 4.7-inch Retina display, but the beauty of the phone lies in the way you can now interact with the device. The new 3D Touch feature is essentially aimed at reducing the number of taps and swipes one needs to do in order to execute a function. With the new technology, Apple has aimed at tweaking the way we have been interacting with screens for years now: taps, taps, swipes, and some more taps.
Although 3D Touch would require a bit of learning even if you have been an iPhone user for a while, unless, of course you already own the new MacBook or the Apple Watch that come with force touch technology. The earlier soft taps have now been replaced with a ‘forced’ tap that pops out shortcuts for functions within apps or for previews of emails, photos, etc.
You tap and hold for a nanosecond, it blurs the background and gives you a peek of an image; you hold on a little longer, it shows the image in fullscreen, and as you scroll it up - all while pressing down - it shows further options to share, copy, delete, or favourite, before snapping back to the gallery.
While Apple has intended to revolutionise screen-interaction with the new feature, it has, thankfully, given you the choice to turn it off in a case you do not find it useful or more accurately, do not learn the ‘right way’ of tapping. Also, not all apps show up shortcuts with the 3D Touch.
One of the biggest improvements in the new iPhones is the camera. 4K video recording through its 12 megapixel rear camera to HD recording through the 5 megapixel front snapper, the new iPhone 6s has received some of the much asked-for camera upgrades. From Live photos to slow motion clips, there is an option to choose the desired camera settings based on the quality and space the photos or videos will consume.
The front camera doesn’t have a dedicated flash, but the screen itself works like a flash by going brighter for a split second prior to taking a selfie. The front camera supports normal video capture and time-lapse but not the slo-mo feature.
Other hardware tweak is the power adapter furnished with the iPhone 6s. The adapter has thicker plugging point than the earlier versions. The earplugs, on the other hand, remain the same in terms of design.
As Apple admits there’s nothing that has changed in terms of design in the new iPhones, the only tweaks which differentiate the new from the old is the 3D touch and the improved cameras. However, the phone’s overall functionality could be analysed after an in-depth study over a period of usage.
Whether the upgrade through new camera and display technology really sees the iPhone 6s become ‘the thing’ once again, despite rival devices offering simple yet more useful options like wireless charging, we shall know soon. Till then, let’s try to get the degree of pressure just right for the intended interesting interaction.
With a price tag that starts at Rs 62,000 and goes up to Rs 92,000, the latest iPhones ought to make jaws drop. To see if the upgrade to the iPhone 6 had the same effect, we toyed with the device for a while and here are our first impressions of the first iPhone with 3D Touch.
The iPhone 6s has a 4.7-inch Retina display, but the beauty of the phone lies in the way you can now interact with the device. The new 3D Touch feature is essentially aimed at reducing the number of taps and swipes one needs to do in order to execute a function. With the new technology, Apple has aimed at tweaking the way we have been interacting with screens for years now: taps, taps, swipes, and some more taps.
Although 3D Touch would require a bit of learning even if you have been an iPhone user for a while, unless, of course you already own the new MacBook or the Apple Watch that come with force touch technology. The earlier soft taps have now been replaced with a ‘forced’ tap that pops out shortcuts for functions within apps or for previews of emails, photos, etc.
You tap and hold for a nanosecond, it blurs the background and gives you a peek of an image; you hold on a little longer, it shows the image in fullscreen, and as you scroll it up - all while pressing down - it shows further options to share, copy, delete, or favourite, before snapping back to the gallery.
While Apple has intended to revolutionise screen-interaction with the new feature, it has, thankfully, given you the choice to turn it off in a case you do not find it useful or more accurately, do not learn the ‘right way’ of tapping. Also, not all apps show up shortcuts with the 3D Touch.
One of the biggest improvements in the new iPhones is the camera. 4K video recording through its 12 megapixel rear camera to HD recording through the 5 megapixel front snapper, the new iPhone 6s has received some of the much asked-for camera upgrades. From Live photos to slow motion clips, there is an option to choose the desired camera settings based on the quality and space the photos or videos will consume.
The front camera doesn’t have a dedicated flash, but the screen itself works like a flash by going brighter for a split second prior to taking a selfie. The front camera supports normal video capture and time-lapse but not the slo-mo feature.
Other hardware tweak is the power adapter furnished with the iPhone 6s. The adapter has thicker plugging point than the earlier versions. The earplugs, on the other hand, remain the same in terms of design.
As Apple admits there’s nothing that has changed in terms of design in the new iPhones, the only tweaks which differentiate the new from the old is the 3D touch and the improved cameras. However, the phone’s overall functionality could be analysed after an in-depth study over a period of usage.
Whether the upgrade through new camera and display technology really sees the iPhone 6s become ‘the thing’ once again, despite rival devices offering simple yet more useful options like wireless charging, we shall know soon. Till then, let’s try to get the degree of pressure just right for the intended interesting interaction.
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