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Any Benefit upgrading to iPhone 6S for Watch?

iBighouse

iBighouse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2012
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I've got two iPhone 5Ss on AT&T (64/silver and 32/space grey). I'm trying to figure out if I want to upgrade it to a 6S on my current AT&T unlimited data grandfathered plan (I'm NOT super happy with it) or if I should just jump ship with AT&T and maybe give T-Mobile a try instead. Though I'm on the "unlimited data" plan I never use much data on either phone and it seems that I rarely get a fantastic cell signal strength- almost as if AT&T is limiting my plan to lower cell tower speeds. Even in the middle of a larger city, I get like one dot or two on cell signal strength.

One of the reasons I might go for an upgrade would be if it somehow made my use of my watch more enjoyable/easier/better. So, does anyone know if there is any direct benefit to using the latest iPhone in connection with the watch, or if it doesn't really matter much which generation of phone is paired to the watch?
 
Although Watch OS 2 will allow native third party apps, thus speeding up use of them, all the "heavy-lifting" data crunching is offloaded to the iPhone. While you don't consciously use much data, the watch is adding to the load you are using, all of which is bottlenecks through the phone's connection, and this in turn taxes the processor and draws power, as well as slowing down everything.

So I would expect the 6S with two generations more advanced processor, which is also much more power efficient, would improve your overall enjoyment of the watch in that it should be theoretically faster in some instances, and off load to the iPhone more efficiently, making better use of your battery life.

But if you don't have any concerns with these issues now, then I'd wait until the 7, after the second gen watches arrive. I doubt there's any one great new feature the 6S supports on the Watch the 5S won't.
 
iBighouse said:
I've got two iPhone 5Ss on AT&T (64/silver and 32/space grey). I'm trying to figure out if I want to upgrade it to a 6S on my current AT&T unlimited data grandfathered plan (I'm NOT super happy with it) or if I should just jump ship with AT&T and maybe give T-Mobile a try instead. Though I'm on the "unlimited data" plan I never use much data on either phone and it seems that I rarely get a fantastic cell signal strength- almost as if AT&T is limiting my plan to lower cell tower speeds. Even in the middle of a larger city, I get like one dot or two on cell signal strength.

One of the reasons I might go for an upgrade would be if it somehow made my use of my watch more enjoyable/easier/better. So, does anyone know if there is any direct benefit to using the latest iPhone in connection with the watch, or if it doesn't really matter much which generation of phone is paired to the watch?
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That's strange about your signal strength. I'm on AT&T unlimited data grandfathered plan, too. My husband and I usually get full or close to full strength on our iPhones. When I first moved out to my current town the signal was poor but they upgraded their service here fairly soon after our move. We get good signal strength in cities but some buildings do seem to block signals from all of the providers.
 
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Put simply: no.

The benefit mentioned that the phone does the heavy lifting so a better phone improves experience is not really true. I mean, technically it might be but I can virtually guarantee that you'd never see a difference in real world usage.

If you want a 6S just get it. No need to look for flimsy excuses lol.
 
Gregintosh said:
Put simply: no.

The benefit mentioned that the phone does the heavy lifting so a better phone improves experience is not really true. I mean, technically it might be but I can virtually guarantee that you'd never see a difference in real world usage.

If you want a 6S just get it. No need to look for flimsy excuses lol.
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Any benefit (if any) of the phone doing the "heavy lifting" is nearly gone anyways with watchOS 2 and apps running on and from the watch. (When they are updated in the coming week or two.)
 
If Live Photos is of interest to you. Only the 6s can take them. The AW can display them.
 
And me. I paid $399 for my 6 last year and Amazon will give me $424 gift card. We both win. Or may trade wife's 3+ year old 5s for $150.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
If Live Photos is of interest to you. Only the 6s can take them. The AW can display them.
Click to expand...

lagwagon said:
One real benefit that I can only think of, is the ability to create your own Live Photos on the new 6s or 6s+ and use those for watch faces.
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Would the AW be able to animate them on the lock screen like on iPhone 6s? If not, how's this any different from regular photo watch faces?
 
Chupa Chupa said:
If Live Photos is of interest to you. Only the 6s can take them. The AW can display them.
Click to expand...

True.. but how often do people look at entire galleries on their watch? We're talking about a $500-$1000+ investment for like 5 minutes of use over a few year period?

Even if you are referring to watch faces, there are probably cheaper ways. It's also unclear if live photos are animated when used as a watch face. Though that may be kind of cool, I'm not sure that alone is worth the upgrade, but I guess it would be a nice perk if you're getting it anyway.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Would the AW be able to animate them on the lock screen like on iPhone 6s? If not, how's this any different from regular photo watch faces?
Click to expand...

The Apple Watch doesn't have a lock screen, it has a watch face. And from the talk on Wednesday it appears that you can use the live photo as a photo in the photo watch face. Then it is like the time-lapse face, where the animation plays when you raise your wrist.
 
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iBighouse said:
I've got two iPhone 5Ss on AT&T (64/silver and 32/space grey). I'm trying to figure out if I want to upgrade it to a 6S on my current AT&T unlimited data grandfathered plan (I'm NOT super happy with it) or if I should just jump ship with AT&T and maybe give T-Mobile a try instead. Though I'm on the "unlimited data" plan I never use much data on either phone and it seems that I rarely get a fantastic cell signal strength- almost as if AT&T is limiting my plan to lower cell tower speeds. Even in the middle of a larger city, I get like one dot or two on cell signal strength.

One of the reasons I might go for an upgrade would be if it somehow made my use of my watch more enjoyable/easier/better. So, does anyone know if there is any direct benefit to using the latest iPhone in connection with the watch, or if it doesn't really matter much which generation of phone is paired to the watch?
Click to expand...

If you want a better signal go with Verizon. I had the same problems with att, Verizon by far has the best cell coverage, but you pay more for Verizon, only trade off. Verizon doesn't bend to compete as much as the other guys. I wouldn't go to t mobile for a better signal, it might actually get worse for you.
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Would the AW be able to animate them on the lock screen like on iPhone 6s? If not, how's this any different from regular photo watch faces?
Click to expand...

Yes it will. You set the Live photo as the watch face in the photo face option.
 

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JayLenochiniMac said:
Awesome. However, I'm disappointed that it doesn't allow complications because that that kills the usefulness of the face for me.
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I'm not really a fan of the photo ones either. All I want is a decent normal watch face that actually uses the full screen like the Hermes exclusive face does. I find nearly all the faces look too small when they're only using the middle. I tend to only like Simple with nothing but the hands and date showing (this way you don't see how small it actually is, but makes it harder to pinpoint the actual time) and X-Large because it uses most the screen.
 
iBighouse said:
I've got two iPhone 5Ss on AT&T (64/silver and 32/space grey). I'm trying to figure out if I want to upgrade it to a 6S on my current AT&T unlimited data grandfathered plan (I'm NOT super happy with it) or if I should just jump ship with AT&T and maybe give T-Mobile a try instead. Though I'm on the "unlimited data" plan I never use much data on either phone and it seems that I rarely get a fantastic cell signal strength- almost as if AT&T is limiting my plan to lower cell tower speeds. Even in the middle of a larger city, I get like one dot or two on cell signal strength.

One of the reasons I might go for an upgrade would be if it somehow made my use of my watch more enjoyable/easier/better. So, does anyone know if there is any direct benefit to using the latest iPhone in connection with the watch, or if it doesn't really matter much which generation of phone is paired to the watch?
Click to expand...
----- I have a 6+ and my son has a 5S, watch is definitely faster with WOS2 than his on 5S. You should also notice a considerable speed difference on cellular connection and a iPhone 6 to iPhone 6 sound quality is off the chain!! You will notice a difference.
 
jediuia said:
If you want a better signal go with Verizon. I had the same problems with att, Verizon by far has the best cell coverage, but you pay more for Verizon, only trade off. Verizon doesn't bend to compete as much as the other guys. I wouldn't go to t mobile for a better signal, it might actually get worse for you.
Click to expand...
Depends where you are - ATT has much better bandwidth and higher speeds with LTE - I win the speed tests all the time with my LTE Verizon friends.
 
Gregintosh said:
True.. but how often do people look at entire galleries on their watch? We're talking about a $500-$1000+ investment for like 5 minutes of use over a few year period?

Even if you are referring to watch faces, there are probably cheaper ways. It's also unclear if live photos are animated when used as a watch face. Though that may be kind of cool, I'm not sure that alone is worth the upgrade, but I guess it would be a nice perk if you're getting it anyway.
Click to expand...
I'm looking at an animated photo on my Awatch face right now. They work
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
Awesome. However, I'm disappointed that it doesn't allow complications because that that kills the usefulness of the face for me.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The reason I use the Modular face is that it lets me see a lot of data without any further action on my part. But it shouldn't be that difficult to design a background that's more interesting than nothing while still being sufficiently muted to let you read the characters or by otherwise making the data stand out.
 
Gregintosh said:
True.. but how often do people look at entire galleries on their watch? We're talking about a $500-$1000+ investment for like 5 minutes of use over a few year period?

Even if you are referring to watch faces, there are probably cheaper ways. It's also unclear if live photos are animated when used as a watch face. Though that may be kind of cool, I'm not sure that alone is worth the upgrade, but I guess it would be a nice perk if you're getting it anyway.
Click to expand...

Why do you state it's "unclear is Live Photos are animated when used as watch face when it's clearly acknowledged on the official WatchOS 2.0 page (http://www.apple.com/watchos-2/)?
 
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