You can easily tell there's more memory because apps don't reload and we can have many tabs in Safari open without them reloading constantly. As a former iPhone 6+ user (and former Galaxy s6 user), I can absolutely confirm this. You don't need to be some kind of serious gamer or do 4k filming regularly to realize this in everyday use. Memory was a huge concern for users last year and Apple addressed it. The 6S+ is a huge step forward. Have you even used one of the new iPhones? Maybe it's you who is exaggerating and misinforming others.
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Holy ****, Apple well done!
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You can easily tell there's more memory because apps don't reload and we can have many tabs in Safari open without them reloading constantly. As a former iPhone 6+ user (and former Galaxy s6 user), I can absolutely confirm this. You don't need to be some kind of serious gamer or do 4k filming regularly to realize this in everyday use. Memory was a huge concern for users last year and Apple addressed it. The 6S+ is a huge step forward. Have you even used one of the new iPhones? Maybe it's you who is exaggerating and misinforming others.
Agreed. I think the biggest reason for the added smoothness is not the faster CPU, it's the increased RAM, and the better interface between RAM and CPU (desktop class SSD controller mentioned in the Anandtech article).
See my comment above. I think the A8 was pretty darn good. My opinion is the RAM is making the biggest difference here, and the CPU speed increase is just icing on the cake.
Think about it. The iPhone has had 1 GB of RAM since the 5, introduced three years ago. The OS has been updated three times since then with quite a few new features. These new features increase the amount of processes that need to be held in RAM. Apps have also grown more complex and demand more RAM. Users are doing more and multitasking more. Yet they never increased the RAM. Last year's iPhone was pretty fast overall, a testament to Apple's programmers who must have had to go through some serious gyrations to manage the RAM and keep enough available to apps while providing a passable level of multitasking performance. I would not have wanted their job. There must have been a lot of background memory compression, swapping, unloading and reloading of processes, etc. Quite a dance, all of which robs CPU cycles, which creates lag, stutters, and occasional crashes. I'm sure the A8 was working quite hard.
Now there's breathing room. If the 1GB of RAM in last year's models was 50% consumed by the OS, leaving only 512 mb for apps, then there could be as much as 3x the available RAM to apps now. And the OS can have more processes loaded and at the ready. I've noticed Siri responding and dictating quicker and other functions responding much faster. The phone is ready for more tasks and shuffling in the background far less.
I never said there no improvement. But you and op said it is "huge". Do you check mail much faster? Do you send you text faster? Does your app run much faster, as in "huge" difference?
I doubt that since iPhone 6 Plus is fast and has no lag. I am not talking 10 browser tabs. Most people don't use that many.
But what about when multi-tasking between numerous resource intensive apps such as Safari, Mail, Skype, Coda, etc... with 1 GB RAM you'd always have at least one be pushed out of memory and need to wait for it to launch again and pick up where you left off. Now it can keep them all in memory and switching between them all is near instant.
The 6+ cannot hold one data-heavy app and one data-heavy browser tab in memory. If you switch between them having spent a fair bit of time in one, the other will reload. That is basic functionality and nothing to do with having 10 browser tabs open.
I definitely do. The 6+ was hands down the worst iPhone I ever owned. I don't need to wait for safari refreshes, navigating through apps is much faster, and even typing is more fluid. I feel sorry for anyone sticking with the 6+ :-/!!
Same here. I upgraded from 6+ to 6S Plus as well. And I actually am not terrible excited about the new features as many are. Not really using 3D Touch much although I know in a year once devs get creative it will be much better. Turned off Live Photos. Camera I don't use much and 8mp was fine with me. 4K video- don't have a 4K display so meh for me.
BUT the 6+ in the year I had it was the most laggy iPhone I have ever owned. Stutters, reloads, crashes, slowdowns, freezes you name it. So far my 6S plus is buttery smooth and that alone makes it worth it to me. Plus I upgraded for minimal cost due to selling my 6+ for a decent sum.
If my 6+ was smooth I wouldn't have bothered upgrading, I liked that it was a bit smaller and lighter and like I said not terribly excited features wise for S so far. But yea 6+ in terms of performance was the worst iPhone ever.
There is a massive difference in speed between the 6 and 6s, I would say far from minuscule.
I agree with pretty much everything you mentioned.
I also feel like the iPhone 6 Plus was the worst performing iPhone released relative to its original iOS version (tt didn't help that iOS 8 was probably the buggiest iOS version ever released). Who knows how well or not it might run future iOS versions?
The only big difference.
Touch ID is faster, but it's not like iPhone 6 Touch ID was a dog.
The camera is slightly better at best. Low light performance actually regressed slightly.
A9 is faster than A8, but for 95% of stuff people do, the difference will be minuscule. I don't think there's a game on the App Store that pushes A8 to the limit, let alone A9.
Another improvement I noticed in upgrading from the 6 plus to the 6 S plus is the quality of the external speaker. I wasn't aware they made an improvement or perhaps my last phone just didn't have a good speaker, but the one on my 6s Plus is louder, clear, and good enough for me to enjoy music on without my Bluetooth speaker.
Call quality also seems much improved. My parents no longer complain about how I sound to them and I notice they sound so much better here on my side, too.
Oh that video reminds me... Touch ID never worked at all for me on iPhone 5s, worked inconsistently for me on iPhone 6plus, and now works most of the time for me on the 6S plus and very fast, too. I still can't get it to recognize all of my prints consistently but it takes my right thumb print 98% of the time on the first try and that means I can now rely on Touch ID the way most other people have been able to since iPhone 5s.
Not everyone is blown away by the upgrade. A friend of the family returned his, saying it wasn't worth it and he went back to his 6. Everyone has different perceptions on what makes a worthy upgrade. For me, it's a significant upgrade and doesn't really cost me enough to worry about on my carrier upgrade plan.
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Agreed - RAM is the biggest difference. Always on Siri is handy. Based on anecdotal evidence, I would argue Touch ID is more than faster - it seems to be more accurate as well.
To your point, this is all relative. What isn't a huge upgrade to one person very well could be to another. I just didn't agree at all with post #3 claiming 3D Touch was the only true differentiating factor.
I'm currently evaluating making a switch from Android to either the 6 or 6s. I liked the 6 since its release but it was always a bit too expensive for my taste. I would be willing to pay the price for the 6s now, however I am still thinking about getting a mint condition 3 month old 6 on ebay. The price difference is quite steep (iPhone 6, 64gb, 3 month old, mint, always goes around 550€; iPhone 6s, 64gb, new is 849€). Thats 300€ difference and I guess I will have to find out instore, if it is really 300€ better... (I know reloading tabs from my ipad Air, but I guess I could live with it - if I really need to keep stuff offline I usually use pocket).
Well, I would be interested in seeing what you would say after Apple releases the iPhone 7 or even the 7S. The 7 will obviously be a generation upgrade from the 6S; and one could say that phone would be what the 6S should have been?
The 6+ was crap, a downgrade over the two generations older iPhone 5 in all but screen size and battery life. The 6S+ however is a considerable upgrade over the iPhone 5. We expect incremental upgrades with each new iPhone, not a huge downgrade like the 6+ was. It's slow, laggy, stuttery; it freezes, crashes and reloads apps & browser tabs for fun. None of that even makes for a good smartphone, let alone an improvement upon a fairly decent older iPhone.
Sure, if you don't count the 5+ seconds that you have to wait for every app and webpage to refresh on the 6 Plus. That makes for a massive difference in speed and an exercise in frustration. That's not even to mention the occasional freeze up where the screen doesn't respond to touch for 5+ seconds. You can't show real world usage in a quick Youtube video. Glad to finally be rid of that thing. Performance-wise, it was probably the worst iPhone ever straight out of the box.
Objectively speaking, camera is pretty much the same as far as still picture is concerned. 4K and 1080p at 120 fps are pretty good video improvements (as well as OIS for video on 6s plus).
Performance isn't really that different for 95% of things. Games don't even push A8 let alone A9.
3D Touch and 2 GB of RAM are major improvements of iPhone 6s.
All in all, unless tab/app refresh frustrates you a lot, or you depend on them staying in memory, there is no need for 6(plus) users to upgrade. (This goes for basically all iPhone upgrades in the past several years.)
The tab and app refreshes were my no.1 reason for upgrading but heck, the screen freezing and safari issues were a heck of a reason too. As a bonus, the 6S+ is lightning fast compared to the 6+. You can't tell from some You Tube video but it is instantly noticeable in every way. If the 6S isn't a reason to upgrade an iPhone then quite frankly there would never be a good reason. Just stick with the iPhone 4 and have done with it.
This. Going from my 5s to my 6 Plus was a negligible difference in speed - and in some ways a downgrade. Going from the 6 Plus to the 6s Plus is the largest increase in speed/responsiveness I've ever experienced in an iPhone, and I've owned every single one.
Geekbench, though, doesn't tell you the whole story. Going to 2GB RAM is a MASSIVE difference. Compare, for example, any previous iPhone that would have to reload e.g. Infinity Blade 3 when you want to go back to playing, versus the 6s line which still has it in the background and instantly gets you back to the game. That, to me, goes beyond any CPU increase the 6s has.
This is the category I was in. Tab reloads and app refreshes were driving me nuts. I picked up an Air 2 and immediately realized what I was missing out on with 2GB of RAM and decided to upgrade.
Touch ID on the 5s has worked consistently from day 1. Never had an issue with it.
From an iPhone 6 this might not be much of an upgrade from a 5 or 5s more so. I think this is worth every penny. Between. The camera, speed and 3D Touch, iOS 9 Apple nailed it.