Is the 6s+ fast/optimized enough

[daniesy]

I've read here on the forum that the 6+ might have had a not so powerful cpu/gpu and some animations and transitions were slow and choppy. Is this true? And how likely is this to happen on the new 6s+. Not now, but maybe in a year?
I'm asking this because i can't decide which 6s to buy...the small one or the plus one?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Some claimed it's lack of RAM (1GB) was the biggest problem. I am no power user and seldom had more than a couple of tabs open and my 6 and 6+ worked very well. I never experienced choppy videos on my 6 or 6+ but then seldom watched any on my iPhone. Much depends on the quality of the video and the speed of your Internet connection or cellular service.

I can not say my 6S+ is much faster than my 6+ but it does seem to be smoother. Seemed like a typical incremental speed increase to me and not a huge leap!

 

[MALmen]

6S+ Seems slight more choppy / not so smooth than the regular 6S.. i think is has to do with the downscaling to 1920x1080

 

[daniesy]

6S+ Seems slight more choppy / not so smooth than the regular 6S.. i think is has to do with the downscaling to 1920x1080

Oh...this is exactly what i was interested in.
Hmmm...I wonder how pronounced this difference is when comparing the 6 with the 6+ on iOS 9.

 

[ToddH]

I've not had any choppy issues with my 6s plus. I think most of the complaints are coming from people who are really looking too hard to find it. Go ahead and get one, it's great!!!

 

[cbautis2]

I found an interesting thing:

When plugged in the charger, my 6s (not plus) runs extremely smooth on UI animations in any scenario, but when removed from charger, it slightly stutters on App switcher and Spotlight app search control panel. This makes me think that the GPU is throttled when unplugged, but is running at max speed when plugged in.

 

[nabwong]

It's faster than my iPhone 5 and iPad Air by a lot.

 

[sunking101]

I can't understand people who say that the 6+ was a good phone, and I can't understand people who say that the 6S+ lags. I certainly can't understand people who say that the 6S+ is an 'incremental' upgrade over the 6+, but I do suspect they're the same people who had no problems with their 6+ because they aren't heavy web users or multitaskers.

My opinion is that the 6+ is an absolute POS, the worst iPhone ever made, and that the 6S+ is by far the best iPhone ever made. It's smooth, a speed demon, and it keeps apps & browser tabs in memory like a champ.

 

[jtwlbz]

wait for 9.1. I tried beta 9.1 it's alot smother and snappier.

 

[sunking101]

wait for 9.1. I tried beta 9.1 it's alot smother and snappier.

....bbbbbbbut my 6S+ flies and it's on 9.0.1. There is no lack of smoothness, no lack of snappiness, and I would be the first to say so if there was. It is night and day better than the 6+. Sure there are a few iOS9 bugs here & there as expected, but nothing that affects smoothness or speed.

 

[Eileen89]

I can't understand people who say that the 6+ was a good phone, and I can't understand people who say that the 6S+ lags. I certainly can't understand people who say that the 6S+ is an 'incremental' upgrade over the 6+, but I do suspect they're the same people who had no problems with their 6+ because they aren't heavy web users or multitaskers.

My opinion is that the 6+ is an absolute POS, the worst iPhone ever made, and that the 6S+ is by far the best iPhone ever made. It's smooth, a speed demon, and it keeps apps & browser tabs in memory like a champ.

I can't understand why some people complain so much about the 6+ now and not before. I still love my 6+. Never gave me any problems the whole year that I've had it. With the exception of what I think is a rotation bug. As it sometimes will go into landscape mode for no reason and I have to open an App to get it back. I have heard though that it is an issue for a few of the new 6S Pluse users as well. Other than that it's my favorite iPhone until my new SIM Free 128GB 6S Pluse arrives at the end of the month. Until then I'm happy to keep using my 6+. Guess I've been very lucky and got a good one right out of the box last year.

 

[convergent]

I find the 6s+ smooth and quick on everything I've done with it. Its certainly way faster than any other iPhone I've ever used in every way possible. I did not own a 6 or 6+, but have used my daughters' phones who both have a 6.

 

[sunking101]

I can't understand why some people complain so much about the 6+ now and not before. I still love my 6+. Never gave me any problems the whole year that I've had it. With the exception of what I think is a rotation bug. As it sometimes will go into landscape mode for no reason and I have to open an App to get it back. I have heard though that it is an issue for a few of the new 6S Pluse users as well. Other than that it's my favorite iPhone until my new SIM Free 128GB 6S Pluse arrives at the end of the month. Until then I'm happy to keep using my 6+. Guess I've been very lucky and got a good one right out of the box last year.

I have been complaining about it the whole year it was out.
It does depend on your usage pattern though. Those of us who mainly use our phones for web browsing, and who like recent apps & tabs to stay in memory absolutely hated the 6+. For single app use and minimal browsing, with no care for apps & tabs refreshing, the 6+ was an ok phone I guess. Other than the frequent screen freezing, Safari crashes, stuttery scrolling, landscape/portrait rotational issues, occasional non-responsive touchscreen and springboard crashes.

 

[BeeGood]

[Han Solo voice]: It's the phone that has geek bench scores similar to a low end lap top.... She's fast enough for you old man.

 

[Eileen89]

I have been complaining about it the whole year it was out.
It does depend on your usage pattern though. Those of us who mainly use our phones for web browsing, and who like recent apps & tabs to stay in memory absolutely hated the 6+. For single app use and minimal browsing, with no care for apps & tabs refreshing, the 6+ was an ok phone I guess. Other than the frequent screen freezing, Safari crashes, stuttery scrolling, landscape/portrait rotational issues, occasional non-responsive touchscreen and springboard crashes.

I use my 6+ mostly for web browsing with about 3 tabs open at a time. Sometimes they reload, and sometimes they don't. Not a problem for me. I pretty much have all 32 of my Apps open because I never feel the need to close them. I listen to music on it almost an hour or two during my daily workouts. The battery life is what I love the most as I can always get through 1 or two days between charges with at least 8, 10, or 12 hours of use. Depending on what I'm doing. Watching NetFlix movies is usually the day when I have to charge it after 8 hours of use.... You must've got a bad 6+ out of the box, because most people that I know that still have own one, like it too.

 

[redman042]

Your experience on the 6+ depends on how you use it. Those who say the 6+ lagged and those who say it didn't are both giving legit feedback from their own perspectives.

I found the 6+ to be a good phone overall, but it did not perform to the level I wanted. I browse complex websites, switch apps, and generally want to be able to use my phone in the same way as a laptop at times (not so much doing lots of productive work, but certainly doing things like researching hotels, restaurants, flights, etc. for an upcoming trip which involves swapping between several apps/websites at a time). I found that the 6+ did not do well when pushed like a PC in this way. The 1 GB of RAM resulted in lots of reloads, lag while memory was swapped in the background, and crashing of apps and websites a little more often than I'd expect from an iOS device.

The 6S+ solved all of this. The added CPU speed helped but I think the real difference here was the doubling of RAM and vast improvement in the flash storage controller chip. My 6S+ performs as well as my Surface Pro 3 laptop during any kind of web browsing. In some ways I think it performs better (I doubt my SP3 can handle editing and rendering 4k video nearly as fast or smoothly as my 6S+).

I have heard of lag on the 6S+ (and on rare occasions experienced it), but I'm convinced this is a software issue and will be improved with iOS 9.1.

I have read a few posts from people who say their 6S+ is lagging badly. That has to be a specific issue with their phone, or how the backup was restored, or something. I certainly haven't experienced that. My 6S+ is the fastest smartphone I've ever used, by far.

 

[sunking101]

I use my 6+ mostly for web browsing with about 3 tabs open at a time. Sometimes they reload, and sometimes they don't. Not a problem for me. I pretty much have all 32 of my Apps open because I never feel the need to close them. I listen to music on it almost an hour or two during my daily workouts. The battery life is what I love the most as I can always get through 1 or two days between charges with at least 8, 10, or 12 hours of use. Depending on what I'm doing. Watching NetFlix movies is usually the day when I have to charge it after 8 hours of use.... You must've got a bad 6+ out of the box, because most people that I know that still have own one, like it too.

In much the same way that you can't understand my chagrin with the 6+, I can't understand why you find it such a joy to use. I loathed mine but it all comes down to how you use it. I couldn't use mine in the manner that I used my two generations older iPhone 5, so rather than an upgrade it actually felt like a substantial downgrade.

Sure the screen & battery life were nice, and the loudspeaker too, but when it came to performance it was an absolute clanger. Doing basic tasks like making a phonecall, sending an SMS, using an app and opening Safari to browse a data-lite site was fine but if I wanted to do anything even remotely beyond that the 6+ turned into a crashing, stuttering, lagmeister. It couldn't even keep any apps in memory. All things that the iPhone 5 handled with aplomb, albeit on a smaller screen and with less battery life. The bonus features of the 6+ didn't in any way hide its performance shortcomings.

 

[redman042]

Here's some more info that's pretty fascinating:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/iphone-6s-plus-vs-galaxy-note-5-real-140325581.html

The iPhone 6S+ with 2GB of RAM keeps apps/websites in memory better than a Samsung Note 5 with 4 GB of memory.

So there's definitely truth to Apple's contention that their software is more streamlined in terms of memory usage than Android (though clearly not so much that 1GB was a good choice last year).

2 GB should serve us well for several years.

 

[sunking101]

Here's some more info that's pretty fascinating:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/iphone-6s-plus-vs-galaxy-note-5-real-140325581.html

The iPhone 6S+ with 2GB of RAM keeps apps/websites in memory better than a Samsung Note 5 with 4 GB of memory.

So there's definitely truth to Apple's contention that their software is more streamlined in terms of memory usage than Android (though clearly not so much that 1GB was a good choice last year).

2 GB should serve us well for several years.

Yes, all Samsung phones are bad when it comes to RAM management. 2GB is plenty with iOS for the moment, but 1GB clearly hasn't been ever since Apple swapped to 64Bit processors and especially since they moved to larger screens.

 

[Eileen89]

Here's some more info that's pretty fascinating:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/iphone-6s-plus-vs-galaxy-note-5-real-140325581.html

The iPhone 6S+ with 2GB of RAM keeps apps/websites in memory better than a Samsung Note 5 with 4 GB of memory.

So there's definitely truth to Apple's contention that their software is more streamlined in terms of memory usage than Android (though clearly not so much that 1GB was a good choice last year).

2 GB should serve us well for several years.

Wow, I guess it's a good thing that I canceled my order for the Note 5, that I placed about 3 weeks ago. I was thinking of trying it over the 6S+. Seems like I made the right decision to go with the 6S+ SIM Free instead.

 

[daniesy]

I found an interesting thing:

When plugged in the charger, my 6s (not plus) runs extremely smooth on UI animations in any scenario, but when removed from charger, it slightly stutters on App switcher and Spotlight app search control panel. This makes me think that the GPU is throttled when unplugged, but is running at max speed when plugged in.

I've noticed this happening to my MBPr too. I guess the CPU is throttled to not use that much power. Once you plug it in, the limits set on the CPU frequency are removed.

My opinion is that the 6+ is an absolute POS, the worst iPhone ever made, and that the 6S+ is by far the best iPhone ever made. It's smooth, a speed demon, and it keeps apps & browser tabs in memory like a champ.

Wait till iOS 10...bet it won't be that smooth then.

Here's some more info that's pretty fascinating:

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/iphone-6s-plus-vs-galaxy-note-5-real-140325581.html

The iPhone 6S+ with 2GB of RAM keeps apps/websites in memory better than a Samsung Note 5 with 4 GB of memory.

So there's definitely truth to Apple's contention that their software is more streamlined in terms of memory usage than Android (though clearly not so much that 1GB was a good choice last year).

2 GB should serve us well for several years.

I wouldn't trust these tests. Most android phones have a setting which prevents running apps in background...

 

[daniesy]

So in the end, is the 6s+ as smooth as the 6s? Or is it the same story as last year, when the 6+ suffered because of specs too low for that higher resolution?
I had a 6 and the performance was great... absolutely no stutter.

 

[msae]

Ehhh I don't know. I compared my 6s+ to a 6s, and the 6s seemed to have smoother animations, especially when launching 3D Touch menus. It's like the 6s+ launches them at, or below, 30 fps, and the 6s launches them at, or above, 60 fps. It's frustrating, but I don't know if it's a deal breaker yet. 3D Touch animations on 9.1b5 are MUCH slower to me, but from what I've read, Apple handles the speed optimization last. Don't hold me to that, though.

 

[BeeGood]

So in the end, is the 6s+ as smooth as the 6s? Or is it the same story as last year, when the 6+ suffered because of specs too low for that higher resolution?
I had a 6 and the performance was great... absolutely no stutter.

I pre-ordered both and used the 6s for a few hours before putting it back in the box. I wasn't able to discern any difference in performance/lag/snappyness (one of two reasons that I returned the 6s in favor of the 6s+).

 

[sunking101]

Ehhh I don't know. I compared my 6s+ to a 6s, and the 6s seemed to have smoother animations, especially when launching 3D Touch menus. It's like the 6s+ launches them at, or below, 30 fps, and the 6s launches them at, or above, 60 fps. It's frustrating, but I don't know if it's a deal breaker yet. 3D Touch animations on 9.1b5 are MUCH slower to me, but from what I've read, Apple handles the speed optimization last. Don't hold me to that, though.

The 6+ was massively inferior to the i6 and I should imagine that the 6S+ is inferior to the 6S, although to a much smaller degree. The 5.5" HD display coupled with the downscaling involved to render content will undoubtedly lead to some downturn in performance. However, having come to the 6S+ from the 6+ I am completely happy with it and experience zero 'issues' when it comes to the hardware.

If I compared my phone to a 6S then I may see some differences but as I'm not going to be doing that, and considering that my phone performs splendidly then I'm a happy camper.