Upgrading from 5S to 6S , how hyped should I be ?

[AVEGA]

I found a recent deal with Best Buy for upgrading phones that I might do .

Trade Up to iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus

Get a guaranteed $150 Best Buy gift card when you trade in a working iPhone 5s or newer and buy or lease and activate any iPhone with 2-year contract, Sprint Lease or monthly installment plan for Verizon Wireless, AT&T or Sprint.​

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/clp/iphone-trade-in/pcmcat748301742988.c?id=pcmcat748301742988

My wife and I are both using 5S 16 gig so this deal seems good. Currently we have AT&T and are fine with it. We live in Austin, but she often travels to small towns to visit her family and I worry any other carrier won't give us signal, and we haven't had any issues with AT&T. The last time we upgraded it was from a 4 to 5S and we had a two year contract which ends next month, but with NEXT plan we can upgrade anytime. My wife don't use that much data ( we share 5gig ) so this upgrade seems like a great deal.

My brother tells me to wait until the iphone7 this fall, but I am worried about the 7 for two things.
No headphone jack is a big turn off for me and my wife, and I worry my 5S will become worthless by the time iphone 7 releases so I need to upgrade soon or else I'll have an ancient phone that nobody will pay for. Currently $150 per phone is the best deal I found and we plan on upgrading after work later today ( February 11 2016) .

My wife and I hate having only 16 gigs, and are itching for bigger screens so we want a PLUS sized 6S and at LEAST 64 gig, maybe 128. She loves taking pictures and videos and I love listening to podcasts and we both have several gigs of iTunes music so 16 gig doesn't cut it anymore for either one of us.

Sorry for the long intro but will the jump from 5S to 6S be huge for us ? Not just screen size and capacity wise but will we be able to notice the processor and ram upgrades right off the bat ? The 5S is a great phone and I don't feel that it's slow or lagging behind. The last time we upgraded was from 4 to 5S and we noticed that difference easily. I love Touch ID ! Is the 3D touch stuff cool ? I run a website 3dor2d.com and I often use my iphone to post blog posts via squarespace and generate graphics because my mac is ancient ( mac mini from 2007 with 4 gigs ram and 320 gig hd ) . I haven't attempted podcast editing or video editing on the phone but I would love to do that if that was possible, but with 16 gig 5S that isn't even worth investigating.

Is the camera going to take significantly better quality pictures ? We don't have a 4K TV so that feature seems worthless to us.

I want to be excited for upgrading our phones (possibly later today) but I don't want my expectations to be too big and be disappointed .

Any input would be welcomed. Any other deals would be great too .

 

[Menel]

"will we be able to notice the processor and ram upgrades right off the bat ? The 5S is a great phone and I don't feel that it's slow or lagging behind."

You answer this question right here in the next sentence. If your 5S doesn't feel slow you won't notice cpu improvements.

You will notice the luxury of increased storage space.
Apple Pay is a joy to use.
Force Touch should be fun.

5S already had the supersized pixels for low light performance. The 6S regresses that. And I'm not sure there is much value in the higher mp. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

 

[februarian]

If anything, the jump to a bigger screen size should in itself be enough to be worth the upgrade especially if you choose the Plus. But other than that, there really isn't much that the 6S has over the 5S that justifies the expense.

 

[C DM]

"will we be able to notice the processor and ram upgrades right off the bat ? The 5S is a great phone and I don't feel that it's slow or lagging behind."

You answer this question right here in the next sentence. If your 5S doesn't feel slow you won't notice cpu improvements.

You will notice the luxury of increased storage space.
Apple Pay is a joy to use.
Force Touch should be fun.

5S already had the supersized pixels for low light performance. The 6S regresses that. And I'm not sure there is much value in the higher mp. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

I don't know, sometimes people get used to something and it feels completely normal and fast for them, but when they use something newer and better they realize that things could actually be noticeably better and faster. Basically that's to say that while it's likely not going to be anything on the level of "life-changing" or anything like that, it can certainly be noticeable even for those who are happy with something that they currently have (which is older than what's currently out there).

 

[recoil80]

Sorry for the long intro but will the jump from 5S to 6S be huge for us ? Not just screen size and capacity wise but will we be able to notice the processor and ram upgrades right off the bat ?

The screen size is the main reason why you should upgrade. If you're not interested in a bigger screen I suggest you to wait for the new 4'' model.
I can tell you I do notice the ram upgrade because I use the iPhone a lot and I switch between apps frequently so 2GB is a game changer for me.
And 3D touch is really handy when you switch between apps so I couldn't be happier for my 6s.

Is the camera going to take significantly better quality pictures ? We don't have a 4K TV so that feature seems worthless to us.

I don't think so, not from my experience.
As a matter of fact pictures will look better on the phone because of the screen, but if you watch your photos on the TV or on a Mac you won't notice a big difference.
The autofocus is faster, so it is the face detection and the front facing camera improved a lot (and can emulate a flash) but the other camera is quite the same, although it has more MP.

 

[profmjh]

I traded up from the 5S to the 6+. And have zero regrets.

The 6+ is a beautiful, beautiful object. The big screen is fantastic. I love everything about this phone. I didn't trade up from the 6 to the 6S because I couldn't imagine how it could be better. Indeed, I'm hoping I have the strength not to trade up to the 7 just because it's a new phone and I'm an Apple junkie.

One you go PLUS you can never go back. The 5S looks ridiculous to me now. How on earth do people manage with something so small?

 

[AVEGA]

I traded up from the 5S to the 6+. And have zero regrets.

The 6+ is a beautiful, beautiful object. The big screen is fantastic. I love everything about this phone. I didn't trade up from the 6 to the 6S because I couldn't imagine how it could be better. Indeed, I'm hoping I have the strength not to trade up to the 7 just because it's a new phone and I'm an Apple junkie.

One you go PLUS you can never go back. The 5S looks ridiculous to me now. How on earth do people manage with something so small?

I got it yesterday and I agree. I miss one handed stuff but the massive pretty screen more than makes up for it. Especially since I don't own a iPad so this basically makes that worthless. Wife and I got 64 gig (she got rose gold and I got black / space grey ) and we got our icloud back up and were good

 

[e93to]

I

Sorry for the long intro but will the jump from 5S to 6S be huge for us ? Not just screen size and capacity wise but will we be able to notice the processor and ram upgrades right off the bat ? The 5S is a great phone and I don't feel that it's slow or lagging behind. The last time we upgraded was from 4 to 5S and we noticed that difference easily. I love Touch ID ! Is the 3D touch stuff cool ? I run a website 3dor2d.com and I often use my iphone to post blog posts via squarespace and generate graphics because my mac is ancient ( mac mini from 2007 with 4 gigs ram and 320 gig hd ) . I haven't attempted podcast editing or video editing on the phone but I would love to do that if that was possible, but with 16 gig 5S that isn't even worth investigating.

Is the camera going to take significantly better quality pictures ? We don't have a 4K TV so that feature seems worthless to us.
.

I've edited videos with iOS version of iMovie, and it was surprisingly capable. Yes, it gets completed if you edit multiple videos together. But if you're putting together several short clips (maybe a couple of minutes at length) I would say it is manageable. And it now supports 4K and 60fps (though you're not interested in 4K, it would be cool to have it). The only thing that holds iOS iMovie back is the screen size of the iPhone. Otherwise, it is a decent editing app. You can also add multiple effects and music from your Music app.

I have 5S while some of my close friends have 6S and 6S+. We compare pictures very often. Here are my observations:

* you will notice 6S' pictures will look a bit more vibrant and lively. Depending on lighting condition and colors of objects, 5S' pictures can look dull while colors in 6S' pictures will pop.

* 6S noticeably takes better pictures in low light condition. And grey-ish color tones look a lot better in 6S' pictures

* if there are a lot of colors spread out throughout the picture in bright condition (for example foods, flower shop, etc), pictures from 5S and 6S are somewhat indistinguishable.

In terms of speed and performance, you may not notice any difference at all. 5S is still a very capable phone today. As a matter of fact, my 5S with 8.4.1 is smoother and faster in certain places than 6S with iOS 9.

The biggest reason to upgrade from 5S to newer iPhone is the screen size. After using my friends' 6 or 6S', my 5S' screen gives me eyesore.

 

[Andres Cantu]

$150 for an iPhone 5s is not that good a deal. You will probably be able to find a similar deal when the 7 comes out. They always have those "trade-in any iPhone for $200" deals.

I would also consider T-Mobile and all of their good deals going on right now. T-Mobile has excellent coverage in Austin.

 

[Boyd01]

I traded my 5s for a 6s plus at Best Buy two months ago. They were offering a nicer deal at that time evidently: $200 guaranteed trade-in plus a $100 gift card. I guess I could have gotten more if I sold it myself, but that's something I just didn't want to get into.

I love the 6s plus - but it's definitely a real pocket-full. I think the camera is noticeably better in low light. It also feels significantly faster for most things. I have a large iTunes movie library and use a Mini as a server. I see a huge improvement accessing this with home sharing, mostly due to the 802.11ac wifi.