A new iPhone has come out, shattering sales records with 13 million units sold in the first weekend alone. I myself was one of those 13 million. I upgraded from an iPhone 4s to the new 6s and was blown away. Coupling with the new iOS 9, which you can see our review here, the new iPhone is worth the look. Below, I’ll be outlining the 3D touch functionalities, the new camera features and the speed of the phone.

3D Touch

3D Touch is the new innovation from Apple for the 6s. It works by adding pressure sensors underneath the screen to read how much force you press down. There are three levels of force 3D touch uses, each level with a specific action depending on the app. At first the levels of force were tough to gauge, but after a few tries it’s easy to tell. The main uses right now for 3D touch is creating shortcuts on apps. It only saves you a few seconds, but the feature is useful when you know what you want to do in the app. You can also use the different force levels effectively when previewing photos or emails. If you press down with medium force you can get a quick preview, then to open up the whole photo/email you press down harder and it opens up. For demonstrations on how 3D touch works, watch the video below.

3D Touch from Warrior Television on Vimeo.

Overall, 3D touch is nifty and can be convenient, but limited. Hopefully as time goes on more apps can incorporate it in creative ways.

Rating: B+

Camera

To start off the new camera features, we have the 12 megapixel camera. This is what Apple fans have been wanting for a few phones now, and Apple finally delivered. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make much of a difference. When comparing a photo taken on the iPhone 6 and the 6s, there’s almost no difference as shown below. The only thing 12 megapixels is good for is when cropping a photo, the photo stays clearer when zooming in.

Rating: B

Front Camera

On the front camera though, it come with a new 5 megapixel camera which is noticeably better compared to the iPhone 6. The front camera even has a flash now so selfies in the dark look better than ever. The front camera flash works by detecting the brightness around you and then brightening the screen three times more than normal when the photo is taken to bring the brightness up. After testing the flash out, the photos really do look good.

Rating: A+

Video Features

Next, we have the new 4K video recording. While 4K video is becoming all the rage, the ability to use it is limited. The same is true for the iPhone 6s. When recording in 4K video, you have to upload the video to a playable device to see the difference, because the 6s only goes to 1080p HD. Even if you can find a device to play video on, you won’t have much. 4K video is a space hog worthy of the name. A mere 40 minutes of 4K video on the 6s will fill up 16GB of storage. That’s before you take into account the high quality photos and apps that already take up storage. While a cool feature, 4K video really has no use on the 6s.

Rating: F

Video Functions from Warrior Television on Vimeo

Live Photos

Finally, we have live photos. Live Photos are the most interesting feature on the 6s in my opinion. The premise is that the phone will record a second before and a second after the photo is taken. When it’s put together, you see the photo in your photos app, then use 3D touch and press down to see the full live photo video. You can think of it as a GIF or a moving picture from Harry Potter. If you’re still confused, we’ve got a video displaying live photos in action below. The only downside to Live Photos is since they are mini videos, they take up more space than your average photo. Other than that, Live Photos are a cool, new feature that I know I will be using often.

Rating: A

Live Photos from Warrior Television on Vimeo.

Speed

In the 6s, there’s a new A9 processing chip, which helps improve performance in all aspects as compared previous models. The 6s also boasts twice as fast internet speeds over LTE and Wi-Fi which after my own testing, held true. The other area the 6s outperforms the 6 is in the fingerprint sensor. After testing it to an iPhone 6, the improved fingerprint sensor is notably faster than on the iPhone 6s. I find myself hitting the home button as I’m pulling my phone out of my pocket and my phone is already unlocked. It’s lightning fast, just like the rest of the phone.

Rating: A+

Fingerprint sensor from Warrior Television on Vimeo.

Verdict

As a whole, the iPhone 6s really is an amazing phone, especially when you make the four year jump I did. I will say, if you already have an iPhone 6, there’s no need to buy the phone. The extra processing power and 3D touch are cool and useful, but besides that the phones are relatively the same except for the new Rose Gold color option. They run all the same apps, OS and the cameras are nearly identical. If you have anything earlier, I would definitely recommend getting the phone.

Overall Rating: A