It'southward now been two weeks since I started using the iPhone 6s as my daily commuter, and and so far the device has been reasonably impressive. Having primarily used Android throughout my time every bit a smartphone reviewer, iOS ix hasn't been every bit annoying to utilise as I thought it would be, and although in that location are some flaws to the operating system, information technology's held up well under scrutiny throughout these by ii weeks.

If you lot're after thoughts on iOS ix, be sure to read the get-go part of this series, as this second part will focus mostly on the iPhone 6s' hardware, and how it compares to some of the best Android devices I've used this year. Apple is widely respected for their hardware design, both on the within and exterior of their phones, but only how good is information technology in 2022?

I'll start by expressing my frustration at one of the worst aspects of using an iPhone: the lack of a back button.

Apple has been obsessed with minimalism for years, which is why many of their products include the blank minimum amount of inputs: the MacBook with its ludicrous ane USB Type-C port is only i example. The iPhone 6s features home, power, and volume buttons, and for a smartphone this really isn't plenty.

By not having a back push button, apps are forced to include an on-screen UI element that allows users to return to the previous screen. Commonly this would be fine, except that developers can't hold on the positioning, pattern, size, or icon associated with this action. A user then has to hunt effectually the screen to find the location of the dorsum activity, interpreting whether an arrow or cantankerous is the right push, and so hope for the best.

With Android devices, the inclusion of a universal back button gives users ease of admission to the previous screen. The push is always in the same position, it ever looks the same, and it's easy to find, allowing you lot to go back one screen without using much brain power. The activeness doesn't e'er evangelize consistent results, but at least it'south easy to locate and use, which tin can't be said when using the iPhone 6s or iOS nine.

The skilful news is that the rest of the iPhone 6s' hardware is splendid. Apple tree has placed a potent focus on making the best smartphone hardware parcel possible, and every year they seem to deliver, from the display and SoC, to the camera and physical packet.

The body of the iPhone 6s is immaculately crafted. The device is thin, light, and it fits superbly in your paw with merely a 4.7-inch display. The metal body, produced from 7000 Series aluminium, feels strong yet swish, and the seamless nature of its construction makes information technology a truly premium handset. The gold model I received to review looks excellent, especially when paired with a wooden skin from dbrand.

The design isn't perfect, and if I was being picky I'd point out the annoying photographic camera crash-land, the single lesser facing speaker (front facing speakers are far superior), the proprietary Lightning jack, and sizable bezels. But the way the iPhone 6s succeeds in other areas far outweighs these small downsides.

The display is merely 4.7-inches in size, and the handset itself is only slightly smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S6 with its 5.1-inch display. While the iPhone 6s is undoubtedly a very ergonomic and like shooting fish in a barrel to use telephone, I feel Apple could have crammed a slightly larger display into this trunk, which would e'er be welcome.

Every bit far as quality is concerned, though, the iPhone 6s display is outstanding. Color reproduction, especially accurateness, is superb from the LED-backlit IPS LCD, as are viewing angles. It isn't the brightest brandish going around, but images and text look great on this console.

Apple tree has likewise avoided the pixel density hype, keeping the 6s at 1334 x 750 (326 PPI), which helps better both bombardment life and performance. This is hands the best 720p-class display I've used, and although you don't get the top-level crispness and clarity of a 1440p or 1080p display, the differences in sharpness betwixt the iPhone 6s and the HTC One M9 (1080p) or Milky way S6 (1440p) are small and largely unnoticeable in regular use.

The general performance of the iPhone 6s, in benchmarks and in general utilize, is superior to any Android phone I've used. The Apple A9 SoC is conspicuously the best ARM-based mobile chip on the market, and that'south a testament to Apple's excellent hardware team and the tight integration between CPU, GPU and software. Apps load extremely speedily, multi-tasking is fluid despite only 2GB of RAM, and gaming operation is at some other level compared to 1080p or 1440p Android handsets.

Aside from superior CPU and GPU performance, one of the keys to the iPhone 6s' speed is high-performance NAND. Apple tree has allegedly used an NVMe controller for their flagship phone's storage, which is faster than pretty much every mobile device on the market place. This improves app loading times significantly, and keeps the iPhone fast in every situation.

There are downsides to the storage solution Apple uses for the iPhone 6s, though. There is no microSD card slot in this device, which limits you to the internal storage. This can be fine in some situations, but having 16 GB of storage in the base model is ludicrous for a high-terminate device, and the cost of storage upgrades is exorbitant: $100 to upgrade from 16 GB to 64 GB, and and then another $100 to get 128 GB.

In an Android device with expandable storage you could upgrade to 64 GB for only $20, or 128 GB for $60. These microSDs wouldn't provide the aforementioned functioning every bit internal NAND, but $200 to upgrade to 128 GB is too expensive. You can legitimately buy a 128 GB PCIe M.2 SSD, with speeds up to 1,600 MB/s, for significantly less than information technology costs to upgrade to a 128 GB iPhone. That's crazy.

The 12-megapixel camera on the back of the iPhone 6s definitely lived up to the hype in my time with the handset. It doesn't avowal the all-time specs on paper – just an f/2.2 lens and no optical prototype stabilization – only information technology'due south hands one of the all-time cameras without OIS that I've used. In general, I'd say the Galaxy S6 slightly outperforms the iPhone 6s in camera quality, although the 6s performs remarkably well in low light for a photographic camera with a significant hardware disadvantage.

I don't quite understand why the iPhone 6s Plus comes with OIS but the iPhone 6s doesn't; is at that place a space limitation in the iPhone 6s that prevents the smaller handset from getting the best camera? Stabilization would exist overnice for photos and particularly videos, considering the 4K video quality from this device is superb. Add in tiresome-movement at 240 fps, and a surprisingly skilful selfie cam, and I can empathize why people employ an iPhone for its camera.

I did experiment with Live Photos briefly, but similar with an well-nigh identical characteristic HTC introduced on their One more than than two years ago, it's more of a gimmick than a genuinely useful camera feature. You can use 3D Touch with it though, which is mildly amusing.

Battery life has been a contentious attribute of the smaller iPhones since Apple started focusing on slimness a few years ago. The iPhone 6s is a slim handset, at 7.1mm thin, but the small-scale 6.55 Wh (1,715 mAh) battery is clearly a by-production of this focus. Consumers have been screaming at companies for bigger batteries at the expensive of slimness for years, and Apple tree continues to ignore them.

The end result is a bombardment that's not quite acceptable. During my time with the handset – and admittedly I haven't crunched the battery life figures yet – the iPhone 6s often didn't last a full day, which is poor from a flagship smartphone. Some Android phones I've used this yr haven't been swell either, especially the Galaxy S6, Moto X Way, and HTC One M9, but there are some options on the market place if battery life is the about of import feature to y'all.

And so what is in that location to say virtually the iPhone 6s after using it for two weeks?

The hardware is undoubtedly splendid. I enjoyed using the fantastic camera, the speedy A9 SoC, the slap-up 4.7-inch display, and the fast Touch ID sensor. 3D Touch is the least useful new feature of the iPhone 6s, though I anticipate it volition become better with time. And the ergonomic, lightweight torso of the 6s, congenital from mostly metallic, looks and feels great.

The handset isn't the perfect device, though, and in that location are definitely some areas Apple needs to piece of work on. Storage is fast, just incredibly limited and very expensive to upgrade. The lack of OIS in the smaller 6s hasn't been adequately explained, and no persistent back button is a cardinal pattern error in both hardware and software. Battery life is likewise poor, and I wish Apple tree, like many other manufacturers, placed greater focus on this aspect of the hardware rather than pushing for slimness.

iOS 9 is a pretty solid mobile operating arrangement, although I won't miss many of its features when I inevitably switch back to Android. The Os is fluid to employ, consistent in design, and apps constitute in the App Store are by and large good quality across the board. Improvements made in contempo years, such every bit the Control Center and the notification pane, keep iOS well in the race.

This is my aureate iPhone 6s, featuring an awesome wooden skin from dbrand

On the other hand, I didn't like the lack of at-a-glance information on the homescreen, and some aspects of the Os are less flexible than Android. Good search functionality is completely missing from iOS, and although Google integration is far better than what you become with Windows Phone, Android still has it covered.

Would I recommend an iPhone to long-time Android users? Probably not, because from a software front, iOS isn't leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, and in many ways Android is every bit adept or even better than Apple's offering. There is a case to exist made for those that desire a superb hardware parcel though, and that's where the strengths of the iPhone currently lie.