iPhone 6S Vs iPhone 6S Plus: What's The Difference?

The wait is over. After months of hype, Apple has formally announced the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus and – as usual – the new handsets are polarising opinion. Fans are excited by some potentially game changing changes, while critics bemoan the stylistic similarities to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6
Plus.
What does this mean for you? Let’s
break down the differences and find
out…
Design – Familiar But Intelligently
Improved
Yes, the new iPhones look much like the old iPhones. This is the number one area where many will complain, but look more closely and there are key differences.

Size and Weight Increases
In a first for Apple, the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus are actually ever so slightly larger and noticeably heavier than their predecessors. The good news, while you are likely to notice the difference holding new and old models side-by-side, in isolation this will be pretty similar:

iPhone 6S: 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1mm
(5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28in) and 143g
(5.04oz)

iPhone 6S Plus: 158.2 x 77.9 x
7.3mm (6.23 x 3.07 x 0.29in) and
192g (6.77oz)

iPhone 6: 138.1 x 67 x 6.9mm (5.44 x
2.64 x 0.27in) and 129g (4.55oz)

iPhone 6 Plus: 158.1 x 77.8 x 7.1mm
(6.22 x 3.06 x 0.28in) and 172g
(6.07oz)
In fact, for me, the worst aspect about this design similarity has nothing to do with size, but the fact the new phones maintain the same ludicrously slippy finish as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
That’s bad news for both models.
Of course I appreciate covers are a must for most owners, but it would be nice for Apple to at least try and make a phone which doesn’t act like a bar of soap and offers some ergonomics for the human hand.

Strength Improvements
More positively, the other key takeaway is that structurally both the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus are significantly stronger. Apple openly mocked the so- called ‘Bendgate’ scandal last year when
the iPhone 6 and, notably, iPhone 6 Plus were found to warp under relatively meagre pressures.
But privately changes have been made and internal thickening is thought to (at least partially) account for some of the weight increases. Consequently the new
iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus have
switched from Series 6000 to Series 7000 aluminium. Series 7000 is over twice as strong and a video pressure test has already shown you’ll be highly unlikely to bend either model under any force you’d encounter in everyday life.
In addition Apple has improved the
durability of the new iPhones’ glass
displays, but it hasn’t given any details regarding how much stronger we can expect them to be.

Displays – Ingenious Or Falling Behind?
Another area where the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus are receiving criticism is their screens as, despite late rumours to the contrary, the resolutions remain unchanged:
iPhone 6S: 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750
pixels, 326 pixels per inch (ppi)
iPhone 6S Plus: 5/5-inch, 1920 x
1080 pixels, 401 pixels per inch
(ppi)
Should this matter? For me no. By
comparison the iPhone 6S still has a pixel density similar to a 4K ‘Ultra HD’ resolution on a 13-inch laptop while the iPhone 6S Plus has a pixel density higher than a 4K display on an 11-inch laptop.
Smartphones just live in a crazy
specifications war where Apple refuses to fight.
Yes, I would be very surprised if the
iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus panels can top what Samsung delivered with the 2K Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, but few owners are likely to be disappointed when using either iPhone in real world
scenarios.


Winner: iPhone 6S Plus