Apple's iPhone 6s Plus is the '3D Touch' sequel to last year's phablet
Last year, Apple bet big with the launch of the iPhone 6 Plus, finally giving Apple fans the phablet they never knew they wanted. While its size might not be everyone's cup of tea, it seems that Apple hasn't tired of the large screen, because it's decided to do another one: Say hello to the iPhone 6s Plus. Like with the iPhone 6s, the iPhone 6s Plus will also come in a new rose gold aluminum finish, plus the usual gold, silver and space gray. The display is purportedly made out of a stronger kind of glass and it has the same 5.5-inch size as it had before. But the most interesting feature here is a new kind of technology called 3D Touch, which adds pressure-sensitive Force Touch to the phone's display.
You can do things like press a little deeper to peek at items or open up shortcuts. For example, you can touch on an email to get a preview, or on the camera icon to quickly activate the front-facing camera for a selfie. Craig Federighi, Apple's iOS lead, also showed this ability in Maps; you can peek at directions or place a pin by force-touching. You're also able to apply some force to the edge to bring up a whole carousel of open apps that you can then swipe among.
Underneath it all is Apple's new A9 chip. It's apparently 70 percent faster at CPU tasks and 90 percent faster at GPU tasks. It also has the M9 motion co-processor built in. As for the rest of the phone, there's now a second-generation Touch ID fingerprint sensor plus a new 12-megapixel camera. Good news for videophiles: New to the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus is the ability to record 4K video. The front-facing cam is also now five megapixels, which is good for those selfies. About those selfies, you're also now able to take better-lit ones thanks to a new "TrueTone flash" that uses the Retina display as a flash when you're using the front-facing camera.
Another new trick up the iPhone's sleeve is a feature called Live Photos, which are a sort of a mesh between still images and video. Tap on a photo, for example, and you'd be able to see the water ripple, or cars moving. The Live Photos can have sound as well. When you're taking a Live Photo, the camera is essentially extending the capture by a few seconds. You'll be able to have a Live Photo displayed on your Apple Watch and Facebook is already coming out with an iOS app that would utilize the feature. As far as connectivity goes, both phones have 23 bands of LTE and faster WiFi. And, of course, it runs on iOS9, which is rolling out next week.
The iPhone 6s Plus will have the same price as last year's iPhone 6 Plus: It starts at $299 on-contract for the 16GB version.
Get all the news from today's iPhone event right here.
