iPhone 6S Plus :: Everything has changed :: Everything is the same
by Volker Weber
I have been using a new iPhone 6S Plus instead of a 6 Plus, and it feels exactly the same. I know the internals have changed a lot, but it makes no difference to me at all. Notable differences should be:
- It's 20g heavier. Does not matter to me, since I started building up my muscles early enough.
- The camera has more megapixels. Now my photos get downsampled from 12 MPixel instead of 8 MPixel. The photos that came off the 6 Plus were excellent. So are those that come off the 6S Plus.
- 4k video. Unfortunately I have nothing that can display 4k videos. And professionally, I shoot 720p to keep the size down.
- Live photos. On the Lumias, this is called Living Images. I like them a lot. And I think that Lumias have implemented them in a nicer way since they always come to life as you swipe through your photos.
- The CPU is faster. Instead of driving at 300, I can now drive at 450. Both is faster than I ever go. 300 what? 300 speed.
- Fingerprint reader is improved. Problem is, I haven't. I still use it exactly as before, and it continues to work as designed.
- Force touch. Again, the phone has improved, but I haven't. I am still using it exactly the same way as before. I think that one day I might learn there is a better way.
Long story, short: if you have an iPhone 6 Plus with enough memory, you should be happy. If you don't have an iPhone 6 Plus with enough memory, get one. Or get a 6S Plus. You should be happy, either way.
The camera upgrade was forced by the market. It's a checklist feature. More megapixels are better, right? The one thing you are going to miss in the future is force touch. Once developers figure out what to do with it, you are going to miss it when it is not present. Like the fingerprint reader now. You want it.
Comments
No, you don't want a fingerprint sensor if you care a tiny bit about your data. At least if you live in England...
Oliver, can you please give some more background on your statement?
I don't really have anything to worry about personally, but I don't use fingerprint readers because of the #2 point in this article:
2. In many jurisdictions, if you secure your phone with a fingerprint police have the right (without any warrant) to force you to unlock your phone and let them inspect its contents, but if you secure your phone with a password law enforcement has no such right. This may sound crazy, and counterintuitive, but it is the law.
The law in England is called "regulation of investigatory powers act (RIPA). They can put you to jail for not surrendering your passwords or the can make you "endure" a scan of your fingerprints or your iris.
So a fingerprint sensor is pretty much useless since English police can just take your "password"...
That's another interesting problem I don't have.
@Volker... unless you travel to the UK, USA, or any of the other countries that have such rules.
I travel there all the time, but never ran into this problem. I have also not fallen from the sky so far, although that is a real danger. Also, I always mind the gap between the train and the platform.
look right.
Indeed, that is the most dangerous mistake to make.
Thats the real problem. People don't care about data security or privacy up to the moment they are affected in any way. :) Trust me, I know.
It's more or less the same speech you gave a few days ago about backups.
In short, Oliver is right. And what I don't wanna read now is: I have nothing to hide... :)
oh and btw: I totally agree with your article...except:
1) I do feel like the Touch ID has gotton way better
2) I dout that 3D touch is of any real use. At least now it is not. I am hoping for a pleasant surprise.
Touch ID has always worked well for me. It may be faster now, but I am still slow. ;-)
3D touch will need a good implementation. On Apple Watch for instance you can clear all notifications with force touch. Very handy. Somebody will find a good use for it. Much like Loren Brichter did when he invented pull to refresh. He made use of a gesture that people used when fidgeting.
So I'd not use Touch ID, have the 2-3 second effort and inconvenience of typing my password in every single time, and all just in case the police want to access my device?
I guess I should carry a sub-machinegun just in case we want to rise up against the government too, right?
Seriously - ease of use (alongside proven security against the threat of theft/misuse) wins out over some mythical risk every single time.
Stuart, the argument is usually raised by somebody, who does not have an iPhone with Touch ID.
My son (14) asked me, why do all the people bother so much about the "minor" security of fingerprint sensors in comparision to complex passwords, when it is so easy now to record the password entry unnoticed in 4K? Another example what to do with the capabilities of a shiny new 6s.
@Peter Meuser. Your son is absolutely right. It's very easy to spy a password entry. It's much harder to produce a finger replica.
Still unsolved:
Is 64GB enough memory for the upgraded cam and Live Photos?
Or is only 128GB enough memory?
:-)