iPhone 6s Official Details Announced – 3D Touch, Live Photos, and More
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The guys at Apple were serious when they hinted the iPhone 6s wasn’t going to be a traditional “s” upgrade. The iPhone 6s features multiple new innovative features that make the iPhone 6 seem like it should be placed in the history books.
Just like we predicted, the iPhone 6s will be constructed out of 7000 series aluminum, which is almost three times stronger than the metal used on the iPhone 6. The glass touch screen is also getting beefier. The new dual-ion exchange manufacturing process ensures your iPhone’s display will survive more severe falls.
The star of the iPhone 6s show was undoubtedly the Force Touch Display, which was renamed 3D Touch for its release. The 3D Touch screen uses advanced technology to determine how hard you are pressing on the screen. A soft press will let you peek into an application to get a quick view of what’s happening inside. Releasing your finger will make the peek view disappear. Pressing harder will open the application up in full view. For example within the Mail application, applying light pressure will peek into an email. Doing this won’t mark the email read, saving you time if you wish to read the email later.
The Taptic Engine built inside the phone will give you short feedback, or “taps”, letting you know exactly how hard you’re pressing on the screen. This type of feedback ultimately gives you more insight that will help avoid any accidental hard presses.
Other innovative uses for 3D Touch are available directly from the home screen. For example, hard pressing on the Facebook application will bring up a quick menu allowing you to directly post a status update and more.
On Instagram you can peek into users’ profiles without actually opening up their profile, allowing you to instantaneously check if that profile catches your interest.
Unbelievable performance upgrades are implemented into the iPhone 6s as well. The new A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s is guilty of pushing graphic performance capabilities above its predecessor by 90%. This new processor will create amazingly immersive gameplay visuals including more AI elements, more destructible objects, real time focus blur, and of course, more explosions. All of these intense graphical experiences run at an impressive 60 frames per second.
The constantly improving virtual assistant, Siri, will now work even when your iPhone is not plugged in. A great example of this feature’s usefulness is taking a shower. Imagine getting a phone call and asking Siri to answer it on speakerphone without ever getting your device wet. Just say “Hey Siri” and let her do the rest.
Another useful upgrade includes an enhanced 2nd generation Touch ID sensor. The second-generation fingerprint scanner promises to be much quicker and more accurate than the previous version, saving iPhone owners occasional frustration.
One of the most interesting new features available on iPhone 6s are “Live Photos”. This feature is turned on automatically for all your photos. With a tap of the screen you will see your photos come to life. Live Photos are essentially a very short video, but when seen in action, they truly are immersive. Live Photos will be compatible with iPad, MacBook, and can even be set as your Apple Watch wallpaper.
The last two improvements found on the iPhone 6s can be located on the front and the back of the device. The old 8MP camera has been replaced with the popularly rumored 12-megapixel iSight camera. New technology, called “deep trench isolation”, separates photo diodes to maintain precise colors and ultimately better photos.
The iPhone’s new camera is also better at determining natural light versus artificial light for appropriate exposure settings and even more accurate color. Those accurate colors are going to come in handy while you’re snapping away selfies on the new front-facing camera with True-Tone flash, capable of producing bright and vivid self-portraits.
Pick up your iPhone 6s in Gold, Silver, Space Gray, or Rose Gold later this month on September 25th.
