iphone 6s

Some people look a little unkindly on the so-called "S" years -- those years when Apple updates the iPhone, but doesn't change how it looks, and then sells that while secretly working on something flashier that will debut 12 months later. I don't think that's exactly fair. Those "S" years are when Apple adds some of its most useful features. Siri? Touch ID? Both valuable additions to the iPhone platform that have since grown in importance. This year we get 3D Touch, a potentially awesome way to interact with iPhones. The thing is, a device's worth isn't just tied up in one feature: It's about how all those moving parts work together. That's why the new 6s and 6s Plus (starting at $649 and $749, respectively, for 16GB models) are such great phones. The combination of much-improved hardware and some polished software makes this year's release far more than just a modest refresh.


The iPhone 6s Plus has 3D Touch, iOS 9, a pair of improved cameras and the powerful A9 chipset, just like its smaller sibling. A long-lasting battery and optical image stabilization for its 12-megapixel rear camera help give the iPhone 6s Plus a slight edge over the regular 6s, although we wish it were a little easier to hold.

Meanwhile, we're still left with the same 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage options as last year, and you're almost certainly going to want one of the latter two. I was hoping against hope Apple would finally give the 16GB model the heave-ho and raise the baseline to 32GB of space. That was clearly silly of me. Economies of scale aside, iOS 9's smaller footprint and new developer tools like app slicing make the 16GB iPhone a little easier to make do with, though the inclusion of an upgraded 12-megapixel camera, 4K video shooting and animated Live Photos (which are turned on by default) means some will have a tough time keeping free space available.

As it happens, both phones are a touch thicker and heavier than before, but they're still comfortable to hold, and the change in thickness specifically is so subtle that it's nearly imperceptible. As for the weight, the 6s and 6s Plus do indeed feel noticeably weightier: The 6s weighs in at 143 grams, up from 129, while the bigger 6s Plus now comes in at 192 grams, up from 172. Not that that's a bad thing. All told, this is one of the few times an iPhone has gotten beefier (the 4s was slightly heavier than the 4), and I'm actually quite pleased about it. At some point, there has to be a lower limit to how thin a phone can get and still be comfortable to use. I'd much rather see companies abandon that ceaseless march toward cartoonishly thin designs and instead work to make better use of the sizes they've already achieved. 

What's more, there's an entirely new vocabulary around this 3D Touch screen. Pressing down to preview something in a little pop-up window -- be it a web link, or an address someone texted you -- is what Apple calls "peeking." Apply just a bit more pressure and the phone will bring up the usual, full-screen app view, in this case a Safari window or a location in Apple Maps. Congratulations, you just "popped" something. You can't use all the same 3D Touch actions if you're using an iPhone 6s Plus in landscape mode. Pressing down on app icons still brings up the menus you'd expect them to -- as evidenced by the GIF above -- but you can't peek/pop addresses or hyperlinks in Messages and Mail while the phone is sideways.
Apple's already laid out guidelines about how developers should implement 3D Touch, and they're basically centered on one key idea: 3D Touch is about helping users do things faster. So far, the vast majority of apps don't yet support 3D Touch, but the ones that do take different approaches as to what you can peek at. Some, like Twitter and Instagram, let you press down on their app icons to bring up those Quick Actions menus for near-instantaneous tweeting and photo sharing. Others, like Dropbox, offer previews of your files when you long-press their filenames in a list, but there's no app icon interaction. OpenTable takes sort of a hybrid approach -- you'll get both an app icon menu and the ability to peek at restaurants' locations in Maps as you're scrolling through the culinary options.

A new kind of touchscreen and some upgraded cameras are one thing, but what about the silicon running under the hood? This year, we've got a new 64-bit A9 chipset thrumming away inside both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which, according to some benchmarking tools, appear to be made up of dual 1.8GHz Typhoon CPU cores, the GPU and the updated M9 co-processor. Apple never comments publicly about how much RAM its phones have, but recent teardowns show that the new iPhones have 2GB, just like the most recent iPad Air and Mini. All together, that's the biggest performance increase from one generation to another that we've seen in a while, and it shows.
I spent most of my time testing the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus by restoring them from recent backups of an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and then using them side by side. The difference is obvious: Launching apps, firing up webpages and multitasking were all noticeably smoother on the newer iPhones. This performance gap can still vary a bit; the older iPhones would occasionally get close to 6s speed, but they never fully caught up. The benchmark table below paints a pretty good picture of just how much better the 6s and 6s Plus are at handling graphically intensive tasks like playing games. No dropped frames, no stuttering, no jankiness -- the 6s and the 6s Plus were the clear winners.

htc m9

 

What is the HTC One M9?

Taking up the mantle as HTC’s flagship phone in 2015, the HTC One M9 has a lot to live up to.
The HTC One M8 and original One were both great handsets, the latter a winner of the TrustedReviews’ Phone of the Year Award in 2013. The previous models in the One range were both arguably better than their Samsung and Apple counterparts at the time, but the competition has since caught up, and then some. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have sold a shedload and Samsung has put its flimsy-design woes to bed with the sturdier glass and metal Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
Does the HTC One M9 live up to its predecessors? HTC has opted against a complete design-overhaul, choosing evolution rather than revolution. Design-wise it has a lot in common with the One M8 and the screen is almost identical. The majority of the hardware developments come in the way of a new camera, processor and a bigger battery, while HTC’s version of Android has had a makeover with Sense 7.
This all results in a great phone with some clear areas of improvement. However, neither the new rear camera nor the battery life live up to their respective promises. And this isn’t wholly unexpected.
Nevertheless, this is still a solid flagship and it proves how far HTC has come in the last 2 or 3 years that we hold its products to such high standards and intense levels of scrutiny.

In every other respect the design of the HTC One M9 is a triumph. This isn’t a thin phone, but neither does it feel porky – it’s 0.2mm thicker than the M8, but almost 1mm narrower. The back curves into your hand and the metal feels solid – more so than the previous model even though it’s a few grams lighter at 157g. That weight gives it a good heft – the One M9 is well balanced, if a little bottom heavy. It feels like you’re holding a quality phone not a toddler’s toy. We like that.
One major new design improvement is the feel and location of the volume and power buttons. Previously plastic and along the top, the power button was a struggle to reach. It’s now in a far more sensible position, on the right hand edge, just below the volume buttons. It’s also been upgraded to metal and comes with a light etch so you can tell the difference between it and the volume buttons. These have had a tweak too. The buttons are a mite firmer and feel that bit better to press.

htc one m8

 

What is the HTC One M8?

The HTC One M8 has now been superseded by the HTC One M9, but is still available to buy.
The HTC One M8 was released in March 2014 as HTC’s flagship model, replacing the HTC One. The One M8 has a lot to live up to, taking on the mantle from HTC’s best-selling phone ever, and the 2013 winner of TrustedReviews’ Phone of the Year.
It is now available for £330 SIM-free, significantly reduced from its £530 price at launch, since the launch of the HTC One M9. Although it hasn’t quite had the impact HTC would have liked, the HTC One M8 was undoubtedly one of the best handsets of 2014.
There are some great flagship phones competing for your hard-earned money, with stiff competition coming from the iPhone 6, LG G3, Samsung Galaxy S5 and the cheaper Google Nexus 5. There’s very little to choose between any of these phones, though the HTC One M8 is superior in a number of departments compared with its main Android rival, the Galaxy S5.
The best bits of the HTC One M8 are its design and battery life – it looks and feels good and can last two days on a single charge if you’re careful. The downside is a gimmicky camera that doesn’t come close to its competitors. Still for £330 it’s a great handset and is well worth considering over its more expensive successor

It is a bit bigger than last year's phone, though. The HTC One M8 is a fair amount taller which means it feels like a larger phone in-hand. However, it's just a couple of millimeters wider and width is the only serious practical concern with a phone of this class. HTC has slimmed down the screen bezel to minimise the increase in width.
If you're not used to a 4.7-inch to 5-inch screen phone, try to check out the phone first-hand. But if you're looking at this phone in contention with the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2, size is not an issue. And neither is weight, despite the phone being a little heavier than its rival.
In larger phones like this you often see the power button shifted to the side, from the usual spot up top. Here it sticks on the top edge, but the new Motion Launch feature lets you switch the phone on from standby with just two quick taps on the screen. This means that stretching for the power button is less of an issue.
Alternatively, you can go straight to the main home screen or the BlinkFeed window by flicking from the left or right of the screen (when it's off). This uses a special motion sensor chip in the phone, which lets it constantly moni
tor these sensors without eating up much battery.

In exact measurements the HTC One M8 is 9.4mm thick, 160g, 71mm wide and 146mm tall. None of these are notable in a positive sense, but HTC's non spec-centric design approach is healthy. It has tried to make a phone that looks and feels good, not one out to become the "thinnest" or "lightest". It can easily be argued that it is the prettiest, though.
One technical issue with making any 'all-metal' mobile device is that wireless antennas struggle to transmit through it. That's why the backplate is 'only' 90 per cent metal. There are two little plastic strips that sit across the top and bottom, and this is where the antennas live. These strips were used in the HTC One too, and have become part of the series's design language. Clever design like this makes functional choices look like pure style ones.

Is this a better looking, better designed phone than the HTC One, though? Not really. You can't beat the borderless front of the original, which helped to emphasise that mobile's two-tone style. However, it's not any worse – the HTC One M8 is a lot nicer to look at than the HTC One Max, for example, and the vast majority of phones made. Ever.
It comes in three colours. The lead one, "gunmetal grey" is seen here. HTC also makes one that looks more like the first silvery HTC One, with a shade called "arctic silver", and a light gold one dubbed "amber gold". The latter is nowhere near as bright and vivid as the gold version of the Galaxy S5.
They have slightly different metal treatments. The grey model uses a brushed 'hairline technique' look, while the others stick with anodised style of the former HTC One model.

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HTC One M8 – Screen

Until recently we believed that phones like the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 would have 2K resolution screens. It seemed a natural evolution, and the internet rumours were sounding off on the matter as they usually do.
However, all the new 2014 flagships use 1080p screens, just like last year's top models. The HTC One M8 has a 5-inch SLCD display, up from 4.7 inches in the last model.
As a result, the pixel density of the new phone is actually lower than last year's one – 441ppi, down from 469ppi. Would you notice? Absolutely not, and the RGB subpixel arrays of these phones makes them appear categorically sharper than the PenTile AMOLED screens of phones like the Galaxy S4.