Apple announced the bigger iPhone 6S Plus in San Francisco alongside the new iPhone 6S. The phone will be available on Sept. 25.
Like its smaller counterpart, the iPhone 6S Plus is an “S” model update and not a complete redesign. The iPhone is made from the Apple Watch Sport’s stronger and less bendable 7000 series aluminum and comes with completely overhauled internal components to make it the most powerful iPhone yet.
The key differences between the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are screen size, battery life and camera stabilization.
Otherwise, the iPhone 6S Plus has the same upgraded internals as the 6S. It has an A9 processor that’s 80% faster than the A8. Graphics performance is also 90% faster and a new M9 motion co-processor that keeps track of fitness tracking. The M9 also lets you say “Hey Siri” with your voice without your iPhone needing to be plugged into the charger.
The Wi-Fi is faster and there are 23 LTE bands so you can take the phone worldwide and not worry that you won’t get phone service.
New to the iPhone 6S Plus (and 6S) is 3D Touch, a pressure-sensitive layer on the display that lets you access shortcuts with a deeper press. For instance, if you press on an app icon like the camera app, you’ll be able to jump right to recording a video or shooting slow-motion video. Another 3D Touch feature lets you press harder on the side of the display and swipe to the right to activate the multitasker.
Once again, the bigger iPhone has a slightly better back camera. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus both have an 8-megapixel iSight camera, with the latter having optical image stabilization for fewer blurrier shots. The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus share the new 12-megapixel iSight camera and 4K-resolution video recording, but has the optical image stabilization again.
Apple SVP Phil Schiller showed off un-retouched photos with stunning low-light performance and more resolution, as well as higher-resolution panoramas.
Additionally, the iPhone 6S Plus’ front-facing FaceTime camera has been upgraded to 5 megapixels from 1.2 megapixels on the iPhone 6 Plus. With special software, the front camera can flash a white screen really quickly right before the shot to illuminate selfies.
Apple’s also sped up the TouchID fingerprint sensor; the second-gen Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the new iPhone 6S Plus is twice as fast as the old one.
The iPhone 6S Plus will be available in four colors — gold, silver, space gray and the new rose gold.