> In light of these factors, I would give the iPhone 6s line the Editors’ Choice Gold award. I believe that the criteria for this award is such that a product is not only one of the best in its category and an extremely good product in a vacuum, but pushes the smartphone user experience forward in significant ways.
That's quite an endorsement, that is quite rare from Anandtech, if I've been following correctly.
I'm not always a huge fan of the iPhone, but I have to say that, after testing the 6S, it's really tempting.
I had a One M7. I bought it largely because it promised good low light camera performance. My phone was one of many with a flaw that cast a purple haze on low light photos, rendering it nearly useless in low light. Foolishly I waited awhile in hopes that a software update would fix it.
HTC offered some sort of replacement program but that would require me to go without a phone for weeks.
Eventually Verizon sent me a replacement unit whose camera was even worse. I decided my next phone would be an iPhone. I now have the 6 Plus and it's the best point and shoot camera I've ever had, period (even counting standalone cameras.) If something goes wrong with the phone I know I can go to an Apple retail store and get it fixed or replaced immediately, not in weeks.
I've got an iphone 6 for work, and an S6 edge for personal use. I can say with confidence that the Samsung camera is better. However I will say they're close enough, and they're both so far ahead of the pack, that you could flip a coin.
Taste is subjective, I have no doubt you like the Samsung more. But subjectively, on average, people like iPhone photos more often than they like Android photos.
It turned out to be quite a close-run race between the iPhone 6S and the Galaxy Note 5 for the title but Apple’s latest just beat Samsung’s latest with 38.2 and 34.1 percent of the 7810 votes respectively.
On an internet poll. When the results are this close, details matter. Not to mention there are no Android photos, only Samsung, Nokia, &c. And even then, different models.
Not saying you're wrong (I think you're right). But if you're going to quote something, choose a believable source that sustains your point, not a dodgy one that almost refutes it.
Both of these phones have great cameras, but they don't hold a candle to the performance of even crop sensor entry level DSLRs and mirrorless bodies. It seems pointless to me to split hairs over picture quality between two strong options when anyone who _seriously_ cares about pixel peeping wouldn't use a smartphone for photography in the first place
I think you misunderstand me... I'm not making a judgement about the art produced with any device. The art of photography is only tangentially related to camera gear quality. I'm saying that comparing smartphone camera quality at the high end is an exercise in futility since these cameras are designed to be pretty good general purpose point and shoots, and they both clearly accomplish that.
Ultimately, smartphone cameras have very small sensors, so their "technical" performance (the pixel peeping I mentioned) is inherently inferior to that of larger format cameras.
And a semi truck carries more cargo than a Camry. So what? It may be true that typical flagship phones have comparable photo quality. That's a valid point. But throwing in the old "but an SLR is better than any phone" trope has nothing to do with typical flagship phones having comparable cameras. Since a typical phone customer has no interest in carrying around a dedicated camera with a huge sensor, it makes no difference how performant the large camera is, just like a Camry buyer does not care that a used U-Haul truck would have so much more cargo capacity.
"Both of these phones have great cameras, but they don't hold a candle to the performance of even crop sensor entry level DSLRs and mirrorless bodies. "
That part is definitely not false... My Sony RX100 II blows these cameras out of the water and its a pocket camera.
As a big photo person with art background, I thought B and D were consistently better. I never would've guessed C was iPhone as some shots were downright poor.
I agree, the battery life is shockingly poor. I blame touchwiz as much as anything else. I would take a slightly thicker phone for a battery that consistently lasts all day.
Samsung TouchWiz with KitKat 4.4.4 had awesome performance and battery life on my Note4, then they destroyed it with a Lollipop update (after constant update nags) and forced me to downgrade probably voiding my warranty in the process, anyone sane would have returned the phone. I don't know if Samsung or Google is to blame for the serious battery and performance regressions, but I do blame Samsung for pushing it out to its users. Many people have been burned by this and will never buy Samsung again. What were they thinking? It's not as if Lollipop offers anything much for the average user (developers are another matter). It's such a shame, as the hardware is top notch.
Well we shouldn't need huge batteries if Android was fixed. Have you seen the batteries Apple put inside iPhones? iOS is great for their hardware margins.
Note 4 is a 5.7" screen. There's plenty of room for Samsung to ship a high capacity battery. The Blu Studio Energy is only a 5" but has 5000mAh. If reviewers started giving out bad reviews to anything that can't last a 24h day, other OEMs would fall in line.
i have my s6 rooted and with a custom rom. battery is not as bad, but not amazing. if i'm on a place with good mobile signal and on wifi, i can get a day[0] of battery life with ~2h of SOT (with my pebble connected and syncing all day long).
but at the same time it's kind of worth it, because it's easily the best camera on a cellphone i've ever used.
That's the biggest difference. The main thing I've noticed (I've owned, in order a Moto Droid, iPhone 4s, HTC One m7, and now an iphone 6s+) is that battery life during USAGE is broadly similar, but iPhone uses a HUGE amount less when sleeping/idle.
I swapped an iPhone 6 for an S6 so I could run a GearVR, which is fantastic. The rest of the Android experience is surprisingly not bad, and Google Now is notably better than Siri.
What about the new battery saving features and all in the new Marshmallow upgrade?
Also, Nexus 6P (with the usb 3.1 type C) can get fully charged in under 10 minutes. I've heard that it's possible to get days worth of usage with just like 8 or 9 minutes of charging. That sounds pretty nifty.
I was pretty happy with my HTC One M7 until a month ago when I saw that it wouldn't get Marshmallow. I went out and got an M9 on the after market and all I can say is, I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it.
2 years later and the only definite "improvements" I can cite between the M7 and the M9 is the inclusion of an SD slot and the tap-to-wake option on the screen. I understand that both of these were in the M8, so I probably could've saved myself $200 and grabbed that.
I don't like the iphone 6 line. They are too big. I bike and run with my phone all the time and don't like having a clunker strapped to my arm. I got rid of the 6 and got a 5c and I like it way more. Just as fast as an iphone6 and 1/3 the price. By just as fast, I mean for normal use - not playing games and using crazy apps (which I don't do)
I recently downgraded from a 6 to a 5S almost entirely over size issues. If my thumb cannot reach the url bar of the browser and all of the keyboard without repositioning my hand, the phone is too big.
I know on the 6 you can double tap the home key to bring the screen down, but that is a bandaid. I also found the double tap unresponsive sometimes, often having to try two or three times, in which time I could have just repositioned my hand.
Completely agreed. Literally felt strain in my hand and fingers from holding the beast all day. Shifting the phone around made me almost drop it a bunch of times too. It finally did hit the fritz when it slid out of my pocket(because it is very slippery) and got crushed in my car door when I sat in my car.
I, too, am hanging out for the 7 series to see if they refresh the 4" display. I completely agree with you that I prefer to use my phone one-handed and the shift-the-screen-down hack that the larger idevices use is really a bad solution to the problem.
I actually went so far as to buy a new 5S a couple of weeks ago after I got drunk and threw my old one at the ground one too many times and smashed it to pieces. It was due for replacement anyway because the battery was hosed and losing charge way too fast. I could've paid a bit more for the 6 or 6s and I love the shape and construction of the phone, but the size is simply a dealbreaker for me.
> If my thumb cannot reach the url bar of the browser and all of the keyboard without repositioning my hand, the phone is too big.
I know this isn't the question you asked and you've already moved on, but for others, there is a way around this problem on the iPhone. If you 'soft tap' the home button twice, the entire display shifts down about 3 inches.
> I know on the 6 you can double tap the home key to bring the screen down, but that is a bandaid. I also found the double tap unresponsive sometimes, often having to try two or three times, in which time I could have just repositioned my hand.
I think he already know that, and I kind of agree.
I'm a fairly short guy with short-guy hands. I like the larger screen. I don't try to use my phone one-handed. I stop whatever it is I'm doing with the other hand and use both of them.
Sure, some people can multi-task. I might even be one of them. But I prefer not to.
> To me, the 5 is near the optimal smartphone size.
This would appear to be reasonably dependent on the size of the person. The idea that a smaller person and an NBA player would like the same size is a bit silly, no?
Hopefully there will be a future update at the smaller size.
I feel the same way, and at this point I'm just holding out for some kind of iPhone Nano product line next year.
What puzzles me is that I don't know anybody else who feels like this. Most people are surprised at me, or don't seem to notice that they suddenly need two hands to operate their smartphone.
I have the 6s+, and yeah I can't use it with one hand, but I'm okay with that because I love having the bigger screen so much more. I can see a lot more while typing, watching videos is a better experience, and I've noticed myself using the bigger phone (I used to have a 5s) in new ways a lot more.
Before, I would avoid doing some tasks on my phone like taking more than a few lines of notes. The bigger screen feels less cramped and I don't feel annoyed while using it. In fact I wrote this comment out on my phone. I've never done that with any of the smaller phones I've had.
I think it probably has to do with the kind of lifestyle you have. For me, I have to commute by bus, and most of the time it's packed so I have to stand. While on the bus I'd like to use my phone to avoid boredom, which means using it with one hand because I need the other to hold onto something.
I can totally see how having a bigger screen and bigger battery are great. But unfortunately for some of us, we have times where we need to be able to use the phone with one hand.
You're right - there's no one size fits all solution. I'm glad that phones have gotten bigger because they fit my use cases, and based on their popularity I'm definitely not alone. I am surprised that 4" phones have been lost - especially by Apple. Despite the low sales of the 5c, I figured we'd still see a 6c to satisfy those not wanting a bigger phone. It seems like a decent number of people are refusing to upgrade to a newer iPhone, and I'm not aware of any good, modern Android phones at 4" for these people to switch to.
The closest you get to a good, small Android is Sony's Xperia Z(1,3,5) Compact series. They're about 1 cm shorter than an iPhone 6/6S mainly because they don't have the home button, but that's still about 0.5 cm taller and 1 cm wider than a 4" iPhone.
My use of the ipad has definitely descreased since I have gotten the 6+. That extra effort of getting up, locating where the iPad is usually isn't worth it for me since the phone is within reach already.
Totally agree, sticking with the 5s due to size in jeans and one-handed use despite the desire and budget to upgrade. Have been considering upgrading to an old 64gb one since they no longer offer that
I would have to disagree. I love the large form factor of the 6 Plus. Now that I have been using it for a year, I have learned to hardly notice the big footprint that it has. I am probably on the extreme side as to how often I use the device, so for me I can't immagine going back to a teeny screen.
I am also a tall guy with long fingers so usually I do not have to re-position the phone to reach everything. When I do, I can do it with one hand pretty smoothly now with a year of daily practice.
I do have to say, that any bigger and it would be too big. I can also see that someone who is less willing to compromise on drawbacks of a large screen would not like it.
You're also a self-admitted tall user with long fingers, and the device is pretty much at the size limit of what you would find usable. That means that for the average person, it's definitely too big, and surpassed the size of what they find usable. Also, being able to reposition the phone to do day-to-day activities being easy for you after a year isn't an upside to me, that's a downside. That's you saying, "After a year of use, I've found a usability flow that addresses the problems I initially had with the phone". You shouldn't have had to spend the year getting to a point where you can do it "pretty smoothly now with a year of daily practice". Not saying there aren't people out there who would prefer it, but the fact that it's across-the-board required to learn this (and the fact that Apple recognized it, and added the double-tap to "lower" the screen as a bandaid) make me think the darn thing is just too big.
If apple can get a gps chip into the Apple Watch and someone releases a good Bluetooth headphone I'd be perfectly fine with the 6 plus since I wouldn't have to take it with me.
The iPhone 6S and 6S+ are the same size as the preceding 6 and 6+, why would they dwell on something that was covered in depth last time, and hasn't changed?
I think all phones are too big - I have stuck with my iPhone 4s purely because it is so easy to carry around and does everything I want. Please Apple release an iPhone nano.
I currently own a 5C and I think I'll eventually replace it with a 5S. The iPhone 6/6S can fit my hand also, but it's not really as comfortable as the 5S and below were.
Respectfully, as a person who once agreed with you, I would say that you can't possibly really know this until you actually USE a 6/6S for a couple weeks, all the time. You might be shocked at how quickly your hand adapts and finds the new size to be just as natural as the old 5S size. I was shocked.
This is a very good point, but I have a counterpoint: I suffered through a year with the 6 before downgrading to the 5S last month. My only regret? Waiting so long to ditch the 6.
I wonder, how many years iPhone 6S will be able to stay relevant. For example iPhone 4S started lagging on iOS 7. While it's certainly usable on iOS 9, it feels as an old and underpowered device.
If you have powerful computer from 2010, it'll happily run Windows 10 and almost any application, including almost any game in medium (or even high) mode. I wonder, whether this race on mobile platform will continue or iPhone 6S will be able to run iOS 15 without any lags?
On an unrelated note, I really don't understand, why iOS 9 (actually iOS 7+) is so slow on iPhone 4S. I was able to run powerful 3D games on that phone. Like a lot of shaders, triangles, special effects, and so on. This phone actually has good enough GPU. Why simple sliding animation could lag? Why opening "Settings" app takes few seconds? That's crazy. Probably there are good technical reasons for that, but I just don't understand, what they could be. Sometimes I think that there is intentional performance bottlenecks for old phones, so people would want to buy a new ones. I has the chance to compare iOS 6 and iOS 8/9 on the same phone, and difference is huge.
> If you have powerful computer from 2010, it'll happily run Windows 10 and almost any application, including almost any game in medium (or even high) mode. I wonder, whether this race on mobile platform will continue or iPhone 6S will be able to run iOS 15 without any lags?
I'm not sure the comparison to PCs is fair. Smartphones are still pretty young, and both the OS and chipsets make large leaps every year. If the pace of progress were as fast in the PC industry, you'd also expect a 5-year-old laptop to be unable to keep up.
I expect the pace of progress will slow down for smartphones. Consequently, the iPhone 6S will be usable for longer than the iPhone 4S.
A good precedent has already been set for this. The first iPhone got two major updates, iOS 4.0 being the first version that didn't support it. The 3GS added an extra year to the lifespan, launching with iOS 3.0 and only being left out of support for iOS 7. The 4S added even another year, recently having received the fourth major update of it's lifespan.
So yeah, while there is certainly some performance lost on a 4S running iOS 9, it's not nearly as bad as the original iPad running iOS 5, or the original iPhone running iOS 3. I imagine the 6S will easily be able to handle iOS XV.
Also noteworthy is that the only iPad not still receiving updates is the original model, meaning the iPad 2 has received the most major updates of any iOS device at five.
This is the dilemma I've run across over the past couple of years. Android devices have a much worse track record regarding official OS updates compared to iOS devices. But then on the flipside, when my iOS devices get older, I can't downgrade or install something more "lightweight" like I can with my Android stuff.
Maybe I'm just used to being able to repurpose old laptops and desktops with slimmed down Linux when they run current versions of Windows or OSX too slowly. All I know is that my original Nexus 7 (2012) is not getting the newest Android update while my iPad 2 (2011) is getting the latest iOS...
...but I want nothing more than to be able to put a third party ROM image on that old iPad or even downgrade it to an older iOS because while the Nexus 7 still works fine, the iPad running the latest iOS is practically unusable. Even reading books on it causes hangs and stutters. Task switching is miserable and trying to run more than one or two tabs in the browser is just masochistic.
I don't even care about jailbreaking or rooting or warranties or any of that. These things are both out of warranty and I own both so I accept the risks. But to this day, I still can't find any way to get something less demanding up and running on that iPad 2. I don't mind not having new features that require new hardware. I'd be happy with good performance and a simple set of apps (browser, email, calendar, e-reader, etc) as long as it didn't stutter and lag through it all.
If you are using an old version there are generally known security holes so while the snappier performance might be desirable I don't think it is a good trade off.
The iPad 2 is so slow on ios8 and newer that most people wouldn't actually want to upgrade, though [1]. Apple sold the iPad 2 until 2014 as a low-end model, so they can't really stop updates completely, but it isn't really usable.
You are basing your comparison of desktop computers as you are now. Smartphones are more like desktop computers in the 90's. The rate of change was so great, that even a 3 year old computer felt sluggish on a new operating system and often needed settings turned down. (Think 486 vs Pentium).
I wonder, how many years iPhone 6S will be able to stay relevant. For example iPhone 4S started lagging on iOS 7. While it's certainly usable on iOS 9, it feels as an old and underpowered device.
The iPhone 4s used the A5, an 800 mhz 32-bit processor with 512MB of RAM.
From the review, the iPhone 6s is a 64-bit processor with access to 2GB of RAM. And with the advancements announced at WWDC like App Thinning and LLVM and Swift optimizations, we may be close to the end of seeing any noticeable slowdown in the foreseeable future of these devices.
> On an unrelated note, I really don't understand, why iOS 9 (actually iOS 7+) is so slow on iPhone 4S.
This bothers me a lot, and cynical as I am I suspect that this is on purpose and Apple's way to encourage people to upgrade to a new phone. My wife has a four years old MacBook Pro, which after two years inexplicably started to slow down more and more to the point where the most trivial tasks like opening a menu became a major pain. It is very hard to imagine legitimate reasons for why this should happen, especially since my wife installed a bunch of programs when the computer was new and since then did not change anything.
Have you cleaned it out at any point? With Macbooks, dust seems to be a pretty common issue after some time, and cleaning it out can make a big difference. Chips don't slow over time, and if the RAM is good and the HD is good, and you didn't install a bunch of new, hungrier, software, then it could be thermally related. Both removing dust and possibly applying new thermal paste can help.
Same here, iOS 6 and iPhone 4. I hate using my phone for anything substantial, whether it's reading an article, writing an article etc, I'm fine doing it on my MBP. So I pretty much just use my phone for whatsapp, fb messenger, checking email, getting directions or checking a store's opening times, music, calls. None of that requires anything extraordinary so I've been fine so far. But then there's the apps that require iOS7 to install or update, and those instances are increasing. So I'm definitely on the verge of an upgrade because I'm being shut out from modernity haha.
Is it just closed source software that does this? With a lot of the big open source projects one can expect incremental speed improvements with every release (although this is far from guaranteed). My LAMP stack is quicker than it was a few years ago, not slower. With my own coding efforts I consider bloat and speed to be really important. Slower is not better unless there are some major features that have been added and not refactored yet. At Apple do they just go anti-pattern? Define the array inside the for loop rather than just do it before entering the loop?
Maybe when iOS 15 comes along someone will put iOS 9 on it somehow and it will blaze along. I doubt it, but I would not be at all surprised if the delays in opening apps are the same in iOS 15 and the hardware that goes with it. There should be a 'Moore's Constant' for this, to describe how all advances in silicon are instantly negated by operating systems at boot time to have a consistent amount of delay when opening apps.
Apple occasionally issues major releases that are more responsive than previous iterations, so no, it's really nothing to do with closed vs open source.
I also have an iPhone 4S. I wondered the same thing. It's really annoying. My guess is that the memory requirements have increased a lot. It kind of still feels fast after a fresh boot. But after a few hours, it feels really slow. Some bigger applications fail at the first run, maybe because too less memory. Some will crash when I open an embedded Safari page. Also, when switching apps, in almost all cases, it has to restart the app.
Also, the battery duration has become worse. But that might also just be its age - although not sure.
Now, just because of that, I'm thinking about buying a new phone.
I wonder, is this similar for Android phones? When I buy a high-end Android phone now, can I expect it to still run fast in 3-5 years or so the future current version of Android?
I had the 4S and was itching for a replacement/upgrade at the 2 year mark. Now I'm on a 5S and I don't think it's lost much at 2 years old - it's maybe gone from "lightning fast" to "fast" in that time, but a raft of convenient added features make that a worthy tradeoff. So Apple are laying the sense of "planned obsolescence" to rest, for me at least. I think they were just pushing against a lot of hardware boundaries in the iPhone's early years.
There are definitely not any intentional performance bottlenecks; that's just absurd.
The 4S is now 4 years old. That is a long time. The 4S is also 2 full years older than the first-ever 64-bit smartphone, the iPhone 5S, which really was a tremendous performance leap.
Compared to its competitors, decidedly no. The state of affairs on Android is even worse.
Samsung Galaxy S2 release: May 2, 2011
Apple iPhone 4S release: October 14, 2011
Google Galaxy Nexus: November 17, 2011
Galaxy S2 last OS release: October 9, 2012
4S's latest OS release: October 21, *2015*
Galaxy Nexus' last OS release: October 3, 2013
And that's just from the same generation... I suspect there are even newer flagship Android phones that have hit EOL, where the 4S is still (at least partially) supported...
Compared to other industries, like computers or cars, sure. Maybe it's planned obsolescence.
Or maybe it's just that it's such a new product that innovations and consumer desire are faster than usual (or, likely, sustainable).
To be fair though the iPhone 4S was discontinued in September 2014 whereas the other phones were discontinued much earlier. And from what I've heard the newer iOS versions don't run well on the 4S. Also take into account the fact that most app developers won't bother optimizing for the 4S.
Yes, the 4S was discontinued later, but maybe that's because it was still worth buying, since it was still supported by the manufacturer? ;)
As for the other complaints: yes, it's not a perfect situation, but it's better than the alternatives. At the very least, it is still receiving security updates. Those Android phones' last updates predate Heartbleed...
Almost certainly. I try really hard to be as un-cynical as possible about this, but there's a great quote I heard from someone smart whose name I can't recall right now - economics is incentives all the way down - and it applies perfectly here I think.
What possible incentive could any phone manufacturer have to build a phone that significantly over-lasts the rough 2 year cycle that their bulk buyers, i.e the networks, sell the phones on?
That's not rhetorical, I'm really asking - does anyone know of any?
Consider it this way: the actual evidence we have disagrees with your conclusion. Apple has seemingly gone out of their way to ensure that new releases continue to run on increasingly-older generations of hardware. Look at calvin_c's comment[1] for a complete breakdown of this.
It makes a big difference that Apple won't let you downgrade to a previous OS. Only sheer stubbornness kept me from upgrading my iPhone 4 (iOS 7) to an iPhone 6 when all I really wanted was a phone that didn't take half a second to respond to input. Downgrading to iOS 6 would have accomplished the same thing.
It's hard not to believe that planned obsolesence isn't at least part of that strategy. It's certainly incidental. I don't hold a grudge against Apple for doing this, but not acknowledging it is turning a blind eye.
Think about it from the company/engineer's point of view: would you want to maintain the old version of the code (adding security fixes and the like) for years after it's current, for probably less than 1000 people per version? Remember that the old versions of code probably build with old versions of the compiler, old trains, etc. And you can't not maintain this code, since there will be bugs found, jailbreaks, etc. Every engineering team I know has more features than man-hours, it's hard to imagine them willingly making this tradeoff for such a small gain in their overall user happiness (people posting on HN are the exception, most people just update their devices for the shiniest new features)
It's a near-universal practice for several versions of important system software (like operating systems and databases) to be maintained and supported simultaneously. It's unusual for updates to stop entirely as soon as the next major version is released.
I see this as a necessity mainly for server software which you don't want to change too often. Ubuntu does a great job at this with their LTS releases.
But on the other hand with the way the android adoption curve looks, that's still a lot of people. I just checked wikipedia right now, something like 35% of users are running a version which google stopped patching. So to have the same coverage of security updates, google has to support more OS versions. And even then, they're leaving a lot of people in the dust.
I'm sure google would like people to upgrade too, less versions for them to maintain, but they've got the whole carrier situation to deal with in that ecosystem.
I can think of a couple. I'm not sure if either one is enough to overcome the incentives to do otherwise, though.
1. General brand goodwill. If it's known that the phone you buy today will be functional for the next 5 years, then long-term customer loyalty may incentivize a company to make sure their units last that long
2. App-store market share. The longer your phone lasts, the lest likely its purchaser will replace it with another ecosystem's product. This would increase the lifetime revenue you get from that buyer.
Again, I'm not sure if these two incentives are enough to outweigh the "new every two!" hardware refresh profits.
Apple phones definitely do seem to have a longer lifespan, I agree that quality being the cornerstone of their branding provides a very strong incentive for them to do this, with other manufacturers (my experience is mostly with Samsung) seeming to take a more it'll be fine, after 2 years the S(current+2) will be out and they'll want that anyway because it will be far better hardware type approach. It's one of the reasons I'm now strongly considering switching over to the iPhone after my current Samsung S4 finally dies (it's still just about crawling along with some problems after about 28 months since I bought it)
What if you displease them in one way, by making older phones have a limited lifespan, but redress that by pleasing them enough to make the difference in other ways, for example by developing newer phones with superior features that get them excited enough not to care so much about the shortcomings of the old model (shortcomings which wouldn't necessarily be as apparent if the phone had a longer lifespan)?
Might it then be the best strategy to displease your customers on purpose, and accept the negative impact of that since it's also contributing to a wider goal of selling more phones and making more profit?
Above, you wondered about "what possible incentive" there could be against obsolescence, and said you weren't being rhetorical, you really wanted to know.
@aljones gives such an incentive.
Now, you try to cook up particular parameter values under which this reasoning would not apply ("what if you displease them in one way..."). What is the point of this?
Sorry, with respect I don't really understand your criticism.
I asked for incentives because I'm not aware of any strong ones, aljones replied with what they thought was such an incentive. But, am I obliged to agree? If I disagree, should I not point this out and continue the discussion in a constructive manner?
Additionally, cook up particular parameter values - I don't understand what you mean - we are talking specifically about the 2 year lifecycle of a phone, and the manufacturers' incentives for keeping it as such - I didn't bring that in out of nowhere, that's what we were originally talking about!
I am surprised everyone disagrees with this, it's really common and the basis upon which a consumer society is based.
Clothes don't need to break, lightbulbs can be built that last forever, cars can and should run indefinitely when we can build aeroplanes that don't fall out of the sky and the performance of animations on an iOS device do not need to degrade substantially every OS release.
Apple release new versions of their OS to support the App Store (which make billions every year) not at all to increase the longevity of devices but to decrease them!!
I assume some of you think this is a paranoid conspiracy or something??
That's going to depend on whether Apple can be trusted to support their hardware indefinitely or whether they will decide to drop support to force people to give them more money.
A much safer bet would be a popular Android device, where anyone can port the latest Android version to the device and there is no monetary interest in not doing so, and thus it's likely that updates will be available forever.
Except in reality, Apple continues to support their old devices with the latest updates significantly longer than any other Android manufacturer, who practically force you to go through the effort of rooting your phone to get even critical security patches.
Wow, thanks anandtech, I didn't know about the 3d touch on the keyboard to enable the "trackpad cursor mode." That should double my text input speed when I make a mistake (often) while being much less annoying than the old way (touch/wait/magnifying glass/retry).
I've felt ambivalent about 3d touch until now.
Now if I could get a dark UI theme on it my last gripe would go away. (No, negative is not good enough ;)
I was super excited about this feature. In practice, it's nice for moving the cursor a long way quickly, but the finer stuff isn't any faster. It also tends to shift as I left my finger so it makes being precise difficult.
I've found not only is it faster (no waiting and no necessary hand movement), but I'm more accurate, maybe because my finger isn't in the way. Often with the mag. glass I have to do it more than once to get the insertion point right. The feature a minor revolution.
You're right, wish it could be more discoverable, but now that I know, am very happy.
The iPhone 6s Plus I have is a wonderful phone, but I can't help but feel that Apple is losing some of it's perfection. There are some obvious UI annoyances that are present.
Such as, the Plus is a large phone so you most often open it with the phone tilted somehow, giving you landscape mode. It does not easily revert to the upright state without juggling it around, nor is there an option to not go landscape on the home screen only (seriously who needs that?). It's not even in the settings menu to disable rotation entirely - you have to find it in the pull up menu.
Another gripe I have is that all the pull up and down menus also trigger when you don't want it. The screen has gotten really sensitive, which is great, but there are lots of unintended effects now.
A fanatical user running the company wouldn't have overlooked this.
Jobs, a fanatical user? I doubt it. He culled as many useful features as he added.
He was against many things users asked for: iPad minis. Larger iPhones. Styluses. Sounds more fanatical ideologue than a fanatical user.
The only "usage" based feature I specifically remember being attributed to him is Gorilla Glass, after he scratched up a prototype's screen with keys in the same pocket.
I've noticed more software bugs in the last couple of iOS releases than previously. Sometimes the top status bar (time, battery, rotation lock/silence symbols, etc.) will disappear, fail to change colour, etc. Sometimes apps think they're in landscape when the phone itself thinks it's in portrait, making the app half the height and twice the width of the screen. On iOS9 specifically, sometimes the touch digitiser just stops working and I have to force a reboot.
There's also small things that seem unpolished to the traditional "Apple" level. For example even 2 years after the iOS7 release, the size of the status bar at the top changes between the lock screen and the homescreen, which means that not only does text size change but also the number of symbols that show up near the battery display changes too if you're right at the limit of real estate there. Yes, it's minor, but stuff like that didn't seem to happen several generations ago, but I'm noticing it more and more.
What drives me nuts about my 6s is the way they moved the power button from the top of the phone to the opposite (long) side as the volume buttons. This guarantees that I cannot pull the phone out of my pocket without hitting one button or another inadvertently, and also makes it likely that the button I press first will be a volume button rather than the power button I wanted.
I'd like to grab the iPhone's product designer by his or her (designer) lapel and make one thing very clear: I should not have to look at my phone in order to turn it on, or to orient it for use.
This stuff should be obvious basic ergonomics, but ever since they released the infamous iPhone 4 with its perfectly symmetrical surfaces, they've always felt compelled to do at least one minor but annoying thing wrong. My previous iPhone 5 was a nice exception, but like its predecessors, it was just too small.
Gotta love all these First World problems, I suppose.
EDIT: Interesting. Watching the votes go up and then down makes me think that half of the people do not appreciate my comment. In that case, I feel like I should elaborate.
If the phone is in your pocket, then reaching in has two options. One is wrapping your hand around the sides and the other is a pinch on the front + back. With OP's button pressing issue, I think it's more likely to be wrapping.
I personally don't see how it would be a problem even with wrapping, unless you're used to squeezing hard, but it can be remedied easily by putting the phone in so that the home button is oriented top side. That also brings along the benefits of being unable to unlock quickly and allowing you to listen to music without straining your headphone jack as much.
If Apple had kept the home button on the top, there would be more complaints. A top button is hard to reach, especially on the new, taller iPhones. It was already a complaint when the iPhone 5 form factor was released. Having to reach up to lock makes your grip on the phone a bit more tenuous. Combined with exerting a downward force cause you're pressing the home button, dropping an iPhone becomes more likely.
Frankly, this is the first complaint I've seen directed towards a side power button. For right handed users (sorry, lefties), the button is easily accessible to the thumb now. There's less balancing required to lock the phone. I've only seen reviews that were upset at top home buttons on big phones (HTC One series), never ones about side power buttons.
EDIT: Interesting. Watching the votes go up and then down makes me think that half of the people do not appreciate my comment.
I don't agree with your assertion that a top button is more awkward, even on the larger phones, but I wouldn't moderate anyone down for saying so. But you've got to consider how many Apple users, fans, and even employees are probably reading a site like this one. They may not have the time or motivation or even the ability to articulate a rational rebuttal to a critical comment, but the good ol' downvote button is only a click away. Can't take it too personally.
And speaking of usability facepalms, there's also the wonderful HN up/down button layout to contend with. I don't always hit the arrow I'm aiming at with an optical mouse, much less a finger on a touchscreen. I think those buttons amount to some kind of obscure hazing ritual or inside joke on YC's part; they can't be that obtusely-designed on purpose.
I preferred the top button, and have no trouble reaching it.
Now, when I go to hit it, I almost always push the volume button at the other side as well when squeezing. I'm getting used to it, but this is it's third location! My first ipod touch had it on the top left.
So, this does kind of get at what gareim wrote, but how do you keep it in your pocket? By habit I've always put it in with the home button at the top. 90% of the time I want to unlock the phone when I pull it out, otherwise I'm taking it out to charge it or be more comfortable. So if I want it unlocked with the home button up, it's unlocked by the fingerprint scanner by the time I have it out of the pocket.
A power button on the side may drive you nuts. Me, and plenty of other people, I'm sure, prefer a button on the side. Especially in larger phones, pressing the button on top is impractical, while pressing a button on the side is more natural from the default holding position.
It's not a great solution, but last time I tried it "zoomed" display mode made it behave more like the old mode... less like an iPad. The home screen doesn't rotate, etc.
The down side, of course, is that you lose some screen real-estate in your apps. They do need an option just for the home screen.
I have an iPhone 6s Plus, which I love, and almost never use landscape mode to reach UI controls. I am quite sure Tim Cook is a fanatical user of Apple products.
I've never used a 6 Plus or 6S Plus. Does the rotation lock not work on it like it does on the iPad? That seems like a strange oversight, it's not like it should be running through substantially different code paths.
> feel that Apple is losing some of it's perfection
Apple never had perfection. It's nothing more than revisionist history. Every one of their products has had issues.
> A fanatical user running the company wouldn't have overlooked this.
Steve Jobs was quite happy to allow dreadful products like OSX 1.0 or the original Retina MacBook to go to market despite a litany of issues. The fact is that the CEO can't be worried about stupid, small details like this. If you actually thought deep about all that goes on at Apple and the increasing need for CEOs to be involved in lobbying you would soon realise how silly your point is.
Well, in fairness, it's likely this product was already in the funnel back in 2011. However, Jobs wouldn't have been able to do a final review, but then again, do CEO's regularly review all of a company's products, or do they trust their team (product managers, quality testers and managers, etc...?
From my understanding, he was giving feedback up until the end, which is both commendable and sad at the same time. Still, it probably helped him not dwell on the negative.
> Steve Jobs was quite happy to allow dreadful products like [...] the original Retina MacBook to go to market despite a litany of issues.
What are you talking about? I got the first rMBP right out of the gate and was blown away. After 3+ years, it's still a wonderful product. Never had any issues with the hardware except a screen repair that was done under warranty.
I'm mostly an Android user and now I have an iPhone 6s, received as a gift - this is actually the third iPhone I'm receiving as a gift, the first one was a 3GS. I like the hardware, the phone, its size. I like how polished it feels. I really like the photos it takes. But I consider Android's software to be superior. Others might disagree, but I have many reasons for why I prefer Android and I think iOS is falling further and further behind.
I use an iPhone and I (continue) to have an Android tablet -- I've been operating this way over a few generations. I don't think either platform is 100% superior over the other. For every advantage Android has over iOS there is different advantage iOS has over it.
I was seriously considering going for an Android phone this time around but the 6s is really some amazing hardware. It isn't even as hyped up as it should be.
While I did use Android phones for 5 years, since I switched to iOS I've used to do your config of iOS phone + Android tablet for a long time now as well. Since I've linked up my wife's 4S with my 5S and using app sharing, I think I see enough value in finally ditching the Android tablet. I always felt Android was a better tablet OS due to the customization. With ad blockers on iOS9, app sharing, more streamlined interface, security updates, better support, the general convenience of free iMessages, Facetime and Apple stores for same-day repairs, I'm probably going all Apple if I even continue to use a tablet at all. The new Amazon Fire tablet is nice for $50, but I think I'd probably put that money into a 6S Plus and use it for the same purposes and more.
For us I think our phones and laptops may be all we need.
Completely agree that the 6S is underhyped, which is amazing because it's basically the new iPhone4.
After playing around with my Nexus 7 for a long time and performing all kinds of experiments (like running Linux alongside Android) I found I used my tablet almost exclusively for web and media consumption.
So my latest tablet is a Samsung Tab S 8.4 and it's perfect for those needs in a way where an iPad would be sub par. Media management is way more straight forward on Android and I can have 64gb SD card.
But I did root the tablet and uninstall 70% of the bloatware running on it on the first day. It came with 4-5 pages of (useless) applications and I'm now down to 2. Apple products also come with useless uninstallable applications (Stocks, Watch, etc) but it no where near what this Samsung device had running.
My wife has an iPad and I really could not recommend, for her, an Android tablet.
On Android me and my wife have a shared Google account with purchases that we share. It's a little painful that Google Play doesn't do sharing the way Apple does, but the setup is doable. On the other hand I really, really hate any interactions with iTunes Store, with Google Play being a complete joy to interact with by comparisson. Apple made the choice to separate users in stores linked to their geography, so I have to "switch store" in order to see actual reviews. Who ever thought that's a good idea was an idiot, as I have to search on Google to find good apps and reviews for iOS.
Mobile Safari is very polished. I like how reliable the reader mode is. I like that it now does ad-blocking. On the other hand the web apps feel more integrated in Android. For example Chrome on Android does notifications now, so for example I could just use Facebook on the web and get push notifications. Also Android does alternative browsers, so Android has Firefox and Firefox has real extensions, including ad-blockers. Mobile Safari is really good though.
In terms of UI, Androids notifications are much better, as in they are reliable, they get grouped, you get shortcuts to act on them or you can dismiss them easily. On iOS the notifications are broken and the "unread" indicators are completely annoying. On iOS I also miss the Back button. They added sort of a hack lately for Safari, so you can return to the previous app from Safari. Along with double-tab on home, a pattern emerges ... they keep adding hacks as a substitute for the lack of a Back button. As a consequence of this, one of the things I hate on iOS is how every app opens its own web view. I mean, don't you just hate that?
Skype on my iOS is broken. It simply doesn't ring if the app is inactive. This is probably a bug, but it's also a bigger problem related to iOS. iOS is killing inactive apps, so it has special hooks for apps that need to be awoken by messages. This leads to weird effects - like Dropbox is unable to backup my photos in the background, because it cannot stay alive long enough to do it. And I've lost some photos that way, as I've reset my phone thinking that Dropbox managed to back me up. It's also weird to pause and then resume my music or my audiobooks. As resume doesn't necessarily work remote-controlled through your headsets as you have to wake your phone up first. Actually the behavior is inconsistent. It really depends on whether iOS managed to put your app to sleep or not. The upside of that is that the iPhone's idle mode is very efficient, but given my usage patterns, I haven't seen an overall improvement in battery life.
On the apps ecosystem, I feel Android has better apps. This may sound like heresy, but it's true, with Android having the benefit of a stronger open-source ecosystem. They finally unified the design under the material design guidelines. And with Marshmallow they finally fixed the permissions system, though iOS has the benefit of not having such a broken permissions model for such a long time. So for instance on iOS I felt comfortable installing Waze, but not on Android - thankfully that changes with Marshmallow.
iOS does better at out-of-the box standards being supported. It supports CalDAV and CardDAV for example. For Android you need special adapters that need to be bought for CalDAV / CardDAV and Google should be ashamed of themselves. On the other hand on Android just about anything is extensible, so support for CalDAV / CardDAV synching can be added by buying some available apps.
To sync my iPhone with my desktop I need to use iTunes. I hate iTunes with a passion, I really do. With Android I can just plug it in to my computer and just copy/paste some files in a folder.
Related to UX in general, iOS apps are good, except when they are not. For example RunKeeper on Android is more usable than RunKeeper on iOS, because on iOS you have to tap on things that don't seem tap-able. And for iBooks to not do bookmarks for audiobooks is a total screwup for a company like Apple.
On my iPhone I do like that I get SMS messages on my MacBook through iMessages and phone calls through FaceTime. That's pretty sweet. On Android I've used PushBullet but it's not the same. On the other hand I don't like feeling locked in Apple's ecosystem or in anybody's ecosystem for that matter. So I'm enjoying my iMessages and my FaceTime, but I try not to like it so much :-)
I'm like you in that I try not to go down the rabbit hole too far with anyone. That said, over the years I went from using zero Apple products (first computer was a Commodore, never had an Apple), to really appreciating the things I find so polished and good about them. If I did go too far, it would be with Apple because I feel they actually work hard for my business. Most IMO, clearly do not. Everyone else is selling devices, they want us happy with our i-devices because they sell music and services that are device-locked. Google is more willing to bring their services crossplatform and that has led to a lack of TLC for Android and how sloppy it is in many ways.
You mentioned you use a Macbook. I've never owned a Macbook, but frequently wonder if I'm as wrong about them as I was about the iPhone. I ran Cyanogenmod on my Androids and honestly I would not go back from iOS.
My opinions always change with new information and experiences but right now these are my products of choice for various categories. I own or use all of these currently, other than the laptops. Currently using work-provided laptops.
Phone- Apple iPhone
Console- Nintendo Wii U
Music match/service- Google Play Music (if I had Amazon Prime I'd probably move to Amazon Music but we shop more locally and are Costco members)
Browser- Mozilla Firefox
HTPC- Amazon FireTV (replaced a jailbroken AppleTV2)
Laptop- Lenovo Thinkpad
Cheap laptop- Acer Aspire One Cloudbook, 14-Inch
Desktop OS- Windows10 (gaming) & Linux Mint (dev)
Email- Google Gmail
Search- DuckDuckGo (bangs sold me on it, it's the new
Google)
Programming language implementation- PyPy4 (Python 2.7)
Media- OTA antenna, Netflix and HBO Now
As you can see, I only use 1 Apple product currently and very diversified. Hardly an Apple diehard, but I'm learning and definitely don't carry that grudge against them that many long-term Android users do.
I ended up with a MacBook Pro because at work we're interacting with a corporate environment for which Linux is not supported and everybody is on Windows. At some point I gave up the fight of configuring a VPN connection to our deeply broken L2TP/IPsec server and asked for a MacBook. My VPN now works, albeit with interruptions.
But my next laptop is going to be a Thinkpad, because these slick MacBooks can't be easily repaired and can't be upgraded. They look and feel good, but that's of no consequence when you suddenly need 16 GB of RAM, or when the battery has worn off, or when the keyboard started to peel. I hate this trend of slim laptops you can't tinker with. OS X is nice, but I prefer Ubuntu's software repositories, though having access to popular applications not available for Linux feels good. And the Retina display on this thing will make all alternatives look inferior.
I also have a Windows corporate environment at work. In your situation I would get a Thinkpad with Windows on it, then run your distro of choice on that with VMWare.
That's what I do on my home machine, because I have 2 mice, 3 monitors and generally with a setup like that, I've found X falls down on its face pretty easily if you start to ask more of it than a basic laptop configuration presents.
Running in a VM I don't have to dual boot (I hate that more than anything) and gain the stuff you may struggle with, such as that VPN connection, with a silky smooth, problem free Linux environment while retaining full support from your company.
I think most of the things you described could be serviced same-day at an Apple store. I haven't been keeping up on them too closely, but I think even the Macbook Pros have soldered RAM and SSD now which is a bummer. A T450 is a pretty good option that's why I've always leaned towards one of those for my next laptop.
I'm a gamer as well so I'm waiting to see how VR pans out before I upgrade again. May stick with upgrading the hardware in my Lian Li tower, or ditching the desktop and moving to a laptop for personal use.
Even better quick fix, install Windows on the Macbook. Then run your distro in a VM on that. :P Not sure why I didn't suggest that. No more VPN issues. When the time comes for a new work laptop, get the Thinkpad and do the same.
Tried an iPhone 6 and switched back to my Nexus 4 after a week because the notifications were driving me nuts compared to Android.
I have three different email accounts, and unless I used the native Mail app (which I hate), the Gmail app would show all of the individual email notifications on a separate row combined across all accounts. My notifications quickly became useless. On Android, they are rolled up into an accordion grouped by account, so I have three separate mail notifications, and I can long hold on them to see the top few email subject lines at a glance. SO much better.
There also didn't seem to be a way to have more visibility into the notifications on the lock screen the way you do on Android.
Lastly, lack of widgets.
I guess I'm one of the rare power users who cares more about the OS and the interface than the apps.
Oddly enough, I have an iPad 2 that I use as a browsing/media/reading/gaming device around the house and I love it for that. I almost NEVER check email on it because I usually have my phone in my pocket and that is just easier.
--EDIT--
Not sure why I got downvoted for stating my opinion for why I prefer Android. iOS does some things really well, and I happen to like the Android way for other things. Different strokes for different folks. But apparently saying anything negative about iOS is not acceptable...
I'm not sure how much this plays in, but to my eye, your comment adds nothing to the discussion. Your personal preference isn't interesting in context.
To be fair, I can't imagine a context where I would find your preferences to be interesting (on HN, that is) so I could be wrong. I didn't vote on your comment in any case.
"Others might disagree, but I have many reasons for why I prefer Android but I'm not going to say what they are because I like to maintain a halo of mistery"
I am about to go read the article, but after owning a 6s+ for the past couple weeks, I will give a few impressions first:
* Very very very large (this is a big-ass phone),
* Very very very very fast,
* Some good options in the UI for heavier Mac style 'fuzzy' text,
* Battery life is barely dented after a typical day of surfing and texting occasionally at work,
* Phone is 'slippery' and I have to use a special grip, wrapping fingers around it to hold it securely,
* Camera is fantastic, with people asking me 'what lens' are you using, assuming I'm on my Nikon SLR,
* Fingerprint unlocking is here, and works perfectly.
All in all, it's an incredible leap from the iPhone 4S I had before. $900+ is a LOT for a phone though.
Absolutely, but also, sort of not. After all, you'd want a decent phone, that sets you back say around $200 nowadays. The $700 then is really the premium you're paying.
Now you mentioned the 4S. It's still worth $100, whereas the resale value on a $200, 4 years later, is probably pretty much zero in comparison.
So now you're paying a $150 premium per year for the top of the line phone. Per month it'd be about $12.50 to have the latest tech instead of say the Moto G (sweet entry level phone).
Is that excessive or a lot? Well if you're earning a few k a month and you're on your phone 10% of the time, not really. Comparing it to say the cost of your car, your food (a $12.50 lunch), your entertainment (a $12.50 movie ticket) etc, puts it into perspective.
Anyway don't get me wrong, I'm on an iPhone 4 myself haha. I just don't have a need right now and raised on little, $12.50 is substantial when your disposable income is near zero, so I totally get it's a lot. But for a large portion of Americans who are on their phone a lot, the cost-benefit for this purchasing decision is tremendously positive.
Isn't the base model $750 btw instead of $900? Pretty sure it was. Of course you'd need to buy a plan as well.
It's funny because despite most of this review going into very grimy detail about chipsets and transistor sizes and such (and other things which I honestly didn't understand) most of the comments are no different than what one would see on a less in-depth review from theverge, arstechnica or yahoo tech news.
I find it fascinating that Apple was able to get their process down to 14nm using the so called "3D process" up until now I really didn't understand why the qualcomm 810 was having so much trouble, now it makes a lot more sense.
How big of a difference is the camera on the 6s without OIS versus the 6s plus with OIS? I can't really notice a difference in the low light pictures on the site.
I take a lot of pictures, but I'm not someone who dives into the details (jpg is fine for me... never even considered RAW). I prefer the 6s form factor, but don't want to end up with a bunch of blurry pictures that would be clear if I would have gotten a 6s Plus.
Unless you're taking video very often, there's no difference. I take a lot of photos, and I found the smaller form factor of the 6S outweighed any small improvements on the larger handset.
Regarding battery life TSMC vs. Samsung chips, the link given in the other article (http://browser.primatelabs.com/battery3/search?dir=desc&page...) seems quite conclusive -- sorting by score, ratings in both 6s+ and 6s are clearly dominated by TSMC (motherboards without an "m").
This is of course as Apple states a fairly narrow and not necessarily representative test; but if I ever decide to upgrade from my 5s to 6s, I think I know which one I would want :)
Now, I'm not quite sure upgrade would be a good idea -- 5s seems snappy enough, and size does bother me quite a bit. On the other hand, I just noticed claims improved water resistance -- http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/iphone-6s-waterproof -- that make me seriously consider getting one...
Am I naive for thinking the iPhone cost less than $600? I don't know what I thought it might have cost, I've never been interested enough to go looking. I...just might have expected it to be less than the PC upgrades I occasionally fantasize about.
I'm a bit happier with the price/performance ratio of my much, much too old smartphone after seeing that price tag.
I love my iphone 6+, it's just too big for my hands. The double-swipedown on home button couldn't fully eliminate the need to use both hands in order to get to a screen spot. The regular 4.7" should be perfect.
HN is for "anything that good hackers would find interesting" [1]. Out of all possible articles to ask "why," I'm puzzled why this one - a deep technical review about a device that many HN users use and/or develop software for - strikes you as not fitting this criteria.
That's quite an endorsement, that is quite rare from Anandtech, if I've been following correctly.
I'm not always a huge fan of the iPhone, but I have to say that, after testing the 6S, it's really tempting.