Hands-on with the iPhone 6S - positive updates but no major overhaul

Here comes the new iPhone, same as the old one. Right? Not exactly. While the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus may look remarkably similar to the models announced a year ago, there are some important differences. Aesthetically, admittedly little has changed. Apple added a rose gold version to the line up - that's a vague pink to the rest of us - but the phone, by and large, looks the same. But that's how Apple does things: a big launch one year, an update the next. We're in an update year, so realistically, nobody expected a major overhaul.

So what exactly is different about the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus? It’s mostly on the inside. The chip is faster, bumping up to an A9, compared with the iPhone 6’s A8. And while the phone may look the same on the outside, there has been a change: the glass. More durable than its predecessor, the glass on the phone has been toughened up. It’s probably a good thing, given that you will be doing a lot of pressing on that screen, thanks to the other major new addition: 3D Touch.

You may not have thought that the multitouch screen needed a new way to interact, but it turns out that it did. Force Touch was brought into the Mac line-up a few months ago, and the same technology is now being added to phones. The idea is that your phone can now distinguish between a touch on the screen, and a press, and will react accordingly.

Pressing or holding?

So how does it work on the iPhone? It takes a few minutes to get used to. Existing iPhone users will know that pressing and holding on an icon will trigger the ability to delete apps from your phone. But 3D Touch is more than that. You have to push harder on the screen, or else the shortcuts - peeking at mail, quick access to favourite contacts, for example - won’t happen. It takes a few tries to remember this, so until then, there might be a lot of app shaking going on. Once you get the hang of it though, it feels natural, and it’s a timesaver.

The camera in the new iPhone has also been given a bump. The still-image camera has seen its resolution rise to 12 megapixels, while the front-facing camera - what Apple refers to as iSight - gets an upgrade to five megapixels, plus the ability to take selfies using the screen as a flash. The photographs look impressive, but we’ll need a proper road test with different lighting situations to really see what it can do.

Video camera

The other big improvement is the video camera. It can now shoot in 4K, which means high-quality video, better than HD, in the palm of your hand. There are, of course, a couple of issues here. First of all, 4K video will take up more space on your phone’s storage. Secondly, to really see the difference, you need something capable of playing 4K footage to its best. That means a monitor or compatible TV. However, that being said, you can really see the difference even when watching the footage back on the handset. It looks sharper and more detailed, and you can zoom in closer before things start to get a bit fuzzy. Again though, we’ll need to test it further.

The verdict: We’ll reserve judgment on the camera, but 3D Touch is a nice addition to the iPhone. And going on past launches, it’s almost guaranteed to be a hit for the company.