iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus review roundup

So I'm just going to put this out there, and then we can all handle the emotional consequences together: if you are thinking of buying a new phone, and you have anything older than an iPhone 6, you should buy an iPhone 6S Plus. It is the best iPhone ever made, and it is right now the best phone on the market. If you're upgrading from an iPhone 5S or anything older, it will blow your mind. There just aren't other companies that can roll out a feature like 3D Touch and make it work in a way that suggests the creation of entirely new interface paradigms, and every other phone maker needs to figure out exactly why Apple's cameras are so consistent before they can really compete.

Most surprising to me was the greater speed of the iPhone's fingerprint sensor, called TouchID, which is built into the familiar round home button. It's now so fast that, if you use the button to wake up the phone and authenticate with your fingerprint, the process happens almost instantly. I often didn't even see the lock screen.

I had to remind myself to use 3D Touch at first, but after two weeks, it's becoming part of my iPhone muscle memory. In Mail, I now press hard on a message to preview it, then swipe left to delete. I love how you can hold down on a link to see a preview of the website, without leaving the app you're in. Press harder and you can "pop" into that app. Third-party app support could make it even more useful.

Last week I used the iPhone 6s Plus all day long doing all sorts of stuff with it, and forgot to charge it that night as I typically do. The following day, I again used it to do all manner of stuff; truthfully, I used the hell out of it. Then I plugged it into a car charger on my way home from work, because it occurred to me to do so — but I didn't urgently need to. Anyway, the phone didn't die.

A 50 percent bump in pixels doesn't necessarily increase the quality of photos, and Apple hasn't messed with a good thing in that regard. Daytime photos are lush and beautifully captured, but are most importantly accurate, with near-perfect white balance and a tendency to capture the warmth of a scene, along with an appropriate depth of field. Many of the photos speak for themselves, finding the right balance in every metric: exposure, noise reduction, shutter speed, light sensitivity, and focus.

The move to put Hey Siri centre stage is welcomed, and we've already found we are using it to open apps a lot more frequently than when we did before. How long is it before we lose the homescreen altogether?

Do not be fooled into thinking that it's a toy. 3D Touch is a major innovation. The 96 embedded sensors underneath the screen measure the flexion of a new kind of glass at an incredibly small scale to determine pressure.

My initial impressions of the camera are: wow this thing is fast, and the photos it takes look very natural, very true to life. Often with very warm tones.

The iPhone 6S is a long way from a bad phone because, simply, it's an iPhone. That's not me saying that anything Apple does it going to be great, but the reason so many people fall over themselves to get the new iPhone is because they know it will be a solid experience with very intelligent interface touches and a great app store, coupled with a great camera. To many, that's all they need.

After testing the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus for two weeks, I had mixed feelings on the usefulness of the new features. I found that Live Photos quickly became an enjoyable, integral part of shooting photos with an iPhone. But I couldn't get into the habit of using 3D Touch.

We're used to hearing that New Phone has a faster processor than Old Phone, but in this case, Apple's A9 processor just screams with speed. Moving between apps is lightning fast. Fast-moving games are as smooth as Billy Dee Williams on a silk surfboard. The Touch ID sensor is instantaneous: By the time you've pressed the home button to wake up the phone, you've already authenticated yourself and are on the home screen. The new iPhones can get on faster Wi-Fi and, where available, 4G networks.

Trading up this soon is certainly by no means necessary, but those of you who do will be happy that you did. Apple's marketing spiel, heard in one of those chief design officer Jony Ive promotional videos, is that these are the most advanced iPhones ever created, but there is truth behind the hype.

But this time it's up to twice as fast as the 6's sensor which causes only only one problem - it's almost too fast. Merely pressing the home button to wake the phone now swiftly unlocks it, ploughing you straight into the home screen and most likely bypassing the message notification you were looking for. It takes some getting used to, and you may find it a bit frustrating initially.