The Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus Review
by Ryan Smith & Joshua Ho on November 2, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- SoCs
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
Video Performance
Now that we’ve discussed still image quality we can start to look at video quality. This is a major highlight for the iPhone 6s’ this year as the main reason for increasing the resolution of the sensor is primarily to enable 4K video recording. Interestingly enough, for the iPhone 6s Apple has also added 1080p120 slow motion video capture along with OIS in video recording for the iPhone 6s Plus. It’s interesting to see this change, as in the past it looked like Apple was solely relying on their EIS mechanisms to smooth out video instead of using OIS. In order to test these changes, we rely on relative testing between two phones to see how both perform in terms of video stability, resolution, and exposure/focus quality.
| Apple iPhone 6s Encoding | ||||
| Video | Audio | |||
| 1080p30 | 17 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 83 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 1080p60 | 26 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 83 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 4K30 | 50 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 83 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 1080p120 | 50 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 83 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 720p240 | 40 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 83 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
For 1080p30 video, Apple continues to use H.264 high profile encoding at around 17 Mbps bit rate, which is carried over from the iPhone 6. AAC at about 84 Kbps in a single channel is also carried over from the iPhone 6. It’s likely that mono audio is used because the microphone setup doesn’t really support stereo audio, but in future iterations it would definitely be interesting to see stereo audio recording. For all other modes, encoder settings appear to be constant with variations in bit rate based upon frame rate and resolution.
| OIS Testing |
When comparing the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 for general image stabilization quality it feels like they’re both pretty much identical. If you’re not careful about holding the phone relatively still EIS is going to feel a bit limiting. However, Apple’s EIS is quite good compared to something like the Galaxy Note 5’s video OIS due to its rather unnatural dampening effect, in which there are pockets of local stability punctuated by no stabilization at all. It’s also interesting to see how the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus appear to still have an edge over the Note 5 when it comes to continuous auto focus as in this scene the Note 5 takes some time to recognize that the subject of the video is out of focus and some contrast AF bracketing is used to verify the correct focus point. By comparison, the iPhone 6s appears to snap to the correct focus point almost instantly.
The iPhone 6s Plus is clearly the best out of these four phones though as it manages to combine the rather natural EIS of the iPhone 6s with properly implemented OIS. The algorithm for using OIS appears to be intelligent enough that overall image stability is prioritized over locally minimizing camera shake, which shows as footsteps in the video are properly dampened along with hand shake, but the major deviations are left alone. This looks much more stable when compared to the Note 5 because the Note 5 does appear to cancel out major movements in the video, but as soon as the OIS runs out of travel there is a strong correction that causes an unnatural jerking effect.
| 1080p30 & 1080p60 Video |
Here, the iPhone 6s compares pretty favorably with the best video cameras in the Android space. Relative to the Galaxy Note 5, the iPhone 6s has better color reproduction and dynamic range. This is especially evident when looking at shadows in the scene. Although this scene was shot towards the end of the day, the Note 5 makes the trees look much more yellow than they should be for accurate color. Due to the wider field of view, the Note 5 appears to have less detail as well, but zooming in should resolve the issue.
However, the iPhone 6s does end up worse than the Note 5 in some ways for this video. One obvious issue here is that the lack of OIS means that high frequency motion is especially hard to compensate for, which is more obvious in this test where I’m basically standing still instead of walking around trying to push the OIS beyond its travel limits. The Note 5 also has noticeably better audio quality due to the use of stereo recording.
The iPhone 6s Plus does go a long way to remedy these competitive deficits though, as the addition of OIS means that hand shake is pretty much eliminated in these relatively still videos. Apple’s use of a rather tight crop by default also means that the noticeable edge distortions induced by OIS are hard to notice, but given that a lot of people seem to prioritize field of view over general optical quality this may be considered a negative.
Weirdly enough, when comparing the iPhone 6s to the iPhone 6 there are some very real improvements to detail in 1080p video. It’s possible that we’re looking at the result of the 12MP sensor providing more pixels for oversampling here, as the field of view for both is pretty much identical. Overall image stability is basically the same here, which leads me to believe that cinematic video stabilization/EIS introduced with the iPhone 6 is basically unchanged when compared to the iPhone 6s. Color reproduction basically looks the same as well. Recorded audio is noticeably different in profile to make things less tinny, which is a nice improvement but not really enough to make audio recording in these situations better than the Note 5.
Meanwhile for 1080p60, it feels like the gap is even wider when it comes to detail as the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus has pretty much equivalent detail to the 1080p30 mode but with a higher frame rate. Color reproduction takes a noticeable dive as well towards overexposure and an even stronger yellow tint which is kind of surprising to see. The iPhone 6s continues to maintain a noticeable lead in quality over the iPhone 6 as well.
| 4Kp30 Video |
In 4K30, once again we see a surprising gap in fine detail and shadows. Color rendering of the trees also continues to be strongly saturated with yellow, which is a bit unrealistic for this scene. In stark contrast with most of the phones I’ve tested, 4K video on the iPhone 6s still has cinematic video stabilization active. There’s also no actual recording limit, which I tested by recording 4K video for roughly half an hour until it was evident that the phone wasn’t going to stop recording. When comparing to the iPhone 6’s 1080p30 output it’s evident that there isn’t really any compromise other than additional storage use.
| Slow Motion Video |
In 120 FPS slow motion the iPhone 6s’s are basically as good as it gets. Due to the resolution advantage no other OEM is really challenging Apple here. The 1080p120 video isn’t quite as high in detail as 1080p30 or 1080p60, but even a high quality 720p video isn’t really comparable.
Meanwhile in 240 FPS detail is comparable when comparing the iPhone 6s to the iPhone 6, but the iPhone 6s does appear to be slightly improved. I suspect we’re mostly looking at limits of the resolution here rather than encode or camera-level limitations.
Overall, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are both some of the best phones on the market for video capture. The iPhone 6s Plus manages to lead over the iPhone 6s by virtue of its OIS, but even without it the iPhone 6s is clearly pulling ahead of others when it comes to slow motion and 4K video capture. Looking at both video and still image performance together, the iPhone 6s Plus arguably has the best camera in an iOS or Android smartphone today. It isn’t necessarily the best at sheer detail for still images, but the camera doesn’t do anything wrong. The iPhone 6s Plus leads in overall low light photo quality, camera user experience, and overall video quality. The iPhone 6s is decidedly a few steps behind due to its lack of OIS, so as a result I would rank it around the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6.
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flyingfiddle - Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - link
Truly amazed and convinced that Apple has the best SoC of any phones, and their investment on the SoC paid off. So does their investment on refined iOS experience. I am Android guy but I have to admit I really wish SoC on Android could catch up one day, sooner the better.On the other hand, just because Apple is great in some areas does not mean they should get away with other things that's not as great. The raw power of a high end phone has become more than sufficient for many general users, such that making it more powerful is starting to generate diminished return. I could think of many things that I wish iPhone has, such as longer battery life (i know it's great, relatively, but why not push the boundary?), better screen/body ratio, external memory, more setting and better UI in the camera app, etc.
Well, still not my cup of tea but truly wish Android SoC could catch up one day. That's assuming Android platform survive that long (they have the largest market share but really don't make much money). I hope my money helps supporting them a bit longer..
tytung - Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - link
Can anyone comment on the iPhone 6s Plus frame rate dropping issue ? Animations looks choppy and the frame rate looks like only about 30 fps, unlike 60 fps on the 6s. If the GPU on the phone is so powerful this should not be an issue. In fact, for a phone this expensive UI frame rate drop is really a shameful problem.polmes - Thursday, November 5, 2015 - link
Got tired of iOS and moved to Android (Galaxy S6) earlier this year, but Apple definitely deserves an applause for being basically the only one to keep innovating in the mobile space. kudosSocius - Thursday, November 5, 2015 - link
Hmmmm...any idea why your iPhone 6s Plus scored just 15800 in Google octane when mine scored over 18,000? That's a pretty big discrepancy at 15%. Does your phone have a Samsung CPU? Mine is TSMC.zeeBomb - Thursday, November 5, 2015 - link
Both units are TSMC.Socius - Thursday, November 5, 2015 - link
Then there's something off as there is no way the 6s plus should be scoring just 15,800 on octane.mortimerr - Thursday, November 5, 2015 - link
I've never actually owned an Apple product in my life. All the way back to the original iPod classic. But I will probably finally be changing my stupid principle of 'No Apple Products'.The Android landscape recently has been going back instead of forward. Android 5-6 showcase minor improvements over 4.4.4 (Personally I also prefer Halo. Marshmallow and Lollipop looks slightly cartoony), battery life isn't that much of a leap (a lot of devices are experiencing the mobile radio active bug), and due to the fact that the high end market in the East is so saturated, most OEMs are cutting costs and putting out mid tier phones that lack top end hardware.
A lot of recent releases for Android have a great price point but either have a terrible camera (sensor, pixel size, post processing etc) or the IPS display leaves something to be desired, or it's this or it's that. The only OEM pushing the platform forward is Samsung. But, to be quite frank, I find those devices ugly to look at in every way from the bezel, UI skin, back, front, etc.
Where as Apple continues to simply improve with every iteration. Dual source fab at 14nm! What? 3D touch, increasing the ppi, maintaining solid battery life, great low light camera performance. Offering a big size and a small size with the same internals.
Sony also did this but I don't see the 810 as a very good chip going forward. Especially when it's already pretty far behind in performance to the Exynos and A#. I'll look forward to see if Sony updates the Z line.
I want to wait for Q2'16 for when devices with the 820 start being released, but what's the point when every device will inevitably have some drawback or large flaw or straight up just not be released in N. America.
JTRCK - Friday, November 6, 2015 - link
Where do you want phones to go? There's not much else they can do. A phone being imperfect is "always" the case. There is always something lacking in all these devices, including the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. One of the first mentions in this review is that the author is still using an HTC One M7 from years ago. Because quite honestly, that was the pinnacle of smartphone design plus an excellent combination of fluid software, excellent performance, and an excellent night performance for a camera (though everything else about that camera was a downgrade). That 3 year old phone is still a very good performer today.Increasing processor/RAM/Storage speed is all excellent and it's expected, but the benefits from such increases are hardly felt by the user on day to day usage. Especially if the software is done properly. Example: I have an old iPhone 4s at home that I use for music streaming that consistently beat out my previous note 4 on application opening, multitasking, sound output quality, web surfing speed, etc. Which phone is superior? Which phone is better? Did AnandTech give that iPhone 4s the BEST award? In my view Apple has always been the king of software and hardware performance. They can get a device with 512mb of ram to outperform a Note 4 with a multicore processor and with 3GB of ram. They should always get the BEST award. But is the BEST (100%) really worth $1,200.00 when the second BEST (99%) is half the price?
I'm not talking about Samsung here. Their phones are expensive with crappy performance. I'm talking about the Moto X Pure, HTC One M9/10, Nexus 6P, etc. I used an iPhone 6S Plus for 2 weeks (and an iPhone 6 Plus for 4 months before that) and returned it for the Nexus 6P. I find the 6P to be a much better phone than the iPhone 6S plus in almost every aspect. It charges faster, it opens applications just as fast, I can multitask faster with the 6P with a side launcher without ever having to see a home screen. I can transition within an app at a faster pace due to dedicated back buttons. A simple thing as not having a "button" to go back a task annoyed me to no end with the iPhone. Not to mention all the limitations of iOS. The only benefit of iPhone for me were the integrations with my Macbook, but other than that. I disliked both iPhones.
The iPhone has all this amazing technology at its core, but my grandmother would never know when using her new 6S. And that's how it should be. I'm more amazed that a Nexus 6P costs half what an iPhone costs while still managing to do just as much, if not more. I honestly found nothing revolutionary about the 6S Plus while using it. In fact, I found it to be quite similar to the 6 Plus. Which I found to be quite similar to the iPhone 4s. Just much larger. And in terms of OS performance, vanilla android at this point is quite simply just as visually pleasing, power efficient, responsive and performant as iOS.
FL777 - Friday, November 6, 2015 - link
Amusingly, there is a YouTube real world speed test between the Nexus 6P and the iPhone 6S and the Nexus 6P BEATS THE IPHONE 6S!!!!!http://www.frequency.com/video/nexus-6p-vs-iphone-...
So much for the iPhone 6S SoC being unbeatable LOL.
Blark64 - Friday, November 6, 2015 - link
Umm, did you watch the video? The difference was milliseconds, and with a "hand-done" test like this the phones were well within the margin of error, and essentially tied. Also, that was possibly the least informative benchmark I've ever seen, since repeatedly launching apps in a tight cycle is something that essentially no one actually does in the real world. That's why benchmarks that are either: more reflective of the real world, or synthetic and scientifically repeatable (like Geekbench and the various browser benchmarks), are probably a better guide.