Steve Jobs must be spinning in his grave. Before his death in 2011 the Apple co-founder and chief executive famously scoffed at the idea of a bigger screened iPhone, saying “no one” would want one. A year ago, his successor Tim Cook unveiled not one, but two bigger-screened iPhones. Both have been runaway successes.
Jobs was equally dismissive of the idea of pairing a stylus with a touch screen device.
“Who wants a stylus?” he asked at the launch of the original iPhone in 2007.
“You have to get ’em, put ’em away. You lose them. Yuck,” he added.
At Apple’s most recent launch event last week, marketing chief Phil Schiller revealed, wait for it, a stylus.
To be fair to Jobs, he was dissing the idea of using a stylus with that first iPhone with its tiny 3.5-inch screen, while the new Apple Pencil is designed to be used with the enormous 12.9-inch iPad Pro, revealed at the same event.
While Jobs was clearly wrong about no one wanting a bigger iPhone, I think he’d have been grudgingly pleased with where Apple finds itself today – hugely profitable with devices almost everyone wants but only a relatively few can afford.
There’s certainly no denying that the new iPhones 6S and 6S Plus are real stunners. They may look identical to last year’s models – apart from a new Rose Gold colour option – but there have been plenty of changes under their gorgeous metal and glass exteriors.
First a bit about said exteriors. Both the aluminium bodies and glass screens are significantly tougher than those found on last year’s models, no doubt a reaction to the overblown but nonetheless embarrassing “bendgate” saga.
I’m sure it won’t be long before some clown posts a video on YouTube of himself bending one of these new iPhones, but I seriously doubt average users will have anything to worry about on this score.
Turning to their innards, both new iPhones will run iOS 9, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, bringing a host of improvements including a cleverer, more efficient version of Apple’s speaking personal assistant, Siri, as well as better maps.
Apple says its new A9 processor is 70 percent faster, with 90 percent faster graphics performance. It also claims the processor is more power efficient. Let’s hope so given that the 6S sports a smaller battery than its predecessor.
If you’re an avid smartphone photographer, you’ll be thrilled about the improvements to the camera in the new iPhones.
With the previous three iterations, Apple stuck stubbornly with an 8MP sensor, despite rivals coming out with 16MP, 21MP and even 41MP snappers.
Apple argued, with some justification, that good digital images are about a lot more than raw megapixel count – a variation of the old “it’s not the size of the tool, but what you do with it” argument.
Still, I’m pleased to see the new models feature a beefier 12MP camera. I’ve little doubt that this, combined with other imaging improvements, will put the new iPhone back in contention as one of the best cameraphones around.
A word of caution if you are serious about photography, though. Only the bigger 6S Plus has optical image stabilisation. This is particularly important if you plan to use the phone’s new 4K video capture capability.
As predicted, both new models will come with force touch – or “3D Touch” as Apple dubs it in an attempt, no doubt, to differentiate it from an almost identical feature revealed a week earlier by Huawei at the release of its Mate S.
3D Touch lets you execute different commands on your device depending on how hard you press on the display – for example pressing harder on a picture will let you zoom in on it.
Apart from the minor quibbles I’ve voiced so far, my only big gripe is about Apple’s decision to release a version of the 6S with a piddling – by today’s standards – 16GB of internal storage.
If you take lots of pictures and videos or download plenty of apps and games, you’ll find yourself running out of digital shelf space very quickly with this model. If at all possible go for the pricier 64GB and 128GB models when they land in South Africa, probably around November.
Local prices haven’t been announced, but don’t expect them to start at less than R15 000 for the entry level 16GB 6S. And if the rand continues on its current trajectory, I wouldn’t be surprised if the top-of-the-range 128GB 6S Plus comes in above the R20 000 mark.
Scary stuff, but I bet there won’t be any shortage of takers.
Follow Alan Cooper on Twitter @alanqcooper.