After a year of rumours, speculation and ever-mounting evidence, Apple has finally unveiled the iPhone 6S, alongside its bigger sibling, the iPhone 6S Plus. As expected, the new iPhone comes in a new Rose Gold colour and also offers 3D Touch, but there are lots of other new features, too. Read on to find out more about the iPhone 6S, including the iPhone 6S release date, pre-order date, UK price and all of its new features.
Also unveiled at the Apple event:
iPad Pro
New Apple Watch models, straps and software
New Apple TV
New iPad mini 4iPhone 6s Plus
You’ll find a full recap of the event here.
You can also read our hands-on review of the iPhone 6s from after the event.
iPhone 6S release date UK: When is the new iPhone coming out?
The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are now available to pre-order, following their 9 September launch and subsequent 12 September pre-order kick off day. The new phones will be available to buy in stores from 25 September in 12 countries including the UK, which is also the day you can expect to recieve your pre-order iPhone if you get in quickly enough. It’ll be in 130 countries by the end of the year.
iPhone 6S price UK: How much will the new iPhone cost?
The iPhone 6S starts at £539, while the iPhone 6S Plus starts at £619. Breaking that down further:
iPhone 6S 16GB: £539
iPhone 6S 64GB: £619
iPhone 6S 128GB: £699
iPhone 6S Plus 16GB: £619
iPhone 6S Plus 64GB: £699
iPhone 6S Plus 128GB: £789
How to pre-order iPhone 6s in the UK
As mentioned above, Apple began pre-orders for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on Saturday 12 September at 8.01am. On Apple’s Online Store, you’ll be able to pre-order the new iPhone unsubsidised for the prices listed above. If you get in quickly enough, you should get your iPhone on its release day on 25 September, as lots of the models have yet to sell out.
At time of writing (14 September, 12:15), the following models are still available for delivery on 25 September:
Silver iPhone 6s, 16GB
Gold iPhone 6s, 16GB
Space Grey iPhone 6s, 16GB
Silver iPhone 6s, 64GB
Gold iPhone 6s, 64GB
Space Grey iPhone 6s, 64GB
Gold iPhone 6s, 128GB
The following models have an estimated wait time of 2-3 weeks, and that’s starting from 25 September.
Rose Gold iPhone 6s, 16GB
Rose Gold iPhone 6s, 64GB
Rose Gold iPhone 6s, 128GB
Silver iPhone 6s, 128GB
Space Grey iPhone 6s, 128GB
The iPhone models below have an even longer wait of 3-4 weeks.
Silver iPhone 6s Plus, 16GB
Gold iPhone 6s Plus, 16GB
Space Grey iPhone 6s Plus, 16GB
Rose Gold iPhone 6s Plus, 16GB
Silver iPhone 6s Plus, 64GB
Gold iPhone 6s Plus, 64GB
Space Grey iPhone 6s Plus, 64GB
Rose Gold iPhone 6s Plus, 64GB
Silver iPhone 6s Plus, 128GB
Gold iPhone 6s Plus, 128GB
Space Grey iPhone 6s Plus, 128GB
Rose Gold iPhone 6s Plus, 128GB
Additionally, several carriers opened up pre-orders for the iPhone 6s on Saturday.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 6s from Apple are be available here and from the Apple Store app, which you can download here.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: Best iPhone 6s contracts and deals
If you’re looking to get your iPhone 6s on contract, you’ll want to turn to a carrier.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: Carphone Warehouse
You can pre-order the iPhone 6s from Carphone Warehouse by clicking here. At present, stock is available for all of the iPhone 6s models in every colour, so if you pre-order today you should get your iPhone 6s delivered by 25 September.
Prices are available with no upfront cost starting at £44 per month.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: EE
EE has also opened up pre-orders of the iPhone 6s online. The EE contract that the carrier recommends is £49.99 per month with a £49.99 upfront cost, and for that you’ll get 4GB of data with unlimited texts and calls. You can pre-order from EE here.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: Mobile.co.uk
Mobiles.co.uk has also opened pre-orders for the iPhone 6s ahead of its 25 September release. You can pre-order from Mobiles.co.uk by clicking here.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: O2
O2 is also offering the iPhone 6s on pre-order. You can pre-order all models of the iPhone 6s on O2 here. Prices start at £47.50 per month with £9.99 upfront.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: Three
Pre-orders of the iPhone 6s have begun on Three, too. Prices there start at £38 per month, but that’s with a £99 upfront charge. Click here to go to Three’s pre-order page.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile has made the iPhone 6s available to pre-order here, with some pretty cheap contracts (although you won’t get much in the way of data or minutes) starting at £34 with no up-front cost.
How to pre-order iPhone 6s UK: Vodfafone
Vodafone also has a pre-order system for the iPhone 6s here. The recommended bundle is £49 per month with a £19 upfront charge, and that gets you unlimited minutes and texts with 6GB of data.
iPhone 6S: Design and build
As suspected, the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus have the same screen sizes as their predecessors, with the 6S offering a 4.7in Retina display and the iPhone 6S Plus offering 5.5in.
New to this new generation of iPhone, though, is the Rose Gold model, which adds to the Gold, Silver and Space Grey already available. The new Rose Gold matches the new aluminium Rose Gold Apple Watch, too.
Each model is made with the same aluminium as the Apple Watch, called Series 7000 Aluminium, which is designed to be more durable (and hopefully prevent a repeat of Bendgate!)
iPhone 6S new features: 3D Touch
Apple has introduced a brand-new screen technology called 3D Touch, which lets you ‘Peek’ by pressing lightly, or ‘Pop’ by pressing harder.
For example, if you’re browsing through your emails and see one you think might be interesting, you can ‘Peek’ to see what it says and if you don’t fancy responding right now you can let go to go right back to your emails without pressing back. But if you do want to reply, you can click harder to ‘Pop’ to the email, as shown above.
Another example given by Apple is links. If someone sends you a link via iMessage or any other application, you can Peek at it by pressing lightly to see what’s on that web page. Let go and you’ll be right back in the app the link was sent to you in. And if you want to fully open the page in Safari, you can press harder to Pop into it.
Other uses include viewing photos you’ve just taken within the Camera app, taking a Peek at locations within the Maps app by lightly pressing on an address and more.
App icons now become shortcuts that let you choose exactly where in that app you want to go, a new feature tha Apple calls Quick Actions. You can press on the Camera icon to take a selfie. And you can press on the Facebook icon to quickly update your status or check-in without opening the app.
If you want to call one of your favourite contacts you can press the Phone button (rather than tap it), or press the Maps button to get directions home, mark your location, send your location or search nearby.
Multitasking is easier than ever with 3D Touch, too. You can press on the screen and swipe to scroll through the apps you’ve got open, rather than double clicking the Home button.
3D Touch works with a taptic engine for haptic feedback you can feel, just like the Apple Watch and the trackpad on the new MacBooks.
That’s only the tip of the 3D Touch iceberg, particularly as third-party developers begin introducing the technology into their apps, too.
iPhone 6S specs and hardware
Inside the new iPhone 6S is the new 64-bit A9 chip, as predicted. That chip is 70% faster than the A8, and 90% faster when it comes to graphics performance. We’re looking forward to running our benchmark tests on the new iPhone to find out how it compares with rivals.
That A9 chip is paired with an M9 motion co-processor that collects health and fitness data to help the A9 run more efficiently and concentrate on other tasks.
There’s also a second-generation Touch ID fingerprint sensor that’s up to two times faster.
Just like the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the new models are available in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB configurations.
Connectivity has been improved too. There’s now LTE Advanced and faster WiFi.
iPhone 6S camera
The iPhone 6S has a 12Mp iSight camera, which is lower than many of the rumours, but it has more focus pixels for more better auto focus and it has new tech called deep trench isolation for accurate colour. As always with iPhones, we expect it’ll be amazing.
Plus, the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus’s camera is capable of capturing 4K video.
There’s a 5Mp front-facing camera, too, and the entire display can be used as a front-facing flash.
iPhone 6S software
The iPhone 6S will run iOS 9, which we’ve already spent lots of time with after it was unveiled at WWDC 2015 earlier this year.
Additionally, a new software feature is the ability to activate Siri by saying “Hey Siri” at any time, not just when the device is plugged in.
Live Photos are another new software addition, this time found in the Camera app. You can capture a photo that has an extended moment before and after you pressed the shutter button, capturing a few seconds of motion and audio for a photo that can come to life when you press it using the 3D Touch display. It’s like something out of Harry Potter! We’re slightly concerned about how much space that’ll take up, though.
More to follow.
On page two is all of the speculation from before Apple’s special event today. Find out how many of the rumours were true.