After a year of rumours, speculation and ever-mounting evidence, Apple has finally released 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, UK price, all of its new features, how to buy the iPhone 6s in the UK and get the best iPhone 6s deals.
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.
Thinking about buying a new iPhone? Here’s how the new ones compare with the old ones: iPhone buying guide
Got a new iPhone 6s? Take a look at our unboxing and setup video below:
iPhone 6S release date UK: When is the new iPhone coming out?
The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are now available to buy from Apple, following their 9 September launch, subsequent 12 September pre-order kick off day and their 25 September release day. The new phones became available to buy in stores from 25 September in 12 countries including the UK. It’ll be in 130 countries by the end of the year.
How to buy an iPhone 6s from the Apple Store: Has the iPhone 6s sold out?
If you want to head into an Apple Store to buy your iPhone 6s, you can certainly expect to see queues and it’s possible that the particular model you’re after will be sold out, especially if you’re visiting one of Apple’s more popular stores.
If you want to buy your iPhone 6s on contract rather than from Apple directly, you an expect to find them in retail branches of EE, O2, Three, Virgin and Vodafone.
From Saturday 26 September, you’ll be able to reserve your iPhone to pick up in store, and Apple says that most stores will have the iPhone available for walk-in customers every day, so we expect regular deliveries are planned.
iPhone 6S price UK: How much does 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
Where to buy the 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, and then became available to buy on 25 September from 8am.
On Apple’s Online Store, you’ll be able to order the new iPhone unsubsidised for the prices listed above, but most models now have a 1-2 week dispatch estimate so you might want to try reserving a model to buy in store (which you can do by pressing the button below ‘Add to Bag’ at checkout on the Apple Store) or buying the phone from a carrier or third-party seller.
Where buy the iPhone 6s UK: Best iPhone 6s deals and contracts
If you’re looking to get your iPhone 6s on contract, you’ll want to turn to a carrier.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: Carphone Warehouse
You can order the iPhone 6s from Carphone Warehouse by clicking here. Prices are available with no upfront cost starting at £44 per month.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: EE
The EE contract that the carrier recommends for the iPhone 6s 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 order from EE here.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: Mobile.co.uk
Mobiles.co.uk has also opened orders for the iPhone 6s. You can order from Mobiles.co.uk by clicking here.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: Mobile Phones Direct
You can get the iPhone 6s from £35 per month with a £49.99 upfront cost from Mobile Phones Direct. If you want to pay nothing upfront, it’s also available for £44 per month with unlimited texts, minutes and data on a Vodafone contract via Mobile Phones Direct. You can find the deal by clicking here.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: O2
O2 is also offering the iPhone 6s on order. You can order all models of the iPhone 6s on O2 here. Prices start at £47.50 per month with £9.99 upfront.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: Tesco Mobile
Tesco Mobile’s tarrifs start at £42 per month with no up-front cost (and that’s for an impressive 5,000 minutes, 5,000 texts and 3GB of data). See the Tesco Mobile iPhone 6s deals here.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: Three
The iPhone 6s is available 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 iPhone 6s page.
How to buy iPhone 6s UK: Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile has made the iPhone 6s available to 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 buy iPhone 6s UK: Vodfafone
Vodafone also has an 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.