There have been far too many reviews of iPhone 6S now that it is out in the wild. Rest assure that I shall not even attempt to match the level of detail with others. This review is solely based on my experience after using it for one and a half weeks.

Background

I have been a continuous iPhone user since its inception. I love the S release as I feel that it represents a mature release of its external body and architecture, but more importantly, it introduced a groundbreaking technology to the world; Siri for 4S, Touch ID for 5S and 3D-touch for 6S. That being said, my previous iPhone before 6S was 5S.

What I Like

• The second generation Touch ID. Not only do I not get a chance to see notification when pressing the home button, I was pleasantly surprised at how fast my payment goes through with Apple Pay. Simply place the phone (with screen blank) near the receiver and double-click the home button. Boom! The payment goes through.

• 128GB. I have 2 important reasons for upgrading to 6S. First is Apple Pay; I appreciate the anonymity and convenience when purchasing through Apple Pay. The more important excuse, however, is the absolutely ridiculous limited space of 16GB, which means that I have to constantly perform maintenance and backup hindering my ability to better use my time. Going from 16GB to 128GB provides me with a huge peace of mind.

• Siri. The addition of on-demand “Hey Siri” name calling at anytime is convenient, and perhaps a little fun when asking things like what is 5 centillion squared or what is zero divided by zero.

• Overall speed. The 2GB of memory helps a lot too.

• Larger screen. After pre-ordering the 6S during midnight 2 weeks before the release, I had a dilemma if 6S Plus would be a better option for an extra $100. I still question myself that question to this day.

• 3D Touch. I like the technology; not so much on the current use of it. I think users need to be re-educated or brainwashed. Apps should (and most will) implement this feature, but not all support it at the moment. To be honest, I still don’t find myself using this often; although I like having to press the left side of screen to switch between apps versus pressing the home button.

What I Dislike

• Occasional lagging when waking up the phone. The screen does not respond to my touch for a good few seconds.

• Restore from Backup. A good rule of thumb is to start the new phone fresh and gradually add apps and settings. I initially tried restoring from backup and found the phone to be slower.

• Hot Home Button. A relatively large number of users also experience this issue. The screen went blank and the home button and touch ID becomes really hot. The power button does not wake the screen. The only way to recover this is to do a hard-reset by pressing both power and home button for 10-15 seconds to restart the phone. It happened once to me and I went to Apple Store for an exchange.

Conclusion

Like most of the iPhone consumers, I like what 6S has to offer. The Live Photos is a good feature addition to make photography more fun. It has a reasonable and acceptable battery life when compared with 5S. If, however, the Hot Home Button issue comes back, I will not be hesitating to return the device and wait until Apple fixes the issue.