Vivo Xplay5 Elite Overall

Final words

Okay, we have a thing for curves, and dual-edge displays strike a particular chord in our reviewers' hearts. It's irrational, naturally, as the great looks of the curved screen come at the expense of handling and the vivo Xplay5 Elite is no exception.

Elite it truly is though - in appearance, build, presentation. The vivo flagship's appeal is not just skin deep either - some premium hardware is put to good use and the contender stands tall next to the established players.

Key test findings

1. Great build quality, beautiful to look at, premium in-hand feel. Handling, on the other hand, is a little awkward, and the phone is prone to slipping.
2. The AMOLED display could've been brighter, and blacks aren't really pitch black as usual, though contrast is still beyond the reach of even the best LCDs. Sunlight legibility is great too, but we wish the maximum brightness was higher.
3. 85h of battery endurance rating, very good at video playback and voice calls, only average at web browsing.
4. Funtouch OS is a very iOS-ified take on Android, and is consistent between vivo models. It's flat and colorful, but may need some getting used to if you're coming from a more vanilla Android.
5. Near-instant fingerprint recognition - one of the fastest sensors we've experienced.
6. Benchmark performance is up there with the best, the extra RAM over the competitors doesn't consistently result in better scores though.
7. Exceptionally clean audio output with or without headphones, not very loud though.
8. Loudspeaker posted an Average result in our test.
9. Excellent still camera output from the rear camera with a lot of detail, well controlled noise in good light, and pleasing colors.
10. Superb 4K video recording, plenty of detail, vivid colors, stable focus and exposure. Limited dynamic range leaves shadows too dark though. 1080p video is disappointing.
11. 8MP front-facing camera captures detailed selfies with natural colors.

The vivo Xplay5 Elite is a premium smartphone and commands a high price. That said, its price of about $650 in China is still some $200 less than what Samsung's charging on the Galaxy S7 edge, and the S6 edge+ isn't much cheaper than its successor either. That makes the Elite a viable alternative to the two Samsung curve-screened offerings, and you won't really be sacrificing much.

The S7 edge has IP certification, better battery life and inductive charging, plus that dual-pixel autofocus, and potentially better support down the line, so it's up to you to judge whether those features can justify the higher price. The Xplay5 Elite, on the other hand, has a higher-res primary camera that can give the S7 edge a run for its money in good light and 4K video quality may actually be on vivo's side too.

Samsung Galaxy S7 edge • Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+

The OnePlus 3 is often in the same conversation when the Xplay5 Elite gets mentioned, both of them sporting 6GB of RAM on top of their Snapdragon 820's. Audio enthusiasts may opt for the vivo for its dual-DAC-triple-amp setup, and the Elite does win a few extra points for fashion with its curved display. The OnePlus 3 is significantly cheaper, though, and has better chances for official software updates, plus a very active community for unofficial mods.

OnePlus 3

The Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe has yet to hit the stores, but if you haven't yet picked up a vivo Xplay5 Elite, the Zenfone may be worth waiting for. With a price of $500, the Deluxe will spare you $150 over the Elite, but you'll be trading off display resolution, not to mention curves. That 3,000mAh battery inside the Asus phablet raises some concerns, though. via:http://www.gsmarena.com/

 

Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe ZS570KL

And if we're going the affordable route, there is also the ZUK Z2 Pro and the LeEco Le Max 2 - both fully tricked-out smartphones retailing for about $420 and $380, respectively. Neither has the Elite's flair, that's for sure, but both match it on chipset and RAM (in the top-spec'd versions).

  

Lenovo ZUK Z2 Pro • LeEco Le Max 2

Ultimately, whether the vivo Xplay5 Elite is the right phone for you could be down to a simple Yes/No question. If it's available to purchase in your country, which is hardly a given, it's not a very tough choice over one of Samsung's edges - it's cheaper, yet it's equally good without the gimmicky Edge UI functionality.

Then again, there are similarly equipped competitors for, say, two thirds of the Elite's asking price. None of them has a dual-curved display and that premium presence but then again, they don't raise questions about your aesthetic motivation.

Yes, vivo has gone to a new extreme by pulling a double impersonation with the Xplay5 Elite. Something more subtle may arguably have been more convincing but obviously easier to miss too. The same goes for the price - but we'll let you to be the judge of that.

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OnePlus 3 overall !!

Final words

OnePlus has been releasing devices like clockwork during the two or so years since it was established. Their first made a splash that the successor had a hard time matching. Fair enough, it just didn't have the element of surprise on its side. Their third though is surprisingly good. No pun intended and no hidden meaning implied.

A lot of the newbie enthusiasm and "flagship killer" mentality might be gone, but on a positive note, so have the many hurdles of guerrilla marketing and an overstressed production and distribution cycle.

Don't get this wrong though. The OnePlus 3 still follows closely the core OnePlus formula and, just like its siblings, manages to match the performance of current flagships at a lower price point. It is both well built and powerful enough to impress on every level. Plus, what you get this time around is a much more "mature" offer, which you can pick with ease without having to stick through the invite system.

OnePlus 3 key test findings

• One of the thinnest metal-clad devices currently out with a 7.35 mm aluminum chassis. That limits the battery size, but good software optimizations make up for it. Side bezels are almost non-existent.
• Very comfortable to handle and offers a great deal of control options with capacitive buttons, on screen controls, a dedicated alert slider and gestures, all customizeable.
• The display is still very sharp at 401ppi, despite its 1080p resolution. That, combined with Samsung AMOLED technology, retitled Optic AMOLED makes for great power efficiency. Sunlight legibility is good so is color accuracy and at 433 nits, the panel is reasonably bright.
• Connectivity is good with Cat.6 LTE and Dual-SIM. Local connectivity is also good, NFC is present. No expandable storage though.
• Battery time is decent. At 66 hours of endurance rating, it manages to top its predecessors, but can't quite match the best out there
• Oxygen OS 3.1.2 is fast and very clean, almost stock. It features only a few OnePlus additional features, like gestures. Most core apps come from the standard Google package.
• Performance is amazing thanks to the powerful Snapdragon 820 SoC and 6GB of RAM. The latter might still be underutilized, but improvements are on the way. Thanks to the 1080p display resolution, the OnePlus 3 achieves high frame rates even on demanding OpenGL ES 3.1 tests.
• Loudspeaker performance is Good, although not spectacular in any way.
• Wired audio is excellent- loud and with very little distortion even with headphones
• The 16MP main camera performs great and consistently. Detail in stills is plenty, colors are vivid, the dynamic range is good and noise is kept at bay even under bad lighting conditions. There is an additional HD mode that enables some extra post-processing and works really well, especially in low light. The front-facing snapper performs adequate for its specs.
• 2160p video looks great. 1080p could use some work. The viewfinder in the latter has an inaccurate FOV and needs to be fixed ASAP. OIS performance is not great.There is no 60fps mode.

After spending some quality time with the device and digging a bit deeper into the ingredients and formula behind it, we are also happy to report that unlike many other players on the mobile scene, big or small, OnePlus hasn't fallen victim to the typical catch-up routine and is still taking its own approach to things.

Choices like the 1080p panel might seem odd at first and could deter many potential buyers, but the great thing is that the OnePlus is comfortable with its decision. To reiterate a point we made at the start, the OnePlus 3 is simply driven by rational choices, closely following the manufacturer's concept of a perfect device and more importantly, that of its dedicated fan base. And frankly, catering to them alone is more than enough for the still growing company to thrive.

That said, we should note that the OnePlus 3 doesn't hold a universal appeal. There are lots of valid reasons why a buyer could want things like a higher-res panel, expandable storage, dual speakers or perhaps a more custom approach to Android - all not a part of the OnePlus 3. There are options out there that could potentially be a much better fit for the above needs.

Now, the OnePlus 3 is in a strange boat, considering the low-price-for-high-specs approach. But unlike previous generations, the Chinese OEM is no longer alone in its niche and other rivals have been going for the same mix.

We actually reviewed two such offers recently. One is the LeEco Le Max 2 - and excellent 5.7-inch phablet with the same impressive Snapdragon 820 plus 6GB of RAM combo, a QHD panel, a 3,100mAh battery with great endurance and a worthy 21MP camera. Overall, you seem to be getting everything the OnePlus 3 offers, all down to the aluminum body for even less money - $350. However, software optimization and support are still a bit of a gamble with LeEco.

The very same actually applies to the vivo XPlay 5 and its Elite sibling as well. These hold the extra allure of a curvy display and you do have to spend quite a bit extra to get the Snapdragon 820 SoC in the Elite trim, but other than that, even in the basic EUR 490 one, you get mostly the same formula: a 5.43-inch QHD Super AMOLED panel, 4GB of RAM and a capable octa-core Snapdragon 652 SoC.

LeEco Le Max 2 • vivo Xplay5 • vivo Xplay5 Elite

The ZUK Z2 Pro by Lenovo is an even closer match for the OnePlus 3. For around EUR 440, you get a 5.2-inch, FullHD, Super AMOLED panel, and the same 6GB of RAM plus Snapdragon 820 combo. The same goes for the ZTE Axon 7 - Snapdragon 820, 5.5-inch, QHD AMOLED panel and 4GB or 6GB RAM, plus 64GB or 128GB storage. However, the software concern still stands.

Lenovo ZUK Z2 Pro • ZTE Axon 7

If you are feeling less adventurous and would rather go for a more mainstream option, Samsung has a few offers that fit the bill. Although the Korean giant has a hard time matching the aforementioned options in a price to specs comparison. But with all the marketing and exposure, it is easy to see where the extra cash goes. And the

You can easily go for a Galaxy A5 (2016) or even a Galaxy A7 (2016) depending on how much you shop around and be within budget. Both will land you with a FullHD Super AMOLED panel and a metal body, but also considerably more midrange internals. The Galaxy A9 (2016) manages to shink the performance gap a bit, but for a good EUR 150 or so more than the OnePlus 3.

Then again, you can always go for the company's flagship - the Galaxy S7. It will even top the OnePlus 3 in terms of camera and looks but it will cost you dearly.

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) • Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) • Samsung Galaxy A9 (2016) • Samsung Galaxy S7

Xiaomi also has quite an alternative to the OnePlus 3. The excellent Xiaomi Mi 5 flagship, which we mentioned on several occasions throughout the review. It can be yours for anywhere between EUR 280 and EUR 440 or so and if you don't mind the slightly smaller 1080p LCD panel, you could potentially get an even better camera experience and a lot more storage for your money.

Xiaomi Mi 5

The OnePlus 3 as the product of a now grown-up start-up is a sentiment that has prevailed ever since the phone's release and we have to admit, it fits the bill perfectly. There is nothing overdone or flashy, no innovation for its own sake about it and yet, it is really something special and not quite mainstream.

But probably the best thing about the OnePlus 3 is that this dualistic nature doesn't really leave much room for major dilemmas. If it is right for you you'll know it and there's little to no fine print. 

source : http://www.gsmarena.com/

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Apple iOS 10 may finally allow the long awaited dark mode

The Dark Mode is not a new concept for the iOS. The rumors about a dark theme has been around for quite some time, but maybe it is finally coming for real with iOS 10.

Numerous references have found in the iOS 10 code and its developer kits. In fact system apps such as Safari, iTunes, Messages, iBooks, and Clock can be natively run in dark mode. This isn't available as an option on the iOS 10, but it's still fully supported by the platform.

Apple didn't mention anything about a dark mode in its keynote or the upcoming days at the WWDC. There is a good chance Apple is readying the dark mode for a point release, just like the Night Shift mode came with the iOS 9.3.

Anyway, with all those proofs for the Dark Mode we are sure it won't be long before it becomes a part of iOS.

Source • Via

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An application that converts your phone into a professional camera to capture the best images !

AfterFocus One of the best applications in the field of image effects , where the latter works to provide a more natural and realistic as if you used a professional camera.

The application is characterized by a series of enormous advantages as accurately characterized by the clarity of the image up to 3264 pixels and the Ptillab background image and also can become a front or rear image Moor professional or other colors.

How easy only after the entry of the application asks you to choose Do you shoot the picture or you have an image in advance what you'll just choose:

Then move to the place of work and the effects of additions to the image, and we select the place you want

That stays the same White Focus the box in order to be identified as the red color in the picture is we select black box BG was determined Tilliba place you want to see the result in the image:

In Filter and Filter 2 There is a wonderful effects you can add to your images as in the picture 

Or on this form briefing framework:

Link for the app (Android)

Link for the app (IOS)

Hachem El Hani 

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iPhone 6s and 6s Plus review: More than just a refresh

Some people look a little unkindly on the so-called "S" years -- those years when Apple updates the iPhone, but doesn't change how it looks, and then sells that while secretly working on something flashier that will debut 12 months later. I don't think that's exactly fair. Those "S" years are when Apple adds some of its most useful features. Siri? Touch ID? Both valuable additions to the iPhone platform that have since grown in importance. This year we get 3D Touch, a potentially awesome way to interact with iPhones. The thing is, a device's worth isn't just tied up in one feature: It's about how all those moving parts work together. That's why the new 6s and 6s Plus (starting at $649 and $749, respectively, for 16GB models) are such great phones. The combination of much-improved hardware and some polished software makes this year's release far more than just a modest refresh.

Gallery: Meet the iPhone 6s family | 13 Photos

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Engadget Score

POOR

UNINSPIRING

GOOD

EXCELLENT

Key

Apple

iPhone 6s

91

Pros

• 3D Touch is a smart, helpful addition
• First-rate performance
• Improved cameras
• Touch ID is faster and more accurate

 

Cons

• Lacks optical image stabilization
• Live Photos are hit-or-miss
• Base model still only has 16GB of storage
• Touch ID can be overly sensitive

Summary

The iPhone 6s keeps the same design as the iPhone 6, but packs better cameras, a snappier processor and 3D Touch, a smart new way to get things done in fewer steps. Beyond that, the combination of iOS 9 and some well-built hardware help makes the 6s one of the best iPhones ever made... even if we wish it had some of the 6s Plus' niceties.

Pros   

• 3D Touch is a smart, helpful addition
• First-rate performance
• Touch ID is faster and more accurate
• Great camera helped by optical image stabilization
• Solid battery life

 

Cons

• Live Photos are hit-or-miss
• Base model still only has 16GB of storage
• Touch ID can be overly sensitive
• Can be hard to use with one hand

Summary

The iPhone 6s Plus has 3D Touch, iOS 9, a pair of improved cameras and the powerful A9 chipset, just like its smaller sibling. A long-lasting battery and optical image stabilization for its 12-megapixel rear camera help give the iPhone 6s Plus a slight edge over the regular 6s, although we wish it were a little easier to hold.

Hardware

No, your eyes don't deceive you: The 6s and 6s Plus look nearly identical to last year's models, save for a new rose gold color option that oscillates between "vaguely lavender" and "shiny new penny" depending on the light. The sleek, rounded aesthetic might not raise as many eyebrows as it did last year, but it's still one of my favorite iPhone designs. Aside from the pink color option, the other changes aren't particularly noticeable. Both phones are now made from 7000-series aluminum, an alloy used in the aerospace industry that, when compared to last year's phones, makes for a sturdier but similarly lightweight design. The regulatory icons that used to live on the iPhone's back have been removed too, leaving a teensy "S" logo to let the world know you've upgraded.

Gallery: iPhone 6s review | 13 Photos

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Meanwhile, we're still left with the same 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage options as last year, and you're almost certainly going to want one of the latter two. I was hoping against hope Apple would finally give the 16GB model the heave-ho and raise the baseline to 32GB of space. That was clearly silly of me. Economies of scale aside, iOS 9's smaller footprint and new developer tools like app slicing make the 16GB iPhone a little easier to make do with, though the inclusion of an upgraded 12-megapixel camera, 4K video shooting and animated Live Photos (which are turned on by default) means some will have a tough time keeping free space available.

Gallery: iPhone 6s Plus review | 17 Photos

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As ever, the Touch ID fingerprint sensor lives in the iPhone's home button, but this year's module is a clear improvement: Apple claims it can pick up your fingerprints up to twice as fast as before. I can't make out exactly what the speed multiple is here, but Touch ID really is blazing fast now, and I can't remember the last time it didn't work on the first try, either. In fact, it's actually so fast that I've had to change some of my daily behaviors as a result. You see, I used to be one of those people who tapped on the home button to check the time or change tracks while I was in my car (yes, dangerous, sorry). With the 6s and 6s Plus, that doesn't fly anymore: Touch ID picks up all but the quickest home-button taps.

As it happens, both phones are a touch thicker and heavier than before, but they're still comfortable to hold, and the change in thickness specifically is so subtle that it's nearly imperceptible. As for the weight, the 6s and 6s Plus do indeed feel noticeably weightier: The 6s weighs in at 143 grams, up from 129, while the bigger 6s Plus now comes in at 192 grams, up from 172. Not that that's a bad thing. All told, this is one of the few times an iPhone has gotten beefier (the 4s was slightly heavier than the 4), and I'm actually quite pleased about it. At some point, there has to be a lower limit to how thin a phone can get and still be comfortable to use. I'd much rather see companies abandon that ceaseless march toward cartoonishly thin designs and instead work to make better use of the sizes they've already achieved. Bigger batteries, anyone?

Speaking of the sort, the cells in these new models are actually slightlysmaller than they were before: 1,715mAh in the 6s and 2,750mAh in the 6s Plus. I'll delve more into battery life a little later (spoiler alert: It hasn't really changed), but recent teardowns seem to reveal why we've gotten a bit of a downgrade this year. In short, you have that new 3D Touch screen to blame. To give you a little background, the display crams 96 pressure sensors into the backlight layer of the phones' Retina HD displays, along with a Taptic Engine that provides some subtle vibrations when you bear down on the screen. Turns out, the engine took up some extra room near the phones' bottom edges, just under the spot where the battery sits. For now, the time-savings you get from using 3D Touch gestures feels worth the slightly smaller batteries, but hopefully Apple will eventually figure out how to shrink the necessary components so that it doesn't have to compromise on battery size.

A new display, and a new way to touch it

At first glance, you probably wouldn't notice anything different about the IPS screens on the 6s and 6s Plus. After all, they're the same size as before (4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, respectively) with the same pixel density (326 ppi, or 401 ppi on the Plus). You won't even notice the improved glass covering them until you drop it (please don't). The eagle-eyed among you might catch that both screens are a touch brighter with slightly better color reproduction. There is, of course, something much more important at play here. It's called 3D Touch, and it's the biggest change in how we interact with iPhones since Siri.

Let's start with the broad strokes: If you press your finger down on, say, an app icon, you'll get a small menu of quick actions that you'd usually have to be inside the app to use. You'll also feel a brief vibration from the Taptic Engine as a sort of tactile "thumbs up." Like any new behavior, applying force to your iPhone's screen will take getting used to. The whole thing is made a little trickier by the fact that it's initially easy to mix up a 3D Touch and a long-press (like the one used to rearrange your app icons). It didn't take more than a day or two for my muscle memory to learn the amount of pressure needed to make 3D Touch work, but hey -- your mileage may vary.

Those 96 3D Touch sensors can also take precise measurements as you push down and release. Imagine, for instance, playing a racing game and being able to press the screen to accelerate past the chump who just whiffed while taking a corner. If that's the future of smartphones, bring it on.

What's more, there's an entirely new vocabulary around this 3D Touch screen. Pressing down to preview something in a little pop-up window -- be it a web link, or an address someone texted you -- is what Apple calls "peeking." Apply just a bit more pressure and the phone will bring up the usual, full-screen app view, in this case a Safari window or a location in Apple Maps. Congratulations, you just "popped" something. You can't use all the same 3D Touch actions if you're using an iPhone 6s Plus in landscape mode. Pressing down on app icons still brings up the menus you'd expect them to -- as evidenced by the GIF above -- but you can't peek/pop addresses or hyperlinks in Messages and Mail while the phone is sideways.

Apple's already laid out guidelines about how developers should implement 3D Touch, and they're basically centered on one key idea: 3D Touch is about helping users do things faster. So far, the vast majority of apps don't yet support 3D Touch, but the ones that do take different approaches as to what you can peek at. Some, like Twitter and Instagram, let you press down on their app icons to bring up those Quick Actions menus for near-instantaneous tweeting and photo sharing. Others, like Dropbox, offer previews of your files when you long-press their filenames in a list, but there's no app icon interaction. OpenTable takes sort of a hybrid approach -- you'll get both an app icon menu and the ability to peek at restaurants' locations in Maps as you're scrolling through the culinary options.

This all might sound complex, but trust me: It's not. Once more developers get on board, people will be able to zip around their home screens and just do things, as opposed to constantly jumping in and out of apps. It's also a tremendously useful tool for getting quick bits of context -- why yes, Iwould love to see a map of that sweet poutinerie in Berkeley, thanks very much.

After I got used to using 3D Touch, going back to the plain screen on my iPhone 6 was almost painful. Heck, even if you use the 6s and 6s Plus full-time, most developers haven't had the chance to build 3D Touch support into their apps yet. I can't tell you the number of times I was reading something in a non-supported app like Twitter, and pressed my thumb down on a link only to have nothing happen. Whoops! The mild twinge of annoyance I felt every time that happened speaks to how powerful 3D Touch is: It might seem like a gimmick at first, but it quickly became a feature I wanted to use all the time.

Software

I've already penned a few thousand words on iOS 9, and its focus on cohesiveness and efficiency makes a great match for the new iPhones. Most of the software tweaks on the 6s and 6s Plus are centered on those lovely little 3D Touch interactions, but there's one more trick that's currently only available on these things. Jump into Siri's settings and you'll find that you can now enable "Hey Siri" -- Apple's always-on listening mode -- to work even when you're not connected to a power source. The feature launched with iOS 9 just a few weeks back, but it works best with the new iPhones' more efficient M9 co-processor helping out under the hood. Weird as it sounds, I've taken to just talking to her sometimes when I want to listen to some Capital Cities in Apple Music, add yet another event to my stupid-packed calendar or turn on Airplane Mode when it's time for some shut-eye.

What's more, one of my favorite features from recent iPads has reached the new iPhones: 3D-Touching the keyboard while pecking out a text turns it into a trackpad for precise placement of the cursor when an inevitable typo pops up. If you lump in these tweaks with all the other thoughtful design changes in iOS 9, you're left with a tightly integrated package that tries to give us the apps and info we want at just the right time.

Camera and Live Photos

iPhones account for a huge chunk of the photos taken every day, so it's no surprise that Apple takes this camera business seriously. Thankfully, after several years, Apple finally traded in its 8-megapixel sensor in favor of a 12-megapixel main camera. Naturally, it's actually not so much the higher resolution that matters; it's all the other, more technical bits that should help improve photo quality. The folks in Cupertino went for smaller, more densely packed pixels (1.22µ, down from 1.5µ in the iPhone 6) that make for higher-resolution shots... with the added potential for more noise.

That's where Apple's "deep trench isolation" comes in: The company managed to separate the sensor's photodiodes to keep incoming photons from introducing interference into surrounding diodes. You don't really need to worry about that, though: It basically just means your photos should come out nice and crisp. Pair all that with a five-element lens and a familiar f/2.2 aperture and we've got ourselves another serious camera contender.

Gallery: iPhone 6s sample images | 45 Photos

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Right, so how do photos actually look? Pretty great. Colors look nicely saturated, but naturally so, while the standard Photo mode handles dynamic range and exposure better than I expected. This becomes especially apparent in landscape shots; neither the 6s nor 6s Plus blew out the sky on bright days, which made for some great shots of Toronto's famous Honest Ed's superstore. Once you get a little closer to your subject, though, things start to go slightly awry. Just about all of the photos I shot using the 6s and 6s Plus's main cameras were crisp with clear color separation, but zooming in didn't reveal much more detail than in photos I took with the iPhone 6. That's not to say the 6s' photos were worse than ones taken with last year's iPhone; they just weren't always the dramatic leap forward I was hoping for.

Photos taken with the iPhone 6s Plus are, in most cases, on par with those taken on the regular 6s, but it does fare a little better in low-light situations thanks to its optical image stabilization. Those of you with really steady hands might not notice as much of a difference, but it came in handy when shooting video. Also on the plus side, the front-facing FaceTime camera has also received a long-overdue upgrade to a 5-megapixel sensor. It should shock absolutely no one that selfies came out crisper and more natural looking, and the software-based screen flash does a respectable job lighting up faces in bars.

As for video, the 6s and 6s Plus can shoot in 4K -- not that most people have 4K-ready screens in their homes yet. The resulting footage is remarkably sharp, with colors that were more or less true to life. Of course, all of this comes at a price: 4K video will eat up your free space in a hurry if you let it, which is why Apple didn't bother setting it as the default recording quality.

What is enabled by default, however, is the Live Photos feature. You've probably seen the demos already; when you snap a photo, the camera captures just a little audio and video before and after the shot is taken -- much like the Living Images feature found on recent Lumia phones. The end result is a neat, gimmicky way to capture enhanced pictures. They're evocative at best and sort of lame at worst, but artsy types will surely get a kick out of concocting cool Live Photo scenarios and sharing them to and fro. Remember, Live Photos are shareable between anyone running Apple's latest phone, watch or computer operating systems, so they need not languish alone on your 6s. They'll quickly spring to life as you thumb through your Camera Roll, and you can set them as Live Wallpapers too -- just apply a quick 3D Touch to run through the animations on your lockscreen.

All told, then, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have great cameras. And yes, that's "cameras" as in plural. Here's the rub, though: The competition hasn't exactly been sitting on their haunches these past few years, and devices like the Galaxy S6 line and Motorola's Moto X Pure edition are powerful pocket cameras in their own right. Are these new iPhones definitively the best mobile cameras on the market? No, but they're very strong options that stack up nicely against the rest of the greats. We're all better off for the competition.

Performance and battery life

A new kind of touchscreen and some upgraded cameras are one thing, but what about the silicon running under the hood? This year, we've got a new 64-bit A9 chipset thrumming away inside both the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, which, according to some benchmarking tools, appear to be made up of dual 1.8GHz Typhoon CPU cores, the GPU and the updated M9 co-processor. Apple never comments publicly about how much RAM its phones have, but recent teardowns show that the new iPhones have 2GB, just like the most recent iPad Air and Mini. All together, that's the biggest performance increase from one generation to another that we've seen in a while, and it shows.

I spent most of my time testing the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus by restoring them from recent backups of an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and then using them side by side. The difference is obvious: Launching apps, firing up webpages and multitasking were all noticeably smoother on the newer iPhones. This performance gap can still vary a bit; the older iPhones would occasionally get close to 6s speed, but they never fully caught up. The benchmark table below paints a pretty good picture of just how much better the 6s and 6s Plus are at handling graphically intensive tasks like playing games. No dropped frames, no stuttering, no jankiness -- the 6s and the 6s Plus were the clear winners.

	IPHONE 6S	IPHONE 6S PLUS	IPHONE 6	IPHONE 6 PLUS
3DMark Unlimited IS	24,601	27,542	16,689	17,902
Geekbench 3 (multi-thread)	4,427	4,289	2,885	2,803
Basemark OS II	2,354	2,428	1,441	1,520
SunSpider 1.0.2 (ms)	230	220	351	388
SunSpider: Lower scores are better

More horsepower plus smaller batteries usually only means bad news, but the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus fared surprisingly well in our standard rundown tests. With screen brightness set to 50 percent and a video looping indefinitely with WiFi on and connected, the 6s hung in for 10 hours and 4 minutes, just short of the 10 hours and 19 minutes we saw on last year's iPhone 6. Meanwhile, the 6s Plus and its bigger battery managed to eke out 12 hours and 37 minutes, narrowly besting its predecessor. Frankly, I wasn't expecting either iPhone to match last year's results, but whatever Apple's doing with its silicon sure seems to be working.

You're probably not spending over 10 hours a day watching the same video over and over on your phone, though, and thankfully the iPhones do a great job keeping up with real-world demands too. In my case, a typical day of use consists of horsing around on social networks, firing off messages in Slack and Outlook, intermittent voice calls and the occasional bathroom break playing Pokémon Shuffle. With that kind of use, the iPhone 6s usually made it through an 11-hour workday with 15 or 20 percent battery life to spare, at which point I fired up Low Power Mode for another hour or two before plugging it in. if you're a bit more demanding or simply can't stand the idea of being tethered to an outlet, you might want to go in for the 6s Plus: I routinely was able to squeeze out 18 hours of use on a charge.

The competition

If you're on the prowl for a new smartphone and consider yourself platform agnostic, Samsung's Galaxy S6 line would be a good place to start. Samsung shares Apple's fondness for sleek, metal-and-glass designs, and both the 5.1-inch S6 and curved-screen S6 Edge pack some of the fastest silicon I've ever seen in an Android handset. Both phones are also comfortable to hold despite being bigger than the iPhone 6s. And if comfort and big screens are your concern, there's a good chance the Galaxy Note 5's curvaceous back will fit your palm better than the iPhone 6s Plus.

Then, of course, we've got some big-name options that aren't even available yet. There's a new pair of Nexus phones -- the 5X ($379) and the6P ($499) -- that each offer potent horsepower at a reasonable price. Microsoft's eager to prove it's still in the smartphone game too, and is holding a keynote next week where it's probably going to announce the first high-end Lumia phones we've seen in ages. There's no word on price, unfortunately, and none of these options are likely to sway ardent Apple fans, but people willing to jump ship are about to have a lot great choices on their hands.

Wrap-up

It's easy to say that these are the best iPhones Apple has ever made, but that's true every year. Like I said before, a device's worth isn't tied directly to a single feature: The important thing is how all of its components and design flourishes and features and interaction elements fit together as a unified whole. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus nail it -- mostly. They're great phones: well-built, well thought-out and brimming with potential. So, let's cap this off with a little buying advice. If you have an iPhone 5s and are itching to turn it in, now's the time. If you're an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus owner, this is a worthy upgrade, but no one will fault you for waiting another year. If you want the best iPhone you can buy right now (and don't mind a bigger device), you want the iPhone 6s Plus. And if you're tired of everyone insisting that big phones are the future and asking "What's wrong with you; why don't you have one yet?" buy a 6s and tell them to buzz off.

And Today its the 05/06/2016 and they are no SmartPhone who can beat the iphone 6s :/

VIA

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