I use both styles of iPhones, an XS as my phone and a 6S as my at-work iPod and device for random moments of RSS-type surfing. I am not a heavy or advanced user. My preference is unquestionably toward the 6S style of size and operation. FaceID on the XS is great when wet fingers are an issue (often for me at work) and for in-app password authentications.
All told, I prefer the one-handed usability of the smaller 6S and that includes losing the newer-design interactions, particularly control center on the XS necessitating two hands to invoke it. In fact, I'm the reverse of Gruber—I'm apt to use old-UI gestures on my XS (not that it happens often, I tend to switch seamlessly).
Fine. Whatever. That's just me. What I find more disturbing is all the words spilled by reviewers about all these devices. At this point, not much is significantly changing in what's offered with new devices, so the simple lists of Pros and Cons capture most everything. Using Gruber's review as an example, I don't find a need for multi-paragraph expositions on the UI changes that took place years ago, and I suspect most of his readers are informed enough that they don't either.
For the average person, battery life is similar among models, all the cameras are impressive, the screens and speed great. The tradeoffs between models are generally minimal but distinct—just list them.
Overall, smartphone innovation has plateaued and so too have the reviews.
I’m with you. I think for casual users who the SE seems to be marketing, the 6S is good enough for a quarter of the price used. Although it will probably not get this year’s iOS update, forcing people to upgrade... Otherwise the 6S really is good enough and compact enough.
I don't know. People do not take cameras with them anymore and the SE 2020's camera system is much better than that of the 6s. So, if you have the money, I think that is worth the new SE alone.
Apart from that, I agree that the 6s is still surprisingly smooth and doesn't seen to struggle with recent iOS versions and applications, despite being a 5 year old phone.
That's true because Apple puts significant effort into making that work. I personally got bugs assigned to me when certain animations were <60fps on the 6s, even if they worked on newer phones like the xs. The 6s is especially prone to this as i recall because the point:pixel scaling is 3x vs 2x/4x on other phones.
Btw - thank you for working hard at making this smooth. My SO had a 6S until 2 months ago and only during iOS 11 it was not smooth. iOS 12 and 13 were perfect and apart from the camera she says she kind of misses the 6S for its smaller form factor. The other benefits of newer generations simply don't matter to many users. WhatsApp/Insta/Email/Maps runs just fine on an A9 or A13 and her main game is 2D chess....
All told, I prefer the one-handed usability of the smaller 6S and that includes losing the newer-design interactions, particularly control center on the XS necessitating two hands to invoke it. In fact, I'm the reverse of Gruber—I'm apt to use old-UI gestures on my XS (not that it happens often, I tend to switch seamlessly).
Fine. Whatever. That's just me. What I find more disturbing is all the words spilled by reviewers about all these devices. At this point, not much is significantly changing in what's offered with new devices, so the simple lists of Pros and Cons capture most everything. Using Gruber's review as an example, I don't find a need for multi-paragraph expositions on the UI changes that took place years ago, and I suspect most of his readers are informed enough that they don't either.
For the average person, battery life is similar among models, all the cameras are impressive, the screens and speed great. The tradeoffs between models are generally minimal but distinct—just list them.
Overall, smartphone innovation has plateaued and so too have the reviews.