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iPhone 6s / 6s Plus - should I upgrade from an iPhone 5s?

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iPhone 6s / 6s Plus - should I upgrade from an iPhone 5s?
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With the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus just around the corner, you might be thinking that it's finally time to upgrade from your old phone. But should you, and what will you get out of it.

Here's our handy guide, if you're figuring out whether to upgrade from an iPhone 5s to the 6s or 6s Plus. You'll get:

A bigger screen 5s screen

The iPhone 5s screen is the same as the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. Which is to say: nice, but a little small in an era of Android phablets that look more like dinner trays than mobiles.

The 6s screen is much bigger, hopping from a 4 inch display to a 4.7 screen on the 6s and a whopping 5.5 inch display on 6s plus. See the image above for a to-scale comparison of the three screens's physical dimensions.

Not only that, but app makers can show more content on the screen at once to make better use of the new aspect ratio and resolution on both 6s and 6s Plus. So an email app, for example, can show way more of your inbox on one screen.

A bit more power

The iPhone 5s is already quite powerful. It has a 1.3GHz, dual-core, 64bit processor and an M7 motion coprocessor. The 6s bumps that up to 1.4GHz and an M9. Graphically, it will be a small bump over the quad-core GPU in the 5S

That's all to say that while apps will load faster, crash less often, and games will be smoother, it won't be an enormous leap. Especially as the 6s is also preoccupied with pushing more pixels for those larger resolutions.

Loads more memory

The 5s has 1GB of RAM. Reports from developers suggest that the 6s and 6s Plus will have 2GB. This makes everything run smoother, and also lets apps stay in memory for longer.

Pretty good new features

The iPhone 5s already has loads of cool features. It can work with Apple Watch, and has the nifty Touch ID fingerprint scanner for improved security. Getting the 6s will get you Apple Pay support and the nifty new 3D Touch input.

A slightly better camera

Every iPhone has a better camera than the ones before it. So while the 5s took 8 megapixel photos, the 6s will take 12 megapixel ones. The 6s Plus can do optical image stabilisation, too.

For video, the 5s can do 1080p HD video, which is nice. The 6s can do 4K and do slow motion footage at higher resolutions and frame rate.

The front camera is better too, jumping from 1.2 megapixels to 5 for pictures but sticking at 720p for video.

More space (if you want it)

While the 5s maxes out at 64GB of storage space, the 6s goes up to 128GB. If you can afford it. Sadly, the 6s does not come in 32GB so you'll have to stick with 16 or spend more for 64.

A longer-lasting battery

The 6s and 6s Plus have bigger batteries, so expect longer life when using them. Here's what to expect:

iPhone 5s iPhone 6s iPhone 6s Plus
Audio 40 50 80
Video 10 11 14
Talk (3G) 10 14 24
Web (3G) 8 10 12
Web (Wi-Fi) 10 11 12
Web (LTE) 10 10 12
Standby 250 250 384

Better connectivity

The wi-fi chip now supports the ac band, and it has Bluetooth 4.2. It while the iPhone 5s can already get full 4G, the 6s can also do LTE-Advanced. Handy?

There's one extra colour to choose from

All iPhones since the 5s come with a white front and silver back ("Silver"), a black front with gray back ("Space Gray"), or a white front with gold back ("Gold"). The 6s can rock a white front with a pink back ("Rose Gold").

You won't need a new SIM card or accessories

The 6s takes the same Nano SIM as the 5th generation phones. And has the same lightning connector so all your cables and docks will continue to work. You'll need a new case, though, because…

It's a lot bigger

This one is very much down to personal preference. Want a tiny phone that will fit in your pocket? Then maybe you should stick to the 5s. Otherwise, you'll have to get used to a significantly bigger phone. Here are the four phones, to scale:

6s Plus iPhone 6s Plus

6s iPhone 6s

5s iPhone 5s

The new phones are at least thinner. The 6s is 7.1mm thick, and the 6s Plus is 7.3mm. The iPhone 5s is 7.6mm thick. The new phones are heavier, though. While the 5s is 112g, the 6s is 143g and the 6s plus is 192g.

The verdict

The iPhone 5s is still a great phone, despite it being a few years old. It should still run apps and games like a dream, though the extra power of the 6s will future-proof your device for years.

New features like Apple Pay and 3D Touch are cool, and the improved camera is always a bonus. But the size will be the biggest question for those thinking about upgrading.

The 5s is the last "small" phone in Apple's fleet. And for some of us, bigger isn't better. A phone you can slip into your pocket and use comfortably with one hand is better than a giant slab. No matter how many more tweets fix on screen.

The 6s will feel like a big upgrade from the 5s, but maybe not the wisest.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer