Before iPhone 6s was officially unveiled, Samsung's flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S6 (which was released in April) has been sitting in the list of the best smartphones in the world for a while with a combination of powerful hardware and compelling software. Now the iPhone 6s is finally here offers equivalent competition and attraction. Are you began to wonder how the new iPhone 6s compares to its biggest rival on the Android side of the fence, the Samsung Galaxy S6? Now let's take a look at how their features and specs match up from the following head-to-head comparison.
Specs Comparison Overview: iPhone 6S vs Galaxy S6
Firstly, let's see the main differences regarding tech specs of both iPhone 6s and Galaxy S6 as below, including processor, display, camera, etc.
| Apple iPhone 6S | Samsung Galaxy S6 | |
| Operating System | iOS 9 | Android 5.0 |
| CPU | Apple A9 | Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa-Core |
| Dimensions | 5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 inches | 5.65 x 2.78 x 0.27 inches |
| Screen Size | 4.7 inches | 5.1 inches |
| Weight | 5.04 oz | 4.87 oz |
| Screen Type | Retina | Super AMOLED HD |
| Screen Resolution | 1334 x 750 pixels | 2560 x 1440 pixels |
| Camera Resolution | 12MP Rear; 5MP Front-Facing | 16 MP Rear; 5 MP Front-Facing |
| 3D Touch | Yes | No |
| Fingerprint Sensor | Yes | Yes |
| Wireless Charging | No | Yes |
| Mobile Payment | Apple Pay | Samsung Pay |
| Storage | 16/64/128GB | 32/64/128GB |
| Battery | 1715mAh | 2550mAh |
Design: Size, Build, Color
When it comes to the size of those two smartphone, Galaxy S6 is a little bigger than the new iPhone 6s which is 138x67x7.1mm while the S6 is 143x71x6.8mm. Although it looks larger, Galaxy S6 measures 5g lighter than iPhone 6s. The build of iPhone 6s goes from a premium aluminum backing wraps around to its sides, while the Galaxy S6's premium Gorilla Glass 4 makes way for aluminum on its frame. And as for the colors, Galaxy S6 provides 4 options including black, white, gold and blue, while Apple added a new rose gold color option to iPhone 6s, in addition to the existing silver, gold and grey.
Display: Dimensions, Screen Resolution, 3D Touch
As an "S"-year upgrade, the iPhone 6s sticks with the same display size as 4.7'' we saw in iPhone 6 released last year, while Galaxy S6 gives more real estate as 5.1'' display. Galaxy S6 would be the clear winner on this part which features Quad HD Super AMOLED display covered with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and sports a resolution of 2,560x1,440 and 577ppi. At the same time, Apple iPhone 6S features 4.7-inch Retina HD display with a 1,334x750 pixels resolution at 326ppi. However, Apple iPhone 6s may even up the odds with the newly introduced feature, the 3D touch display. This feature builds on multi-touch by allowing the iPhone 6s to recognize force and carry out actions like Peek and Pop to preview content. Although it sounds like something we don't need on the phone at present, the 3D touch still looks promising in the future.
Performance: Processor, RAM
If you didn't see any big changes to iPhone 6S so far, we will show you the ones under the hood. The new device runs a 64-bit Apple A9 processor, while the Galaxy S6 has Samsung's 64-bit Exynos 7420 chipset. But it's still hard to tell which performs better since the iPhone 6S is not released yet. If Apple is to believe, the A9 will be expected to boost the ability to play graphically intensive games on iPhone 6S. It's somewhat amazing to see 2GB of RAM in an Apple device as they have stuck to 1GB for years, but it's finally happened: 2GB of RAM in the iPhone 6S. Samsung has been on 3GB of RAM in their flagships for a while now, so it's understanding Apple didn't make much noise about it.
Camera
In regards to the camera, the new iPhone 6s has a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, True Tone flash, 4K video recording, as well as a 5-megapixel, front selfie camera, while the Samsung Galaxy S6 has more raw megapixels in its rear camera at 16 megapixels with optical image stabilization. Besides, Galaxy S6 is able to launch the camera via double tapping home button, while there's no physical camera shortcut on iPhone 6s to snap shots quickly. But on the other hand, you can use 3D Touch on iPhone 6s to press the Camera app's home screen icon to jump right into a selfie, video, slow-mo video or regular shot.
Conclusion
As we can see from the comparison above, both devices are the best flagships in their respective ecosystems with their own outstanding and unique features. It's still too early to make judgement which should be the better one to buy since iPhone 6s is not in hand now for testing. But according to the specs unveiled, Samsung's flagship is still a pleasure to use due to the remarkable screen, top-leading camera, and the appealing Android's customisation. Meanwhile, the new 3D touch capabilities, upgraded camera and iOS9 also make Apple iPhone 6s a better-rounded device than the other iPhones.
Another big difference between iPhone 6S and Galaxy S6 (or iOS and Android) is regarding the media playback for iTunes movies and TV shows. In fact, the iPhone 6S (or other iOS-based devices) is authorised to play movies and TV shows downloaded from iTunes store while the Galaxy S6 (or other Android devices) can't because of the DRM protection created by Apple to apply on iTunes media content. In this case, if you want to play iTunes DRM-protected movies with your Galaxy S6 or any other Android smartphone or tablet, you'll have to use some iTunes DRM remover, like ViWizard DRM M4V Converter for Mac/Windows to bypass DRM lock from iTunes movies at first. This smart iTunes DRM remover will help you easily unlock DRM restriction from both rented and purchased iTunes movies and convert the protected M4V files to common MP4 at 20x faster speed with lossless quality. You can refer to this tutorial to see how to transfer iTunes DRM M4V movies to Android devices with ViWizard iTunes M4V Converter: How to Convert Protected iTunes Movies on Android >>
Nick Orin is a review writer, software geek and Mac OS enthusiast. He spends all his free time in searching useful software and gadgets to share with others.
