iPhone 6s — 3D Touch and the Pressure of a Finger

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus were announced on 9 September 2015, opened for pre-order on 12 September and released on Friday 25 September 2015. Apple named twelve first-day countries and territories: the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. Japan was in the first wave. So was China, which had missed launch day for the iPhone 6 the year before while it waited for regulatory approval.

In the US, with a two-year contract, the iPhone 6s cost $199 for 16GB, $299 for 64GB and $399 for 128GB, and the 6s Plus $100 more at each tier. Without a contract the 6s started at $649. The same year Apple launched the iPhone Upgrade Program in the US, a monthly plan including AppleCare+, from $32 a month for the 6s.

In Japan, SIM-free models from the Apple Store cost ¥86,800 for 16GB, ¥98,800 for 64GB and ¥110,800 for 128GB, excluding tax, with the 6s Plus from ¥98,800. Pre-orders opened at 16:01 on 12 September, and Docomo, au and SoftBank all released it on the same day.

What changed from the iPhone 6

There were two sizes, 4.7 and 5.5 inches, and the shape was almost exactly the iPhone 6's. Phil Schiller's line in the press release was: "The only thing that has changed with iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is everything". Everything except the look, that is — a textbook S year.

3D Touch: pressure as input

The headline feature was 3D Touch. The screen sensed not just whether a finger touched it but how hard it pressed. Apple described it as sensing pressure to enable new gestures.

It came in two forms:

• Peek and Pop: press lightly on an email or a link and a preview floats up (Peek); press harder and it opens (Pop). Let go and you are back where you were. Apple pitched it as dipping in and out of content without losing your place
• Quick Actions: press an app icon on the Home screen for shortcuts to that app's common tasks

Live Photos were tied to it as well: press a 12-megapixel photo and it played the moments just before and after the shot.

Everything else

• A9 and M9: by Apple's figures the A9 had a 70% faster CPU and 90% faster GPU than the A8. The M9 motion coprocessor made "Hey Siri" always available
• Cameras: 12MP on the back with 4K (3840 × 2160) video; 5MP on the front with Retina Flash
• Body: 7000 series aluminium and ion-strengthened glass, with rose gold as a new colour

Thirteen million in three days

On 28 September 2015 Apple announced that iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sales had passed 13 million in the three days after launch. Tim Cook said sales had blown past any previous first-weekend result in Apple's history. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus had sold more than ten million in their first three days, but without China on launch day. Both figures are Apple's own.

How 3D Touch disappeared

3D Touch did not last.

On the day of the 2019 announcement, AppleInsider explained that Haptic Touch did without the 3D Touch hardware — a capacitive sensing layer — and delivered a similar experience in software, and reported that the change was said to free internal space and cut manufacturing cost. 3D Touch read degrees of pressure; Haptic Touch goes by how long you hold.

Although the 2019 models dropped it, the iPhone 8 with 3D Touch stayed on sale until April 2020. The year it vanished from new iPhones and the year it vanished from Apple's shelves are a year apart.

For the generation before, see the iPhone 6; for the small phone of the following spring, the original iPhone SE; for the generation that ended 3D Touch, the iPhone 11. The whole line is on the iPhone timeline.