APPLE iPHONE 6s

From £539 inc VAT • apple.com/uk

Speaker quality

The iPhone 6s provides a decent sound, but is let down by its mids and the overall volume. We would have liked to hear it project more, with a bigger emphasis on the mids. Its one-speaker design is also not suited to those who hold their phone in their right hand.

The single downward-firing speaker is located in the bottom righthand corner. Its placement is poor if you hold your phone in your right hand, and sometimes means that audio is suppressed due to the speaker’s positioning.

The 6s isn’t very loud, which means that listening to it in a crowded- or loud environment might not be feasible. On the plus side, the audio wasn’t distorted.

The iPhone’s sub-bass response is good, while its mid-bass is well presented and has a decent slam, though we feel the latter doesn’t have the right amount of control to it.

The mids are affected by the low-end response and are in fact V-shaped, and therefore are a little recessed. This is a shame as the internal audio sounds flat (a good thing in this context), but unfortunately this wasn’t applied to its external speaker.

The highs are a little off, which is disappointing, but natural considering the phone’s emphasis on low-end frequencies.

Apple/Cirrus Logic 338S00105 Audio chip and Apple/Cirrus Logic 338S1285 audio codec.

We found there was a slight bit of interference and small static sounds that were audible when the screen was turned off, which was disappointing.

We found the iPhone 6s to be sufficiently loud for most people. If, however, the phone were to be used with headphones that require more power, an external amplifier would be required to fully drive them. Score: 75- to 80 percent

The sub-bass doesn’t extend that well, but the mid-bass is well controlled and has the right amount of impact.

The mids are well presented and have an accurate tonality to them. In fact, the realism being portrayed in the mids is one the best of all the phones we tested. They did not feel recessed nor pushed back and had just the right amount of emphasis to them.

Apple has done a fantastic job here with the highs. The quality portrayed in the highs is spectacular. The iPhone 6s has the best high-tone frequency response out of all the phones we tested. It extends well, and has the right amount of sparkle. This means they were marginally sibilant, but that didn’t cause us any problems.

We found the soundstage lacked both width and depth, meaning the music didn’t feel as engaging as we would have liked. The decay also left us wondering why the 6s sounded different from most of the other phones we tested. It had some background noises that were very hard to hear, albeit present.