Apple launches iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus with 3D Touch

Cupertino's worst-kept secrets are finally revealed

Apple has unveiled its two newest smartphones - the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus - at its "Apple Special Event" in San Francisco.

With company CEO Tim Cook introducing the devices as the "most advanced smartphones in the world", senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, was soon on-hand to officially announce the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the big new feature of which is "3D Touch".

Effectively a rebrand of "Force Touch", which is already present in the Apple Watch and other devices, 3D Touch enables the device to gauge how hard the screen is being pressed, allowing a preview of email content or maps by an effect Apple is calling "peeking".

Navigating across apps is also possible by swiping and pushing open apps, or "peeking" app icons on the Home Screen to check for updates and other content. Effectively, what Apple has achieved is similar to the right-click function of a standard computer mouse.

Cook said he believes this feature will make the new devices "truly meaningful in our lives".

The iPhone 6s includes Apple's new A9 processor, a "third generation 64-bit chip" with a "new transistor architecture" for "tasks you'll do everyday". It is 90 per cent faster at graphics tasks, Apple claims. The glass used in the iPhone 6s (and presumably 6s Plus) is the "strongest in the industry", made using what Apple calls an "ion exchange process".

The iPhone 6s also sports a 12-megapixel iSight camera with "Live Photos" - a feature that records a few seconds before and after the user takes a photo, enabling them to press on the picture afterwards and to play a short video of the scene - similar to the animated GIF images so beloved of internet memes.

The iPhone 6s will also include a cheeky "Move from Android" app to "assist" the "growing number" of customers - according to Schiller - moving from Android to iPhone, helping them with the chore of migrating their key apps and content from one platform to the other.

The new phones will be available on 25 September 2015 in the UK, with iOS 9 launching on 16 September 2015. UK prices for the iPhone 6s are £539 for the 16GB model, £619 for the 64GB model and £699 for the 128GB model.

Cook also reflected on how successful a year the iPhone has had, with sales growing "at three-and-a-half times the rest of the industry" and by a "stunning 75 per cent in China".