Revisiting The iPhone 6S in 2019

[jiyeon]

 

 

So recently after a long run with my Samsung S8 that I got in May 2018, I've been missing the iOS life since I had used my iPhone 6s from December 2016 up until May 2018. This iPhone 6s has been resilient and sturdy even up until now.

 

I used it daily for 2 years, and even here in 2019, I booted it back up and it's still as snappy as ever. I also had a warm reception when I was prompted to update to iOS 12.1. Of course I did, because that's what I love the most about iOS. It looked as great as the day I got it, I did mod it slightly with a dbrand skin enveloping it as well as a tempered glass screen protector, and considering it's just been in a box for 3/4 of the year, it still looks absolutely beautiful.

 

I decided to revisit the iPhone 6s after I was in awe of the iPhone Xs I saw in-store, it was basically my dream phone with it being a taller aspect ratio, OLED display, and runs iOS. I've used Android for a large majority of my life, and yet in my heart I am an iOS girl.

 

 

 

After taking it back out its box, I immediately noticed all the things I initially fell in love with the iPhone 6s for.

 

Obviously first, is that it runs iOS. I love iOS and its fluidity in particular. It just doesn't hiccup no matter what, and this is an Apple product from 2015. It was a beauty to come back to, everything worked, and worked great at that. I was also still very familiar with the iOS layout too, I knew where to navigate to in the app store, where settings were, it brought me back and it was amazing.

I honestly really missed iOS, my Samsung S8 only just recently got Android 9 after I asked my carrier when I would get Android 9, and then 3 days later I got an Android 9 update... Android 9 is fluid as well, but it doesn't beat the ease of use, simplicity, and natural flow of iOS, at least for me.

 

 

The design is simple, yet beautiful. I love phones that have a bottom-facing headphone jack (not that those exist in 2019) such as my current S8 and my before-then Nexus 5X. The home button placement and even the shape itself is great, it's classic Apple design, classy and simplistic. Using TouchID once again felt so nice compared to my S8's awkward rear fingerprint sensor.

 

 

The button placement i near-perfection as well, for a phone that was made in 2015, the exterior still looks relatively modern minus the screen. Seperate volume buttons, a ringer, and a power button, all made out of metal, it's super premium and once again is so classy of Apple.

 

 

 

My one large gripe with the iPhone 6s is the absolutely crude screen. It's a 720p 16:9 LCD screen. This is the one part of the phone that is preventing me from picking it back up and using iOS again. My Samsung S8 has a 2960x1440p 18.5:9 SAMOLED screen, the 6s just pales in comparison in every single way and it's disappointing that as much as I love the 6s, my S8 has just shown me the light of much superior hardware.

 

In addition to that, the colors on the iPhone 6s look flat and are nowhere near as vibrant as my Samsung screen, or even my LG IPS panel. I held my S8 and my 6s side-by-side and there was a night-and-day difference between the two displays that I could notice. Add to that the sheer small size of the iPhone 6s screen and it just wasn't a good experience. The 6s screen just wasn't sharp at all in comparison.

 

 

Now that I've gotten my iPhone 6s back in my hands after leaving it for nearly a year, my very first thoughts were how beautiful the device is and how excited I was to use iOS again. The device is elegantly-designed especially in the silver color with the white front, the button layouts are perfect for my hand size, TouchID is fast as I remember it used to be, and iOS is still as fluid as ever. I can see how I used this phone for nearly 2 years, it was the phone that had everything I wanted, at that time.

 

But after using my S8 with that gorgeous display, the iPhone 6s' screen just falls flat on its face. It's flat, colors are gloomy, the display is not sharp at all, and it's far too small for me now. The display is one of the first things I look for in a phone, so iPhone 6s with its inferior screen really kills the experience now.

That's not to say it's a bad device, it's still as quick and snappy as the day I got it, and I credit that to iOS being optimised to perfection. It's only the screen that prevents me from going back to it.

 

It was nice to turn on my iPhone 6s once again after all this time, I really do miss the iOS experience, and can for sure can see myself using an iPhone Xs in a year's time.

[TH3R34P3R]

*cough cough* 

 

battery... 

 

I love my 6s as well... but man oh man is the battery crap  

[jiyeon]

Just now, TH3R34P3R said:

*cough cough* 

 

battery... 

 

I love my 6s as well... but man oh man is the battery crap  

Really? I remember my S8 lasting 4-6 hours SOT, it was one of the most battery-optimised phones I'd ever used. Not sure how true that may be in 2019 though! According to my iPhone, its max capacity now is 79%, so I guess I'll need to play around a bit more for a verdict on its battery. I set my 6s back up last night and I didn't even fully charge it back up, at the moment it's 100% so I'll get back to you about the battery if I remember to use the iPhone over my S8 today!

[TH3R34P3R]

Just now, seoz said:

Really? I remember my S8 lasting 4-6 hours SOT, it was one of the most battery-optimised phones I'd ever used. Not sure how true that may be in 2019 though! According to my iPhone, its max capacity now is 79%, so I guess I'll need to play around a bit more for a verdict on its battery. I set my 6s back up last night and I didn't even fully charge it back up, at the moment it's 100% so I'll get back to you about the battery if I remember to use the iPhone over my S8 today!

yeah. 100% dies to 40% in under 2 hours of use. its brutal. but then again it's been an everyday phone since its original launch. 

 

perhaps it's time to go to the iphone Xs or Xr... 

[jiyeon]

3 minutes ago, TH3R34P3R said:

yeah. 100% dies to 40% in under 2 hours of use. its brutal. but then again it's been an everyday phone since its original launch. 

 

perhaps it's time to go to the iphone Xs or Xr... 

I found an old tweet of mine showing my SoT and standy times. I used my 6s heavily as well. Perhaps your settings were different? I always used to have 40-50% brightness, bluetooth off, location off, all that jazz.

 

[Origami Cactus]

1 minute ago, seoz said:

I found an old tweet of mine showing my SoT and standy times. I used my 6s heavily as well. Perhaps your settings were different? I always used to have 40-50% brightness, bluetooth off, location off, all that jazz.

 

 Is that standby battery really 8 hours? Ouch

AFAIK apple devices had like super standby time, you could just leave ipad into the drawer for half a year, then pick it up, and it still worked fine, lost maybe like 10% of battery.

[jiyeon]

1 minute ago, Origami Cactus said:

 Is that standby battery really 8 hours? Ouch

AFAIK apple devices had like super standby time, you could just leave ipad into the drawer for half a year, then pick it up, and it still worked fine.

I can't recall what percentage I still had from that tweet, since my old self didn't include anything but the numbers in that photo... I assume perhaps 20%, based off that SoT.

[BuckGup]

Get a new battery. My 6s lasted longer than my X did new

[LukeSavenije]

i think it's safer to not share too much from my experience with apple in general....

[Morgan MLGman]

[I'm relating to your status update about the Galaxy S8 and the iPhone 6S] What would you actually lose out on if you went for the Galaxy S10 over the iPhone XS for example? Or even with your current S8, aside from a hardware upgrade obviously...

It's good that you upgraded to the Android Pie OneUI update, it's a lot better. Try using the Night Theme, it saves battery and looks cool, especially when you drop down the quick menu that has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. I have the Galaxy S9 and I loved the update, it fixed some things that annoyed me on the Oreo one.

P.S. Props for that Chorong gif avatar, haha! I had to think for a few moments to recognize her lol

[jiyeon]

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

What would you actually lose out on if you went for the Galaxy S10 over the iPhone XS for example? Or even with your current S8, aside from a hardware upgrade obviously...

It's good that you upgraded to the Android Pie OneUI update, it's a lot better. Try using the Night Theme, it saves battery and looks cool, especially when you drop down the quick menu that has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. I have the Galaxy S9 and I loved the update, it fixed some things that annoyed me on the Oreo one.

I would lose out on iOS and those lightning fast software updates, for one thing. Not to mention the longevity of those updates too, I can't image the S10 getting more than 2 major Android OS updates. That's really what puts me off Android devices at the moment.

Additionally, that punchhole on the S10 is going to be annoying and I know it.

 

Android Pie OneIU is amazing, my S8 feels like a new device on the outside. I do use night theme quite a bit contrary to my title, especially since the S8 has a SAMOLED panel. The dropdown reminds me of iOS 11/12, and also the recent apps pull-up, since I've set my S8 up for gestures instead of touch buttons for the back, recents, and home.

 

6 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

P.S. Props for that Chorong gif avatar, haha! I had to think for a few moments to recognize her lol

Chorong is the best! My ultimate bias for sure, she's beautiful on the inside and the outside.

[Morgan MLGman]

11 minutes ago, seoz said:

I would lose out on iOS and those lightning fast software updates, for one thing. Not to mention the longevity of those updates too, I can't image the S10 getting more than 2 major Android OS updates. That's really what puts me off Android devices at the moment.

Additionally, that punchhole on the S10 is going to be annoying and I know it.

Yeah, I also think that the hole is a little weird, though I wouldn't say it's worse than a regular notch, I have a second phone (for work) with an iPhone-like notch and it's not a good solution IMO.
Back to your point though - that's pretty much it, isn't it? The OS is the only thing that can be seen as an advantage to get an iPhone and that's purely personal preference. I've used both iPhones and Android phones, I actually had four iPhones in my life and honestly I can't see any major advantages of the iOS and there are some trade-offs here and there.
An example of that would be uploading downloaded songs to an iPhone from a PC - an unnecessary hassle with iTunes etc.

11 minutes ago, seoz said:

Chorong is the best! My ultimate bias for sure, she's beautiful on the inside and the outside.

 

Apink is not my favorite girl group, but I find Chorong the most "adorable" among the members because of her way of being I've seen them on Weekly Idol a few times (back in the old days of WI).
My personal favorites would be Blackpink and they're releasing a new mini-album in three days so I'm extremely hyped!  //sorry for off-topic

[jiyeon]

1 minute ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Yeah, I also think that the hole is a little weird, though I wouldn't say it's worse than a regular notch, I have a second phone (for work) with an iPhone-like notch and it's not a good solution IMO.
Back to your point though - that's pretty much it, isn't it? The OS is the only thing that can be seen as an advantage to get an iPhone and that's purely personal preference. I've used both iPhones and Android phones, I actually had four iPhones in my life and honestly I can't see any major advantages of the iOS and there are some trade-offs here and there.
An example of that would be uploading downloaded songs to an iPhone from a PC - an unnecessary hassle with iTunes etc.

I guess for things I prefer on the Xs vs choosing the S10, it would be:

• iOS, and its updates
• Classy design
• Burnout from Android, if that makes sense

I've used iTunes before to get some custom ringtones, it wasn't too much of a hassle, but it was certainly more tedious due to how Apple wants the consumer to do it.

 

2 minutes ago, Morgan MLGman said:

Apink is not my favorite girl group, but I find Chorong the most "adorable" among the members because of her way of being I've seen them on Weekly Idol a few times (back in the old days of WI).
My personal favorites would be Blackpink and they're releasing a new mini-album in three days so I'm extremely hyped!  //sorry for off-topic

Hey, no problem, I'm hyped for Blackpink as well! I used to use a Rose avatar on the forum back in my earlier days.

[Morgan MLGman]

5 minutes ago, seoz said:

I guess for things I prefer on the Xs vs choosing the S10, it would be:

• iOS, and its updates
• Classy design
• Burnout from Android, if that makes sense

With that I agree, I didn't have any newer iPhones since the iPhone SE that I used for almost two years, but I like change so fairly frequent updates are a good thing. Even though they sometimes were a little buggy in the past

IMO these are legitimate reasons to get or recommend an iPhone, although pricing and other issues like Apple reducing CPU performance to compensate for putting in a too small battery (what happened to the iPhone 6S/SE and the 8/X later on) are things to consider as well, since technologically I feel like Apple have lost the edge that they once had honestly...
The OS argument is obviously the strongest IMO, I have a friend that flat-out refuses to buy (or even try) any other phones because he's so attached and used to the iOS.

Quote

Hey, no problem, I'm hyped for Blackpink as well! I used to use a Rose avatar on the forum back in my earlier days.

#KillThisLove hype train Now that I think of it, I'm into K-Pop for too long, I remember when Apink released the LUV song back in late 2014... Aaaand now I feel like I should stop talking about it lol

[jiyeon]

1 hour ago, Morgan MLGman said:

IMO these are legitimate reasons to get or recommend an iPhone, although pricing and other issues like Apple reducing CPU performance to compensate for putting in a too small battery (what happened to the iPhone 6S/SE and the 8/X later on) are things to consider as well, since technologically I feel like Apple have lost the edge that they once had honestly...
The OS argument is obviously the strongest IMO, I have a friend that flat-out refuses to buy (or even try) any other phones because he's so attached and used to the iOS.

For sure, the pricing of iPhones are the one gatekeep that prevent me from buying iPhones often. The whole performance thing, I didn't recognise a performance degradation, but in fairness, I literally didn't use this iPhone 6s for a solid 9 months. My 6s despite being 3 years old at this point, still feels quick as ever. To me, it's all the software because I'm quite light on mobile technology such as keeping my RAM usage low, using like less than a quarter of phone storage.

 

In my heart, I'm attached to iOS, but I'm always open to using Android. It's just that in my experience, Android phones tend to have a far shorter lifespan, my Nexus 5X was left on Android 6, if I remember correctly. I'll be lucky if my S8 gets Android 10, and even then it'd probably take a century to get a new Android update for my S8.

... Wow, that turned into an Android rant.