iPhone 6
Ranked 16 of 60 smartphones by recommenders
Owners praise its small, light size that works one-handed, its clean design, and how long it lasts, with some still using it daily after about 11 years. The common caveats are battery wear, bending, and apps that no longer support it.
Owners praise its small, light size that works one-handed, its clean design, and how long it lasts, with some still using it daily after about 11 years. The common caveats are battery wear, bending, and apps that no longer support it.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 64%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 11 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Small, light, one-handed size
“its cheap, light, small, thin, and I dont have to worry about breaking the screen”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” “That phone size was just perfect. Easy to hold and do everything with one hand”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Motorola GrapheneOS devices will be bootloader unlockable/relockable” “I still think the design and size of the 6s - peak technology.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” - Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces iPhone 17e”
- Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Pixel 11 Pro Fold feels like the end of an era”
Lasted years, still in daily use
“The 6s was great, I had mine until it literally came apart.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27” “Still daily driving the 6s after almost 11 glorious years”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27” “My iPhone 6S did all of these well enough”
Comment from 22 May 2026 in “AI is killing the cheap smartphone” Clean, uncluttered visual design
“The iPhone 6 was fairly skeuomorphic yet never seemed visually busy or ugly.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Direct Win32 API, Weird-Shaped Windows, and Why They Mostly Disappeared” “I still think the design and size of the 6s - peak technology.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” Acceptable battery life, solid performance
“still better in real life usage than the latest flagship Android phone”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “New Mac mini, featuring M6 and M5 Pro” “had a perfectly acceptable battery life”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Bends easily
“people still joke about antenna gate from a decade and a half ago, or the iPhone 6 bending”
Comment from 13 Mar 2026 in “Apple's MacBook Neo makes repairs easier and cheaper than other MacBooks” “the iPhone 6 was bendable but that was a hardware engineering issue”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Jony Ive's Ferrari” “iPhone 6 that bends easily”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “The first broken iPhone Duos are here” Batterygate battery problems
“the iPhone 6 Batterygate Edition really made sure I'd only use it for essential stuff, cause even typing on the keyboard was a waiting game”
Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Pixel 11 Pro Fold feels like the end of an era” “the 3rd battery is starting to die and I think many apps will stop working soon”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo” “I only replaced because the batteries were already replaced once.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” - Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “OnePlus halts operations in USA and Europe”
Newer apps and OS not supported
“The hardware is fine, but I basically can't install apps because they all target newer OSes”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “Apple boss Tim Cook says prices to rise due to memory chip costs” “the 3rd battery is starting to die and I think many apps will stop working soon”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 706 | 882 | 44% | 13 | 7 yrs107 owners | — |
| Fairphone | 168 | 107 | 61% | 13 | 3 yrs19 owners | — |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 144 | 155 | 48% | 12 | 4 yrs26 owners | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 141 | 51 | 73% | 12 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| iPhone 6This page | 18 | 10 | 64% | 9 | 11 yrs3 owners | — |
What people said
31 of the 33 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“iPhone 6 that bends easily”
“Though half of that is the jack.”
“I used to have a 6s which doesn't have some nfc thing so most of the ticketmaster readers didn't work”
“I always avoided by iPhone models with Intel modems starting around the 6S era.”
“The 6s was great, I had mine until it literally came apart.”
“Still daily driving the 6s after almost 11 glorious years”
“had a perfectly acceptable battery life”
“the 3rd battery is starting to die and I think many apps will stop working soon”
“its cheap, light, small, thin, and I dont have to worry about breaking the screen”
“The camera on the iPhone 6 is nowhere near as capable current cameras.”
“I still think the design and size of the 6s - peak technology.”
“Go pick up an iphone 6 and try to do anything with it”
“still better in real life usage than the latest flagship Android phone”
“Right size, shape and feel.”
“the iPhone 6 Batterygate Edition really made sure I'd only use it for essential stuff, cause even typing on the keyboard was a waiting game”
“My wife's iPhone 6 still trumps this.”
“the 6 was the worst iPhone ever cause of batterygate”
“well below the quality people normally expect from Apple”
“The hardware is fine, but I basically can't install apps because they all target newer OSes”
“the iPhone 6 was bendable but that was a hardware engineering issue”
“My iPhone 6S did all of these well enough”
“Even Apple did this with the iPhone 6.”
“This is robbery from Apple.”
“The iPhone 6 was fairly skeuomorphic yet never seemed visually busy or ugly.”
“people still joke about antenna gate from a decade and a half ago, or the iPhone 6 bending”
“should not be presented as a win for Apple”
“That phone size was just perfect. Easy to hold and do everything with one hand”
“I loved the size of my iPhone 6”
“I've got an iphone 6 that doesn't”
“I only replaced because the batteries were already replaced once.”
“an iPhone 6s in the family that was a joy for all the right reasons”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.