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| The iPhone 6 in Gold |
My mom, which is not really a smartphone person, was looking to change her phone after years and years of using her current one. She's still rocking an Samsung Galaxy S3, a fairly old smartphone that got released six years ago which means in a technology standpoint, ages ago. So she decided to do an upgrade and she's willing to try other phone brands. Of course, being an iPhone user, i recommended her an iPhone. She's not looking for something powerful and she's not a fan of Samsung either thanks to that bad user interface skin on top of Android. So i got her an iPhone 6! It's pretty old generation-wise but seeing my iPhone 5S still kicking this 2018 and still receiving the latest version of iOS, then it's really a perfect choice for my mom.
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| Apple's Senior Vice President in Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller introducing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to the public for the first time on September 2014 |
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus came out on September 2014 making them four years old now. That is a bad thing right? Not really. If you look at the iPhone 6 today, you will surely confuse it to its later siblings, the iPhone 6S, 7 and 8, unless you look at the back of the phone itself. Performance-wise, yes, it is showing its age but my mom ain't gonna game on this thing. She's more on watching YouTube, social media and a bit of Candy Crush. After all the planning we finally purchased the phone! This iPhone 6 is an Apple Certified Pre-Owned version meaning it came from old iPhone parts which are in really good condition and re-manufactured to be a refurbished one and then undergoes quality assurance to check for flaws. Apple Certified Pre-Owned iPhones is very much cheaper compared to a brand new one.
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| iPhone 6 in different colors via wccftech.com |
iPhone 6 has three color options to choose from. They have Space Gray, Silver and Gold. We got the phone in Gold and it seems fine for her. She really wanted the Space Gray one though because it's out of stock. My mom has been using the phone for quite some time now and so far, she's loving it.
With all of that being said here are some of our thoughts about the phone:
For a detailed specifications about this device you can always visit Apple's website.
Price
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| Apple Certified Pre-Owned box |
Since we are talking about a phone that is now four years old the current price of the iPhone 6 has been so lowered so much thanks to the market value. Getting a brand new iPhone 6 at 32 GB will cost you around Php13,000 to Php15,000 which almost has the same price of flagships or mid-range phones from different brands like Oppo, Vivo or Xiaomi. If you still want the iPhone 6 at a much lower price, like us, consider getting an Apple Certified Pre-Owned version that is around Php11,000. If you want to even go lower with the price then we have our third-party sites like OLX and Carousell that offers used iPhones.
Build Quality
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| The aluminum back |
The iPhone's build quality has always been excellent. Well, except for this one. Yes, the aluminum build does feel premium and nice but it has the tendency of bending to a certain amount of force. The internet called this phenomenon 'Bendgate'. Lots of people on the internet, especially the tech reviewers on YouTube, tried to bend an iPhone 6 and yes. It got bent so easily due to the weak aluminum material Apple used because they want to to make the iPhone 6 so thin. Apple addressed the issue on its successor, the iPhone 6S.
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| The left and right side of the iPhone 6. (Left) The silent switch and volume rockers. (Right) The power button, sim tray and the infamous camera bump |
Looking at the sides of the will reveal how thin it is. It's 6.9mm thin. Just to compare, the iPhone 6S is 7.1mm which is a bit thicker to make up for the durability of the phone and avoid anymore bending issues. Going to the left side of the phone is where the silent switch or toggle can be found as well as the redesigned volume rockers. It was in a circular shape before with the iPhone 5S. On the right side houses the power button as well as the sim tray slot. Nothing can be found on top side just a flat aluminum surface.
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| (Bottom) The headphone jack, lightning port and speaker grills |
The bottom part of the phone is where we can find the truly missed 3.5mm headphone jack which has been axed by Apple ever since the iPhone 7. I'm not hoping anymore that its coming back because Apple has planned to go to a wireless future. The speaker grills can also be found here and they sound clear and with a pinch of bass. It's a bit of a pain that all of the audio is coming out of the bottom of the phone or maybe it is just me who got spoiled by the iPhone 7 Plus front firing speaker from the earpiece. Lastly, of course, the lightning connector for charging and other lightning accessories.
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| The home button. Sorry about that unaligned tempered glass. |
Of course, an iPhone won't be complete without the iconic home button, right? That's true to all iPhones except for the iPhone X and the upcoming next generation ones. Anyway, the iPhone 6 still sports the mechanical home button with the first generation of Touch ID, the fingerprint sensor tech, which is fast but not as fast to the ones found on the iPhones 6S and above but still, its very convenient and usable.
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| The rear-facing camera. microphone and true-tone flash |
And lastly, rear-facing camera. Lots of people are actually mad about the camera bump but so far for my mom, just like an average consumer, she just use a case with the phone. Problem solved! Next, beside the main camera is this tiny black hole that turns out to be a microphone that is actually used for noise cancelling when you are on a call with this phone so that you can hear the one you're on a call with clearly. This microphone can also be found on old generation iPhones. Next to that microphone is the True-tone flash which adapts to the lighting conditions of a shot or scene. If there's more white light in the scene then it's going to use the white flash, if it's warmer then its going to use the orange flash. Pretty neat.
Display
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| The 4.7-inch screen |
The iPhone is actually Apple's first attempt to enter the big screen smartphone market. They have always stick with the 4.0-inch screen beginning with the iPhone 5. Apple knows that this is really a necessary change because of the changing landscape of the mobile phone industry. Majority of the customers wants a much bigger screen making Apple do the decision. It's ironic to watch Apple's past keynotes and hear them say that four inches is the perfect size for our hands.
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| With the display on |
The size of the iPhone 6 is considered to be a compact one. It's still comfortable for one-handed use. This iPhone sports a 4.7-inch of screen which is considered as 'small' now this 2018 but personally, this isn't really small. It's just right in the middle and very comfortable to use. Having an iPhone 7 Plus with a 5.5-inch of screen size is what you call a behemoth. I'm starting to have problems with my jeans because the phone itself won't fit because of it's size. Anyway, this display has a resolution of 1334 x 750. A bit higher than 720p giving it a 326ppi or Pixels Per Inch. This gives them the marketing term called 'Retina Display' where in even if you look so close at the screen you won't notice any pixels just like a fine print on a paper. Also, this is one of the iPhones with the brightest display so even if its a sunny day, you'll be able to see the contents on the screen when the brightness is maxed out.
Software & Performance
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| iOS 11.4.1. The lock screen/cover sheet, home screen and control center |
Out of the box the iPhone 6 runs on iOS 11.4.1 which is the latest version of iOS during the writing of this review. iOS 12 will be coming out this September 12 alongside the new iPhones. So far, with the interface, my mom is really used to it actually because she used to own an iPad Mini making it easy for her to use it for the first time. Yes, about the user interface. It's still the same old rows and columns of icons in the home screen and the lock screen that shows the 'Press home to unlock' message. The redesigned Control Center is helpful than ever thanks to the additional menus hidden within those button which can be revealed after a long press. Nothing really much changed ever since the major revamp that is iOS 7 back in 2013.
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| Facebook, YouTube and Weather app |
When it comes to running basic apps that came with the phone as well as the basic operations then the Apple A8 Chip is indeed super fast. The phone shows its age when running a couple of the latest games like Fortnite or PUBG Mobile, which are graphically intensive, and the slow loading times, around five to ten seconds, when launching apps like Facebook and Spotify is very noticeable but this really didn't bother my mom when it comes to that.
The 1810 mAh battery on the iPhone 6 is just fine. The endurance when it comes to the stand-by time or screen-off time is great and will probably last you a more than a day even when you're connected to Wi-Fi or mobile data. Of course, when it comes to you actually using the phone and under heavy usage just like gaming or watching videos for hours then the battery will not last before dinner time. The Low Power Mode feature might help when it comes to saving battery life because it turns off unnecessary features, the parallax effect on the home screen for instance, to save battery life.
Battery Life
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| Battery usage. Mostly on social media apps and Wordscapes |
Camera
The 8 megapixel rear-facing shooter is almost identical to the one found in the iPhone 5S which means the resulting shots will be totally fine except when it comes to low light shots resulting to noisy but acceptable photos. The focus on this camera is fairly impressive. The on-tap response when focusing a subject is around a few millisecond to a second. The camera is capable doing High Dynamic Range. HDR balances the lighting in your shots removing those overexposed part of the scene. The selfie camera won't disappoint you either because it accepts more light compared to the iPhone 5S resulting into clearer selfies and helps a bit when it comes to low light selfies as well. When it comes to video recording this camera is capable of shooting up to 1080p 60fps. Here are some sample shots from the camera. Just tap or click them to zoom them in:
Final Thoughts
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| iPhone 6 with a white glass front |
As for my mother, this phone is excellent. She always tells me about how easy it is to use the phone thanks to the familiar and uniform user interface of iOS. The impressive camera is a great companion for her as well since she's going out with her friends a lot lately as well as the video capabilities of this phone and the display is super sharp and bright. Although battery-wise it's pretty short but she'll just charge the phone in the car or with her power bank that's with her anyway. Now, for it's price, this is a really great phone. Remember, four years ago, this will costs you around Php40,000 or more just to get the 16GB version and now its really affordable to enjoy what's the best of Apple years ago. If i would be the one to use it, then yes, this is a really great smartphone and very worth it right now especially when it comes to its current price.
Monday, September 3, 2018
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