Using an iPhone 6S as a daily driver in 2024

Published: Feb 6 2024

Why am I even doing this?

You might find me crazy – let me tell you, sometimes I feel the same way – but I was just curious and ended up in this echo chamber.

design

I think the overall looks of this phone is beautiful. Probably the second most beautiful after the iPhone 4S. Of course, you don’t get one of those large screens with thin bezels around them, but the aluminum feels high quality if we look at its age. You get one camera, a flashlight and a microphone on the back, and the antennas of course. Also, this is the last iPhone model with a jack connector and a home button that you can actually press! The weight of the phone feels like nothing. A case is also very well recommended since its slippery behavior.

OS and general usage

The phone runs on iOS 15.8.1. Even though it is now two years old, and you don’t have those fancy changes in the UI, accessibility options and new security features, it does not feel old at all. Almost everything is supported and works fairly good on this device. I’ll tell you more about specific app categories and titles later on. The usage is quiet snappy, it opens everything in no time, can keep apps in the RAM for quite a while. My biggest problem with the software is the poor keyboard. On my Galaxy phone, I use an open-source keyboard app called Florisboard and you can customize literally everything in it to your preference. Unfortunately, you don’t have access to open-source keyboard software, and you’re stuck with Apple’s horrible vanilla keyboard. I make so many mistakes while typing and I feel like it also takes more time to type, especially a longer message or text. There’s not a single dot or comma next to the space bar(except in Safari where you have a dot). I must go to the special characters to type a single number. I really don’t like it and feel like I will never be used to it.

security aspect

You have the basic unlock options like a passcode or a password, and you also have Touch ID. I have to tell that I’m very satisfied with this fingerprint sensor. It is actually blazing fast, it works with dirty and oily fingers too. I am surprised about that. The fact that you can access everything with your fingerprint and passcode is good on one side, but if your phone gets stolen, and the thief knows your passcode, they have total control over your device. This got fixed in iOS 17.3, with the new “Stolen Device Protection” but we are never going to be able to use that on this phone. I feel like this should have been a thing years ago too. The "Find My" app also works well and it is very useful. But there is also a thing that I don’t understand. These options. Why on Earth would you ever let access on your locked phone to your Control Centre or Reply with message? Of course these can be turned off, but they’re enabled by default.

communication

The phone’s communication equipment is very good. 4G speeds are usually top-notch and it doesn't lose 4G signal easily in places with horrible coverage. WiFi speed is fine for me personally. Bluetooth works, it’s nothing special, I can use my AirPods Pros and that’s enough for me. You don’t get 5G of course(this is a device from 2015) but unless you have some crazy bandwidth hungry tasks to do on your phone, you will be fine. Unfortunately, NFC can only be used for Apple Pay(which works very well though) so you don’t have to option to have NFC tags or use security keys like Yubikey with this phone.

apps

social media and messaging
General social media apps like Facebook or Instagram run are completely supported and run very well on this device. Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Element(for Matrix) and iMessage work well too. I have not seen any sort of issue or delay while sending a message.

games
I would not consider myself someone who spends lot of time playing video games on a smartphone. I do have some arcade games downloaded so I can talk about my experience in them. Things like Subway Surf, Crossy Road, Extreme Car Driving Simulator, Goat evolution. The loading times can feel a bit long, but after they have loaded they run just fine. Here’s a short clip as a proof. Bear in mind that there’s also a screen recording in progress while the game is running.

browser
Safari and all other browsers on iOS bundled with WebKit rendering engine are horrible. Even if you use Firefox it is just Safari with Firefox UI. You don’t have extensions, they lack of customization options, and there’s no Beta or Nightly version of Firefox. I downloaded AdGuard from the App Store which blocks ads in Safari but it is still far away from Firefox and uBlock Origin combination.

no third-party apps
I know sideloading is coming in iOS 17.4 so this part will now be long. Also I already told about my issues that are easy to fix on an Android system where you have the ability to install any third-party apps.

battery

This is probably the worst part. I ordered a new battery because I was not satisfied with the screen-on and standby time, but even after replacing it, it did not get much better. I can say that I’m lucky if I get 2 and a half hours(usually just two hours) of screen-on time and 6 hours of standby. After some research, I concluded that the issues here might not be with the battery or the software but the so-called Tristar chip in the phone, which is primarily responsible for the USB functionality but also a key component in the charging progress. Might get it fixed one day, I just need to find a board specialist nearby. (This would be quite expensive and probably doesn’t worth it at all.) The easier solution I came across is an extended capacity battery from AliExpress which is 2200mAh instead of the 1715mAh that comes with the phone originally. I will try it out when it arrives and update the article accordingly. For this time, I must charge the phone twice a day, otherwise it just runs out of power.

conclusion

Can you use this device as a daily driver? Yes, you can. It runs most things smoothly but the Dual-core CPU and the software that is becoming older each day is going to put a limit on the snappiness and the support this device has. Make sure to bring a charger with yourself in case you want to use as your main device.