The stuff Hacker News actually recommends.

Phones · Apple iPhone

Apple iPhone 6 Plus

10owners with an opinion
50%of verdicts positive
0/0positive/negative since 2024
2.5 yrslongest happy owner
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for repairability and reliability; criticized for display.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like itOwned 4 years
no phone manufacturer is infallible. my iPhone 4 battery went up in smoke after owning it for 1.5 years. my iPhone 6 plus developed touch disease after 2 years, the replacement developed touch disease after a week, and the second replacement began exhibiting mild symptoms after a couple months, the nand failed after another 2 years. (applecare replacements mind you.) plus I wasn't a huge fan of apple trying to sweep the issue under the rug until it gained nationwide attention.
Recommends itOwned 2.5 yearsStill going
iPhone 6+ in a waterproof LifeProof case. Feels consumerist and horrible to say it, but it's lasted me almost 2.5 years without any issues. The gigantic screen is a great companion while I've been on the road. The case makes it almost comically large, but I can now use my phone as a coaster and never worry about tossing it in a bag. Every smartphone I owned prior to this one wound up with some combination of bugs, hardware issues, and degrading performance. This one feels as good as the day I got it, and I never expected that to be true of a cellphone.
NeutralOwned 2 years
I have had my iPhone 6P for over 2 years. I would not be upgrading if my sound button wasn't touchy. I don't see a lot of innovation for my needs with a 7P. Could customers just be upset with the supply chain issues too? Apple hypes devices. People order. Then the orders take months to fulfill. Customers get tired of waiting and cancel orders? Example. I ordered at launch. My order failed to complete. I get an e-mail the next day saying that my iphone was held for me, please finish checking out. Estimated delivery October 1 - 15. It is now the 26th and tracking shows it will arrive on Oct 31. A whole month late. Meanwhile I have a nice case here that arrived 1 day over my iPhone order...
Neutral
Hello, brother from a different mother. I read this and, “someone is describing me.” I have my phone on silent mode for over 10+ years (I remember, because I wrote an article in 2014). Since the Phone 6+ (or so), I have made my iPhone as the Camera. However, of late, I have taken on a keen interest in getting back to an actual camera and I’m likely to start soon. I’ve also kinda started a white lie when people start probing into why I don’t do most of phone calls - “I’ve a condition where I can’t do VOICE on the phone.” It is kinda of a lie but also not NOT a truth.
Likes it
I used to work for Gazelle, a company that buys used iPhones, iPads, etc. from consumers. We found that the iPads we bought were generally in much worse shape than the iPhones. We believed this suggested that people were using their iPads quite a bit. Anecdotally, among my friends and family iPads are in almost constant use. So even if we don't know what iPads are good for we seem to use them a lot. I wonder how much of this is just that people are not upgrading their iPads as often as they upgrade their phones. I'm still relatively happy with my iPad 2 and I've had three different iPhones during the time I've owned it. A lot of my friends are in similar situations. I think we all kind of agree that iPads are too expensive to justify frequent upgrades, especially when they're still useable. I bought an iPhone 6 Plus thinking it would replace the iPad but found that, while I still really like the 6 Plus' size, it doesn't really work that well for prolonged reading or the lazy internet surfing the author mentions in the article.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
Every hardware vendor has problems. Suggesting that Apple is uniquely bad while others “stand behind their products” doesn’t hold up. The difference is that Apple, after enough pressure, actually fixes things. They create repair programs, offer recalls, and have the infrastructure to make things right. Most vendors don’t. Let’s look at the examples you listed. Butterfly keyboard Yes, a bad design. But Apple launched a repair program that covered every affected MacBook for multiple years. I was affected by this, and had my keyboard replaced twice. Compare that to Lenovo’s ThinkPad coil whine and sleep bugs, which they never publicly acknowledged and never fixed. Users were told it was “within spec.” Batterygate Apple throttled devices to preserve battery life and didn’t communicate it well. After the backlash, they launched a battery replacement program and settled a class-action lawsuit. HP had massive issues with failing batteries and Nvidia GPUs no meaningful recall, just silence. MBP GPU failures Apple ran logic board replacement programs for both sets of failures. They repaired machines years out of warranty. Microsoft, on the other hand, ignored Surface Pro 4 screen flickering for over two years, then limited their replacement program to a narrow window, leaving many customers stuck. Bendgate Apple initially downplayed it, but the iPhone 6 Plus was later included in a touchscreen repair program. Compare that to Asus ROG Zephyrus early models that ran hot, warped, and suf…