Was the 6S really the peak iPhone?

Apple iPhone 6s

It was a warm summer night in September 2017 when Mashable asked itself: Has Apple innovation stalled? Do these glitzy new Apple phones (back then, that was the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, as well as the then-upcoming iPhone X) carry their weight, or did iPhone evolution end with the most perfect phone that came out two years earlier?

In short, we asked ourselves: Was the iPhone 6S the last of the great iPhones?

First, a little context. I didn’t write the article; I’m way too enamored with the next new thing to look back in such a way. It was written by my former colleague Foster Kamer. Ever the new phone skeptic, Kamer argued that the iPhone 6S, then two generations old, was the perfect iPhone; one that’s fast enough, perfectly sized, light, and equipped both with a headphone jack (remember those) and an actual Touch ID button, which was later replaced with a faux button and, ultimately, with Face ID.

The article goes into quite a bit of detail, but ultimately it’s not just about the iPhone 6S or any particular iPhone; it’s also about how the best iPhone purchase is almost always one that’s one or two generations old. Because, you know, it’s just so much cheaper.

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This is where I’m willing to concede the argument: Yes, if you don’t care about the latest fancy new feature, by all means go for last year’s phone, or even the one before that. It’s probably gonna serve you just as well; it’ll be a lot cheaper, and since these are iPhones we’re talking about, it’ll probably last you a good two, three, or even four years.

This is even more true today than it was in 2017. Smartphone companies have been putting their best R&D minds to work on smartphones for decades now, and innovation has, to some extent, been exhausted. I’m using the latest and greatest iPhone 17 Pro Max, but I can honestly say that switching to the previous model wouldn’t kill me.

Glorious Touch ID button, why has thou abandoned us?
Credit: Future Publishing / Getty Images

However, go back a year or two more, and the differences are staggering. The battery life and camera on my current iPhone are just so much better than they were on the iPhone 14 or 15 Pro Max, it’s not even funny. I’m not even talking about some fancy new features; I’m talking about the very basics, precisely the stuff that seemingly reached its peak at every new iteration. The iPhones are still evolving; it’s just harder to notice year over year.

To go back to 2017 and the 4.7-inch iPhone 6S, the argument that it is the peak iPhone seems hilariously wrong from our current perspective. Back then, it seemed like Face ID wasn’t good enough to replace the Touch ID button, but it was, and it opened the way to iPhones with much larger displays. The iPhone 6S’ 12-megapixel camera is potato-quality compared with today’s powerful phone cameras, and don’t even get me started on the 5-megapixel selfie camera. Yes, it was light, practical, and good enough for basic tasks, which is why Apple held on to a similar form factor for years in the form of iPhone SE. But no, the iPhone 6S was not particularly special, and it would feel laughably underpowered when used alongside any recent iPhone.

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As I type this, we’re probably weeks away from the grand unveiling of the iPhone Ultra. It’ll be Apple’s first foldable iPhone, making it a very different beast from all the iPhones that came before it. It’ll probably be fatter, heavier, and more expensive than regular iPhones. Still, it will also unfold into a glorious tablet, paving the way for actually enjoyable reading, or binging House of the Dragon on the go. And just like every new iPhone that takes a different direction from the ones that came before it, people will say it’s trash, and they’ll say you should stick to the far cheaper, far simpler iPhone that came out a few years back. Perhaps we at Mashable will once again have someone declaring that some older device was “peak iPhone,” especially when compared to some foldable nonsense.

This will surely be true for some people, and choosing a vintage device will definitely save you a decent amount of money. But then you’ll see, at the corner of your eye, someone riding the subway, someone enjoying a movie on the iPhone Ultra’s massive inner display. Then you’ll look at your old iPhone’s comparatively puny display, and you may feel a certain way, the same way you felt when you last realized that the new thing may just be, well, better than the old thing.