Honestly, looking back at the iPhone 6s Plus today feels like peering into a different era of mobile tech. It was the year Apple finally got serious about the "big phone" thing, and they didn’t just make it larger—they made it tank-like. Remember "Bendgate" from the iPhone 6? Apple sure did. They built this successor out of 7000 Series aluminum, the same stuff used in aerospace. It felt dense. Serious. It was basically a brick in the best way possible.
If you’re hunting for the raw iPhone 6s Plus specs, you're probably trying to figure out if one of these is still usable as a backup or if it’s just a shiny paperweight now that we're well into 2026.
The A9 Chip and the 2GB RAM Revolution
The real magic of this phone wasn't the screen size, though that was the big selling point at the time. It was the silicon. The Apple A9 chip was a beast. It featured a dual-core 1.85 GHz "Twister" CPU. That sounds tiny compared to today’s deca-core monsters, but back then, it was lapping the competition.
But here is the detail that actually mattered: 2GB of LPDDR4 RAM.
Before the 6s Plus, iPhones were notoriously stingy with memory. Doubling the RAM meant you could finally keep more than three Safari tabs open without the whole thing refreshing every time you looked away. It’s the primary reason this specific model had such a long life. Even as iOS got heavier, that extra gig of RAM kept the lights on.
That 5.5-Inch Retina Display (and the 3D Touch Ghost)
The screen was a 5.5-inch IPS LCD. It pushed a 1920-by-1080 resolution at 401 ppi. It was crisp. It was bright (about 500 nits). But let's talk about 3D Touch. This was Apple’s big "innovation" for 2015.
The display had a capacitive pressure sensor layer integrated into the backlight. You could literally press into the screen to "Peek and Pop." I kinda miss it, truthfully. Haptic Touch—what we use now—is just a long press. 3D Touch felt like a physical button hidden under the glass. It was tactile and immediate, even if half the people who owned the phone never realized it existed.
Camera Specs: The First 4K iPhone
The iPhone 6s Plus was a milestone for mobile photography. It was the first time an iPhone could record 4K video at 30fps.
- Rear Sensor: 12-megapixel iSight camera with 1.22µ pixels.
- Aperture: ƒ/2.2.
- OIS: This was the big one. Optical Image Stabilization was exclusive to the "Plus" model.
- Front Camera: 5-megapixels (a massive jump from the 1.2MP on the previous version).
The OIS on the 6s Plus was a lifesaver for shaky hands. While the sensor size is tiny by modern standards, the color science was surprisingly natural. It didn't over-sharpen everything into oblivion like some modern AI-driven cameras do.
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Battery Life and Real-World Usage
The battery was a 2,750 mAh lithium-ion cell. Interestingly, this was actually smaller than the battery in the original iPhone 6 Plus (which had 2,915 mAh). Apple claimed the A9 chip’s efficiency made up for it. In reality, you’d get about 12 hours of LTE browsing.
In 2026, though? Most original batteries are long dead or chemically aged. If you’re pulling one out of a drawer, it’ll likely show the "Service" message in settings.
Quick Spec Snapshot
- Storage: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB (Stay away from 16GB; it's unusable today).
- Dimensions: 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm.
- Weight: 192 grams (It's a heavy boy).
- Biometrics: 2nd Gen Touch ID (Super fast compared to the original).
- Headphone Jack: Yes. It was the last "Plus" model to have one.
The Software Ceiling in 2026
Here is the cold, hard truth: the iPhone 6s Plus is stuck on iOS 15.8.4. Apple officially stopped the big OS updates for this model a while ago. While they still push occasional security patches, you aren't getting the fancy new lock screens or the latest AI features.
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Most apps still work, but that window is closing. Developers are starting to require iOS 16 or 17 as a minimum. It works fine for calls, texts, and light browsing. But don't expect to run heavy games or complex editing apps without it heating up like a toaster.
How to actually use an iPhone 6s Plus today
If you’re determined to use one, you have to be smart about it. Don't try to sync your entire 50,000-photo iCloud library to a 16GB model. It won't work.
- Check the Battery: Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health. If it's under 80%, spend the $30-$50 to get a replacement. It’ll feel like a new phone.
- Clean the Port: If it isn't charging, it's usually just lint in the Lightning port. Use a wooden toothpick.
- Use it as a Dedicated Device: These are fantastic as dedicated music players (because of that headphone jack) or as a permanent webcam using apps like Camo.
- Avoid Chrome: Stick to Safari. It's better optimized for the limited RAM on older iOS versions.
The iPhone 6s Plus was a tank. It survived the bend tests, it survived the transition to 64-bit apps, and it even survived the loss of the headphone jack in its successors. It’s a piece of tech history that, surprisingly, can still handle a phone call and an email in a pinch.