The iPhone 6 wasn’t my first experience with iPhones. I’d previously been provided with an iPhone 5s at a previous job, but it had been a separate work device so I’d never really got to know it and I didn’t consider it a device I owned. When my job gave me this iPhone 6 I was pressured into consolidating down into one device, and giving up my personal phone number in favour of just having the one. Still being fairly fresh faced I agreed to it (I’ve since split back to having two devices and two numbers, and I’d never have just one device again, having some separation between work and play is very important). Nevertheless this agreement allowed me to own some phones that I probably wouldn’t have experienced otherwise.
At the time everyone in the company I worked for used iPhones, so it made sense that I had one too so that I fully understood them and was better able to support my colleagues. Even back in 2016 when Android and iOS still had some notable differences the learning curve was minimal. The only difference I really noticed was that the control that I’d been used to with a rooted android device had been taken away from me and placed back firmly in the hands of Apple. It immediately felt like I didn’t really own the device. Nowadays this has intensified, with Apple intensifying their level of control over your device and Google trying to follow Apple’s trend by taking some of the control away from their Pixel users.
If you hadn’t already guessed I’m a firm advocator for open source software, the right to repair and keeping tech out of landfills by keeping it going for as long as possible and finding new uses for things. This operating system did not sit well with me. I tolerated it because I was given unlimited data and I had no phone bill but I didn’t enjoy it.
The phone itself was fine, battery life was better than the aging HTC One M8 I was coming from and the camera was good too. I couldn’t help but notice just how dull the phone was, it felt corporate.
The iPhone 6 didn’t last long in my possession though. After a night of drinking with friends I got into bed, I sent one last message, squinting through one eye and threw the phone onto my soft chair. Or so I thought I had. When I woke up in the morning it turned out I’d completely missed the chair and thrown the phone at the wall. It didn’t take me long to notice that the phone was now banana shaped. I’d become a victim of the notorious “Bendgate”.
I un-bent the device as best I could and gave it to a new starter, the still slightly bent frame hidden by a protective case. I then took the iPhone 6s that had originally been destined for them!
Leave a Reply