My trusty old iPhone 6 is becoming unwell, only lasting ½ day on a charge (battery replaced 6 weeks ago), not ringing for all incoming calls and randomly dropping names and numbers from the contact lists.
What do I replace it with?
I would happy with either another iPhone or an Android phone. I am a moderate to high use home user, taking photos, the odd video, emails, texts and phone calls. There is such a huge range of smartphones available it is difficult to know where to start narrowing the field down to suitable phones for me. I am of course wanting to spend as little as possible and I don't think I need the top of the line or the latest and greatest of any phone being more interested in reliability and longevity.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated and carefully studied.
Thanks David.

david.b - 2021-06-21 15:33:00

Who replaced the battery? If it was only 6 months ago, I would return it under the consumer guarantees act. Products and services are covered.

tygertung - 2021-06-21 15:40:00

I replaced the battery myself following Youtube guidelines. The reason the battery was replaced in the first place was the phone was doing exactly what it is now. The phone was much improved for about 4 or 5 weeks, then back to its all habits. The chances of having 2 faulty batteries one after the other is very small. (shop replaced the first battery about 18months ago)

david.b - 2021-06-21 15:44:00

Where did you source the battery ? Was it an OEM battery ?

nice_lady - 2021-06-21 15:50:00

After an iphone you will be uncomfortable with an Android phone.

However Android one start as low as around $50, but they are really clunky.

I recently replaced my old Samsung Note 2 with an iphone 8, wish I had not waited so long.

In your place I would either get the cheapest new iphone or the best second hand iphone I could afford.

tony9 - 2021-06-21 15:56:00

Nothing wrong with mid range Android phones.

Very low price phones are never going to be great but for around $300 you can buy a very good Android phone.

nice_lady - 2021-06-21 16:05:00

Have you tried backing up your phone via iTunes and perform a factory reset. It may help.

macman26 - 2021-06-21 16:10:00

Thanks, Tony, your thoughts are noted. I have checked out some iPhone 8s and they look
good.

david.b - 2021-06-21 16:16:00

I was hoping to pay in the $300 -$500 range.

What Android do you recommend?

david.b - 2021-06-21 16:17:00

david.b wrote:

...The chances of having 2 faulty batteries one after the other is very small...

Not really. Lithium Ion batteries age even when they're hanging on the shop wall, and both batteries might have been as old as your iPhone 6 before they were even installed into the phone. If the shopkeeper had a choice they probably gave you their oldest batteries.

So I don't agree with your description of the batteries being "faulty". I think they are simply old batteries.

gyrogearloose - 2021-06-21 17:36:00

I don't believe that either battery was faulty, I believe there is a fault in the phone that is causing the issues listed. It is an old phone now and I don't believe it is cost-effective to try and locate the fault which is possible in a chip or how the chip is connected within the phone, in which case it is probably impossible to repair. If it was a much newer phone possibly....? (The phone has had its software updated several times and the problem still exists,making a software fault less of a possibility???)

david.b - 2021-06-21 20:13:00

Theres little point in wasting time and energy fixing such an old phone.
I recommend a oneplus nord N100, they retail for $300 ish. Really like mine.

bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-06-22 15:29:00

We bought my daughter a refurbished iphone8 from here.
https://www.goodtech.co.nz/
Their service was awesome and the phone was perfect, (we got a grade 1 - like new one) and if it had come in a genuine box I would have thought it was brand new. 100% battery health and not a single mark or scratch. What is available depends on what they have at the time but there’s a couple of options at the moment that would probably be good and within budget.
https://www.goodtech.co.nz/collections/all-product/products/
ph864gr-2

https://www.goodtech.co.nz/collections/phones/products/ph712
8rg-1

nadznz - 2021-06-28 18:03:00

There was a thread about this in parenting a couple of months ago. Lots of users said they have OPPO.

A guy I work with has a very nice Huawei, very solid very high tech. Camera has a true optical zoom You may have to get that from China though.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Messages.as
px?id=1845367&p=1&topic=23

zirconium - 2021-07-03 07:10:00

have a look at your usage ,if you are waving your phone at PAY WAY ,efpos machines, it will chew battery life using the NFC ,As with most smartphones, this does depend on your usage, and one thing that hits battery life hard is gaming. In the GFXBench battery test, which loops a 3D OpenGL animation for around half an hour and estimates total runtime, the iPhone 6 achieved a total runtime of 2hrs 29mins. That’s an improvement over the iPhone 5s’ 1hr 52mins (impressive given how many more frames the phone is rendering). However, it still indicates that graphics-heavy gaming will lead to a significantly shorter period between charging sessions.

Apple added NFC (Near Field Communication) to the iPhone 6, which is used solely for the Apple Pay touch credit-card payment ,
we found that getting rid of the gaming apps and not using the ph as a Credit /Debit card saved heaps of battery life ,although we did do a complete reset ,still if you want a new ph ,,go for it !

kevlight - 2021-07-03 08:39:00

you missed the bit where its malfunctioning?

bitsnpieces2020 - 2021-07-05 10:29:00

This message was deleted.

roysmrs - 2021-07-06 12:25:00

roysmrs wrote:

i was looking at an iphone 8 to replace my 6s...meh..nope im getting an iphone X.

I wouldn't recommend the X - it was kinda first gen hardware and it shows.

You can get a brand new XR for $800 at the moment - it's not so fancy looking but it's a much better phone

vtecintegra - 2021-07-06 12:45:00