As usual, whenever a new iPhone comes out, the previous generation gets cheaper. This time the official price of the iPhone 6 dropped by 800 yuan, which was a pretty solid discount.
I had already bought a MacBook Air earlier this year, so I really wasn’t planning to spend more on gadgets. But once the temptation was right in front of me, I still ended up making an impulsive purchase.
After comparing options on Tmall, I felt the Hong Kong version offered better value. The 64GB model was priced around the same as the mainland 16GB version, and it still came with nationwide warranty coverage. The model number was also A1586, though it doesn’t support China Telecom. That wasn’t a problem for me at all—I’d already had enough bad experiences with Telecom and was thoroughly fed up with it. I’m using a China Mobile SIM now anyway, so I went ahead and bought the Hong Kong 64GB version.
SF Express did a good job too. It reached this fairly remote county town in just three days.
After checking the serial number on Apple’s official site, I confirmed that the phone was brand new and not yet activated. The activation date matched the day I turned it on myself, so I was pretty satisfied with that.
After using it for a few days, one thing was immediately obvious: it feels much smoother than the Huawei P7. Based on these few days of hands-on use, there are a few things worth mentioning.
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Apple’s quality control really does seem to be getting worse. The screen lifting issue has been around from the 5s all the way to the 6s, and I ran into it too. On mine, the problem shows up near the volume buttons—pressing on that area makes the screen feel slightly loose. As far as Apple is concerned, though, this apparently does not qualify for a replacement.
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Hong Kong versions are often opened before delivery. When mine arrived, the IMEI on the box did not match the IMEI on the phone. Anyone planning to buy a Hong Kong version should be mentally prepared for that.
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The iPhone 6 still feels best on iOS 8. I’ve already gone through quite a few version changes: 8.3 → 9.0 → 8.4.1 → 9.1 beta 1 → 9.1 beta 2 → 8.4.1 → 9.0.1 → 8.4.1. At the moment, 8.4.1 is still being signed.
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If you’re not made of money, the iPhone 6 is probably the better buy right now. It looks the same, and phone photography is mostly casual fun anyway, so being slightly worse doesn’t really affect my mood. The memory upgrade also doesn’t seem to make a huge difference. Friends who are already using the 6s have also said that iOS 9 can still stutter.
