Chris Evans made the news a few weeks ago for an unexpected reason. Rather than one of his new projects (Lightyear or The Gray Man), the tech world was talking about the actor’s iPhone upgrade. Evans confirmed he recently upgraded from an iPhone 6s, a device that Apple launched in 2015. Several weeks later, Chris Evans is talking iPhones again, as he has a colossal iPhone problem.
The actor doesn’t like the iPhone 12 for being too heavy, in addition to lacking the home button. Moreover, Chris Evans doesn’t like the simple solution that could address both of these issues: The iPhone SE 3.
Chris Evans’ iPhone home button problem
Chris Evans took to social media a few weeks ago to say goodbye to his trusted iPhone 6s device, a phone that Apple launched back in September 2015. He acknowledged the upgrade to a new iPhone model, although it wasn’t clear which model he got.
The home button came up in that homage to the iPhone 6s, with Evans saying he’ll miss it. Here’s the message he posted on Instagram:
RIP iPhone 6s
We had a good run. I’ll miss your home button.
I won’t miss the nightly battle of trying to get you to charge. Or your grainy pictures. Or your sudden drops from 100% battery, to 15%, to completely dead all within minutes.
It was a wild ride. Rest easy, pal
Any iPhone 6s user upgrading to a newer model might have the same frustrations as Chris Evans. The iPhone home button is out of the picture, but you get a massive screen that displays a lot more content than before. You also run newer hardware with excellent battery life and a much better camera experience.
But if you’re the person who played Captain America in various Avengers adventures, people will pay attention to your opinion.
The actor doesn’t like the solution
The iPhone 6s came up again in an interview with Collider in anticipation of the release of Netflix’s The Gray Man.
Chris Evans explained why he doesn’t like the iPhone 12 Pro that replaced the iPhone 6s because it’s too heavy. That’s actually true. But it’s also a hilarious take from an actor who played a character who went into the ice at the end of World War 2 and woke up more than half a century later.
Captain America would probably miss old tech that stops working. And he would likely not upgrade to the latest model iPhone either. Interestingly, the actor opted for a 2020 iPhone 12 rather than last year’s iPhone 13.
The actor also confessed that he misses the home button.
Interestingly, Chris Evans also acknowledged the solution to his home button problem. That’s the iPhone SE 3, which rocks the same design as the iPhone 6s but features better components, including the A15 Bionic chip that powers the iPhone 13.
“I had a thousand who are like, ‘Get the SE!’ I’m like, no, I don’t want, I want the iPhone 6,” he said. “I want something from before to work until it doesn’t work anymore.”
Why the iPhone 6s doesn’t work anymore
There’s one reason the iPhone 6s “doesn’t work” now. The handset has reached the end of the line when it comes to software updates. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 can’t run iOS 16. But the iPhone 6s got six years of software updates, going from iOS 9.0 to iOS 15 during its lifetime. That’s more than you’d get from any Android smartphone.
The real reason the iPhone doesn’t work is in Chris Evans’ farewell post from June. It’s not the software or the home button. The battery is so degraded it can’t hold a dependable charge. Also, the camera is too old for its own good.
You can still use the iPhone 6s if you love the form factor and don’t care about software updates. But the battery life won’t improve on its own. You’ll likely have to replace the original battery with a new one to squeeze a few more years of life out of it.
Unlike Chris Evans, who doesn’t like the only fix that will address his iPhone home button problem, you can consider upgrading to the iPhone SE 3 instead. It has no equivalent on Android when it comes to power, and it offers the same design as the iPhone 6s.
Apple might bring the home button to all-screen iPhones in the future when it might place fingerprint sensors under the display. But that’s not a guarantee.
More iPhone coverage: For more iPhone news, visit our iPhone 14 guide.
