If you Google steps for how to troubleshoot an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you’ll get plenty of suggestions: let it charge for 30 minutes, try different power chargers, perform a hard reset (holding the sleep/wake and home buttons at the same time for 10+ seconds), and more.
But if you, like me, try all these steps and still have an iPhone that’s dead, there’s something you should know: you may be entitled to a free repair from Apple, even if your phone it outside of its one year warranty.
Apple quietly released a replacement program for many iPhone 6s and iPhone 6S models manufactured in 2018 and 2019 that were prone to dying and not powering on. Unlike the standard warranty, this free replacement program is valid for two years after you purchased your iPhone. This problem/replacement program wasn’t publicized, affected owners (at least in my experience) weren’t notified, and I could only find one story about it. But it exists!
If you have an iPhone 6s/6s Plus that won’t turn on, you can see if you are eligible for a free replacement from Apple by putting your phone’s model number into this page. Luckily for me, my dead iPhone was indeed a model affected and eligible for this free repair program!
Since this replacement program doesn’t immediately pop up when Googling how to fix an iPhone 6s/6 that won’t turn on, I figured I’d post my personal experience here and hope at least one person who can take advantage of the free repair program sees this.