New iPhone SE
apple.com
apple.com
Here's everything released since 2015 that's SE size or smaller: https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2015&nHeightM...
This SE, and the previous one, are significantly larger. The iPhone 13 Mini is closer to original SE size but still larger (around 8mm longer and 6mm wider).
With 6GB of ram and a 8-core (4 big + 4 little) 2GHz MediaTek CPU, it's more powerful than the dual core A9. On the other-hand its 480x854 screen is much lower resolution.
I admit I'm being a little unfair on "small", to suit my own preference. But you could fit a 5" edge-to-edge screen in original SE size (the iPhone 13 mini has a 5.4" screen), and it'd be fantastic. Hell you could do a 4" screen - same size screen as the original SE - but make it edge-to-edge and the phone would be tiny and just as functional (except maybe battery life...).
Unfortunately the Gen 2 is also mostly "non-repairable"; I had to get a total phone replacement for something as simple as a dying Thunderbolt port. According to the person at the Genius Bar, the 12 Mini is much more repairable, more like the first-gen SE in terms of its internals.
This SE Gen 3 still has the rounded/slim iPhone 6 body style, so I would expect it to be equally non-repairable. So all things equal, I would still go for the 12 Mini over the SE Gen 2 if I could make the choice over again.
It's the perfect size of a phone, I've considered seeing if someone can replace the battery and the home-button.
It's a huge advantage for bike touring: I can charge this thing with a dynamo in a couple of hours because the battery is only 1600mah. That's less than a third the size of the battery in the current Pixel 6/6 Pro.
https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/battery-powe...
A teenager nephew saw my SE recently and he held himself from laughing at it. I take pride in using an old phone.
I'd be curious to know what your situation/usage is that it's been unsatisfactory.
iPhone 12 Mini is still acceptable. iPhone SE? Nahh... pass.
Would like to know because once my 6S doesn’t get updates anymore, I’ll probably switch to a SE.
If I turn off data and WiFi the battery lasts for days and it's still perfectly usable for calling and listening to music since it still has 3.5mm jack unlike my "new" iPhone 11.
Yeah, I can buy a dongle. Maybe I will someday when my original SE dies. Maybe I'll never buy an Apple phone again. But if I do buy a dongle, every time I will be cursing the person who took out the 1/8" jack.
It's from an era where we didn't run our lives and businesses on our phones.
About 70% of all website visits come from mobile phones: https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/mobile-vs-d...
The world has changed a lot since the original iPhone 4 and 5 form factor hit the scene.
The quick detour to the XS just made me angry. I hate the big phone trend (can you call it a trend when its the default now?)
Only Sprint offering an amazing upgrade caused me to move to iPhone 13. I really don't like Face ID for the reasons you mentioned.
I like the phone otherwise but really wish that it also had Touch ID. If Apple doesn't want to mar the front with a physical touch sensor, it can put it on the back; I have an Android phone that has this. If iPhone 14 has both I will quickly upgrade to it.
In fact, my iPad Mini is the only device that is Touch ID only and I find I expect it to be unlocked by just looking at it, and always have to remember to tap the power button.
As a UX professional I strive for the simplest UX(less is more). Maybe Apple doesn't strive for the same thing in this regards?
I do hope they add Touch ID back to all their phones someday.. fingers crossed!
I pick up my iPhone and look at it, and its unlocked. I'd be picking it up and looking at it anyway, so that's 0 steps as far as I'm concerned. I don't have to touch it in a particular place with one of a particular set of fingers. Surely as a UX professional you can see how it's at least arguably a much simpler UX?
Also, if you ever need to open your phone while driving (not a good thing but too many do it) grabbing it with thumb and it unlocking is a lot safer then ... grab it, look at it and swipe up.
Or even if it's just sitting on the desk/table/counter/etc. and you want to use it without picking it up. I do this at least 10s of times per day, and for that reason will always own a Touch ID enabled iPhone.
Also, it's great they now have "wearing a mask" support, but the "wearing a motorcycle helmet" is still not on the feature radar. Once again, Touch ID is not affected by this.
That's to get to the home screen, not to unlock it. To get to the home screen with a home button, you still have to perform the step of "going to the home screen", but you do it via pressing the button instead of swiping up. Same # of steps -- though to be honest, it's a bit silly to compare this, since what counts as a step? And why are we just comparing steps and not other forms of complexity?
At any rate, my point is that it should be very easy for a "UX professional" to see why Face ID is a simpler experience in some cases, if not all. The point being that Touch ID vs. Face ID is a tradeoff, not a clear "one is better than the other".
Further steps matter hugely in UX even if you perceive them to be small cause in UX it's not just your experience im designing for it's the use case I mentioned, as well as the use case mentioned below wearing a helmet and other use cases (OMG having to pull my mask down if I had a FACE ID phone awful another step) you find in one's UX research. Steps matter in UX even the smallest of them ...the least the best always!
No? Much of the time I unlock my phone it's to look at notifications or widgets, or use the camera. I'll grant you its a bit pedantic but "unlocking" does have a specific meaning, and is a separate action from going to the home screen. No, it's not really "how one uses an iPhone".
> it's not just your experience im designing for it's the use case I mentioned
This is exactly my point. You are arguing in absolutes, that Face ID is objectively a worse experience. But that's not true, there are many use cases in which Face ID is better (gloves are the obvious example), and many use cases in which it is worse. I mean, as an example, just look at how many people say they prefer Face ID. Clearly it cannot be a universally hated feature.
As a UX professional who strives for path of least resistance always That's the point I'm trying to make. Too many steps especially when driving is bad UX worse it's dangerous UX(yes don't use phone while driving but unfortunately too many do)!!!
Eliminating Touch ID completely especially when all its competitors offer both is stupid and no doubt I'm sure the data shows Apple it's base really wants Touch ID back. Read comments on the SE on all blogs and you will see such dataset saying they want Touch ID not Face ID. Both need to be offered!
Okay, no point discussing this anymore, because I've responded to this point twice now and you've ignored it each time (that the "number of steps" is both dependent on the use case, and a meaningless measure anyway).
Author is saying similar thing ... steps matter in crafting the best UX .. they are not a meaningless measure as I'm sure you go crazy if you went to a website and to submit a document you had to upload then click a continue button that took you to another page that than had the submit button on it. THat's just stupid .. steps are no way a meaningless measure in UX they are the biggest rule when designing ... K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid .. adage).
I hope you are not a designer you'd add unnecessary steps it sounds ;-)
I almost satisfied with it. It's not the best as the best fingerprint sensor, but it works most of the time. Even with mask, it just take like less than seconds. It's pain that sometimes not work well when sunlight shines my face.
I now appreciate apple phones knowing I can upgrade when I want and not in 1 year, 9 months when Google/Samsung drop support for my phone.
Also, CalyxOS on Android provides that same concept of support for old pixels if you want to just keep using your phone as-is.
It had a peculiar bug where the entire phone would slowdown if you had too many text messages stored, among other things. A factory reset would fix it though.
A bit disappointing that solution still needs to be a thing.
If it is almost full, the performance is degraded. If it is written a lot of data over time, performance is degraded too.
Between lacking support and poor performance over and over in the Android ecosystem, it became a very easy decision to move over to the Apple lock-in unfortunately. Their phones generally stay out of my way and work snappily when I need them to.
It's a real shame to have had this experience, and to watch others around me have similar issues before jumping ship to Apple. I think the competition provided by the big Android vendors is important, but I just can't justify dropping money on a new device every 18 months.
I think that there's a lot of stuff about tuning, but the latency story (at least up until 3 or 4 years ago) on Android has been absolutely garbage, no matter what geekbench scores the phones get.
Sony phones and the Google mainline phones seem to work well when I use them though (though ultimately lots of android apps are also just not very good)
I have no idea what it is that causes it, but it's a thing.
> CalyxOS on Android
Pick one.
It's a non-trivial effort.
Stop only caring after the fact if you've bought a device with a path to freedom.
[EDIT] But if touch-to-unlock had worked for me, and if I had to take one or the other, I might prefer it.
The second gen was noticeably faster, I don’t know if it was more reliable.
That second sentence doesn’t imply the first one. The Samsung could have a lower false positive rate (letting the registered fingerprint unlock the phone more often) at the cost of a higher false negative rate (letting unregistered fingerprints unlock the phone more often)
In the limit, if it rolled a ten sided die for any press of its button, and unlocked the phone unless it rolled a one, that would give users the impression that it recognizes their fingerprint 90% of the time.
(Of course, “doesn’t imply” doesn’t mean the first sentence isn’t true, either. It may be genuinely better, or Samsung might have chosen a different cut-off, sacrificing security for a gain in usability. I wouldn’t know. Do any phone reviews test these things at all?)
The ones on their laptops, however, have been reliable. Possibly there was a generational improvement in the equipment before it hit the laptops, and my problems were just because I had an early model on my phone.
My home country is a very humid tropical country in Asia.
When I was in the United States (I was in a cold dry place), the fingerprint reader works perfectly. Instantly. Never had to try a 2nd time.
In my home country, it works like 40% of the time.
However, if I'm in an air conditioned room in my home country (the AC sucks out all the humidity), then the finger print reader starts working perfectly again.
So, humidity and moisture/sweat on my hands might have been a factor.
Can you explain this in more detail? I'm pretty sure I misunderstand, but how will a phone upgrade affect the 3G-carrier-link?
https://www.att.com/idpassets/images/support/pdf/Devices-Wor...
She often wants to defenestrate it, and I do, too, because I am stuck attempting to explain something that used to need no explanation: How to go back to the home screen.
Bring back the home button with mechanical, tactile feedback in the square form iPhone, please.
this will be a wonderful replacement.
But it's fine, if I was in the business of buying a new phone and wanted a discount, I would buy an old iPhone XS or 11 Pro or something. I have XS and the speed is great, I care more about screen and cameras than CPU speed. (Which is good enough anyway.)
If someone wants this, good for them I guess.
While a wide camera is a useless gimmick (or a requirement for AR that hasn't arrived yet), a portrait camera allows for great photo composition. Apple knows it and uses this as a gate to force people who care about photography into the $1000+ Pro range.
All I've seen on this matter is these kinds of videos on it
USB-C is TRASH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXO0LtDvt-MI'd much rather have a less-optimal phone charging cord + port (usb-c) that lets me use any of my five accessible chargers than have to sit down and recognize which cord works with which device, or negotiate with my wife or kids over the (fewer) phone-only cords. :)
USB-C is better than micro-usb. That said, if you do audio mixing, if you do a ton of cycle on a charger, lightning is just clearly better. The USB standard has a little plastic thing in the middle of the hole this fatigues. Apple offered lighting but I know folks just didn't want to do the standard because it would be adminiting that their micro-usb standard was not as good. They did copy a lot of lighting with USB C however (reversible connector etc).
Lighting by contrast tends to have a metal tab which is relatively beefy at 1.5mm. This is much stronger materials and dimensions wise AND is on a part (the cable) that is pretty easily replaceable. So that's a win win win.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)#/media/F...
Despite this, the port itself is SMALLER for lighting. So add another win?
Finally with lightning the interface is simple, it's one piece inside another and the tolerances seem really good / there is an little indent to help seat a lightning cable. With UCB-C you have a shall going around a tab, so loading is onto the interior surface with flexing, then a shall around that, so tab -> surrounded by cable shell -> surrounded by port shell. In my experience this just results in a fair bit of slop in accumulated tolerance issues.
Looking at the press release, I don't see anything about any "new" camera tech. The lens looks pretty similar too. Is anybody able to confirm if this is the same camera as the last gen model?
iPhone SE features an all-new camera system powered by A15 Bionic, with a 12-megapixel ƒ/1.8 aperture Wide camera that offers incredible computational photography benefits, includingCurrently, it seems like the iphone SE is alone in the segment?
My favorite "feature" of these Android phones is the price. It's like having insurance on your phone. If you lose or break it, it's not $1500 down the tubes.
Honestly that's my favorite feature of iPhones too. I've always bought used iPhones 2-3 generations behind. And they're often supported for many years.
Current iPhone is 1st generation SE 2016, probably worth less than $80 and runs latest iOS.
The 13 mini as a whole is smaller than the SE because the SE has a top and bottom that's not screen.
Your best bet would be boutique OEMs like Unihertz, who have a 3.1-inch Jelly phone (underpowered) and a Blackberry style Titan Pocket with a hardware keyboard and 4-inch screen.
Neither of these sound like what you want. In the Android world, one can only hope that another small-time OEM will swoop in to fill the gap, before inevitably disappearing.
I wish phones had thumb trackpads like BlackBerry phones had. The BlackBerry Classic (2014) had one and it worked incredibly well, even in Android apps, surprisingly (it works by moving the focus, not a mouse pointer, except in the browser, where the pointer means desktop mode is actually usable). Being able to reach the entire screen just by twitching your thumb a few millimetres is sadly probably never going to be possible again.
It cost $200 with 128GB of ram and a case included.
Battery life gets me through the day, and no more, but it charges fast.
I thought the keyboard would be bad, but it's quite usable after you get used to it. I'm probably 90% as fast as on a full sized phone.
The camera, on the other hand is just bad. Like $200 Android phone from 2016 bad.
Most apps are actually fine, if a bit cramped. The exception is dialogs. I usually have to scroll to see all options. You get used to it, but it isn't great.
Webpages are alright, but I do occasionally need to hide the keyboard while filling out forms to see feedback provided below the input (e.g. username already taken, passwords don't match, invalid CC #).
I've never really gamed on my phones, so can't speak there.
The one thing I did with a larger phone that I don't do on my Jelly2 is read things like textbooks and comics where images and text need to be laid out like print. It's too small to fit a whole page of legible text and images at once. 720 horizontal pixels and a 5" screen is the minimum there IMO, though really this is what e-ink tablets were made for.
Wait, this isn't Reddit. I shouldn't...
Now that is a beefy phone. What mobile SoC even supports this much RAM?
I have read rumors that a new Xperia Compact model is likely within the next year. I don't want to get my hopes up too high, because this is unconfirmed and because the definition of "compact" seems to be expanding over the years, but I am optimistic.
I doubt that we'll ever see the likes of the Xperia Mini Pro again.
Edit: Here's a handy phone size comparison tool: https://www.phonearena.com/phones/size
And another discussion from 3 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29287158
Asus Zenfone 8
It's the only phone that tore me away from the iPhone 7/8 SE form.
The fingerprint sensor is arguable in a better position (on the back).
Plus you get better battery, an OLED screen, 90hz.
It sucks the Pixel 6 series went huge and bulky instead of continuing the successive wins of Pixel 3,4,5.
I think parent could have been fine with a Pixel 4a if it wasn't for it starting to age (using the lastest OS on it, feels definitely slower at times , especially when starting the camera which is a bummer)
As a person who has always used android, if apple's iphone mini had usb-c I would have gotten that instead though.
I'm fed up with not being able to hold my phone in my hand.
I miss my nokia n73.
That's a feature, not a bug. I can't stand thin phones.
Talking about a pretty small size difference, but hey everyone has their preferences (I loved my xperia with a 3.5 inch screen)
I really like the home button, and I was scared they were going to drop it. Glad it made the cut at least one more time.
If I can't have my Blackberry Bold back, I'll take this. I tried the bigger iPhone 7 Plus to see if the larger screen helped with the crappy screen keyboard, but it didn't, so I'd rather have the smaller device.
It's too bad they don't sell a larger version - I'd consider going back.
I then bought a secondhand iPhone SE (2020) and could not be happier. It does everything I need. Love Touch ID. The only thing that’d make it better is a headphone jack to plug my Shures into.
I bought the X and loathed the unlock UX especially if you ever might need to use your phone in the car.
The XR and 11 went way up to 8.3, but then the 12 went back down to 7.4, and the 13 back up a notch to 7.65.
IME it’s not just that the edges are slipperier (though they are), it’s also that the rounded edges offer way less secure a grip than the flat edges of the 5S shell. And the phone is bigger and less well balanced, so holding it single-handed it always teeters on the edge.
I currently have an 11, which replaced a 6S. I’d not seen they’d thinned the phones again so I’m quite dismayed, the 6S was an absolute horror show which I kept dropping. The 11 is significantly better, though I still drop it way more than I’m comfortable with.
I miss the 4S design. Not only do I still think it better looking, it was more safer, and easier to use: picking the 6S from a table was an exercise in frustration. The 11 is better, but it’s not great. The 4S was easy, you just… gripped it. You didn’t have to claw your fingers under so it didn’t slip.
I didn't upgrade to the 6 because it was too big, the iPhone mini is the same size as a 6.
If you're in the market for a small phone: an iPhone mini is just taking you back to when they were already too big.
I think it's true based on other evidence, but this on it's own isn't conclusive.
iPhone 4 was my favorite form factor. I just want something I can use with one hand.
... although 5/se form factor would be even better.
The mini is smaller than the 6. Size-wise the mini is midway between the 5 and the 6. The 6 is too large for me for one-handed use, whereas the mini is (barely) okay.
It’s not comparable to an iPhone 5 at all.
There’s millimetres in the difference between a 6 and a 12 mini- I provided proof in my comment. It’s absolutely marginal.
iPhone 5: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm
iPhone mini: 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm
iPhone 6: 138.1 x 67 x 6.9 mm
I owned all three; the extra millimeters in width on the iPhone 6 where just above what is comfortable for me. The mini I can live with.
The same people are saying that the mini is toast for the iPhone 14. It's gone. Maybe Tim Cook will do his Tim Cook thing and reuse the mini form factor as the next SE for the next half decade, but I wouldn't bet on it.
-----------
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2020/10/02/iphone-13-lineup-rumore...
[2] https://www.macrumors.com/2021/02/15/iphone-13-mini-expected...
I live in hope
Now, on the serious side, this is ignorant and sexist comment. It is sexist because it focuses on gender-biased fashion, emphasizing social gender inequality. It is ignorant because it does not take into account that women are usually physically smaller than men and they have smaller hands. They need a smaller device to have the same user experience as men, not because they want to carry it in their pockets (though surely they want it too).
This could very well be the reality of the phone market for women without trying to unmask anyone making the observation as sexist. Seems like you read their comment as a prescription of how things ought to be.
I'm not sure what the fuss is about though. The people doing the market research have decided offer two small options in the current iPhone generation, so there's clearly a market for it whether that's women driving that market or not. There are all sorts of reasons anyone might want a smaller phone. I own a 13 mini myself and I'm a big guy.
(Incidentally, not all women store phones in bags; but then I used to see men storing phones on those things that clip into your belt too… probably not within the last few years though. Also, you're not storing _anything_ in women's pockets; they're mostly decorative.)
I have no idea what Apple did in this direction, but whenever I hear "no market for small phones," I think of the women in my life with small hands who bring up the lack of options voluntarily when phone size is discussed (especially when an older iphone SE that's small is seen).
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/30/iphone-12-passes-100-mi...
[2]https://www.macrumors.com/2021/06/30/iphone-12-passes-100-mi...
They should make an iPhone 5 sized iPhone 13 pro and sell it for $1500 and it will sell but, but unfortunately it will suffer from battery life issues so is impossible. The advantage of larger phones is the larger batteries which allows Apple to make slim phones that last all day
Small phones are good for a lot of functional purposes, but terrible at "growth and engagement".
Current phone: SE 2020, purchased second hand last summer Previous: SE 2016, purchased second hand fall 2017
Delighted to see this one hit the scene; would have been happier if it were in the 5/SE 2016 form factor, but satisfied with the internals. I’m looking forward to getting one in about two years.
The other reason being that it was an obvious differentiator from small iPhones.
You can often find some retailer discounts later in the cycle but the Mini and SE are in different market segments as far as Apple is concerned.
You can still buy an iPhone 11 for $499 at https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-11. Launch price $699.
The iPhone 12 is similarly still available for $599 at https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-12. Launch price, again, $699.
(The iPhone 13 mini is, unsurprisingly, $699. It'll almost certainly drop to $599 when the 14 comes out, and $499 when the 15 does.)
My 6S has held up really well. My boyfriend and I lived at campgrounds for the spring/summer of 2021 and during all this, I would use my phone's hotspot as a mobile router for my laptop/ps4, and had it plugged into a portable power bank all day, and that really killed my battery. Not a good idea. A bit of a non-standard use. While my battery life is quite terrible, it never ceases to amaze me that it is still so usable, that it still gets updates, and it's not terribly laggy (it is better compared to my boyfriend's LG Stylo 4 which he got in 2020 and is kind of a mess despite being a beast; tbf he's lost that thing 3x and it's survived things no phone should). I carry a small battery bank with me if I will be out for more than a couple hours so I am not without a phone, but I know it is a bit silly. I've considered switching to android because of cheaper options, but the longevity thing really has me thinking I want to stay with apple. I will miss the headphone jack, though.
iPhone SE (3rd gen) (https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/specs)
Video playback:
Up to 15 hours
Up to 10 hours
Up to 50 hours
Video playback:
Up to 13 hours
Up to 8 hours
Up to 40 hours
Streamed video playback up from 8 hrs to 10 hrs
Audio playback up from 40 hrs to 50 hrs
According to https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphoneSE2ndg...
It's the same thickness so who knows if the battery has more capacity. I would think it's more likely that going from A13 7nm to A15 5nm chip nets ~20% battery
See https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/8/22967821/iphone-se-third-g...
https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/apple-i...
Due to globalization, there are few 100% moral products. When I'm making a purchase, I usually spend some energy investigating the morality of different options. I have limited energy and funds. It's always a tradeoff between research time, product cost, product quality, and product availability. I put more energy into big-impact things like housing, transportation, electronics, job, etc.
You judged me and wrote that I'm inconsistent. When you wrote your comment, I think you were experiencing a self-righteous feeling. You probably enjoyed that feeling. Pay attention to that. It's not the same as happiness or satisfaction. The self-righteous feeling doesn't help you. It enables small human groups to expel or punish rule-breakers. When a human feels self-righteousness, they stop thinking clearly. Similar behavior happens with anger & fear. When a person feel self-righteousness, they blindly follow their leaders and shun/attack/kill the accused. Personally, I think self-righteousness has little place in modern society.
Is this what you were talking about?
All had smaller (non-XL) versions that had the same hardware except the screen/battery.
Asus Zenfone 8
sony's XZ1 compact is smaller than the SE and still works great, but i only use it as a music player so im not exactly doing anything that taxing.
phones plateaued for me a few years back so keep that in mind. all the new "features" that phones have these days dont really seem like anything i need
I’ve sworn off Samsung after my first couple phones stopped getting any updates or any kind after they weren’t the current model. I’ve found it hard to forgive them.
- Glass on the back
- Missing no lip to protect the camera and screen when the phone is dropped or placed on on a surface with abrasive particles. Even worse, the camera and screen actually protrude from the case, increasing the chance of damage.
- The edges are not shock-absorbing
- The finish is slippery
I am still a very content user of 2nd gen SE. Thanks to the controversy with purposeful "slowing down" of aging phones, i was able to get a discounted battery replacement a few years back. So, my phone is holding up very well!
But if it does break - i guess I'll be getting this one instead of 'smallish' Pixel.
I made the mistake of getting a midrange android phone after phones became over 1 grand AUD. Missed so many photos due to the 2 seconds it takes to open.
Ended up getting a $1500 phone again to get the >1 second camera opening speed, like my 5 year old flagship had.
Are apple's cheap phones fast with opening the camera app and then taking a photo?
Now i feel like i could participate in some millennial version of a wild west quick draw shoot out :)
Apple doesn't really sell slow phones at any price point. What you trade off on for their cheaper phones is usually the "everything else" part of the equation.
You want the camera to open fast, and for that reason alone you should consider the iPhone 13, 13 mini, or 12. All of those phones have a dedicated button on the lock screen to open the camera, which I find easier than the swipe gesture on the iPhone SE and all iPhones in that form factor.
What you're missing out on with this SE is:
- For the most part the entire body is the iPhone 8
- It has a far inferior screen, it's the old LCD iPhone 8 screen, and it's the smallest phone screen Apple sells.
- It has older cameras/sensors. You mentioned needing a fast camera, and that means you use your cell phone camera a lot. Maybe that means you also want a good camera, and you'll get better cameras in the rest of Apple's lineup for not much more money in some cases.
- It has the worst battery life of any currently-sold iPhone, though it's been improved from the second generation. The physical battery size is smaller than more current iPhones, and there's no way around that.
- The base model storage level is 64GB.
It's for people who "just need a phone" and want an iPhone, I'd say the kind of people who have less than 2-4 hours of screen-on-time per day.
Still, I do think that someone who can spend a few more bucks should consider the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, or iPhone 12. I'd skip the iPhone 12 mini because the 13 mini gives you extra battery life that I'd say it needs.
With all of those models you're going to get better cameras, better battery life, more screen real estate, OLED screens.
If you're really into taking photos, the iPhone 13 Pro really does have an amazing camera system. I didn't think it would blow away my iPhone 12 mini but it really does. You get what you pay for and the top-end is very good. If you're on a postpaid carrier and don't plan to leave for 2-3 years, you might as well take the subsidy and get a high-end phone.
Wasn't this more a poor communication of performance throttling to preserve battery that affected all phones?
And haven't Google/Samsung/others(?) also been caught doing the same thing? I thought just this past week Samsung backpedaled a change to throttle apps for battery performance.
I'm asking more generally because this is my understanding and I'm sure if someone has better info they'll reply, but to me "vile shenanigans" is a bit much. They could have done a better job of communicating a feature with some negative impact, that seems to be a not-uncommon problem for them.
The problem is that a couple years down the line when the battery degrades, that feedback loop adjusts and as a result that performance significantly deviates from what it was originally with no obvious way for the user to understand why or tell whether it even actually happened or if they’re just misremembering what the original performance was.
The user can be in the loop in a read-only way. If the control system suddenly makes dramatic & unexpected changes (to accommodate degraded power or thermal performance) the user should be notified so they can rectify the solution (replace the battery in this case). Apple would rather gaslight them into believing their phone is working fine and was just always this slow and it might be time for an upgrade.
Crashing the phone instead of throttling is a bad design choice no matter the serviceability of the battery. I had (and professionally supported) devices in the 00s that did this, and they were not good. People didn’t happily replace their battery and move on with their day, like you might imagine. They made support calls because their phone was constantly crashing and they had no idea why. But they made those calls on their office phone because their cell phone crashed when they tried to call me!
It is normal for mass market products to intentionally remove or never include niche features so that they can better appeal to the broader target market.
If you want a niche product, you have to buy a niche product: https://www.samsung.com/us/business/mobile/phones/galaxy-xco...
Why isn't the Galaxy XCover Pro a top selling phone? It has a battery door! The answer is that few buyers care.
Except removable batteries were never a niche feature; most smartphones in the previous generation had removable batteries, and most smartphones today have it too, just glued instead to prevent users from removing them. Apple deliberately denied users that ability to ensure their reliance on its own repair services, and the rest of the industry followed with the same scammy tactic after seeing it getting tolerated by Apple's consumers.
Apple's page says it has Touch ID
> iPhone SE features the familiar Home button with Touch ID
I wish that had carried over to modern devices. I guess it's "too intimidating" to the user to have an extra physical button.
Physical buttons cost money and can break (which costs money if it happens during the warranty period), also they need i/o and wiring. Android devices are going to have the minimum number of physical buttons (which seems to be three right now), because there's not enough people who will buy a phone with a shutter button over a cheaper phone or a phone with better specs. Windows Phone (RIP) had a requirement for a shutter button, but had to drop it because the cost was too high.
She has been holding out for apple to change their mind and give her an update path from her 6s.
I doubt apple will ever put a 3.5mm jack in, since they make too much money from the airpods.
They seem to differ in many metrics
i'm not saying it's much of an improvement. but some of those old iphones are around the stagnation point of phone progress for the average user. the 5 year difference translates to ~half the launch price, with modernizations and future support.
it's a pretty good deal and upgrade for someone coming from an older iphone 7, who doesn't need a $1k "flagship". doesn't seem like a fault at all that it's not even more better. this isn't the spec phone
- Giant bezels => easy grip without touching the screen or covering it
- Physical button => still works better for unlocking than FaceTime (especially with a mask)
Virtually every other phone doesn't "suffer" from those "drawbacks" so this is probably my next phone when my current 2nd gen SE expires.
I'd rather be able to just look at the connector and tell what it does rather than this silly game of "this USB C cable is fat, maybe I can use it to charge my laptop". USB C ports are harder to clean too.
but if it really bugs you that much, why not just find a cable that supports all the features you need, buy a few of those, and hide the rest? they're not that expensive...
I don't buy the "saves a cable" argument. My laptop is all USB C (made sure all the ports had all the same capabilities) and now I need to carry a dongle everywhere if I want to remain compatible with the other screens that I need to use or if I want to use a wired keyboard or mouse. And a good dongle is not cheap.
Mostly what USB C does well, is if you are not an iPhone user, and ask someone for a charging cable. It will fit. I'd rather just carry my own cable than have spent that dongle money.
There are better ways of doing this than a button below the screen unnecessarily eating up space; e.g. having the fingerprint reader on the side, or the back, like literally any modern smartphone.
On my iPhoneX I've had the touch screen get into a frozen state so many times and there is no way to unlock or dismiss apps. And then there's the face ID unlock issue when you're wearing a mask or not looking right at the screen... which is better solved with thumbprint unlock.
I get that you lose screen real estate with bringing back the home button but I think it's the right call.
Where was this feature like 18 months ago?
No pandemic lasts forever. The diseases always become endemic and less deadly, with or without direct intervention.
It’s an upgrade to the SE, which always had the home button
The SE series is not defined by its design because iPhone 5 and 8 were very different design-wise.
The thing that is different about the SE series is the lower price.