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).
A teenager nephew saw my SE recently and he held himself from laughing at it. I take pride in using an old phone.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...).
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?)
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".
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.
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.
> CalyxOS on Android
Pick one.
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.
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...
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?
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)
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
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.
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.
I'm fed up with not being able to hold my phone in my hand.
I miss my nokia n73.
Asus Zenfone 8
As a person who has always used android, if apple's iphone mini had usb-c I would have gotten that instead though.
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.
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.
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.
[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...
(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).
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
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.
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.
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...
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
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?
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.
All had smaller (non-XL) versions that had the same hardware except the screen/battery.
Asus Zenfone 8
- 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.
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.
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?
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.
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'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
They seem to differ in many metrics
- 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.