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Comment by yabones | Hacker News Reader

Well, looks like it's the end of the line for my 1st gen SE. It's been a good run. I'll miss you, little guy.

Looks like my other options for a small phone are 12/13 mini or possibly the 2nd/3rd gen SE. But not nearly as compact as the 4" SE.

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The 13 mini is only slightly larger than the SE (2016). Dimensions:

  Model    Height   Width   Depth
  SE       4.87"    2.31"   0.3"
  Mini     5.18"    2.53"   0.301" (strangely precise)
  Diff    +0.31"   +0.22"  +0.001"

The screen goes from 4" to 5.4", which (for me) was worth the slight increase in size. I'm not going to say it's as compact as the SE (2016), but it's not a huge difference (nowhere near the difference of the regular sized 13 and 14 models). The mini is also smaller than the later SE models (except for depth, they are slightly slimmer).

As a lover of the original SE and a a Mini 13 owner the HUGE increase in thickness is what really bothers me with the size change. Their official thickness spec only measures the main body of the phone which is virtually a zero change in size but the camera bump makes it's thickest point about 50% thicker.

I did forget about the camera bump, but I don't believe the numbers work out that it's adding .15" to the thickness of the phone on its own. I had a recent chance to compare the SE (2016) to my 13 Mini (my mother still has the original SE but is likely to upgrade soon, I was recommending the mini since, other than the home button, it mostly met her needs and would provide a better display for her aging eyes) and it's definitely not 50% thicker at any point. That would have been quite noticeable.

It’s also markedly heavier. Despite the nominal size increase being small, the feel is totally different.

I guess 25% heavier sounds substantial, but a change from 4 oz to 5 oz is not that big. (113g -> 140g)

It’s the relative change that matters for how different it feels, however. I was surprised how stark the difference is.

Personally I think the screen being made bigger is a downside, makes it harder to use one-handed.

Still, it's too bad there isn't a 14 mini.

The mini got canned in the COVID years, where people didn’t feel like buying anything anyway. I love my mini

I switched to a 12 mini last year, after my last 1st gen SE took a drop that damaged it beyond practical repair. They aren't that different in size, and it didn't take me as long to acclimate as I'd expected, especially when I found I do quite like having a larger display and smaller bezels - especially since few if any apps or websites are still tested on 4.7"-class displays like the 1st gen SE's.

There's definitely an inflection point - I also have a Galaxy 10+ for work and still find it uncomfortably large. The 12 mini seems to fall right in a sweet spot for me.

I just bought a 13 Mini about an hour ago (waiting for the $100 price drop)… don't get the 12 Mini, you're really gonna want that extra battery life

12 mini isn't available from Apple anymore

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FG8R3LL/A/refurbished-iph...

OK, new ip12m, or outside of USA.

Also the RAM sizes doubled from 12 to 13.

No, they did not.

Right, I meant storage, not RAM. 12 is 64/128/256 GB, while 13 is 128/256/512 GB.

I'm in the same situation as you were. Has there been a price drop? It seems there wasn't one in my region...

You can use iOS 15. Apple is known to supply security updates to old iOS versions for a few years.

It looks like I'm going to keep my iPhone 13 mini for the next 7 years, or until it won't receive any updates anymore.

2nd gen SE owner here: It was a great little phone, but the batteries are terrible and terribly inadequate. You were warned.

I just ordered a 'refurbished' iPhone 8 plus off of Amazon to replace my SE -- it's slightly bigger than the second generation SE but it has a second telephoto camera so... if I'm going to be forced to have a larger phone then that's sufficient compensation. Also it still has a fingerprint sensor!

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