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Apple Announces New 4-Inch iPhone SE Starting at $399
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Well, *some* of us are worried Apple is finally in trouble (after nearly 30 years of defending them against people predicting their doom), but for very different reasons. Unfortunately, capitalism isn't going to save them from stupid.
At least this iPhone SE is a bit of a turn in a promising direction, but hardware has been their strength. It's the software that's been going to pot, and the rapid decline of user-experience (or trade-off of short-term profits over user experience) that has me most worried.
Where did you get that idea? When Steve came back, I think they had over a $Billion in the bank. Yes, changes needed to be made, but they weren't nearly in the trouble that many suppose. (Ex: that 'investment' from M$ was a pittance, and more for political reasons, favoring BOTH companies.)
The problem currently, isn't cash on hand... they've plenty of that, to even weather some pretty hard times. But, if they lose the quality that made them great, they will start to fall, and then burn through that pretty quickly when the bottom drops out. They aren't a lean and mean company any longer!
I see. That's a lot different than it not being much better than a 4-year-old phone. Since I'm not a fan of the 6 or 6s (IMO, a design downgrade), I guess we'll not agree on the design itself. And, if you were maybe hoping on something more like Samsung has been doing, I really hope you're eternally disappointed.
So, I guess from my point of view (and obviously a few others), we see the evolution of the iPhone line going to the 5s, and then being ruined, and this now getting back on track. I'm not into fashion much at all, so there's no motivation with me to come up with something new, unless it really is an improvement. I suppose I'd be disappointed if Apple didn't *eventually* change the design to better it, but not just to change it for something 'fresh.'
For example, look at how long the Macbook Pro has had the same basic design. They hit a pretty optimal design, so there's really been nothing much they could do to improve it, besides gradually increasing the capability and going slightly thinner and smaller. I don't think there will be any change there until the MBP can fit into a MBA case, if ever.
Same, IMO, with phones... what do you do? I guess we could argue over beveled edges vs rounded, and some will prefer either. But, it's not like there's anywhere drastic to go any longer with the design. Now, stuff like Touch ID, yes, those are the innovations, but the basic shape is pretty set. And again, IMO, the 5s was a more elegant design. *Possibly* the 6s is superior in the hand (if it were 4")? That I don't know as I don't have enough hands-on experience... but from an ID perspective and in terms of physical beauty, I think the 5s (and now SE) wins. The 6/6s seemed to cheapen the look, again, IMO.
Maybe... but I'll go absolutely ape-$#*@ if they up the rez any more for no good reason (or spec-wars). It's like the 4K TV thing... adding a bunch of useless rez that pulls down batter life and needs more GPU to drive it. 300+ ppi is plenty of pixel density!
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Have you had a currency swing recently? We're about $50 overpriced in Canada too, but Apple seems to only adjust every so often, and the CAD has risen a good bit since Apple did the last adjustment. I wish they were more real-time with it though.
Apple is going to confuse people with their defragmented product lineup. I already can see a lot of people disappointed with their family members buying them the "wrong" gift. *cringe*
Seriously, have you not seen how many folk brag about getting one on launch.day, they simply have to have the latest and greatest and want folk to know.. the most shallowest thing I've ever seen is a case with a hole on the back so folk still can see the logo.. jeez..
Right... All Apple did was pricing 50 dollars more than what they should do base on current exchange rate. Good job Apple, you can rip us off more, but you did not. Just 50 dollars more for Canadian customers, not a big deal, just several cups of coffee. I sure all Canadian can afford it.
Apple really did not put any effort on this crap iPhone SE... All Apple did was reuse almost all old components to reduce the cost and increase its profit margin. You really thing the cost of coming up with this crap is high? Almost all components are old, 4 years old casing, 4 years old screen, half years old SoC... 16GB storage, everything is old..
Seriously... A 4 years old design, a sub 720P screen, 16GB starting storage for 400USD... This is terrible deal. It maybe sound sweet for Apple fans, but it is terrible deal for rest of us who care less about brand.
P.S. Consumers have choice between paying for nearly 600CADs plus 13% tax or something else has better of everything for lower price. I get all these exchange rate stuff, but in the end of dau, we still need shell out almost 650 dollars of this thing (tax included) and this is our hard earned cash. So I don't think when people shopping for the new phone, they are not necessarily looking at it, saying all there is exchange rate. All they look at is the final price and how much they have to shell out.
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Jay,
Apart from currency conversion, did you include (add) the VAT and other taxes charged in your country, province and/or city? As I posted in another thread, "US Pricing provided by Apple is BEFORE TAXES". If I am not mistaken, some countries already include the VAT and other charges to their pricing.
My sister lives in the UK, and she requested me to buy the latest iPhone 6S Plus for her, and then shipped it to her address because on paper, it seem much much cheaper here in the US. However, after I calculated the freight and insurance costs (via DHL), it is cheaper to buy it in the UK.
When her housemate visited some relatives in California, we considered her housemate buying the iPhone in California. We got to talking about monthly phone charges between the US and in the UK, and I was struck how much cheaper monthly phone charges were in her city plus the monthly added cost of the iPhone (as part of the two year plan she has) compared to the charges here in the US. I made the calculation again, and it turned out, it would save her more to just enroll in the plan with the monthly charge for the iPhone 6S Plus compared to the total cost of buying the phone in California plus the cost of her monthly plan without buying the phone from the telephone company in the UK.
One more thing, it is not prudent for Apple to implement a "more real-time adjustment" of their product pricing based on current exchange rate of the US dollar to the country currency because there may be wild swings during a time period. From what I gather, Apple makes an educated estimate (perhaps based on certain algorithms) of the anticipated range of currency fluctuation during a defined period and attenuate this with their currency insurance to account for currency fluctuations. This may be the basis of their "inflated pricing" that you posted. [Just speculating here though.]
CGC
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I've currently got a 6, and I'm pretty sure this is gonna be my new phone.
Better processor/camera than mine, I like the form factor of this one better, and as petty as it might sound, I'll be REALLY happy to once again have the power button at the top of the phone again instead of on the side (hate the placement on the 6). The small difference in screen size -- negligible.
Better processor/camera than mine, I like the form factor of this one better, and as petty as it might sound, I'll be REALLY happy to once again have the power button at the top of the phone again instead of on the side (hate the placement on the 6). The small difference in screen size -- negligible.
Android phones have no problem driving 2K displays that are larger (in the same size form factor), and get better battery life, so it's definitely possible.
Not even having an HD screen in 2016 is laughable. Especially with Apple touting the ability to record and edit 4K on the damn thing.
Can't please everyone.
I have a feeling Samsung will come out with a 4-4.5" version soon.
I'm happy for the folks who like the smaller size and form factor, they are getting a phone with amazing specs at a great price. I personally find the 4" pretty useless and tiny now though after getting used to the 6 and 6S plus. it just feels so tiny when I use my mother's iphone 5S for anything, I couldn't imagine ever going back to that size.
Yep, as 99.9% of forums users do, and I'd be willing to bet YOU do as well. I still think we need to come up with a term to describe those who complain about complainers, lol.
It's a good piece of kit for folks on a budget, but let's be fair, it's got a very poor screen by modern standards, so amazing it isn't..
No. Buy the SE on the monthly plan contract, then in 6 months you can pay off the balance, trade in the phone and upgrade if there is a 7SE. Otherwise, after a year, you can just trade in and upgrade.
Chances are there won't be a 7se released at the same time as the 4.7 & 5.5 models. But I would expect it to be introduced in the off cycle as the current SE is, giving the current model at least a year since it's already priced lower than any other new iPhone, and doesn't need a price drop to stay competitive, despite both the 6 & 6s dropping $100. Apple might even wait to introduce it with the 7s, for a three model flagship lineup.
Man, you guys will swallow anything. Like the 5 and the 5S wasn't a fantastic phone? Don't act like the SE is something special.
And, Apple is still ripping us off with 16gig starters, just to mooch an extra $100 out of most people who need a decent amount of space. (here's a news flash: Walmart has 32gig SD cards for $15).
That's good. I'm just saying that 4K video consumes about 6MB per second. A five minute home video takes almost 2GB, and the phone itself will have only about 56GB available out of the box. Subtract for apps, live photos, and tunes and things get very cramped very quickly.
Apple has decided that people who prefer a smaller form factor don't deserve premier features like 3D touch, the better 2-lens upcoming camera, or top-tier storage. I have a problem with that philosophy.
Your not thinking outside of the box, not everyone is you. It's an easy concept. 30 mil iPhone 5s were sold last year and yeah you were not one of them, time to move along.
I guess where I am at a loss is why a phone needs to be "completely redesigned" to be new. We see new internal updated and plenty of things; computers come to mind, but it's not limited to that. Granted, Apple did set that trend with phones, so that's on them, but this phone should run circles around the 2.5 year old 5S in almost every way, be hat processing power, camera, and hell, even price point.Damn you got me I'm sorry "ophthalmologist".... Kudos on your perfect spelling, sorry about your eyesight though. I'm not attacking the design, just the use of the same design so you can now climb off my nuts. You wanna think it's a completely different designed phone? Go right ahead. It is to me... To me mind you, essentially the same designed phone. I never said there weren't internal changes but externally it does looks the same... You have a fine evening now.
Unsure why people are being so hostile over differing opinions. If you feel it's just another 5s that's fine. I get that some are disappointed it didn't get a full refresh. My viewpoint is that this allowed the phone to have a lower MSRP; much less retooling for the manufacturing process (and less engineering into a new design) means we were able to get the savings passed onto the consumer. I won't go so far as to say $400 is cheap, but for an Apple device/product it's certainly the cheapest phone we have seen in about a decade. The very fact that it is $400 and not $500 or $550 is what has given me the ability to decide to buy this phone for my son as opposed to something used (or even a new 5S because I think this phone with it's 6s internal will have a much greater longevity going forward).
All that said, I wouldn't be against a redesigned "from the ground up" 4" phone, but it would more than likely come in at about $600. Had Apple priced this like they priced the 5c (the most similar in its class, though still rather different phone) before it, we would be having a different discussion right now.
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Yep. I don't remember using Netflix on the 5S, but can someone tell me if it does a workaround for HD content?
As for the specs itself, 2GB RAM, A9 Chip, 12 MP 4k Camera, NFC/Apple Pay? Seems like a good device now.
Apple is selling the 6s in a 5s case, for $250 less. Even upgrading the storage to 64GB, the SE still costs $150 less than a 6s with virtually equivalent specs, with better battery life, in a format people want. In fact, if I were in the market for 4.7", or 5.5" screen, I would be very upset that a 64GB iPhone 6s cost $350 more, just for a .7" larger screen, I'd be pretty upset.
HD is irrelevant on a screen that small. It's a retina display which means even if it were displaying 1080p, you'd never get the benefit. Just like any other device, it dithers down to the available screen space. It will look better than on a true 1080p TV.
The price difference between a 64GB 6S and a 64GB SE is $250 not $350. The only thing I wish the SE had advanced LTE. But other than that it's a great phone.
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