Apple Says Original iPhone SE is Now 'Obsolete'

[urnotl33t]

That pink SE is one of the best-looking phones ever made. Fight me on this.

Agreed. That’s what I got. Still using it today. As others said, it was their last best phone.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I found the Air too wide and thin. 17/17 Pro felt easier to hold because of the thickness and narrower screen.

Same on the Air. The width is still too much and the thinness, while nice and impressive I suppose, is beyond what I need out of that dimension honestly.

 

[Thymio]

Agreed. That’s what I got. Still using it today. As others said, it was their last best phone.

I have it in all the colors in unused condition plus one additional space grey that I use naked as my only phone. I have an iPad mini for everything else but I don’t take the iPad outside the house unless i need to be away for days. I hope that Uber and Apple Pay will be supported for a long time. I can’t imagine going back to an ugly huge phone again. I may need to go without a phone if I can’t use the SE in the future. Life was just fine before smartphones. I’ll just need to readjust to being without some small conveniences.

 

[a_drive]

Agreed. That’s what I got. Still using it today. As others said, it was their last best phone.

I agree also. Curious… what software version are you using on your SE? I have both a 13.5 and 15.5 and obviously battery life is better on the earlier version. Could be better though but it’s at 87% battery health capacity. I’m still undecided what iOS number I like more.

 

[geta]

I agree also. Curious… what software version are you using on your SE? I have both a 13.5 and 15.5 and obviously battery life is better on the earlier version. Could be better though but it’s at 87% battery health capacity. I’m still undecided what iOS number I like more.

Using mine with the latest iOS (15.8.5) with a newish battery that I replaced a year and a half ago and it easily lasts all day with no other problems.

 

[a_drive]

Using mine with the latest iOS (15.8.5) with a newish battery that I replaced a year and a half ago and it easily lasts all day with no other problems.

I’m assuming you do light phone usage? Are you using low power mode and web browsing? I’m tempted to switch to the SE again from my 13 mini. 13 mini is a bit overkill and slightly too big for my daily needs and usage.

 

[geta]

I’m assuming you do light phone usage? Are you using low power mode and web browsing? I’m tempted to switch to the SE again from my 13 mini. 13 mini is a bit overkill and slightly too big for my daily needs and usage.

Only below 40% it automatically switches to low power mode, and my normal daily use is calls, messaging apps, light web browsing, emails, music and a few other apps.

 

[urnotl33t]

reading this on my obsolete phone, I wan't aware it was eligible 'for repairs, battery replacements, or any other service' up to this point. it's the perfect shape and size, and will be livid once the iOS too goes under.

Sadly it’s almost there. Apps are too myopic to compare against the OS version when demanding updates and forcing us off the island. Plus idiotic marketing-made web sites are horrible, too.

 

[urnotl33t]

I have it in all the colors in unused condition plus one additional space grey that I use naked as my only phone. I have an iPad mini for everything else but I don’t take the iPad outside the house unless i need to be away for days. I hope that Uber and Apple Pay will be supported for a long time. I can’t imagine going back to an ugly huge phone again. I may need to go without a phone if I can’t use the SE in the future. Life was just fine before smartphones. I’ll just need to readjust to being without some small conveniences.

I have the exact same setup. Except the N+4 redundancy in SEs 😆
Sadly I do take my iPad mini everywhere now. I like it but I also hate it. However, I do have the Magic Keyboard and Mouse for it (plus a spiffy stand), which can make the iPad into quite the mobile workspace. I got Microsoft’s RDP app (“windows app”; ick), a nice SSH client (even tho they insist on real $ for it now), and my VPN client. Plus Apple’s iWork apps.

If you haven’t yet, try out Numbers with the mouse and keyboard attached! It transforms the app into the desktop version with the same column click-and-drag options and cell repetition (like auto continuance of a sequence). Fancy pants!

 

[urnotl33t]

I agree also. Curious… what software version are you using on your SE? I have both a 13.5 and 15.5 and obviously battery life is better on the earlier version. Could be better though but it’s at 87% battery health capacity. I’m still undecided what iOS number I like more.

15.whatever. I didn’t want to do it, because I kind of liked 14.whatever but I was forced into because of an Apple Pay card-replacement API bug with one of my banks (my debit and checking bank). One of my banks did the card replacement swap immediately and flawlessly! The card would never swap into place after replacement, even tho it said it did. As soon as I moved to 15.blah at the time, bam! It showed up automatically. Sigh.

14 did surprisingly well, but I knew 15 would destroy it (battery pig just like all final iOS for any hardware). I wasn’t surprised. Sigh. One should try very hard not to move past the penultimate version on any hardware if one can help it. It’s not an upgrade; it’s just a vis à vis exchange of bugs.
(I should formalize that into a postulate of some kind… 😆)

Granted, with the piss poor state of software these days, that applies to everything now. Feels like we’re back to the early 2000s again. This idiotic Agile development model doesn’t work; stop treating customers in the field as your group therapy beta testers.
(Ooo there’s another one!)

 

[whatnot]

Sadly it’s almost there. Apps are too myopic to compare against the OS version when demanding updates and forcing us off the island. Plus idiotic marketing-made web sites are horrible, too.

I suppose I should be getting ready to switch then, because I wouldn't want to be left stuck when my bank and what have you apps suddenly throw up some error message? what's the next phone-sized phone still running on any iOS but this vaseline soup, iOS 18 is it? even if for two more years, and then then I'll retreat to my bunker.

 

[urnotl33t]

I suppose I should be getting ready to switch then, because I wouldn't want to be left stuck when my bank and what have you apps suddenly throw up some error message? what's the next phone-sized phone still running on any iOS but this vaseline soup, iOS 18 is it? even if for two more years, and then then I'll retreat to my bunker.

Oh yeah my main bank already kicked me to the curb last year I think. My other credit card bank did that earlier this year. Chick-fil-A did recently, too. Now I gotta use their slow as molasses website (unless I use my iPad mini, which I do mostly).

Apple Pay is still good so far, so I can get gas and buy groceries and meds. 😆. Maps still works and that’s good, too.

iOS 15 has the PCI DSS grade TLS ciphers, so all that should be good to go, too. My iPhone usage definitely has decreased otherwise, tho. Quite sad. 😞 All that usage has moved to my iPad mini (5th gen, also no camera bumps!)

 

[PatrixUSA]

... Surely, if this market is there [for smaller phones], ready to buy, some enterprising company would capture it? We have JitterBug phones for seniors! ...

Large companies like apple (as well as many industries, like food, medical, tech, etc) powerful enough to drive demand don't always chase natural demand, more often these powerful companies / industries drive or create demand where their profit margins are greatest... like to larger phones in apple's case - so the natural demand / market for smaller phones may well be there, but we might never know, bc apple it seems focuses their mfging, marketing and sales efforts to drive / create demand to where their profit margins are greatest, ie larger phones.

 

[PatrixUSA]

My thoughts on why Apple (and other smartphone makers like Samsung, Google, Motorola, Xiaomi, Oppo, etc) no longer offer a smaller display phone is not because there isn't demand. It's because they're trying to achieve max unit sales. Apple did keep the iPhone mini around for 2 generations so there obviously was demand. But the Apple bean counters probably saw how well the larger display iPhones were selling and thought to themselves "Hey, let's replace the mini with a Plus-sized iPhone. That should sell even better... maybe as well as the iPhone, iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max."

...and larger profit margins.

 

[PatrixUSA]

... Meanwhile, the reality is they weren't a success because people didn't actually want them in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile for anyone to make them. ...

...or large companies / industries focus their efforts on getting people to buy where profits margins are largest, customer wants and needs be damned.