Apple's Next iPhone SE Launching on Wednesday - Here's What We Know

[FlyingDutch]

If you read the post I responded to, you would know that he was talking about the SE3 and not the mini…



Looks like Apple still think it’s very handy if they release new iPads with TouchID on the power button (and all their Macs only have TouchID), even though it’s uncomfortable for you or don’t like it.

So it would be nice if they also release one iPhone model with TouchID on the power button.

An iPad is not an iPhone. It is not supposed to be used with one hand, so the TouchID on the power button is acceptable (but far from being comfortable).
As we already discussed, you seem confused about how the wake up of an iPhone works nowadays. There is NO NEED to touch the power button, so TouchID integrated into it will be an ergonomics disaster.
TouchID under the display will take too much space, so there is no different solution other than FaceID unless they don’t use under the screen fingerprints reader, which isn’t their choice

 

[FlyingDutch]

Agree 100%. The TouchID on my iPad Air 4 is kind of a pain to use. I still think that was a margin protection solution in search of a problem.

Especially if you use a cover (I have a Logitech with keyboard), it is very uncomfortable to use

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Absolutely no chance Rivian is allowing CarPlay 2 with this announcement. RJ has always been very clear - no CarPlay, ever. Also, there hasn’t even been a peep of such on any Rivian forums.

Musk has been clear about that too, but with zero uptake of CarPlay 2, it's possible Apple has reworked it in a way that has made Tesla and Rivian more interested.

There's clearly something to the idea of having your car and phone work together. Tesla's implementation is okay and in many ways superior to CarPlay, but if the two companies actually cooperated, we could see something better. IE, change CarPlay from streaming a UI to just having it stream data and let the infotainment system handle figuring out what to do with the data. Offer up an endpoint on the phone where the infotainment system asks for a list of recent calls on the phone, and then have the infotainment system find the best native way to display the info.

 

[geta]

In essence, the market selected the smaller form factor phones for extinction. I remember the cacophony of voices who were complaining that Apple was holding on too tightly to the smaller form factor of the iPhone 4/5/5s and had better embrace the larger sizes as Android was doing or they would lose market share. The iPhone 6/6 Plus were released, Apple couldn’t keep up with demand for the iPhone 6 Plus and then the 6s Plus and the smaller form factor’s fate was thus sealed way back in 2014. The demand for larger phones has only gone up since then. Apple dipped their toe back in to the smaller market with the iPhone 12/13 minis and no one should be surprised that they didn’t make an impact for Apple. God bless Apple for doing that, they seemed like it was a genuine investment, but the market had spoked long ago.

Whether or not this is strictly my opinion depends on your point of view. If you love the smaller form factors of the iPhone 4/5/5s/SE1 or the iPhone 6/6s/7/8/SE2/SE3 then it’s simply my opinion. If you look at the market objectively without your desires, née biases, then you know that the market simply doesn’t want smaller phones anymore. This isn’t a “trend”, it’s market reality. Apple and Android manufacturers could make smaller phones all day long and they still wouldn’t sell in the volume that the small phone crowd believes, no matter how advanced the feature set.

If you want to use a smaller phone, hold on to what you have, because the market isn’t going backwards. The mini’s failure at igniting the market proved that the demand simply isn’t there, no matter whatever excuses the acolytes come up with to defend the smaller form factor.

And you can also see that companies are slowly trying to move to small foldable devices because customers want something smaller/easier to carry around, but the tech is not there yet.

 

[geta]

An iPad is not an iPhone. It is not supposed to be used with one hand, so the TouchID on the power button is acceptable (but far from being comfortable).
As we already discussed, you seem confused about how the wake up of an iPhone works nowadays. There is NO NEED to touch the power button, so TouchID integrated into it will be an ergonomics disaster.
TouchID under the display will take too much space, so there is no different solution other than FaceID unless they don’t use under the screen fingerprints reader, which isn’t their choice

This is your opinion and it is suitable for someone who doesn't like TouchID.

Especially if you use a cover (I have a Logitech with keyboard), it is very uncomfortable to use

it’s funny, because I don’t have any of your problems with my Mini 6 while you constantly complain about your iPad with TouchID.

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

Still don’t understand how Face ID is more secure than ‌Touch ID‌. With Face ID, if someone wants to unlock your iPhone, all they have to do is basically hold it in front of you. At least with Touch ID, they’d need to take hold of your registered finger and press it up against the reader (at the right angle) which still doesn’t always work. Face ID only has an advantage when your unconscious.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Still don’t understand how Face ID is more secure than ‌Touch ID‌. With Face ID, if someone wants to unlock your iPhone, all they have to do is basically hold it in front of you. At least with Touch ID, they’d need to take hold of your registered finger and press it up against the reader (at the right angle) which still doesn’t always work. Face ID only has an advantage when your unconscious.

I wonder if TouchID is easier to "fool" perhaps?
Just guessing -- really don't know

 

[Sir_Macs_A_Lot]

I wonder if TouchID is easier to "fool" perhaps?
Just guessing -- really don't know

I’d imagine a twin could fool Face ID…but NOT fool Touch ID.

 

[Seanm87]

NO, it was his opinion. And just because you follow the "trend" of the big phones does not mean that everyone agrees or do the same.

These phones are not big anymore they are normal sized.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I think everyone should realize that things are not stagnant

Very little in life reaches a point where "this is it" ... "this is the best and only design"

What I mean is, it's very unlikely that we'll be talking about there only being a line of 6"-ish iPhone 27's in 10 years

I could see cell phones getting much smaller again once glasses start to take over a lot of their tasks over the next decade and a half or so…

 

[surferfb]

I wonder if TouchID is easier to "fool" perhaps?
Just guessing -- really don't know

This is pretty much it - there’s more variability in facial features than in the portion of your finger that is scanned. The false acceptance rate is something like 20x higher on touchID. My understanding is the mapping of the face is also much more detailed than the scanning of fingerprints. There’s also the fact that faceID doesn’t work if unconscious / asleep.

We’re talking like 1 in 50k vs 1 in a million though, so they’re both very secure. I can’t think of any reason I’d personally want touchID over faceID (and I have a long an obnoxious password to type in if it fails), but obviously some people feel very strongly about it.

 

[Chuckeee]

And you can also see that companies are slowly trying to move to small foldable devices because customers want something smaller/easier to carry around, but the tech is not there yet.

Alternatively, the move to foldables is to get an even more humungous display into a devices that when folded is comparable to the footprint of current iPhones. More like a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold or a Google Pixel Pro Fold instead of a Motorola Razr or a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.

Just because if folds does NOT necessarily mean the folded phone will be small like a mini and fit easily into your pocket.

 

[Momof2.1107]

Still don’t understand how Face ID is more secure than ‌Touch ID‌. With Face ID, if someone wants to unlock your iPhone, all they have to do is basically hold it in front of you. At least with Touch ID, they’d need to take hold of your registered finger and press it up against the reader (at the right angle) which still doesn’t always work. Face ID only has an advantage when your unconscious.

As long as you have Attention Awareness turned on, you have to be looking at the camera with your eyes open, for it to unlock.

 

[Squeak825]

FaceID is destroying my eyes with lasers firing into my eyes 1000 times a day.

Face ID is hurting your eyes? So do you also think Wi-Fi is stealing your soul? Honestly, staring at brake lights on the road probably does more damage to your eyes than Face ID ever could. So... have your eyes been destroyed by brake lights yet?

It's not FaceID -- it is the OLED screen and how they use PWM to dim it. There is a whole group of us that can't use Apple OLED phones because it causes us headaches/migraine/eye pain, and have been relying on LCD displays up until now.

I knew this day was coming, but hate it. Going to have to buy a spare 1 or 2 current iPhone SE's and hope it can last me another 10 years or so until they move to a different screen technology.

 

[Murdock12]

Musk has been clear about that too, but with zero uptake of CarPlay 2, it's possible Apple has reworked it in a way that has made Tesla and Rivian more interested.

There's clearly something to the idea of having your car and phone work together. Tesla's implementation is okay and in many ways superior to CarPlay, but if the two companies actually cooperated, we could see something better. IE, change CarPlay from streaming a UI to just having it stream data and let the infotainment system handle figuring out what to do with the data. Offer up an endpoint on the phone where the infotainment system asks for a list of recent calls on the phone, and then have the infotainment system find the best native way to display the info.

Oh very true, and I agree it would likely be a better product for consumers (at least for Rivian - decent software, but has a long way to go). The problem is that Tesla, Rivian, and other companies want to use their own platforms as revenue streams and allowing CarPlay, while better for the consumer, greatly reduces the profitability there. I pay $15 per month for connected services, as do probably most Rivian owners. If I had the option of CarPlay (and Android Auto), I bet 75% or more of those subscriptions would be cancelled.

 

[Abazigal]

Still don’t understand how Face ID is more secure than ‌Touch ID‌. With Face ID, if someone wants to unlock your iPhone, all they have to do is basically hold it in front of you. At least with Touch ID, they’d need to take hold of your registered finger and press it up against the reader (at the right angle) which still doesn’t always work. Face ID only has an advantage when your unconscious.

I think the idea is that both offer comparable security, and Face ID has the advantage of not requiring you to do anything to authenticate. I believe what Apple was going for was using FaceID to take care of all the security stuff behind the scenes so you don't have too. It removes having to think about authenticating to access something because faceID has already detected that it is you.

What you are left with is a phone that is as easy to access as one without a passcode. No longer do you have to go through security checks because it is all done automatically. It seems pretty seamless when it works, such as when you want to read notifications on your Lock Screen, or enter a password from iCloud Keychain.

Plus if you are unconscious in the presence of a stranger, you probably have worse things to worry about than them accessing your phone.

 

[Naraxus]

Member #437 checking in!
😁😉

I won't be going anywhere and I'll never stop asking for a smaller device

Why?

My hands have not changed size, nor have my pockets

Something will come along .. a new Mini, a smaller SE, a "flip" ...
It will happen

Smaller sized phones have sailed. Apple isn't making them anymore. They're not coming back. The market has spoken and the market wants larger iPhones

 

[NetMage]

If Apple never again makes a product I want then I might look to another brand.

Unfortunately for you, no one wants a small phone from any other brand either.

 

[NetMage]

It's not FaceID -- it is the OLED screen and how they use PWM to dim it. There is a whole group of us that can't use Apple OLED phones because it causes us headaches/migraine/eye pain, and have been relying on LCD displays up until now.

For many it's possible to adjust the screen settings to reduce the PWM to an unnoticeable level. Might be something to try.

 

[NetMage]

Plus if you are unconscious in the presence of a stranger, you probably have worse things to worry about than them accessing your phone.

It isn't a stranger you always have to worry about. Imagine your child getting parental approval while you sleep.

 

[deevey]

Outside of a tiny minority of raucous users here on MacRumors, NOBODY wants a tiny a$$ phone anymore. I have access to both an iPhone 14 and an SE3 and the SE3 is just simply too small. TouchID is a different matter, but I get why Apple so sunsetting it. The fact is technology changed and not everything lasts forever.

Nobody wanted a small EXPENSIVE small Phone, I would warrant most people who wanted one were happy to sacrifice features over convenience did not need (or wish to pay for) features they wouldn't use.

I have access to a 15, 12 mini and SE, there's only two of these that I consider lightweight and only two that I can operate all the func†ions of with with one hand.

A folding phone does not solve dual handed operation either.

 

[geta]

Alternatively, the move to foldables is to get an even more humungous display into a devices that when folded is comparable to the footprint of current iPhones. More like a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold or a Google Pixel Pro Fold instead of a Motorola Razr or a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.

Just because if folds does NOT necessarily mean the folded phone will be small like a mini and fit easily into your pocket.

The only reason I would consider a folding phone would be only if they would make one not bigger, heavier or thicker than 13 Mini when it was closed.

 

[lewchenko]

Seems like a mix of old and current parts. Looks reasonable to be fair and whilst ‘cheap’ compared to their high end, will still seem expensive compared to android’s mid range. But I guess that isn’t the target customer. iPhone upgraders are. My wife still has a 13 mini. Wonder if she would be interested in this.

 

[Ad47uk]

Outside of a tiny minority of raucous users here on MacRumors, NOBODY wants a tiny a$$ phone anymore. I have access to both an iPhone 14 and an SE3 and the SE3 is just simply too small. TouchID is a different matter, but I get why Apple so sunsetting it. The fact is technology changed and not everything lasts forever.

It depends on what you use your phone for, I much prefer the size of my old Huawei to my Oppo, easier to put in pocket. Phones are far too large these days and if I put my oppo in my trousers pocket while cycling it can easily come out, which means I have to where a coat or jacket with an inside pocket or put my phone in my panniers.
Sure, if you want to use your phone for watching a load of videos, then a larger screen is fine. The 16:9 Aspect Ratio have vanished for the most part, and now we have longer phones to house the notch or the pinhole for the camera, plus other info. Makes little sense because when you watch video, you have black bars on the side.

The say in the article about foldable phones, for people who want smaller phones. From what I have seen of foldable phones so far, I would not want one, I know a few people who have had one from different manufactures, and they have all had problems with the hinge or the screen. The technology is not there, and I doubt Apple will make it any better. Also, to be honest, I don't want to go back to the days of flipping a phone open like Captain Kirk does with the communicator in Star Trek.

So yes i can understand why some people prefer a smaller phone.

Touch ID, no doubt people will still buy iPhones even without it, i have never owned an Iphone, I have toyed with the idea, I could get used to IOS. Price is the one problem I have, but without any sort of fingerprint sensor, then I am certainly out. Sorry Apple, I like your Mac, but I prefer to use my finger to access my phone, not my face.

 

[Ad47uk]

The only reason I would consider a folding phone would be only if they would make one not bigger, heavier or thicker than 13 Mini when it was closed.

And one that don't break after 12 months or less