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Nov 21, 2010
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(1) I just noticed this deal going on -

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/clearance

But there are two sections - one is refurbished, and the other is clearance. I am not sure as to the difference between the two. I see that there are no SEs in the refurbished section, and no iPhone 7s in the Clearance section.

(2) Does it make sense to get the SE now? For how many more years is it likely to be supported with updates?
 
Yes!

I just copped the iPhone SE 128GB - Space Gray - T-Mobile SIM (Unlocked) for $326 total with 2-day shipping.

IMO, this is the very best smart phone on the market. It is the most ergonomically friendly and most practical. This little device can do everything I used to do on my iPhone X, without any of the annoyances of a slippy soap-like feel and atrocious Face ID.

In case you're wondering, I had every iPhone from 3G to X. After the X, I went back to the 8, which still wasn't small enough. Finally settled on the SE a year ago and I haven't looked back. I like it so much that I purchased another SE today. Now I have 3 iPhone SE's, two of which are still factory sealed, just in case.

I'm looking to use these phones for the next 4-5 years.
 
I have an SE and picked up a clearance one for a spare.

The SE should get at least a few more iOS updates, probably iOS14, maybe iOS15.

Typically Apple support the iPhone for 4-7 years, with it trending longer since iOS9.

I am not sure how future versions of iOS will run on the A9 of the SE. Apple had a history of optimizing current iOSs for older devices, but only every other year, usually the odd years are the crappy iOS versions and even years are the optimized ones (In my experience).

iOS 6 was rock solid, especially for older devices, and just in general.

iOS 7 was crap

iOS 8 was pretty solid overall, especially with older HW

iOS 9 was horrible

iOS 10 stable for older devices

iOS 11 just bad all over

iOS 12, probably most stable since iOS 8

iOS 13, who knows, but if based off of the trend, iOS 13 might be another turd.
 
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But there are two sections - one is refurbished, and the other is clearance. I am not sure as to the difference between the two.

The clearance iPhone SE’s are factory new devices, never opened. Apple is likely receiving stock back from carriers that are not selling or haven’t sold, therefore they are selling them at the price that you see listed.

A refurbished iPhone SE is an iPhone that was previously used and returned for XYZ reasons. Apple then takes that device, replaces the display, battery, and thoroughly tests it to make sure that it’s fully operable and literally resembles a new iPhone known as a ‘white box replacement’.

Does it make sense to get the SE now?

This question gets asked quite frequently, and there isn’t any reason why I wouldn’t purchase an SE, especially given the current price point. The A9 processor and two GB of RAM is more than sufficient for most needs, and as for your question about how long it should receive iOS updates for, no one knows that, but I would suspect at least two more years.
 
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I love the SE like many of you. The fact that we are all still ensnared by this venerable device is PROOF that something significant is missing from the current lineup of “new” models.

Give me an SE sized device with edge to edge display and best single lens camera available and I’d happily pay a flagship phone price for it.

It wasn’t too long ago that people paid more for the same thing but in a smaller form factor...
 
I love the SE like many of you. The fact that we are all still ensnared by this venerable device is PROOF that something significant is missing from the current lineup of “new” models.

Give me an SE sized device with edge to edge display and best single lens camera available and I’d happily pay a flagship phone price for it.

It wasn’t too long ago that people paid more for the same thing but in a smaller form factor...
(1) I just noticed this deal going on -

https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/clearance

But there are two sections - one is refurbished, and the other is clearance. I am not sure as to the difference between the two. I see that there are no SEs in the refurbished section, and no iPhone 7s in the Clearance section.

(2) Does it make sense to get the SE now? For how many more years is it likely to be supported with updates?


I purchased a 128 SE on the first round. I have a paid off X and was looking to try a few smaller cell companies (currently Mint Mobile) as well as have a back up and possibly Buisness line so I can stop giving my clients my personal cell.

So far no complaints. Yes the screen is smaller but it runs pretty quick. I mirrored the backup of my X. Mine was a clearance and not a refurb. We should get a few more updates on the SE. Also, just because it won't receive an update it will still work. I have a 2011 Mac mini along side my new MacBook Pro and for the basics there is no difference really. Same will apply for the phone.

I'd say do it! 329 OTD for a paid off device is nice, especially these days in the world of Apple.
 
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It’s the best iPhone on the planet. Everything A10 & up is complete and utter trash when it comes to sound quality, yet the gullible masses have been brainwashed into thinking AirPods are the answer.... if the Bugatti Veyron always had 999hp & all of a sudden Bugatti drops it down to 255hp & puts shiney bells & whistles which add more weight to the car...would you call that progress?

Heck no, that’s not progress...that’s trying to force “services” upon the consumer. By removing the headphone jack Apple had a way to upsell AirPods onto consumers and now you are beginning to see the frogs freaking out over being slowly brought up to boiling temperature. AirPods are made for forced obselence....I cannot stress that fact more clearly! You have to purchase new ones after two years, or pay through the nose with Apple Care for these 255kbps monitors. The dongle is a disaster, you can’t even get 320kbps through it, only 255kbps. So for a company that wants to move toward “services”, they are scamming anyone who uses Pandora One, Spotify Premium or Tidal Lossless. iPhone 7 devices and up are incapable of even pumping 320kbps to your ears, and all those services have the top quality setting as 320, with the latter approaching 999, while Timmy thinks 255 is adequate. It’s an insult to our intelligence to march us into cattle cars and run us all down the rails into audio purgatory, and I will not stand for it!!! NEVER FORGET

The iPhone SE is a 4 ounce device, and all the newer devices are much MUCH heavier, Timmy wants to create another problem for users so that he can sell you a “service” for that. Apple is smelling their own farts, y’all.

Services is not going to work, Apple poured so much money into the Apple Car and as research has proven it has been a complete and utter disaster.

Tim Cook went to a agricultural college “Auburn”, and he is just milking us all until our utters hurt and then they will make hamburgers out of us. I’m not going to let that happen, Apple was founded by a visionary, and now it is being driven into a ditch by a bean counter and cow tipper. (I know how Auburn folks roll, because I came out of one and everyone else in my family including myself attended the University of Alabama)

So to sum it up the SE beats all current Apple offerings on:

Sound Quality 5-1
Weight 2-1
Ergonomics
Portability

If you want to throw your life away by staring at a huge screen all day and losing touch with the real world...be shackled with heavier devices with less efficient battery life...lose your sense of hearing...then be my guest, the cattle car is at the Apple Store right now just waiting to wisk you down the line to a place where you will never return
 
I love the form-factor, still keep my old 5c to use as a backup / when traveling, but I wouldn’t buy SE if I intended to use it as a primary phone, I’d be concerned about future iOS updates - or lack thereof.
 
It’s the best iPhone on the planet. Everything A10 & up is complete and utter trash when it comes to sound quality, yet the gullible masses have been brainwashed into thinking AirPods are the answer.... if the Bugatti Veyron always had 999hp & all of a sudden Bugatti drops it down to 255hp & puts shiney bells & whistles which add more weight to the car...would you call that progress?

Heck no, that’s not progress...that’s trying to force “services” upon the consumer. By removing the headphone jack Apple had a way to upsell AirPods onto consumers and now you are beginning to see the frogs freaking out over being slowly brought up to boiling temperature. AirPods are made for forced obselence....I cannot stress that fact more clearly! You have to purchase new ones after two years, or pay through the nose with Apple Care for these 255kbps monitors. The dongle is a disaster, you can’t even get 320kbps through it, only 255kbps. So for a company that wants to move toward “services”, they are scamming anyone who uses Pandora One, Spotify Premium or Tidal Lossless. iPhone 7 devices and up are incapable of even pumping 320kbps to your ears, and all those services have the top quality setting as 320, with the latter approaching 999, while Timmy thinks 255 is adequate. It’s an insult to our intelligence to march us into cattle cars and run us all down the rails into audio purgatory, and I will not stand for it!!! NEVER FORGET

The iPhone SE is a 4 ounce device, and all the newer devices are much MUCH heavier, Timmy wants to create another problem for users so that he can sell you a “service” for that. Apple is smelling their own farts, y’all.

Services is not going to work, Apple poured so much money into the Apple Car and as research has proven it has been a complete and utter disaster.

Tim Cook went to a agricultural college “Auburn”, and he is just milking us all until our utters hurt and then they will make hamburgers out of us. I’m not going to let that happen, Apple was founded by a visionary, and now it is being driven into a ditch by a bean counter and cow tipper. (I know how Auburn folks roll, because I came out of one and everyone else in my family including myself attended the University of Alabama)

So to sum it up the SE beats all current Apple offerings on:

Sound Quality 5-1
Weight 2-1
Ergonomics
Portability

If you want to throw your life away by staring at a huge screen all day and losing touch with the real world...be shackled with heavier devices with less efficient battery life...lose your sense of hearing...then be my guest, the cattle car is at the Apple Store right now just waiting to wisk you down the line to a place where you will never return
......... Wow.

I have one on order at the moment. Looking forward to receiving it even more now.

Seems the deal is already over at apple.com.
 
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I caved, and bought an ATT Prepaid model at Best Buy in early January. Can unlock in about 5 months. Mine was about $150+tax since it came with $45 in ATT Prepaid credits (I was already on ATT Prepaid, so didn't have to change phone companies).

These are more expensive, but more flexible.
 
I just got an SE from craigslist for $100.i use this mainly for camera it has 4k capabilty and 1080p 60fps.i have both iphone xs max and SE side by side and the SE is faster and it feels like 120hz display like the new ipad while navigating the UI.the only problem now is the battery it only got 85% capacity remaing but its still fine.
 
In case you're wondering, I had every iPhone from 3G to X. After the X, I went back to the 8, which still wasn't small enough. Finally settled on the SE a year ago and I haven't looked back. I like it so much that I purchased another SE today. Now I have 3 iPhone SE's, two of which are still factory sealed, just in case.
I can so see myself doing something like that! You know big companies always justify whatever they do in the name of "this is what people want". The love and demand of the SE and similar sized phones shows how misleading such claims are and how companies basically do what they feel like.
Perhaps the only silver lining is the slowdown in the sales of iPhones. Maybe, they'll now have to take notice and release a smaller and cheaper phone in the coming year or so.
I'm looking to use these phones for the next 4-5 years.
Sure, but one reason why I got into iPhone was the regular security updates lasting well over several years. Not sure, I would want to use a phone that is probably going to lose support after iOS 13.
[doublepost=1550679994][/doublepost]
I have an SE and picked up a clearance one for a spare.

The SE should get at least a few more iOS updates, probably iOS14, maybe iOS15.

Typically Apple support the iPhone for 4-7 years, with it trending longer since iOS9.

I am not sure how future versions of iOS will run on the A9 of the SE. Apple had a history of optimizing current iOSs for older devices, but only every other year, usually the odd years are the crappy iOS versions and even years are the optimized ones (In my experience).

iOS 6 was rock solid, especially for older devices, and just in general.

iOS 7 was crap

iOS 8 was pretty solid overall, especially with older HW

iOS 9 was horrible

iOS 10 stable for older devices

iOS 11 just bad all over

iOS 12, probably most stable since iOS 8

iOS 13, who knows, but if based off of the trend, iOS 13 might be another turd.
I see. I was under the impression having read some stories on the net that the SE generation of processors will soon stop being supported. But, let's see what happens.

Interesting observation! My iPhone 7 is my first Apple phone and I really like it. The battery could be much better but I don't mind it, really. iOS 11 was quite disappointing, and I have to say 12 is running quite well on my nearly 9 months old 7.
 
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It’s the best iPhone on the planet. Everything A10 & up is complete and utter trash when it comes to sound quality, yet the gullible masses have been brainwashed into thinking AirPods are the answer.... if the Bugatti Veyron always had 999hp & all of a sudden Bugatti drops it down to 255hp & puts shiney bells & whistles which add more weight to the car...would you call that progress?

Heck no, that’s not progress...that’s trying to force “services” upon the consumer. By removing the headphone jack Apple had a way to upsell AirPods onto consumers and now you are beginning to see the frogs freaking out over being slowly brought up to boiling temperature. AirPods are made for forced obselence....I cannot stress that fact more clearly! You have to purchase new ones after two years, or pay through the nose with Apple Care for these 255kbps monitors. The dongle is a disaster, you can’t even get 320kbps through it, only 255kbps. So for a company that wants to move toward “services”, they are scamming anyone who uses Pandora One, Spotify Premium or Tidal Lossless. iPhone 7 devices and up are incapable of even pumping 320kbps to your ears, and all those services have the top quality setting as 320, with the latter approaching 999, while Timmy thinks 255 is adequate. It’s an insult to our intelligence to march us into cattle cars and run us all down the rails into audio purgatory, and I will not stand for it!!! NEVER FORGET

The iPhone SE is a 4 ounce device, and all the newer devices are much MUCH heavier, Timmy wants to create another problem for users so that he can sell you a “service” for that. Apple is smelling their own farts, y’all.

Services is not going to work, Apple poured so much money into the Apple Car and as research has proven it has been a complete and utter disaster.

Tim Cook went to a agricultural college “Auburn”, and he is just milking us all until our utters hurt and then they will make hamburgers out of us. I’m not going to let that happen, Apple was founded by a visionary, and now it is being driven into a ditch by a bean counter and cow tipper. (I know how Auburn folks roll, because I came out of one and everyone else in my family including myself attended the University of Alabama)

So to sum it up the SE beats all current Apple offerings on:

Sound Quality 5-1
Weight 2-1
Ergonomics
Portability

If you want to throw your life away by staring at a huge screen all day and losing touch with the real world...be shackled with heavier devices with less efficient battery life...lose your sense of hearing...then be my guest, the cattle car is at the Apple Store right now just waiting to wisk you down the line to a place where you will never return
What a well-written rant! I had absolutely no idea about the sound quality issues, so thanks for bringing that to our attention.
Also, like I said to a member above, it is really really disappointing to see the death of one-handed use. I have big hands and am quiet enjoying using my 7 with one hand. I would have got the SE except I wanted to be sure of iOS updates for the next 3 years.
Seriously, are they not hearing the customers at all? For someone like me coming from Android I was so taken by how iOS was built from the grounds-up for one-handed use. And with the powerful bricks coming out now all that is gone :-( Why? !
You may well have persuaded me to get an SE as my backup phone!
[doublepost=1550680799][/doublepost]
I love the form-factor, still keep my old 5c to use as a backup / when traveling, but I wouldn’t buy SE if I intended to use it as a primary phone, I’d be concerned about future iOS updates - or lack thereof.
That was the main reason why I got the 7 instead of the SE. And now loving the 7 I have to say the SE may have been difficult to use with two-handed thumb typing. But, still love the phone ;p)
 
I love the SE like many of you. The fact that we are all still ensnared by this venerable device is PROOF that something significant is missing from the current lineup of “new” models.

Give me an SE sized device with edge to edge display and best single lens camera available and I’d happily pay a flagship phone price for it.

It wasn’t too long ago that people paid more for the same thing but in a smaller form factor...

this, and the camera has to be flush with the case
 
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