Yeah that's what I'm afraid of if that's about all you get for $400 extra ...
But I guess I'm assuming SE will only be $400. That is probably wrong now that I think about it. (goes back and skims article for pricing and sure enough they hint at a price increase.)
Still saving $300 (assuming $500 price point) ...doesn't sound worth it for those 3 things.
I wouldn’t bet on the next price …
Display quality has been more than good enough for a long time now on iPhones. I wouldn't pay more for a slight improvement in display. MagSafe largely not used in our household. Kid has a magnetic phone charger but ...not worth $300.
Well, everyone has different needs and different perspectives: iPhone 14 display has been good, but iPhone 16 is objectively better. MagSafe is very useful for some, irrelevant for others, and so on.
Camera setup. Depends on where the cheap camera setup is at. Daylight photos haven't improved in iPhones in the past 5-8 years to my eyes and for my needs. Low light performance has been where it's at for getting a better iPhone camera. If SE is now matching that... or has improved greatly there ....then that would be good enough for me. I don't use/care about telephoto/portrait/etc features.
We don’t know which main sensor they are going to use. It could be the 48 Mpixel they are using since the iPhone 15 OR the old 12 Mpixel used on the 14. Was it bad ? Nope, but not even great by today’s standards.
Considering what you are saying you are not using above, you are pretty much a “basic iPhone user”, so indeed you could be satisfied by the new SE.
Not even remotely comparable to FaceID. And I’m very very very very happy Apple is using something different.
But basically a hole punch in the grand scheme of things. A hole surrounded by screen. Can’t imagine there’s a significant difference in price between that and a notch at this point in time, considering hole punches are the standard now.
It is not an hole. It is much bigger than a hole punch. It has several sensors inside. How much more it costs to manufacture I don’t know, but for sure it doesn’t come any cheaper.
Another commenter said they’re basically just using the tooling etc. they already have in place for the iPhone 14. They’re probably right. Still, when looking at the industry at large, Apple pretty much stands alone. Their infamous penny pinching is on full display.
Most probably Apple is going to use the same production line already in place for iPhone 14 (still sold in several countries including US), so it has some advantages for them.
As for the “Apple stands alone”… Apple doesn’t care. They want to stand alone. For the better or the worse, it is not Apple to follow Android manufactures, but the opposite.