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"Significant" is a subjective word, so whether any particular upgrade is "significant" to a particular user will depend on how that person uses his or her phone. That said: the performance and camera improvements are both massive. The water resistance and dual-SIM will be a great help to some though maybe useless to others. And battery life is measurably longer, even if the 6s has a brand new battery.
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That’s my point though.

Also, A9 to A13 looks good in graphs and on apples website dedicated to advertising and encouraging you to upgrade

But in real life, very little performance difference. The relative processing power required to open up messages or settings or mail or the App Store in iOS 13 is not the same as it was in iOS 9 for the iPhone 4S vs the 6S.

the battery going from 6s to 8 is not much different, and the SE 2020 is rated the same. Ultimately It’s not like getting an iPhone 11 where there is a noticeable user difference in battery life (and even then whether or not thats worth the upgrade depends on the end user)

if you’re upgrading the 6s to the new SE, here you’ll get a nice 50$ value for it which is applied to an Apple store gift card, which is only applied after you have the tax added to retail price. That’s still over 600$ CAD, and my stance on that is it would be a waste of 600$ spent.

I agree maybe water resistance is a more practical and worthwhile feature - perhaps you like listening to audio in the shower or watching shows in the tub, or you live by the ocean are frequent the beach, or winter time is a concerning environment as you could drop your phone in snow

otherwise I can agree with many users in this thread - if we go by one of Apples biggest advertising points, the performance difference between the A13 and A9 is certainly not a reason to dispose of a phone for meagre value and spend hundreds of dollars on a new one. If the A9 devices were much slower, then it would be a different discussion but they are not, certainly not 600$ worth for example.

yes significant is subjective and I agree with that, but it’s an interesting argument to be had as there isn’t anything that notably changes the use of the SE over the 6s if we go by the dictionary definition of the word, and many 6s owners have made compelling reasons why an upgrade doesn’t make sense as well as others who have decided to go for it.
 
Battery replaced on my iPhone 6s a few months ago - cost £25 (at a shoe repair store) with 12 month warranty. Interestingly local Apple approved store would not replace battery because my phone was "not flat" - so saved £35 on their price (and they got no upsell). I might consider SE once 6s loses iOS support - or I might consider Android. Apple still living off past glories and failing to adjust to economic realities.

I am not saying a replacement cannot to acquired cheaper elsewhere, some people prefer authorized repair shops. Technically with a 6S one could do the replacement on their own if comfortable for even less money.
 
Okay hi everyone!

I came here to hopefully find some clarity on whether or not I should upgrade from my 6S to the SE 2020 but the comments seem very divided so I thought I'd explain my specific situation and hopefully someone with better understanding than me could help (please!).

My 6s is over 3 years old now (bought January 2017). Battery health is at 68%, lasts me for about 2 hours in quarantine (awful) and on a "normal" busy day ~5 hours, as I am someone who relies on my phone quite a lot. Lightning port seems to be faulty as I haven't been able to move my phone while it's charging or it stops - I'm not sure what's up with that. The software however, performs perfectly fine, I haven't noticed any speed changes other than apps refreshing on their own from time to time when I switch between them. My only complaint is that it sometimes "freezes", or even shuts down abruptly, which I suspect is due to my low storage space (only have the 32GB model) but this doesn't happen all that often. I would like a better camera but that isn't something I consider essential. I like the "small" screen size as I have small hands that have made it difficult for me to handle the bigger screen sizes in the past lol, so that's not something I am bothered by and I also simply can't afford Apple's bigger phones but I love iOS and don't wanna switch to Android.

So my question is - should I upgrade to the SE 2020 or replace the 6S battery/lightning port (can't do that right now as our iStores are currently closed but still!)? Furthermore, is it likely that the 6S won't support iOS14?

Thank you!
 
You’re alluding to the intangibles. When I updated my 6s to an Xs max my user experience changed dramatically. Part was speed, display, new features, camera and others. Especially YouTube videos.

your experience there is in fact making my point

not everyone will have the same upgrade criteria or sees the same criteria. So when a point is made that if you use X device then you “should” upgrade to Y device, that is not going to be true for everyone using X device

YouTube on my 6s doesn’t load the app or load videos significantly slower than my 11 Pro. They’re in front of me - i timed about 3-4 millisecond difference? One video was a second slower to load, A few loaded identically on both. First app load is about 6 milliseconds. So for someone who doesn’t watch YouTube or maybe watches the odd YouTube video here and there, it’s less important, or someone who opens up messages or calendar 99% of the time when they’re using their phone - especially if there’s not much of a difference in performance.

if you watch dozens of YouTube videos daily on your phone and not a computer or iPad, all those hours add up over a month or a year, and then the experience of a 6.5” OLED panel would be much nicer and more important, or you’re doing other things like reading dozens of iBooks or PDFs per day. In that case I’d argue the XS Max is a more appropriate device because it would help your work. And in this context, the SE is not in the discussion - because it’s essentially the same Retina HD display in the 6s with p3 and True Tone, feature by itself that don’t change YouTube consumption the way the 6.5” OLED panel, or even a 5.5” LCD 1080p panel does.

but those are two different users. The XS Max has a different value to them. To one, the upgrade is worth the $, to the other it is not.

In the context of SE 2020 vs 6s, it’s even less pronounced
 
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your experience there is in fact making my point

not everyone will have the same upgrade criteria or sees the same criteria. So when a point is made that if you use X device then you “should” upgrade to Y device, that is not going to be true for everyone using X device

YouTube on my 6s doesn’t load the app or load videos significantly slower than my 11 Pro. They’re in front of me - i timed about 3-4 millisecond difference? One video was a second slower to load, A few loaded identically on both. First app load is about 6 milliseconds. So for someone who doesn’t watch YouTube or maybe watches the odd YouTube video here and there, it’s less important, or someone who opens up messages or calendar 99% of the time when they’re using their phone - especially if there’s not much of a difference in performance.

if you watch dozens of YouTube videos daily on your phone and not a computer or iPad, all those hours add up over a month or a year, and then the experience of a 6.5” OLED panel would be much nicer and more important, or you’re doing other things like reading dozens of iBooks or PDFs per day. In that case I’d argue the XS Max is a more appropriate device because it would help your work

but those are two different users. The XS Max has a different value to them. To one, the upgrade is worth the $, to the other it is not.
User experience is completely subjective, which I guess we are both saying.

Here is a comparison:

The upgrades add up to a significantly enhanced user experience. I for one would notice a difference, but there are those who don’t care or don’t notice.
 
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This iPhone 6 owner is more inclined to dropping in a new battery and upgrading substantially to a 12.

I tend to hold on to my Apple gear and prefer updating to a cutting edge device every 4-5 years. This strategy won’t work with the SE. While the A13 certainly will last, it’s screen size and camera falls short (especially without night mode).

The 6 actually still does the job reasonably well. I can only recall one or two instances where I’m unable to run something because it required iOS 13.
 
Not really that great.... Apple's fast charging in previous phones fast charge to 80%, the trickle charge the remaining 20%..

But this new SE, it only fast charges to 50% ? That's worse, not better. There is not much else new i would be excited about, but the screen..

For me, i'll keep my 5.5' iPhone 6s Plus.

Are you serious... Let me put it out for you

the iPhone 6 Was the first iPhone to charge at 2 amp ( with a 10W charger) so yes it will charge faster but it is not that “fast charging”. And after 80% it slows down to 1 amp, trickle charge is where the battery goes to 100% and then it trickle charges since the battery is full anyway Where did you get that it trickle charges after 80% from

also even with the phones that do support 18W fast charging, after the battery goes past 50% it will still charge very fast (provided the ports speed) until 80% and as above It goes down to 1 amp

Apple only supported modern day fast charging since iPhone 8
 
That’s my point though.

Also, A9 to A13 looks good in graphs and on apples website dedicated to advertising and encouraging you to upgrade

But in real life, very little performance difference. The relative processing power required to open up messages or settings or mail or the App Store in iOS 13 is not the same as it was in iOS 9 for the iPhone 4S vs the 6S.

the battery going from 6s to 8 is not much different, and the SE 2020 is rated the same. Ultimately It’s not like getting an iPhone 11 where there is a noticeable user difference in battery life (and even then whether or not thats worth the upgrade depends on the end user)

if you’re upgrading the 6s to the new SE, here you’ll get a nice 50$ value for it which is applied to an Apple store gift card, which is only applied after you have the tax added to retail price. That’s still over 600$ CAD, and my stance on that is it would be a waste of 600$ spent.

I agree maybe water resistance is a more practical and worthwhile feature - perhaps you like listening to audio in the shower or watching shows in the tub, or you live by the ocean are frequent the beach, or winter time is a concerning environment as you could drop your phone in snow

otherwise I can agree with many users in this thread - if we go by one of Apples biggest advertising points, the performance difference between the A13 and A9 is certainly not a reason to dispose of a phone for meagre value and spend hundreds of dollars on a new one. If the A9 devices were much slower, then it would be a different discussion but they are not, certainly not 600$ worth for example.

yes significant is subjective and I agree with that, but it’s an interesting argument to be had as there isn’t anything that notably changes the use of the SE over the 6s if we go by the dictionary definition of the word, and many 6s owners have made compelling reasons why an upgrade doesn’t make sense as well as others who have decided to go for it.
Of course we could live with our beautiful 6s phones, but IMO, for US $399, trading up from the 6s to the SE 2020 is worth it, especially if you'll have to replace your 6s battery for $49. Plus, if your 6s is in good shape, Apple will give US $80 for trade-in. The SE has a better color gamut and can get much brighter (625 vs 500), it has 3GB of faster/more efficient LPDDR4X vs 2GB LPDDR4 (enabling more future iOS updates along with the 11), the cameras and their software are much better and both have portrait mode, it has stereo sound and wireless charging, it's water resistant, and the A13 is much faster with more future proofing. In other words, it's a much better phone with the same or better battery performance as the iPhone 8. And, FWIW, the SE will probably be the last iPhone with the classic iPhone6/iPod 5-type design that Steve Jobs had a hand in. The 6s might get iOS 14, but that would probably be the last. So, as my 6s battery capacity is 84% and runs down fairly quickly, I'm impatiently waiting for my Red 256 SE to arrive next week. Cheers.
 
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Of course we could live with our beautiful 6s phones, but IMO, for US $399, trading up from the 6s to the SE 2020 is worth it, especially if you'll have to replace your 6s battery for $49. Plus, if your 6s is in good shape, Apple will give US $80 for trade-in. The SE has a better color gamut and can get much brighter (625 vs 500), it has 3GB of faster/more efficient LPDDR4X vs 2GB LPDDR4 (enabling more future iOS updates along with the 11), the cameras and their software are much better and both have portrait mode, it has stereo sound and wireless charging, it's waterproof, and the A13 is much faster with more future proofing. In other words, it's a much better phone with the same or better battery performance as the iPhone 8. And, FWIW, the SE will probably be the last iPhone with the classic iPhone6/iPod 5-type design that Steve Jobs had a hand in. The 6s might get iOS 14, but that would probably be the last. So, as my 6s battery capacity is 84% and runs down fairly quickly, I'm impatiently waiting for my Red 256 SE to arrive next week. Cheers.

If the 6S doesn’t get IOS 14 then it would not have received the “legendary“ 5 years of updates, so it is likely to. Notwithstanding that, they’re mostly meaningless in any event with many Updated software features requiring hardware that doesn’t exist in the phone. I’m not sure how many folks will really be holding onto the SE for five years; by then it will be a 10-year old design, phones available then will have large, high resolution micro led screens, 5G will be much more widespread and I would hazard a guess all phones will have a 5G modem within 18 months. Lightening ports will have gone from all Apple products. I’m not so sure the SE is a really that much of a wise buy.

My 6S is perfectly fine, certainly fast enough; my incentive to upgrade would be for a larger screen, but that option moves you into the £800-1000 range with Apple.
 
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I don't get why you insist on calling this a "low-cost" iPhone. What qualifies it as such? Being the lowest cost item in the iPhone line? Before the SE was re-released, there was the XR, the 11 and the 11 Pro. Was the XR the new "low-cost iPhone" then? Is the 3.5 GHz 8-core Mac Pro the "low-cost" Mac Pro just because it's the cheapest Mac Pro at $5999?
The low-cost Mac is the mini at $799, not the $5,999 Mac Pro lol. The MacBook Air is $999.

The low-cost iPhone is the $399 iPhone SE, it’s a much better value than the iPhone 8 it replaced, which was $449 up until a couple weeks ago.

Similarly, the low-cost Watch is the Series 3, at $199 and AirPods at $159. Apple TV HD is $149. iPad lists at $329 but is often available for around $249.

People complain about high prices but there are a lot of low-cost Apple products.
 
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Of course we could live with our beautiful 6s phones, but IMO, for US $399, trading up from the 6s to the SE 2020 is worth it, especially if you'll have to replace your 6s battery for $49. Plus, if your 6s is in good shape, Apple will give US $80 for trade-in. The SE has a better color gamut and can get much brighter (625 vs 500), it has 3GB of faster/more efficient LPDDR4X vs 2GB LPDDR4 (enabling more future iOS updates along with the 11), the cameras and their software are much better and both have portrait mode, it has stereo sound and wireless charging, it's waterproof, and the A13 is much faster with more future proofing. In other words, it's a much better phone with the same or better battery performance as the iPhone 8. And, FWIW, the SE will probably be the last iPhone with the classic iPhone6/iPod 5-type design that Steve Jobs had a hand in. The 6s might get iOS 14, but that would probably be the last. So, as my 6s battery capacity is 84% and runs down fairly quickly, I'm impatiently waiting for my Red 256 SE to arrive next week. Cheers.

water resistant not water proof.
 
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Okay hi everyone!

I came here to hopefully find some clarity on whether or not I should upgrade from my 6S to the SE 2020 but the comments seem very divided so I thought I'd explain my specific situation and hopefully someone with better understanding than me could help (please!).

My 6s is over 3 years old now (bought January 2017). Battery health is at 68%, lasts me for about 2 hours in quarantine (awful) and on a "normal" busy day ~5 hours, as I am someone who relies on my phone quite a lot. Lightning port seems to be faulty as I haven't been able to move my phone while it's charging or it stops - I'm not sure what's up with that. The software however, performs perfectly fine, I haven't noticed any speed changes other than apps refreshing on their own from time to time when I switch between them. My only complaint is that it sometimes "freezes", or even shuts down abruptly, which I suspect is due to my low storage space (only have the 32GB model) but this doesn't happen all that often. I would like a better camera but that isn't something I consider essential. I like the "small" screen size as I have small hands that have made it difficult for me to handle the bigger screen sizes in the past lol, so that's not something I am bothered by and I also simply can't afford Apple's bigger phones but I love iOS and don't wanna switch to Android.

So my question is - should I upgrade to the SE 2020 or replace the 6S battery/lightning port (can't do that right now as our iStores are currently closed but still!)? Furthermore, is it likely that the 6S won't support iOS14?

Thank you!
Clean lint out of Lightning port with a toothpick, replace battery.
 
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Should you upgrade?

Only if you don't mind dropping $399 plus tax

Yeah they seemed to miss that one. 'Good value' doesn't mean affordable.

If you've got a fully working iPhone 6 like me then IMO there's little point in upgrading unless you're having serious problems with performance. You'll lose your headphone jack and your hard earned US$399 + tax. All you'll gain are incremental speed/camera/screen upgrades and the waterproof body (which probably isn't all that important if you've kept your iPhone in goot condition since 2013).

Basically:
- It's worth it if you NEED to upgrade.
- If you're happy with your iPhone 6 and wanna save money then it's a big meeeeh. Wait 'till your iPhone 6 packs up and then get one.
 
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Ironically I bought the new SE because I want to use my phone LESS...

Hear me out. I’m trying to use my phone less, but thers no escaping it; I do need one.

But if I’m using it less, the. I only need the cheapest one. And now, here it is. iPhone SE. Best iPhone for $400. Period.
And now that it’s here, it won’t be updated for years. Literally. It will stay as is for 2 maybe 3 yeears. i wasn’t confident that iPhone 7, (with the battery replaced once already), would survive that long and still deliver a satisfactory performance. [It was already getting a bit janky.]


So, what to do? Sell my 7 now, get reasonable resale price and buy new SE at launch. Or wait till 7 is dead, get nothing for it, then buy old hardware a year or two down the track?

I went with the SE
 
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But in real life, very little performance difference. The relative processing power required to open up messages or settings or mail or the App Store in iOS 13 is not the same as it was in iOS 9 for the iPhone 4S vs the 6S.
don’t agree there. My iPad Air and my wife’s Xs (Both A12) are both far faster and more fluid in everyday tasks than my 7 (A10). The difference between A9 and A13 is going to be at least as noticeable and probably more.

the battery going from 6s to 8 is not much different, and the SE 2020 is rated the same.
I mean the SE is rated for about 3 hours more video playback than the 6s, a 30% increase. Is that “significant”? I think so because even the SE is not great, so the 6s is REALLY not great. And to compare apples to apples, you need to spend $49 US to get a new battery in that 6s. And then you’re pouring more money into a 4 year old device.

if you’re upgrading the 6s to the new SE, here you’ll get a nice 50$ value for it which is applied to an Apple store gift card, which is only applied after you have the tax added to retail price. That’s still over 600$ CAD, and my stance on that is it would be a waste of 600$ spent.
keeping what you have is always more economical than buying new. It’s why many people run their cars into the ground for 20 years. Doesn’t mean the new car isn’t a massively better machine though.
otherwise I can agree with many users in this thread - if we go by one of Apples biggest advertising points, the performance difference between the A13 and A9 is certainly not a reason to dispose of a phone for meagre value and spend hundreds of dollars on a new one. If the A9 devices were much slower, then it would be a different discussion but they are not, certainly not 600$ worth for example.
but “worth” is another subjective word. If you’ve lost your job and that money is next month’s rent? Of course not. But a smartphone is something many people use more than any other object they own. A few hundred bucks for a better one spread over the 2-4 years you’re likely to own it isn’t much to a lot of people, including people who are far from rich.
 
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I currently have a 6s and I’m still happy with the phone..new battery and works excellent. I won’t be upgrading to the SE that’s mostly because the SE looks exactly like my 6s it would be like a lateral move for me. I can’t believe my 6s will soon be 5 yrs old and still runs like brand new.

When I upgrade it will be for a slightly larger screen not another 4.7”. I’m waiting to see what the iPhone 12 looks like.
 
Regarding this graphic:

iosbenchmarkssinglecoremulticore.jpg


In my experience for web browsing on an iPad (which is more CPU intensive than on an iPhone) in the top graph:

~1000 (iPad 5 and iPad Air 2) = acceptable
~1400 (iPad 7) = quite good
>2200 (iPad Pro 10.5) = excellent
>4500 (iPad Pro 2018) = outstanding

My personal cutoff for good browsing performance is 1300-1400, but others would be fine with 1000. Many would complain at 600 though. I say that as an owner of the iPad Air 2 (1050), iPad 7 (1400), and iPad Pro 10.5 (2300). We also own the iPhone 6s (1000), iPhone 7 Plus (1400), and iPhone XR (2700).

It should also be noted that my 2017 12" Core m3 MacBook scores 1500, and it surfs very, very well, even though it's running the much more CPU-intensive macOS Catalina. My MacBook has 16 GB RAM though. ;)
BTW, my 2009 MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.26 GHz scores 600 on Geekbench 5 multi-core. It is very slow for surfing.
 
still keeping my 8+ for many many more years. At the end of the day, it's just a phone for me. If i need to do something that requires lots of CPU power (and the A11 is no slouch either), i wouldnt want to do it on the phone
 
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iPhone 7 users have no reason to upgrade. It’s still super fast on my 128gb iPhone 7. I did replace the battery via Apple support for the $50 and it’s good as new. That is the only “upgrade” needed.
 
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If the 6S doesn’t get IOS 14 then it would not have received the “legendary“ 5 years of updates, so it is likely to. Notwithstanding that, they’re mostly meaningless in any event with many Updated software features requiring hardware that doesn’t exist in the phone. I’m not sure how many folks will really be holding onto the SE for five years; by then it will be a 10-year old design, phones available then will have large, high resolution micro led screens, 5G will be much more widespread and I would hazard a guess all phones will have a 5G modem within 18 months. Lightening ports will have gone from all Apple products. I’m not so sure the SE is a really that much of a wise buy.

My 6S is perfectly fine, certainly fast enough; my incentive to upgrade would be for a larger screen, but that option moves you into the £800-1000 range with Apple.
I agree that the 6s will get the last update in the fall, and except for possible efficiency tweaks it will probably be pretty useless for that phone. I have no issue with a 10-year-old design - I kept my 2001 VW for 15 years. I'm happy with the 6s screen, and the SE will be better and brighter. The small side bezels of the SE prevent fingertips from touching the viewing area - I don't much care for edge-to-edge screens. I don't care about 5G - I'm not watching 4K movies with my phone. I like to keep a lot of lossless music on my phone and the the 256GB SE will be quite useful for that...
 
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