iPhone SE 2 Again Rumored to Launch in First Half of 2018

[AZ63]

Much loved design? Sounds like Phil Schiller script to me. Not much loved anymore is more like it.
SE design is old, it's dated, it's thoughtless. Apple needs to properly refresh the 4 inch line.
iPhone SE hasn't really dropped iPhone pricing, but instead, other models around it 6, 7, 8, X have also increased iPhone pricing.
Apple should be doing R and D and reviving their edge. iPhone SE is a clear acknowledgement that Apple can't make a compact 4 inch form factor iPhone anymore.
It's a thumbs down on iPhone SE until a brand new replacement 4 inch is released.

The design falls in the category of, if it ain't broke don't fix it. You, of course, think it is broken but millions who buy it think otherwise.
Yes, people love change for the sake of change. And they can get that change in Apple's newest phones. The SE is the best $350 smartphone on the market. If you don't think so, what is a better phone for the money? If you want rounded slippery, Apple will happily sell you that for twice the price of the SE. You write like you would buy the SE if Apple would only do some updating that you don't identify. You come across complaining for the sake of complaining. That is your choice of course, it just seems like a waste especially when you have no interesting in buying the product. You don't like camera bumps. SE has your back. Still, you give no love to the best 4 inch phone. One more time, what's your "best" smartphone on the market claim?

 

[0007776]

I want an iphone X se?

I would love that. I got to play with the iPhone X in an Apple Store this week, and I liked it a lot more than I expected to, but the size was just awkward. An SE form factor with a bezel less screen would be perfect.

 

[Mac 128]

I would love that. I got to play with the iPhone X in an Apple Store this week, and I liked it a lot more than I expected to, but the size was just awkward. An SE form factor with a bezel less screen would be perfect.

Right. Put the iP7 and it's 4.7" display in a bezeless case and you've basically got the SE. The 5.5" X is basically the Plus shrunk down to the existing 4.7" iP7, which allows them to offer a new Plus-sized bezeless phone in the 6.3" range that's no bigger than the current Plus.

The existing SE sticks around to be the $200 budget phone with a processor upgrade to keep the experience optimal.

 

[Tozovac]

I would love that. I got to play with the iPhone X in an Apple Store this week, and I liked it a lot more than I expected to, but the size was just awkward. An SE form factor with a bezel less screen would be perfect.

I’ve asked several times in several posts about why a bezelless screen is so important, and have yet to get an answer. As reported by others, I fear too much the issue of not being able to hold securely a shape that’s already too slippery from rounded edges without blocking parts of the screen, and I use a case to address the iPhone’s design flaw of durability so I question the ability to adequately swipe from offscreen as the iPhone is pressed to do more and more via gestures, so I for one am not for a bezelless design. Can I ask: Is the goal more to see as much screen as possible in as small a footprint as possible, or is it purely a design/aesthetic thing, wanting to basically see the equivalent of a frameless painting on the wall? This seriously a real question.

 

[Mac 128]

I’ve asked several times in several posts about why a bezelless screen is so important, and have yet to get an answer. As reported by others, I fear too much the issue of not being able to hold securely a shape that’s already too slippery from rounded edges without blocking parts of the screen, and I use a case to address the iPhone’s design flaw of durability so I question the ability to adequately swipe from offscreen as the iPhone is pressed to do more and more via gestures, so I for one am not for a bezelless design. Can I ask: Is the goal more to see as much screen as possible in as small a footprint as possible, or is it purely a design/aesthetic thing, wanting to basically see the equivalent of a frameless painting on the wall? This seriously a real question.

Larger screen in the same dimensions.

 

[trumptman]

I agree with most of the sentiments expressed that the SE2 should be more classic or as it is now in terms of design while also getting upgraded internals. I understand the future is Face ID etc and we should all love exactly whatever makes the iPhone X the iPhone X but that isn't what the SE is about.

In fact it is really clear that for many folks, a large smartphone has become their first and perhaps only computer. Most people aren't writing papers or so on that would even require a laptop. For most students even a Chromebook is powerful enough. So a very expensive iPhone X might be justified when it is your computer for all purposes and reasons. However for me, my smartphone is still my smartphone and I don't need a boutique and pricey experience on that one device since it is one of several I will use. I'm on an iPhone 7 now and returned my X. If the SE 2 with upgraded internals gave two day battery life due to the smaller screen I might be all over it. Over the last few generations of iOS and phones I've been turning off most of the "new"features. I'm a 47 year old man. I don't need sticker packs, animojis, and I'd rather have two days no charging than thicker and wireless charging.

 

[Tozovac]

Larger screen in the same dimensions.

Thanks! First one to answer. I take it you don’t use a case?
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Over the last few generations of iOS and phones I've been turning off most of the "new"features. I'm a 47 year old man. I don't need sticker packs, animojis, and I'd rather have two days no charging than thicker and wireless charging.

Did your jaw drop to the ground like mine did when watching the keynote featuring Apple execs fawning over Animoji‘s?

 

[PickUrPoison]

Right. Put the iP7 and it's 4.7" display in a bezeless case and you've basically got the SE. The 5.5" X is basically the Plus shrunk down to the existing 4.7" iP7, which allows them to offer a new Plus-sized bezeless phone in the 6.3" range that's no bigger than the current Plus.

The existing SE sticks around to be the $200 budget phone with a processor upgrade to keep the experience optimal.

Except a 4.7” phone isn’t the 4.0” phone that people who buy the SE based on size (not price) want. Reachability would be affected, with the diagonal corners being harder to reach in one handed use. And it can’t be bezelless, even with FaceID instead of TouchID. So it would have to at least be taller than the current SE, even if no wider.

With a new LCD panel, FaceID, an A11 and a redesign, this new phone would probably push past iPhone 8 pricing; how well would it sell at $749-799?

Also, the current SE with a processor refresh wouldn’t drop from $350 to $200. It may drop $20-30 but even that would probably reduce Apple’s margins.

 

[0007776]

I’ve asked several times in several posts about why a bezelless screen is so important, and have yet to get an answer. As reported by others, I fear too much the issue of not being able to hold securely a shape that’s already too slippery from rounded edges without blocking parts of the screen, and I use a case to address the iPhone’s design flaw of durability so I question the ability to adequately swipe from offscreen as the iPhone is pressed to do more and more via gestures, so I for one am not for a bezelless design. Can I ask: Is the goal more to see as much screen as possible in as small a footprint as possible, or is it purely a design/aesthetic thing, wanting to basically see the equivalent of a frameless painting on the wall? This seriously a real question.

For me the desire would be to have a larger screen while having easy one handed use.

 

[smacrumon]

The design made sense for a 4" display. The iPhone 6 introduced larger displays, which is why the edges had to be rounded to make holding a larger phone easier. The chamfered edges no longer made sense in this context.

Makes sense to me.

Why make iPhone SE harder to hold with square corners if rounded corners are easier to hold? Wouldn't we want to make iPhone SE easier to hold too?
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My how you've changed in just over a year. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/why-i-have-confidence-in-tim-cook.198799/
So, enjoy your discussions with everyone else.

No change over a year. He's a good ambassador, but when it comes to design compromises, Tim allows them through, unlike Steve.
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Museum quality, utterly timeless design. Perfect to the touch, with satisfying feedback in both sound and touch.

Excellent photo of those absolutely beautiful round buttons; you are a talented photographer, even if your attempts at design critique are rather inexpert and unimaginative.

You’re really grasping at straws trying to find fault in this phone, aren’t you? Maybe time for a new hobby
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You miss the entire point of the SE. It is a budget iPhone. It was never meant to be a new design, in fact just the opposite: Apple kept the price low by using an existing design, with updated internals.

And make no mistake, $349 is low. It’s not the $649 4.0” iPhone 8 that you are asking for. That you feel entitled to a $199 phone is not relevant.

Complain all you want, but Apple will continue to sell tens of millions of iPhone SE. Every year. To their target market, those that want an inexpensive (and/or the smallest) iPhone. I can understand how that must be utterly infuriating to someone who doesn’t understand the product, but Apple will somehow survive without selling one to you.

Not museum quality. The plus and minus indicators, geez, those buttons that don't just serve as volume control. Those round buttons are so silly and not refined. See #389
$199 for a new 4-inch design. $349 is a rip off for a 5 year old design.

 

[Abazigal]

Why make iPhone SE harder to hold with square corners if rounded corners are easier to hold? Wouldn't we want to make iPhone SE easier to hold too?

My experience with my 5s and the 6S+ is that the chamfered edges still feel best in my hand. The curved edges feel less comfortable.

So my conclusion is that for a smaller phone, square corners are better than rounded edges. On a larger phone, rounded edges fit better in your hand than square edges.

 

[smacrumon]

What about those who would prefer that shape and feel of round volume buttons? I very much like their small shape that allows them to be closer to each other for more easy, quick up-and-down volume changes by wobbling my thumb.

With all due respect, that type of desire to have something new and different just to have something new different is what brought on that design mess of iOS 7, so please watch what you’re wishing for before Jony Ive removes buttons altogether in place of an LED panel on the side just so he can give a different shape every year (and further lessen the ease of utility of using an iPhone beyond what they’re doing now with headphone jacks, home button, etc.). Asking for something new and different in every nook and cranny is also a no-win situation in the long run: how many options are there for a useful, simple, and easy to use volume button before the pressure to provide something different results in something completely asinine, which is the hallmark of today’s Apple?

iOS 7 is one of the most amazing interfaces, certainly a maturing of the design. It was a good way forward.
Maybe what is actually needed for volume is a single rounded rectangle rocker, without the +/-.

via https://www.behance.net/gallery/20454249/iPhone-EDITION

 

[Martyimac]

Why make iPhone SE harder to hold with square corners if rounded corners are easier to hold? Wouldn't we want to make iPhone SE easier to hold too?
[doublepost=1511784720][/doublepost]
No change over a year. He's a good ambassador, but when it comes to design compromises, Tim allows them through, unlike Steve.
[doublepost=1511784993][/doublepost]
Not museum quality. The plus and minus indicators, geez, those buttons that don't just serve as volume control. Those round buttons are so silly and not refined. See #389
$199 for a new 4-inch design. $349 is a rip off for a 5 year old design.

I'm with Abazigal, on the smaller SE, I also find the chamferred/square shape easier to handle.
As to the one switch/button vs three, I disagree. When I went to the 6S, I found that the moving of the sleep/SD button was always being toggled instead of the volume buttons. The Position of the buttons on the SE seperates them so there is no confusion as to which button is being pushed/switched/toggled. Minimizing the number of buttons by complicating the one replacement control is NOT simplification. It means you have to stop and pay attention to how you are manipulating the control. The old way is actually simpler.
And I have to ask, what is "museum quality and why do I want it? Personally, I want to operate my device, not put in on display.
So again, we find ourselves diametrically opposed.

 

[chucker23n1]

$199 for a new 4-inch design. $349 is a rip off for a 5 year old design.

Regardless of whether you feel that way, a $199 iPhone with a new design is not going to happen.

 

[smacrumon]

I'm with Abazigal, on the smaller SE, I also find the chamferred/square shape easier to handle.
As to the one switch/button vs three, I disagree. When I went to the 6S, I found that the moving of the sleep/SD button was always being toggled instead of the volume buttons. The Position of the buttons on the SE seperates them so there is no confusion as to which button is being pushed/switched/toggled. Minimizing the number of buttons by complicating the one replacement control is NOT simplification. It means you have to stop and pay attention to how you are manipulating the control. The old way is actually simpler.
And I have to ask, what is "museum quality and why do I want it? Personally, I want to operate my device, not put in on display.
So again, we find ourselves diametrically opposed.

Completely disagree. A single button is MUCH easier in this case - rock up to volume up, rock down to volume down, slide to mute. There is not anything more simpler in visual design AND ease of use.
For some, once Apple does it, then it will be accepted as the best solution. I'm here stating it is best now.
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Regardless of whether you feel that way, a $199 iPhone with a new design is not going to happen.

Imagine if it did.

 

[Martyimac]

Imagine if it did.

Why?

 

[Tozovac]

iOS 7 is one of the most amazing interfaces, certainly a maturing of the design. It was a good way forward.

Did you find it fixed some broken aspects of the UI before iOS 7, or do you just like the iOS 7-11 aesthetics and interface more?
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Completely disagree. A single button is MUCH easier in this case - rock up to volume up, rock down to volume down, slide to mute. There is not anything more simpler in visual design AND ease of use.

Since you capitalized the word MUCH: how much harder for you was the 3-button method to use? And did you use a case when seeing any issue? Or is it mostly that the clean design just appeals to you more? Serious questions, not trolling.

As one of the minority who uses a case to address the iPhone’s fragility design flaw, and with bezel-less designs meaning that sides of cases will need to be even thicker to offer useful protection while allowing swiping from off-screen, I question whether a 1-button design will result in even more frequent unintentional volume changes and/or mutings when reaching in with a finger to work it in a thicker case’s side opening.

Until I try it, it would seem to me that in general a 3-button system would be more robust against inadvertent actuations than a one-button, especially for those of us who use a case. But I’d want to try it first.

Seems the biggest issue causing operability issues with a 1 or 3 button system is Apple’s utter blindness and apathy towards acknowledging that many actually use a case, instead appealing first and foremost to the marketers, minimalists, and super Apple fans.

 

[trumptman]

Why make iPhone SE harder to hold with square corners if rounded corners are easier to hold? Wouldn't we want to make iPhone SE easier to hold too?

It's simply about space. Straight up and down gets you more space and on a smaller design that space counts. Look at how the iPhone X got a bit thicker than either the 8 or 8+. (7.7 MM vs 7.5 or 7.3MM) At some point you run out or room. They also had to use a folded motherboard and jointed batter to make room.

Rounded corners would require more room on a phone that is already very tiny by most modern standards.

 

[Legionnaire]

To everyone saying iphone 5/SE is 5 years old. Yeah, but whats wrong with that? I literally have stayed with that design for this long. I used 5s for 4 years, and SE for a year and I will buy an SE 2 with same exact looks if it came out. I for one hate anything larger than this phone. Whats the point of having a tablet in your pocket? I just cant get behind it. I for one hope they keep these small phones forever. I never want to upgrade to a larger phone.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I drive a 1957 Corvette. I guess that means I look like I'm way behind the times and need to upgrade to a Toyota Prius or I'm lame.

Toyota Prius is a 1997 car - you'd still be lame if you drove it. Have to be driving a Tesla Model S, X, or 3 to not be lame.
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Don't tell me you're one of those "my toys are cooler than your toys!" people. Seriously though, calling someone lame for their iPhone choice is... well, lame.

Nope - I'm definitely not one of those people. I'm still happily using my 6+ and don't plan on replacing it for at least 9 months.

 

[chucker23n1]

Imagine if it did.

iPhone sales are doing fine. For a price cut from $349 to $199 to make sense, sales of the SE would simultaneously have to rise at least that much — i.e. more than 75%.

 

[PastaPrimav]

Actually I find the iPhone X and iPhone 8 to be the worst in the lineup. Both are very uncomfortable for me to use, impossible one handed, I use wired headphones and I'm not interested in stuffing around with adapters, I much prefer Touch ID to faceID. The only thing I miss from the newer phones on my SE is the A11 and the camera.

You're just being silly, there are 4 years worth of additions to the iPhone lineup in the iPhone X over the iPhone SE (everything from 6s onward). I see women with small hands using the iPhone X comfortably with no issue, including several former SE owners. The iPhone X includes wired headphones. And there is no such thing as "preferring" Touch ID.. There is nothing to "prefer". Face ID is simply better, and just gets out of your way and lets you use the phone without a deliberate repetitive action.

There is no argument here. The SE is an inferior phone where you are choosing price over everything else. That's why it exists. Don't delude yourself into thinking it exists to serve "people who want a 4" phone over every other technological advancement imaginable". That market doesn't exist, and its not why the SE exists.

 

[Tozovac]

You're just being silly, there are 4 years worth of additions to the iPhone lineup in the iPhone X over the iPhone SE (everything from 6s onward). I see women with small hands using the iPhone X comfortably with no issue, including several former SE owners. The iPhone X includes wired headphones. And there is no such thing as "preferring" Touch ID.. There is nothing to "prefer". Face ID is simply better, and just gets out of your way and lets you use the phone without a deliberate repetitive action.

There is no argument here. The SE is an inferior phone where you are choosing price over everything else. That's why it exists. Don't delude yourself into thinking it exists to serve "people who want a 4" phone over every other technological advancement imaginable". That market doesn't exist, and its not why the SE exists.

Are you serious or trolling?

Who are you to tell another user what works better for them, or that they’re buying solely on price?

And there very much can be a preference for Touch ID. I often have my phone pointed away from me when wanting to awake it, such as when I’m on a gig and the phone is nearby hard-mounted on my mic stand holder and not facing me. I dont want to have to turn off security to unlock it. I prefer having Touch ID. I very much prefer a headphone jack for when I wish to output into my or someone else’s mixing board at a gig where often I need to keep it plugged in to charge using an available lightning cable, but not wanting to carry around a splitter for charging and feeding audio to the board.

Those are just two examples of many where I prefer Touch ID & a headphone jack over Jony’s damn self-imposed minimalist design contest that’s slowly getting to be out of hand as it inches towards ridiculousness by minimizing physical buttons in favor of software.

Your mindset of assuming what’s best and easiest for customers by gearing down towards a specific UI or hardware feature across the board and with limited opportunity for user preference (if it’s real and not trolling) is one of Apple’s biggest issues and/or missed opportunities today imho, the other being allowing Jony Ive anywhere near software without an appropriate babysitter (Steve Jobs being the last effective one).

 

[PastaPrimav]

Are you serious or trolling?

Who are you to tell another user what works better for them, or that they’re buying solely on price?

And there very much can be a preference for Touch ID. I often have my phone pointed away from me when wanting to awake it, such as when I’m on a gig and the phone is nearby hard-mounted on my mic stand holder and not facing me. I dont want to have to turn off security to unlock it. I prefer having Touch ID. I very much prefer a headphone jack for when I wish to output into my or someone else’s mixing board at a gig where often I need to keep it plugged in to charge using an available lightning cable, but not wanting to carry around a splitter for charging and feeding audio to the board.

Those are just two examples of many where I prefer Touch ID & a headphone jack over Jony’s damn self-imposed minimalist design contest that’s slowly getting to be out of hand as it inches towards ridiculousness by minimizing physical buttons in favor of software.

Your mindset of assuming what’s best and easiest for customers by gearing down towards a specific UI or hardware feature across the board and with limited opportunity for user preference (if it’s real and not trolling) is one of Apple’s biggest issues and/or missed opportunities today imho, the other being allowing Jony Ive anywhere near software without an appropriate babysitter (Steve Jobs being the last effective one).

Lol.

Nope.

 

[Ladybug]

I wish they would get rid of the "useless" camera, battery and screen too. In fact, I really want Apple to get rid of ALL features that iPhone users use and sell us an empty box for about $699. Then we can buy accessories for more to put a usable phone back together again.

Haha, I was thinking same thing. How about new dongles for calling, another for camera, and they could add iMessage on a stick. Oh the possibilities are endless.