the killer feature is home button and touch id
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iPhone SE 4 Launching as Soon as Next Week
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Well, that's it for Apple offering a phone that immunosuppressed folks can use to do payments in-store.
That TouchID is a feature some folks would pay iPhone Pro money to get an iPhone SE3 featureset, if that's what it takes.
Apple's iOS products are in a weird place where you have devices with a range of prices, but the more expensive products aren't necessarily much more capable than the lowest priced products. Outside of certain photography features, this SE will be as capable of a phone as the Pro models
True.
But I was also thinking about retail and carriers.
Has to lead to same crazy discounts on most iPhones (besides 16/16 Pro/Max).
This SE is about to shake things up!
Seriously, I'd take a not-maxi size iPhone if they won't make a mini.
The take the iPhone X/XS/11's 5.8" screen size with today's smaller bezels and that would still be a pretty mini phone compared to the 6.3"+ ever increasing sizes today.
Instead we get thinner! giant phones.
Folks who cant remove masks to use "full security" FaceID when going through the checkout in a supermarket, etc.
I guess they’re referring to people with compromised immune systems can’t walk out in public without wearing a face mask.
Face ID can’t be used if you’re constantly covering up most of your face.
I guess Apple needs to implement some of the iris scanning tech they use in AVP for the next generation of Face ID.
But, obviously, that tech won’t debut in an iPhone SE. And maybe we won’t ever see something like that on iPhone at all.
But I did with mine back in the day
Lawsuit bemoans iPhone XR's 'inferior,' 'defective' 2x2 MIMO antennas
A class action lawsuit filed on Monday suggests Apple intentionally misled customers by failing to disclose design and performance differences between the "inferior" 2x2 MIMO antenna array in iPhone XR and the 4x4 MIMO setup in iPhone XS and XS Max.
appleinsider.com
I'm at a food stall in the middle of a bright sunny day in a crowded market, a nice wide-brimmed shade hat, I have the scalding hot plate of Gozlame in one hand, I don't have two more hands to juggle sunglasses and phone, so anything eye / face based is pretty much off the table as a sustainable option.
TouchID really is a wheelchair-ramp-level assistive technology / affordance for a significant section of the community (folks with autoimmune disorders, cancer patients, organ transplant recipients etc).
Even without the payment aspect, just being able to unlock the phone around other people, without having to type out a passcode.
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Apparently Face ID works with a mask:
From: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/102452
Apparently you can also "add up to four pairs of glasses with Face ID."
I can afford a 16 Pro. The reason I own and use an SE is that I like the size, the rounded edges, and the home button. So, if they make the new SE bigger and with FaceId, then there will be no reason for me to buy it, because in that case I might as well buy the top of the line, no need to settle for the lowest-end model. I bought the lowest-end model because it was special. If it isn't special anymore, then why should I?
For me, no TouchId, no buy. I will keep my current SE forever. Maybe I'll buy another one while I still can, to have a backup in case this one dies.
For me, no TouchId, no buy. I will keep my current SE forever. Maybe I'll buy another one while I still can, to have a backup in case this one dies.
Absolutely, 100% true: iPhone or smartphones at large, the average consumer goes for what's immediately obvious and tangible.
That includes things like display size, phone size, display brightness/quality, price, etc.
The average buyer will (rightly) assume everything is just going to work and not think about who made the modem in their new smartphone.
I'd even bet that almost none of them have even thought about there being any kind of modems inside their smartphones as it's neither a component they get to touch or see, nor is it a spec that one can upgrade at purchase, like storage or RAM.
Suggesting that anyone buying an iPhone thinks about the modem is frighteningly out of touch. The number of people considering this spec is so low it might as well be exactly zero (even if it technically isn't).
I also still don't get this narrative of Apple shipping SE 4 with a terrible modem as the costs associated with the inevitable replacements and repairs and recalls and (potential) lawsuits/settlements are far larger than Apple just spending more money on making a great modem for SE 4 and shipping it with that.
Yes, they've done it in the past. But you guys really don't think Apple wants to minimize losses and optimize future products to avoid more losses?
SE 4 isn't going to blow anyone away on performance and high-end specs. But it'll be a very solid product at a great price, once of the best value/$ SEs ever, I have no doubt.
Yup.
Short of doing a speed test I don’t think you’ll be able to tell the difference.
As someone who reads this site and follows tech I use an iPhone 13 mini. I only remember the other week that it’s not a “pro” phone 🤣
I was thinking the exact same thing. I already decided that my son will have an iPhone so that he will be included in my family and I can monitor everything.
- No chance base storage is 64GB
- We don't exactly know how the Apple modem performs, the goal would be for nobody to even notice
- no mmWave - possible, that's a good point
- no magsafe - also possible. I would find it shocking that they would omit magsafe from this, but certainly possible.
It may just be wishful thinking, but I don't see the logic of making the SE just another more expensive all-screen FaceID phone, when they already have that device in the range - it's last year's (and the year before's) standard models.
iPhone 16 is the current model. iPhone 15, and 14 are still on sale new from Apple (and they're on the long tail of low production costs from established production lines). Where does a non-TouchID all-screen iPhone SE fit in that strategy?
Keeping those old flagship phones in production for several generations is part of amortising the cost of developing them.
The more I think about it, the more I think the FaceID / all screen SE sounds like the "Apple television" which Mossberg (I think) kept pushing as a certain thing. Apple knows TouchID is a selling point, and that the market for the SE isn't just people who can't afford (but really want) a FaceID phone.
Thinking about the headphone jack as an analogy - I don't recall Apple making the headphone jack on the iPhone 5 style SE a marketing point "The headphone jack you know and love". And yet...
The option that makes the most sense to me, would be they keep the current form-factor, albeit swapping lightning to USB-C, but replace the large top bezel with an iPhone 14-style notch for camera and speaker (notably without FaceID to save costs and preserve range segmentation), to sneak in a bit more screen space, without increasing the size of the device.
iPhone 16 is the current model. iPhone 15, and 14 are still on sale new from Apple (and they're on the long tail of low production costs from established production lines). Where does a non-TouchID all-screen iPhone SE fit in that strategy?
Keeping those old flagship phones in production for several generations is part of amortising the cost of developing them.
The more I think about it, the more I think the FaceID / all screen SE sounds like the "Apple television" which Mossberg (I think) kept pushing as a certain thing. Apple knows TouchID is a selling point, and that the market for the SE isn't just people who can't afford (but really want) a FaceID phone.
Thinking about the headphone jack as an analogy - I don't recall Apple making the headphone jack on the iPhone 5 style SE a marketing point "The headphone jack you know and love". And yet...
The option that makes the most sense to me, would be they keep the current form-factor, albeit swapping lightning to USB-C, but replace the large top bezel with an iPhone 14-style notch for camera and speaker (notably without FaceID to save costs and preserve range segmentation), to sneak in a bit more screen space, without increasing the size of the device.