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"But but but there are $150 Android phones with 120Hz refresh rates! Come on, Apple!"

I have an Android phone with a 120Hz refresh rate. I never, ever, not once, have thought "gee I wish my iPhone SE looked like this." I bought it because I heard it had a really nice screen, and I wanted to play in the Android ecosystem too. The screen is fine. The OS and the rest of the experience are janky with lots of features but poorly implemented.

I think the vast majority of smartphone shoppers would be more interested in seeing an ad from their carrier that says "It's the latest and least expensive iPhone" than they are "Android phone, 120Hz refresh rate."

Yes of course there are huge markets for both inexpensive Androids and iPhones. Each has tradeoffs and I'm willing to have a phone with a "lesser" feature specification that I don't notice in order to have a phone that's so much better to use, right out of the box.

You know the $150 Android phone that offers 90Hz screen and offer great experience? A used Pixel 7a.

I don’t know what experiments are janky and features are poorly implement, please tell me.

However, iPhone as it is, still have so many things that I consider are poorly implement:

1. I have iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro. The always on display is bad. Sometime I cannot tell if my iPhone is on AOD mode or the screen is on. The always on display also kills battery life pretty significantly.

2. The notification sheet is also a mess.

3. The swipe left/right gesture doesn’t work universally. Some app allows you swipe back to go back one level, some app will go back to home page, some app does not allow swipe left and right.

4. For some reason, my phone will go black as soon as I pick up call, tap screen does not wake up screen. I have to physically press the power buttons to wake up screen.

5. iPhone does really poor job on filtering out spam calls or scam calls. One thing I missing from Pixel line is call screening.

I think I have listed enough of my grip about iPhone and iOS. I also need to say, it is not all sunshine on Android side. Each OS has its own up and downs, I just learned to live with both.
 
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My Pixel ask for a pardon. Samsung just came out said they are doing 6 years of Android support, even with their galaxy A-line budget phones.

I get you don’t like Android, that’s fine. But at least get some correct information and don’t blanket every Android phone.
Oh wow. So finally in 2024 android finally gets updated regularly like it should have always been.

you do realize while Samsung is the most popular brand that they do not count for most androids so my statements still stand.

Pixels are terrible. Android or not. I got stuck using one for two days. Never again
 
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But don’t charge more, right? In fact lower the price, right? You can’t have your cake snd eat it too.
Android brands sure seem to be able to provide 120 Hz at a low cost. Apple doing this seems like price differentiation to me. They certainly do it on memory / storage upgrades.

I don't really have a problem with price differentiation in theory, but Apple tends to keep old tech in their products too long, IMO. I think after a point, it hurts the brand.
 
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I think everyone knows your endless disdain for android, even if it's misplaced but shoveling misinformation isn't productive.
There’s nothing misplaced or incorrect about what I said. I understand criticism of android (a product I have well over nearly 2 decades with) bothers ppl for some reason but be that as it may I wasn’t wrong.
 
I think after a point, it hurts the brand.
It doesn’t hurt the brand at all. iPhones are still seen as luxury devices even if there are comparable android phones.

I recently helped my bfs mom get a galaxy s24 ultra. Beautiful screen and yet still felt cheap holding it.
 
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It doesn’t hurt the brand at all. iPhones are still seen as luxury devices even if there are comparable android phones.

I recently helped my bfs mom get a galaxy s24 ultra. Beautiful screen and yet still felt cheap holding it.
I think that a good chuck of people don't care about brands for "luxury" or status. Maybe I'm around a different crowd though. I certainly wouldn't want my anecdotal data to be seen as any sort of fact.

Mostly the people I hear who refer to Apple is some sort of luxury brand are, in fact, Android users. Again, my life. My crowd. Means nothing.

So, here's my opinion (based on absolutely nothing, but I do like writing really long posts about absolutely trivial topics).

I think many people consider certain brands because they trust them. Trust them for reliability, user experience and well thought out, functional, design choices. I think they also expect a certain standard of quality from their phones made by their trusted brand that goes beyond how it feels to hold. I think many of these people would at least expect a moderately competitive screen from a trusted brand. Certainly it should meet the average bar for screen quality.

I had no problem with 60 Hz displays differentiating Apple's lower cost models in the past, even when you could get a 120 Hz display on an Android at a similar cost. There have always been tech companies that stick all the bells, whistles, and specs into an overheating cheap pile of hey-look-at-me! But now there are solid Android phones with 120Hz displays at a low cost that just make Apple look bad. As usual, Apple lets it go one or two models too long.

So, the 16, and potentially the new SE, having 60Hz in 2024 is a disappointing choice within the current market. Since they don't update the SE often, the brand damage continues to the person who doesn't even buy it until 2 years from now, and then hands it down to their kid 3 years later. That screen is going to start looking real old and that kid is going to start forming an opinion of Apple (assuming they aren't caught up in blue bubble nonsense, which I can appreciate is a real and - and sad - thing).

Annyyyhooo, I've been an Apple lover since the 80's. And that's why I care. I still think the SE is a solid choice for a long lasting phone, if for no other reason than it will have a good chip that should continue to hold its own. I'm glad the chip isn't typically what they use to differentiate models these days.

WOW this is long - I must have something better to do.... I know! I'll rant about 8 Gb of ram the base model MacBook Pro. I swear they'll never get their head out of their as... Oh! Okay! Nevermind :)
 
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As a former SE 3 owner and perceived “power user,” I would argue that a 120Hz refresh rate should not be a new feature in the next SE generation. My primary complaint when owning the SE was always the limited battery life, and a ProMotion display would likely drain the SE’s battery even faster.
 
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If it had the new 24MP Front Camera coming to the others, this would be an incredible value. I'm sure that and other things when it releases will really show the concessions that it makes to have that price, but still overall it's a great value.
 
If it had the new 24MP Front Camera coming to the others, this would be an incredible value. I'm sure that and other things when it releases will really show the concessions that it makes to have that price, but still overall it's a great value.
I use Snapchat for my camera that whatever improvements that would bring I don’t use lol
 
Screen refresh isn't currently, nor has it ever been, a decision or factor in what device I buy. Same for the few Android users I know.

My wife uses a Pixel 8 and didn't even have high refresh turned on until I showed it to her, six months after she bought it. She doesn't care either way. My work-issued Se is 60, and my personal phone is 120hz... I can't see the difference, and just don't care.
On a small screen it is barely noticeable, it is just the fashionable thing some people latch onto so they can complain, those same people will move to something else when 120Hz is standard. I have a tv that is 120 hz and another of about the same size at 60, on the tv you can notice a bit of a difference on fast moving images but even with the tv it is not such a huge issue
 
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My old SE just weight a good 5oz and the iphone 17s are over 7oz! It would be a deal breaker for me if it come much over 5oz...
 
This will be my next phone but I will keep my SE 3 as well, one of the best phones I've ever owned tbh.
 
...and a ProMotion display would likely drain the SE’s battery even faster.
While a fixed 120Hz will drain the battery faster, the impact of the variable frame rate associated with ProMotion displays actually reduces power consumption for most users, as compared to a fixed 60 Hz display. Although I still do not believe it is necessary for a [relatively for Apple] low cost SE phone modes.
 
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Just release a 16 Pro Mini already

With the rumoured iPhone 17 line up, there is no Mini phone. The iPhone SE tends to have 3-4 years refresh cycle. So the wait for mini phone will be continued to next year.

Maybe when iPhone 13 mini is finally out of support by 2028, we will see mini iPhone replacement. Until then, there won't be mini iPhone.
 
Screen refresh isn't currently, nor has it ever been, a decision or factor in what device I buy. Same for the few Android users I know.

My wife uses a Pixel 8 and didn't even have high refresh turned on until I showed it to her, six months after she bought it. She doesn't care either way. My work-issued Se is 60, and my personal phone is 120hz... I can't see the difference, and just don't care.

My attitude is pretty simple:

It doesn't matter if I can't notice difference between 60Hz and 120Hz screen, if Apple charge flagship price on a devices, they should deliver a flagship specification.

Charging $800 on a phone that has 60Hz screen is simply unacceptable for me, even if I cannot notice the difference between a 60Hz panel and 120Hz.

To make the matter worse is that none of the regular iPhone has AOD and standby features. Even if I turns of AOD and standby features on my iPhone 14 Pro, I expect a $800 phone can do this.

Therefore, I rather spend $800 on a used iPhone 14 Pro than purchase new $800 iPhone 16. I rather have no Apple Intelligence than support Apple artificially limits its regular iPhone.
 
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But don’t charge more, right? In fact lower the price, right? You can’t have your cake snd eat it too.
According to this article the 16 pro MAX display comes in at a cost of $80 USD vs the 16 base model (not pro or max) which comes in at $65 USD.

I understand at scale that's hardly chump change. It's too bad the article doesn't give the price of the 16 max 60Hz screen.

And I have no idea what related costs would be for the associated electronics drive a promotion screen vs the 60 Hz.

And no, I said nothing about lowering the price, nor keeping it the same. Apple's gonna charge whatever people will pay.

Either way, cake is delicious. I'll eat it over keeping it any day. I'm no fool when it comes to serious matters like cake. It's for eating. I'm going to go find some cake.
 
I have a 60Hz 4k 27 inch screen alongside the 120Hz Macbook pro's screen. Do I see the difference? Yes. Do I care? No. I would rather pay an extra for 5k resolution and good color reproduction over 120Hz. Same with the iPhone, I would rather prefer to pay for well tuned screen and compact size of my next iPhone (aka iPhone SE4 Mini that is obviously not happening) rather than for 120Hz and always-on feature.
 
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