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nburwell

macrumors 603
May 6, 2008
5,454
2,366
DE
At some point I'll upgrade my SE to iOS 11. But for now I prefer to keep it on iOS 10.3.3 as the battery is great and everything just works so smoothly.
 

wa2be

macrumors member
Aug 30, 2016
91
60
My wife's SE is on the latest version of iOS 11 just like my iPhone 7. I can't tell any difference in performance between the 2 devices, and she has no complaints at all. When 11 was first introduced, her battery life suffered severely, but that was corrected with the first update to iOS 11. I agree with the other poster about the improved features like the new control center, I find it's very useful. I may be in the minority, but I also like the new UI design with the bold large font headers in the native Apple apps. I think it looks great and it actually inspired me to start using Apple's Notes app instead of Evernote. Overall, iOS 11 is my favorite operating system, and I've been on Apple devices since the iPhone 4S.
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
My wife's SE is on the latest version of iOS 11 just like my iPhone 7. I can't tell any difference in performance between the 2 devices, and she has no complaints at all. When 11 was first introduced, her battery life suffered severely, but that was corrected with the first update to iOS 11. I agree with the other poster about the improved features like the new control center, I find it's very useful. I may be in the minority, but I also like the new UI design with the bold large font headers in the native Apple apps. I think it looks great and it actually inspired me to start using Apple's Notes app instead of Evernote. Overall, iOS 11 is my favorite operating system, and I've been on Apple devices since the iPhone 4S.

Thank you for the information = much appreciated.
 

Apple blogger

macrumors 6502a
Feb 28, 2013
889
174
Thank you all for your comments so far - all useful!

The tension for me this that it's so personal - some people are quite legitimately loving it; others are equally legitimately hating it.

If there were a way to return to iOS 10, I'd try it out in a heartbeat. It's one hell of a gamble for something that may/may not work. The only possible I suppose is that I do still have 8 months of warranty left... I suppose I could upgrade and it is truly horrific, claim for a replacement... which seems somewhat mercenary...

My reason for thinking about upgrading is two-fold:

1). My OCD doesn't like constant red dot in 'Settings'
2). Security updates - I've not got the new wi-fi protect stuff
3). Niggles with iOS 10.3.3 on my device (see my OP for those)

I'm riding the same boat as you. I think I'm updating today. Save you some pressure for you. I will be updating via iTunes. I'll keep you posted for any batter life. Domt update till then.


P.S. I hardly use my SE, and I charge my phone every 2 days. Fingers crossed.
 

Bart Kela

Suspended
Oct 12, 2016
865
593
Searching...
I have a 128GB iPhone SE running iOS 11 and a 64GB iPhone SE running iOS 10. While I do not use the latter very frequently, I haven't experienced any noticeable performance differences between the two devices.
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
I'm riding the same boat as you. I think I'm updating today. Save you some pressure for you. I will be updating via iTunes. I'll keep you posted for any batter life. Domt update till then.


P.S. I hardly use my SE, and I charge my phone every 2 days. Fingers crossed.

Thank you! Very much appreciated!

I look forward to reading your thoughts!
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
I have a 128GB iPhone SE running iOS 11 and a 64GB iPhone SE running iOS 10. While I do not use the latter very frequently, I haven't experienced any noticeable performance differences between the two devices.

Very useful; thank you!
 

Apple blogger

macrumors 6502a
Feb 28, 2013
889
174
Thank you! Very much appreciated!

I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Ok..so I updated it via iTunes now. Used it 1 full day including AR so here goes..

No performance issues. No lags. Phone got heated only once with heavy use, when I was downloading my app updates and playing Pokemon go to test AR+ at the same time... no other issues.

Battery life, can’t yet tell, I’ll get back in a day or 2... but for now it’s been more than 24 hrs standby and 4 hrs Usage since last full charge. and I’ve got 38% remaining.. I’ve used YouTube, cut the rope, AR, and LTE browsing.. I think it’s a little less than my 10.3.3 but can’t be sure... as I said, I’ll get back in a day or 2 with a solid answer.

All my fears for iOS 11 are aside as of now, cause I’ve had no problem yet...
 

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
I have two SEs, one is a 64GB and the other, 128GB.

I updated both to 11.1.2 a while back and both run super good and fast. I just don't use them as phones now as I have a new 7+ and I got a new battery in my 6S+.
 

Apple blogger

macrumors 6502a
Feb 28, 2013
889
174
Thank you! Very much appreciated!

I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Battery life after 3 days use. Yes, it’s recuced. It’s reduced atleast by 2-3 hours of usage. But again, my usage varies. Yesterday I used my phone for a lot of uploading and downloading on google photos. So it went down even fast. I think you should update via iTunes. It’s not as bad as it was when I read about ios 11 when it first released. It’s like every other iOS release now. Stable, new features and less battery life.

Update it.
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
All on this thread:

Firstly, thank you all so much for taking the time to carefully consider both your own experiences, and those of your friends and family.

Having considered everything carefully, I have decided to attempt the upgrade process to 11.2.1 via iTunes.

I will let you know how I get on!
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
Okay, so. I'm about an hour in.

So far, so good. Upgrade process was done via iTunes and was trouble-free.

System is smooth and responsive. One *minor* lag moment when I unlocked the display during mass app download and iTunes media sync, but that's all. Everything I've tried to use is working fine.

Nothing on battery yet - currently recharging; will report back...
 

Sciomar

macrumors 6502a
Nov 8, 2017
559
1,737
I've got an SE (64GB) and have been running beta iOS's since even before I had it, on 11.2.5 currently. I see no change with how my phone operates and the battery is still in great shape, lost about a % of total charge capacity and it doesn't have the excessive drain I see people complaining (over-hyping) about.

I'm holding out on changing my phone in hopes of an upgraded SE.
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
I've got an SE (64GB) and have been running beta iOS's since even before I had it, on 11.2.5 currently. I see no change with how my phone operates and the battery is still in great shape, lost about a % of total charge capacity and it doesn't have the excessive drain I see people complaining (over-hyping) about.

I'm holding out on changing my phone in hopes of an upgraded SE.


So far, I'm pleased with what I'm seeing - fast, snappy and responsive. No discernible impact on battery, but then I've only been using for about 3 hours. Been at 100% with very light usage for about 40 minutes so far.

I'm also hoping to see the SE 2, or whatever it is to be called. I'm not mad keen on the larger form factor - and I can't stretch to an 8 or a 10 at my next upgrade anyway.
 

Apple blogger

macrumors 6502a
Feb 28, 2013
889
174
So far, I'm pleased with what I'm seeing - fast, snappy and responsive. No discernible impact on battery, but then I've only been using for about 3 hours. Been at 100% with very light usage for about 40 minutes so far.

I'm also hoping to see the SE 2, or whatever it is to be called. I'm not mad keen on the larger form factor - and I can't stretch to an 8 or a 10 at my next upgrade anyway.
My battery usage drain is increased a lot after 4 days.. using safari, news, and twitter for half an hour dropped 5%.. in an earlier post I said I charged my phone every 2 days.. that’s changed.. it’s almost every day now...
 

Norbert Mikołajczyk

macrumors 6502
May 26, 2016
320
139
My battery usage drain is increased a lot after 4 days.. using safari, news, and twitter for half an hour dropped 5%.. in an earlier post I said I charged my phone every 2 days.. that’s changed.. it’s almost every day now...
Uhh, that's pretty bad, I'm staying on 10.3.3 then ;/
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
My battery usage drain is increased a lot after 4 days.. using safari, news, and twitter for half an hour dropped 5%.. in an earlier post I said I charged my phone every 2 days.. that’s changed.. it’s almost every day now...

Uhh, that's pretty bad, I'm staying on 10.3.3 then ;/


So I'm now nearly 24 hours in. With light to medium usage, I'm at 54% battery (BBC, social media etc. etc.). This is a little less than what I got on 10.3.3 but not drastically so. Possibly, the device management that occurs with a new OS is still in progress and this will settle down in a few days. Interesting, 10% of that loss was on standby overnight, which I'm not madly keen on - may need to adjust background settings to minimise that. I will be interested to see how it fairs during my working day once I return after the Christmas break - usually, I use my phone very sparingly.

The biggest niggle is that the wi-fi disconnect issue is BACK already!! Really annoyed about that - and with no official word from Apple as to the cause or a solution. Some sort of malfunction with hot standby, definitely; solution though - no idea!
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
Just under 48 hours into iOS 11, and my battery has just died. Managed about 46 hours operational time under my normal usage conditions, which I would call moderate to light. I think this is less than I got under 10.3.3 but not too drastic. The worst battery usage culprit was a social media app, using about 20% of total usage. I will be able to check my total use count when the device is charged up again.

In terms of iOS 11 itself:

Postives:

  • Snappy and responsive OS - minimal to no graphical lag observed
  • Title "banners" scaled appropriately for the 4" screen
  • No "lock-ups", "freeze-ups" or restarts
  • No indication of increased storage usage
  • All OS functions tested so far are working normally - new features such as "Do Not Disturb While Driving" functional; redesigned Siri and App Store work well
  • No excess heating observed

Negatives:

  • Battery usage is less-efficient than under 10.3.3 - maybe 11 just uses more power, maybe things are still settling down; whatever the cause, I get less usage time
  • Two apps crash occasionally when switching between them - both are social media
  • One of the above apps occasionally fails to load entirely
  • Definite less-responsive under "Low Power Mode" when compared with 10.3.3
  • Wi-fi STILL will not remain connected whilst the screen is locked - I'm annoyed that this fault has not been fixed since iOS 10.3.3. I've had two SE's which both did this, so it definitely isn't a hardware fault

Overall thoughts:

  • Do I regret upgrading? No, not yet.
  • Would I recommend that other SE users upgrade? Difficult to say - I think ultimately you've got to make that call yourself; however, I certainly haven't seen any indication that my iPhone is "bricked" post upgrade. Is it a new lease of life for my phone? Possible - but that wi-fi issue really needs to be solved (I'm going to do another Bug Report now).

Once again, my thanks to everyone who has commented either their thoughts and opinions :)
 

Norbert Mikołajczyk

macrumors 6502
May 26, 2016
320
139
  • Title "banners" scaled appropriately for the 4" screen
Thx for the update, could you write more about it and post some images?
 

slooksterPSV

macrumors 68040
Apr 17, 2004
3,543
305
Nowheresville
Just to add my two cents here. My SE came with 9.3 or that and I upgraded to 11 as soon as it came out. Now my SE is three months old and I haven’t had any weird or adverse effects like others. It has remained the same speedy device that I know it for.

Honestly though I entered the iOS arena on 11 not 9.3 or 10 so I can’t say much other than its the best device I’ve owned to date. I now own an iPad 5th because of it. Everyone has different experiences though overall
 

Bawstun

Suspended
Jun 25, 2009
2,374
2,999
Uhh, that's pretty bad, I'm staying on 10.3.3 then ;/

Recently bought another SE believing that it was shipped with 10.3.3 as the other one I purchased was. But that wasn’t the case and it’s 11.0.2 or something. New control center and horrible for laggy animations that slow the battery down a lot more. I too used to get days of standby and like 16 hours of use (music streaming browsing whatever). Not anymore...I’ve always hated iOS 11. The SE is an absolute powerhouse of a phone with such a tiny screen to power but 2 gigs of ram as the 6S. It shouldn’t run that bad on iOS 11, IMO. 10 maybe have been “peak” Apple...though to me that’s always been iOS 6.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,458
Recently bought another SE believing that it was shipped with 10.3.3 as the other one I purchased was. But that wasn’t the case and it’s 11.0.2 or something. New control center and horrible for laggy animations that slow the battery down a lot more. I too used to get days of standby and like 16 hours of use (music streaming browsing whatever). Not anymore...I’ve always hated iOS 11. The SE is an absolute powerhouse of a phone with such a tiny screen to power but 2 gigs of ram as the 6S. It shouldn’t run that bad on iOS 11, IMO. 10 maybe have been “peak” Apple...though to me that’s always been iOS 6.
"laggy animations that slow the battery down a lot more"? o_O
 

New2Mac2012

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 8, 2012
46
5
UK
  • Title "banners" scaled appropriately for the 4" screen
Thx for the update, could you write more about it and post some images?


Yup, no problem - will send some images as soon as I can the chance.

Perhaps "appropriately scaled" is the wrong way to express this. Basically, they don't look huge! So I suppose some scaling has taken place on some level!


Just to add my two cents here. My SE came with 9.3 or that and I upgraded to 11 as soon as it came out. Now my SE is three months old and I haven’t had any weird or adverse effects like others. It has remained the same speedy device that I know it for.

Honestly though I entered the iOS arena on 11 not 9.3 or 10 so I can’t say much other than its the best device I’ve owned to date. I now own an iPad 5th because of it. Everyone has different experiences though overall

I'm beginning to think that the newer the SE, the better your chances. Theoretically, mine has a brand-new battery in it because it is a refurbished model. Yours has a practically brand-new battery because it is only 3 months old. I wonder (although I don't know, and I don't have the evidence to back this up) whether the problems people with older devices are seeing with iOS 11 are related to the "CPU scaling software" which Apple has just come clean about. The variation in user experiences is truly fascinating. I mean, these devices are, on a technical level, identical. The OS is, on a technical level, identical. And yet user experience appears to vary widely and wildly. Of course, battery usage to a certain extent comes down to "way of working" and idle drain depending on background app use/connection use. But the software lag as far as the OS is concerned? Doesn't make sense - to me anyway, but then I'm not a code expert.

You said that your SE came with 9.3 (as, I suppose, did mine). Are you able to make any comparison between function under 9.3 and 11?



Recently bought another SE believing that it was shipped with 10.3.3 as the other one I purchased was. But that wasn’t the case and it’s 11.0.2 or something. New control center and horrible for laggy animations that slow the battery down a lot more. I too used to get days of standby and like 16 hours of use (music streaming browsing whatever). Not anymore...I’ve always hated iOS 11. The SE is an absolute powerhouse of a phone with such a tiny screen to power but 2 gigs of ram as the 6S. It shouldn’t run that bad on iOS 11, IMO. 10 maybe have been “peak” Apple...though to me that’s always been iOS 6.

I looked on the Apple website yesterday and they say that the SE now has 11 from new; that said, John Lewis still lists the SE as shipping with iOS 10 so I guess it depends where you source from.

Have you tried upgrading to 11.2.1? 11.0.2 is an earlier build, so you might find some of those problems disappear with the latest version. I recommend a Restore Install run through iTunes, using Backup to put everything back where you want it.

The specs. as stated by Apple in terms of operational time make interesting reading:

Talk time:
Up to 14 hours on 3G
Internet use:
Up to 12 hours on 3G,
up to 13 hours on 4G LTE,
up to 13 hours on Wi‑Fi

Video playback:
Up to 13 hours
Audio playback:
Up to 50 hours
Standby time:
Up to 10 days

I do wonder what version of iOS was used to come up with these benchmarks. I might do an Apple LiveChat and ask. There's no way I'd get 50 hours of audio playback. And NO way I'd get 13 hours video.
 

Bawstun

Suspended
Jun 25, 2009
2,374
2,999
"laggy animations that slow the battery down a lot more"? o_O

Graphic-intense animations. They made iOS 11 have a “fancier” animation than iOS 10 and you don’t really notice it until you switch and then after a day or two you completely forget what they were like on iOS 10. But since that is where the lag and frequent stuttering on an SE can come from, I can only imagine that that is where a significant drain on the battery comes from. What other new features were added to 11 that could make such a difference?
 
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