If you keep them on the iOS 11.4.1 they shipped with, the battery life on an SE is incredible! iOS 12 increases the “speed” but at the result of a ton of battery.
I am commenting on the battery life of two SEs both running 12.1.3. The new 128GB holds its charge better than my 64GB with a brand new battery. There was no noticible decrease in battery life when I upgraded my 64GB to iOS 12, but I did notice a considerable battery increase after I had the battery replaced after 2.75 years. Both now last about as long as my 64GB did from day one, almost 3 years ago.
Normally I'd say this makes sense... but people are getting phones with July and August 2018 manufacture dates. That means Apple was making these phones even when they new very well they would be killing it off in a month or so.
If that's the case, why was Apple manufacturing and stockpiling new SE devices just weeks before EOL-ing it?? And more importantly... why bring it back 5 months after said EOL?
Apple didn’t EOL the SE, it’s still widely available new as a pre-paid device through major carriers.
One theory is that Apple didn’t know they we’re going to stop selling it directly in September, but only made the decision late in the game. My theory at the time was that Apple dropped the phone from its stores to maximize profits on their new phones over the holidays, a decision they could have made shortly before release — especially if they knew they were going to update the SE in March. Given that Apple needed floor space for 3 new models, one of which had 6 color variations, they basically needed to pull the SE from the floor anyway, whether profit motivated or not — but it certainly didn’t hurt to remove it from consideration for those who would have gravitated to a smaller phone had it been there.
The fact that the phone has suddenly resurfaced in Clearance seems to support that theory. Apple doesn’t warehouse product, so it would seem they pulled it from shelves, shipped to the local warehouses and there they sat until Apple decided what to do with them. 3 months later, after the holiday sales, Apple decided to liquidate the remaining stock before a potential new launch when their value would plummet. Maybe that was the plan all along, or maybe they formulated it after they unexpectedly decided to pull it.
The fact we haven’t seen any 6 or 6s phones on direct clearance suggests they planned to drop it all along and replace it with the higher profit 7 (or maybe we’ll see those go on clearance next). But the SE very well may have been a last minute decision.
We have a month or two to wait and find out if there’s going to be a new SE. I’m going to wait until the end of March before I decide to add AppleCare+. If a new SE is released, I’ll buy that instead. If not, then I’m set either way.
If there’s no new SE, then we know Apple likely made a last minute decision, and then liquidated stock to clear it out of their warehouses after the holiday sales were over, and put the SE behind them forever, at least in the US — I’m still not sure it’s not being manufactured for some developing markets, and may be for some time as the 4s and 5c were after being dropped in the US, especially considering the SE is a much more capable phone.
