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New iPhone SE Reportedly on Track for Release in First Quarter of 2022
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Delusional. The idea of the SE is that it is the OLD form factor, not that it is small. The SE was never a small phone, it was a normal sized phone with basic modern internals in an older design. If you want to look cool and up to date with the new form factor and all the fancy cameras, then you need to fork out the bucks. If the mini gets dumped, it's because of lack of demand for a smaller phone, and if so, it won't be coming back as an SE anytime ever.
Personally, I hope they not only keep the Mini, but put out a Mini Pro. Not because I care or want one, but because I know that there are people who do. I also hope they put out a smaller SE for people like you, but I'm realisitic in that it won't be the current Mini body (until years down the track when there is a new form factor, and the SE moves to the current design). I don't think it would hurt Apple to produce some low volume, low profit items, because it would just be a nice thing to do for those few that really want them. Apple doing things just to be nice would be wonderful. For once.
Enormous bezels from 2014? It's Apple, It's Perfect™! It may come with 64 GB base storage and 3 GB of RAM, but it's Apple RAM and storage, so it's the best!
Get an Apple Watch ? - then the iPhone unlocks using FaceID even when wearing a mask.
Outside of the physical Lightning socket, I think you'd be extremely hard pressed to make an argument for "same parts bin since 2014". New cameras, lenses, case material, OS, form factors, processors, batteries, display sizes/technologies/resolutions/brightness, antennas, modems... you get the idea...
People seem to overestimate how small the mini is. Is it because of the name?
The iPhone mini’s screen is 5.4 inches diagonally.
The iPhone SE’s screen is 4.7 inches diagonally.
The mini is 64mm wide vs 67mm for the SE but that is probably mostly bezel.
Even on battery life, in the iPhone 12 mini has about 25 percent more capacity than the iPhone SE. The 13 mini increased that battery life.
I would be shocked if they maintain the current price structure. I don’t know if you all have noticed, but prices on everything are going up. Inflation will probably persist for a while. Would not be surprised if Apple has some of their products increase in price in the middle of the product cycle. Wouldn’t that be something!
I don’t buy an iPhone SE because it’s the cheapest phone. I buy it because it has a button. I have to wear a mask all day long, and just love that I can use touch ID to open my phone. To be honest, I really wish I could have the camera set up on the fancier phones, but there’s no way I’m giving up my button. I had an iPhone X. That is not an ideal design by any stretch of the imagination. I would buy a 4 inch iPhone again if they sold it with upgraded components. Fit better in my hand than any of the new phones do.
I don’t buy an iPhone SE because it’s the cheapest phone. I buy it because it has a button. I have to wear a mask all day long, and just love that I can use touch ID to open my phone. To be honest, I really wish I could have the camera set up on the fancier phones, but there’s no way I’m giving up my button. I had an iPhone X. That is not an ideal design by any stretch of the imagination. I would buy a 4 inch iPhone again if they sold it with upgraded components. Fit better in my hand than any of the new phones do.
I have no need for an Apple Watch and I'd hate the charging. I just want Touch ID on the phone not another device.
It's a device I hold in my hand. Bezels are a feature, not a bug.
Tiny bezels on a laptop, particularly one that has no touch screen? Perfect other than the elevated fingerprint potential when opening or closing the screen.
Tiny bezels on a handheld device? Not a functionality enhancer.
One could have said the exact same thing about the iPhone 6S when the original iPhone SE came out in March of 2016. Yet, four years later, in March 2020, Apple did exactly that - they took the latest evolution of iPhone 6 form factor (the one used for the iPhone 8, including wireless charging) put the latest processor into it, and offered it for $400 as the next SE. Sure, that was four years from the release of the original, and it's true that the the Mini form factor is too new to have made a business case for a $400 phone by March of 2022. But in March of 2024 for a potential SE4? That isn't so hard to imagine.
Unfortunately, given prevailing rumor, that scenario seems pretty unlikely to play out at this point. Instead, the next iPhone form factor is pegged to be adopted from the iPhone XR/11. In fact, some accounts claim that this phone, rather than an updated SE 2020, is actually the one coming in March 2022 (not least because the form factor was designed with 5G in mind, and the next iPhone SE is nearly universally acknowledged to have 5G). At any rate, whether in 2022 or perhaps 2023, or maybe not until 2024, it appears that an XR/11 based iPhone SE is coming.
Then, once you have an SE with the 6" screen of the XR/11, well that's probably the death knell for a Mini-based SE. The obvious choice for the following generation is the 6" iPhone 12/13(/14?), not the lame-duck 5.4" Mini that will have only lived for two years. Not only does this avoid the awkward product evolution of 4" -> 4.7" -> 6" -> 5.4", but it's not even necessarily the case that the smaller Mini form factor would be lowest cost option given that it will not have reached nearly the volume of the larger size.
As a former iPhone SE 1 and current iPhone Mini 12 owner, I want to be wrong about this. But I don't think I will be.
Completely agree with you. Let's keep in mind that there have only been two iterations of the SE so far, so it's hard to extrapolate a trend, but it seems to me that Apple usually goes with
i) A design with a truly established and tested industrial design over at least two generation. The Mini could actually meet that.
ii) A design that has been popular and sold well. This is tricky because the existing designs almost meet this by default for lack of options, the Mini might struggle.
iii) A design that is no longer in use or will go out of use soon. I personally think as long as there are flat edge flagship iPhones, we will not see a flat edge SE. The broad iPhone 6 design language was only dropped with the iPhone 12. If, and that's a big if, that longevity holds we wouldn't see a flat edge SE before 2026 at the earliest and that includes the Mini.
The OG SE might have had the latest CPU and camera, but it surely didn't have Touch ID 2, or the same design as 6s for example. Face ID is expensive for Apple and they won't put it in a budget model. Look at the iPad Air - it's got the same design as the Pro, thick enough bezels for Face ID, but they opted for Touch ID because it costs less and keeps the price of the iPad cheaper.
That's all true. On the other hand, the current starting price of the iPhone 11 is just £100 more than the SE. Add one or two more years for the FaceID price to come down and split the difference in the middle and there you go.
And to be clear I'm not saying that the next SE will absolutely have FaceID, I'm just saying it's not completely out of the question.
As the member who replied above pointed out, you can get the iPhone 11 with Face ID today for $500. Furthermore you could get an XR with Face ID last year for that same price. How much would an XR be today if it were still in the lineup?
It’s pretty clear that the Face ID components aren‘t the major driver of cost. And that’s not too surprising, really. Face ID has been around for four years, and like any new phone technology, costs steadily drop as time goes on. Meanwhile, the technology is iterated on, so the latest Face ID in the iPhone 13 improves on the original.
But even if Apple does plan to bring power-button Touch ID to their future lower cost iPhones in lieu of Face ID, that doesn’t change the basic formula. So, we’ll still be getting an SE that reuses the form factor of and adopts the vast majority of the features of a product that was state of the art just a few years prior. Plus it’ll get the latest processor.
Keen observation.
It might depend on the timing of under-screen Face ID for a true all-screen aesthetic. That should be enough to make today’s notched phones look sufficiently dated for the two to sit side-by-side in the store, both with same flat-edged shape, with buyers still eager to pay the premium for the premium device. This might end up being 2026 tech anyway, but it could also potentially happen as early as 2024.
Plus, throw in under-screen Touch ID for redundant biometrics, and now you’ve really got something people will throw money at you for.
The other wild-card is folding screens. If they evolve past the sketchy cheap plastic feel, we might see iPhones with those before 2026 as well.
I hope Apple makes the SE3 the same form factor as the iPhone 6-8, SE2. I want the bezels, home button, 4.7in LCD screen is perfectly fine. Just want updated internals including more ram.
I'm cool with that as long as they also offer a 5.5" SE3 Plus. That would be ideal.
Smaller bezels… why are people so obsessed over smaller bezels? I wish a phone had good bezel just to be able to touch it without accidentally triggering any kind of button on the side or screen. I had this with an iPhone 6 at work where I often deleted an incoming message or call when I wanted to pick it up. Most annoying.
And besides that… I’m a guy that will put the phone in a heavy duty protective case anyway so a small bezel is useless.
My SE 2018 has to run 1-2 years until a comparable replacement comes along. Nothing beats the original SE’s size.
different phones
plus not regular
and the 8 plus was a lot heavier and more fragile
the 7 plus had terminal mic issues
I don't think anyone ever accused the iPhone 6 of having too small bezels. Honest question, what kind of bezels are you expecting if the iPhone 6 design gives you problems and how are you holding your device if you accidentally delete messages or incoming calls on that thing?
Simple… phone was on the table, message comes in and when I try to pick it up I inadvertently touch te border of the screen, iOS thinks I touched delete notification and is gone.
With phone calls I often pushed the side button while grabbing the thing from the desk. The buttons are very sensitive.
I colleague of mine often switched on the silent mode while picking up the phone and he didn’t notice it.
That’s one reason why my current SE has a thick case to cover all side buttons to protect them from easy pushing or sliding.