What It's Like Using an iPhone SE in 2019

[bluecoast]

The XE in this mock up is 4.9”. But note it’s not quite as wide as the display in the 6-8, but taller, which means Apple would likely have to scale the point size to fit the current 4.7” screen in the same case width as the SE. It’s also using the XS bezel size, but if it uses the same LCD display as the XR the bezels would be slightly thicker, making the display even more slightly narrower, which is getting back into SE display width territory, but keeping the longer 6-8 height. The XE mock-up is already slightly wider than the SE though, matching the XS proportionally.


View attachment 824513



Correct, I don’t see Apple dropping below the current 4.7” size. The mock-up above is 4.9” though not as wide as the 4.7”. I don’t think it’s possible to make it exactly like the X. Just looking at the size difference, I don’t think they can physically fit all of the same hardware inside a smaller case. Yes the battery can be smaller with a smaller screen, especially an OLED, but probably only one camera lens, and probably no 3D touch. So there’s a limit to what Apple can put in the phone which sort of dictates what else they put in there in order to hit a price point people will pay to maintain the optimal profit margins, since they can’t put in all the bells and whistles that they expect demand the highest prices they charge on the premium models.

Really agree with you! In addition:

- 3D touch is obviously on its way out (haptic touch is the new 3D Touch).

- I’d expect a smaller iPhone to more like the XR. So one camera lens. It’ll likely be thicker (more like the 4s) and because of likely using lcd, it’ll have the bezels of the XR.

I’m no industrial designer but the product I’ve painted above is likely why we don’t yet have a new small iPhone.

Presumably Apple have worked out that there’s likely to be a limited amount of people who will pay (let’s guess) $700 for a smaller OLED phone, so it’s just not worth making such a product. With the XS apparently third place behind the XR and XS Max, that a pretty big hint that an even smaller OLED iPhone priced around the same price point as the XR isn’t going to fly.

And with the bezels of the XR putting these on a smaller body size might mean that you end up with one ugly iPhone.

 

[netdog]

Personally, I think the only beautiful iPhone in its day was the 4/4S. Without Mr. Jobs, all that Johnny Ive seems to care about is his "one piece of glass" approach. I'm glad that the sides returned on the iPad Pro series, and would like to see those iPhone4-like cues return the the iPhone as well. I think that since the introduction of the iPhone 6, the iPhone just looks like a dull, fairly tasteless lozenge.

 

[dan98]

Huh? How did I miss your point? Some FUNCTIONS are allowed on these newer phones because of the better screen, faster CPU, better cameras etc Lol.

True Tone allows new functionality for the screen. Being able to get warmer or cooler on the fly automatically.

Dual lenses allows for Portrait Mode on the rear camera and True Depth allows it with the front camera. That’s a function.

Faster CPUs allow the new phones to have more Safari tabs open and things operating in the background etc, thus increasing functionality.

Idk why you’re acting like these things don’t improve the phone’s functions. And then some.

I'm afraid I still fail to see how having any of those features you mention will allow me to do anything more with my SE than I already can.
I guess I don't put any value on having a 'warmer' or 'cooler' screen, and I can already open a zillion Safari or Chrome tabs without any slowdown that I can notice. Sure you probably get slightly better photos if that's your thing, but again in terms of FUNCTIONALITY....

I guess we just have to disagree on this one.

 

[newyorksole]

I'm afraid I still fail to see how having any of those features you mention will allow me to do anything more with my SE than I already can.
I guess I don't put any value on having a 'warmer' or 'cooler' screen, and I can already open a zillion Safari or Chrome tabs without any slowdown that I can notice. Sure you probably get slightly better photos if that's your thing, but again in terms of FUNCTIONALITY....

I guess we just have to disagree on this one.

I think what you mean to say is that for YOU particularly (and many others), the new functionality / features on these new iPhones are not appealing for you because the SE is perfectly fine. And that’s ok!

It’s a fact that my XS Max can do more than your SE and is all around a better phone, but it doesn’t take away from how good the SE is.

 

[netdog]

I think what you mean to say is that for YOU particularly (and many others), the new functionality / features on these new iPhones are not appealing for you because the SE is perfectly fine. And that’s ok!

It’s a fact that my XS Max can do more than your SE and is all around a better phone, but it doesn’t take away from how good the SE is.

And there are things that an SE can do that a Max can’t do as well. One-handed typing. Fit in a small pocket.

 

[ScooterComputer]

What network are you on? Just curious.

AT&T. Go figure.

 

[newyorksole]

And there are things that an SE can do that a Max can’t do as well. One-handed typing. Fit in a small pocket.

I think those are literally the only 2 things Lol. Again, I do hope they update it this year or next.

 

[netdog]

I think those are literally the only 2 things Lol. Again, I do hope they update it this year or next.

I far prefer the aesthetic too. I don’t like the bland lozenge of 6 and beyond.

 

[Jimrod]

Since Apple have no intentions of making a premium smaller phone, or a smaller phone in general now it seems, I may finally jump ship. I've been looking at the Samsung Galaxy S10e and whilst it's still large compared to my SE it's slightly smaller and lighter than the iPhone X/XS, has an effective fingerprint reader, headphone jack and premium specs all round. It's been about 10 years now but I think my iPhone journey may sadly be coming to an end.

I certainly won't miss iTunes for file management (I say as I sit here wondering why songs I added yesterday still won't show on my iPad, even plugged in with iTunes open... Sigh). I think it'll be a tough change and learning curve but Apple don't want customers like me and they've made that pretty clear, it's all about big, bling and buying add-ons/adapters to get the full functionality now - profit over product, the thing Steve Jobs fixed when he returned, he's long gone now.

 

[jakebrosy]

Okay so now here I am with my coat in my hands, my tail between my legs, eating a big dish of crow.

I thought of this rant when I was standing at the Verizon Store in Caguas two days ago and knew I'd have to write this.

I dropped my less than one month old iPhone SE in the ocean near Barbados. After 2 days of thinking I'd be fine without a phone until I could get another SE I gave up and sheepishly went to the Verizon in Puerto Rico and plunked down $719 for an iPhone XR.

And, while it is MUCH larger, it is a joy to use: the screen is nice, FaceID is nice...<sigh>...though I take a lot of screenshots getting accustomed to the power button placement.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to finish my big bowl of crow before it gets cold.

I get that people think price point is the key factor for most people. I guess I'm not most people. The primary deciding factor for me is form size and durability. I would have no problem paying more for an iPhone SE replacement: why not offer iPhone XR specs in an iPhone SE body, price them comparably, and truly learn what phone people want?

3 days after the SE came out, I traded my iPhone 6 in. The 6 just didn't fit as neatly into the hand or pocket and, for the first time since the iPhone 4s I had cracked a screen (that all-glass 4s design was just stupid).

It's been 3 years and I haven't cracked the SE screen yet. There is something to be said for the case design of the iPhone 5 and iPhone SE: they're the mobile phone equivalent of the bullet-proof 123-body MBs.

All that said, I did just replace my iPhone SE

With our recent move back to Manhattan my Sprint service just wasn't cutting the mustard. I wanted to switch to Verizon since they have great service even in (most) of the subways but was disappointed to learn my stupid Sprint phone couldn't migrate to Verizon: I thought I was stuck...until the SEs came to the Refurb store a couple weeks ago.

I spent about 3 hours in the VZW store Wednesday getting my number ported over to my NEW iPhone SE.

 

[netdog]

Okay so now here I am with my coat in my hands, my tail between my legs, eating a big dish of crow.

I thought of this rant when I was standing at the Verizon Store in Caguas two days ago and knew I'd have to write this.

I dropped my less than one month old iPhone SE in the ocean near Barbados. After 2 days of thinking I'd be fine without a phone until I could get another SE I gave up and sheepishly went to the Verizon in Puerto Rico and plunked down $719 for an iPhone XR.

And, while it is MUCH larger, it is a joy to use: the screen is nice, FaceID is nice...<sigh>...though I take a lot of screenshots getting accustomed to the power button placement.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to finish my big bowl of crow before it gets cold.

I'm holding out for a X-sized phone with design cues from the current iPad Pro (i.e. similar to the iPhone 4/5/SE).

 

[neoelectronaut]

Okay so now here I am with my coat in my hands, my tail between my legs, eating a big dish of crow.

I thought of this rant when I was standing at the Verizon Store in Caguas two days ago and knew I'd have to write this.

I dropped my less than one month old iPhone SE in the ocean near Barbados. After 2 days of thinking I'd be fine without a phone until I could get another SE I gave up and sheepishly went to the Verizon in Puerto Rico and plunked down $719 for an iPhone XR.

And, while it is MUCH larger, it is a joy to use: the screen is nice, FaceID is nice...<sigh>...though I take a lot of screenshots getting accustomed to the power button placement.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to finish my big bowl of crow before it gets cold.

I could probably live with the X/XS size, though I wouldn't be happy about it.

The XR is out of the question though. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too big.

 

[LizKat]

Some more stock has shown up on the clearance site. They either found some more or these are returns/cancellations.

Whatever... anyway I went and scarfed one up not long ago. They don't seem to sit on that clearance shelf long, it took me a few tries to nail down the one I wanted (a silver one so I can tell it at a glance from my older SE, now an iPod touch). Wonder if Apple is surprised about that or just trying to find the right price point for having another go at it in their future iPhone line.

I could probably live with the X/XS size, though I wouldn't be happy about it.

The XR is out of the question though. Wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too big.

I got an XR but after nearly three months of telling myself I'd get used to it as my phone, I flipped its active SIM into a 128GB SE bought on clearance. I love the XR, don't get me wrong... but it's now my new "narrow iPad mini"... and my old 64GB SE from which I had upgraded to the XR is now a backup iPod touch.

Happy camper here, having my upgraded cake (the XR with all its bells and whistles) and still reverting to a phone I can use one-handed and fit in any pocket, only with even more storage now, for more of my huge collection of music.

If Apple wants to bring an XR spec, more or less, to an SE-sized iPhone next time around, great, otherwise I'm driving this SE into the ground as my cellphone and pocketable computing device. I don't ask anything of it that its spec can't handle. When I want more real estate, then at home there are iPads, iPad minis, iPod touch and the XR plus a couple laptops to choose from. When I travel I usually take at least an iPad mini along.

The iPhone SE is perfect for me ergonomically just as it is, and has accessibility features to smooth over any inconveniences in some apps when a visual zoom turns up handy. The huge plus is that fits in all my pockets, and in all my handbag compartments made for "regular" sized iPhones of earlier times.

I too do get it that some people use a larger size iPhone as their cellphone and also as their main computing device. More power to them, I just don't happen to like doing that, and the array of devices I had already invested in for other than phone purposes means I don't have to.

 

[Plutonius]

Amazon has a starter kit one can use to test out if Mint Mobile's going to work okay in a given location and with a given phone, it's only five bucks for a basic supply of data, text and call time.

Did you end up getting the Mint Mobile starter kit and were you able to get outdoor connectivity on your SE with it in your area ?

 

[cocoua]

I'm holding out for a X-sized phone with design cues from the current iPad Pro (i.e. similar to the iPhone 4/5/SE).

Beautiful and more secure design!! (Grip is far better)
I love it, I have a SE I use when travel, as I love it and battery last longer than my iPhone 7

 

[LizKat]

Did you end up getting the Mint Mobile starter kit and were you able to get outdoor connectivity on your SE with it in your area ?

Haven't ordered it yet, waiting for nicer weather... probably May before I get to it. I'm looking forward to it though. I've switched my SIM into an SE in the meantime because as much as I like my XR for use as a mobile device --the screen is so easy on the eyes-- I'm not happy with its size as "a phone". I'll switch my plan SIM back to the XR while I try out the Mint in the SE later on.

 

[Plutonius]

Haven't ordered it yet, waiting for nicer weather... probably May before I get to it. I'm looking forward to it though. I've switched my SIM into an SE in the meantime because as much as I like my XR for use as a mobile device --the screen is so easy on the eyes-- I'm not happy with its size as "a phone". I'll switch my plan SIM back to the XR while I try out the Mint in the SE later on.

Best of luck with it !!!

 

[neoelectronaut]

Bought my wife a iPhone XR over the weekend to replace her iPhone 6 and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit jealous of her fun new tech.

But man that thing is just ginormous. Hopeful that we can get something smaller than the X/XS in the years to come.

 

[signaltonoize]

The iPhone SE is like the Schott Perfetto leather jacket, Classic Coca Cola, or Levi's 501 jeans. It redefined the meaning of a modern classic, and it has a lot of potential to upgrade internal functionality without sacrificing design appeal. Phones can only get so much larger or smaller, brighter or matte, etc. But Apple, in their quest for endless growth, keeps reinventing the wheel as if they're seeking a better design than the SE provided. The reality is they're just repackaging and rebranding themselves every so often to appeal to the Cardi B set. It's truly disappointing from a company who set the bar so high under Steve Jobs. If Coke discontinued the Classic formula in a search for endless profitablity, everyone would laugh at them. But when it comes to iPhone design, the sheeple are winning because the stock market is happy.

 

[AlabamaKid]

Got an SE. Got another one in a box for when this one shuffles off. Got another one in a box for when *that* one shuffles off.

I don't play games on it, read books on it, but I do use it for phone things: checking weather, email, Twitter, and *phone*.

This is just what I am going to do if I can. I purchased one of these during the recent clearance, and I have been very happy with it. Should another sale occur I am going to buy a couple of more.
This phone is as large as I want a PHONE to be. I like the headphone jack, but can still use wireless if I want. The camera is perfectly adequate for snapshots, if I want photographs I use a CAMERA. I despise the notch, and I just won't buy a really expensive item with a feature I despise. I like Apple, but I don't trust them with facial recognition, that would be the very 1st thing I turn off, so why pay extra for it. In fact I don't turn on any locks and see little point in them, so I actually like the home button and could care less about the fingerprint sensor. The price point is nice, and I particularly like not having to pay extra for 'features' I won't use or actively annoy me. It's not just smallness - make a new one with a notch and you can forget it. If they simply upgrade to the newest processor, I'll be in line.

 

[netdog]

Anyone think we're going to see our SE's left behind when iOS 13 is announced on Monday?

 

[Mac 128]

Anyone think we're going to see our SE's left behind when iOS 13 is announced on Monday?

If they are, it’s only because the A9 chip loses support, and that means dropping the 6S. I don’t think there are any substantial differences between the 6S and SE that would otherwise prevent only the SE from being supported. It would also drop support for the 2017 iPad, which would be a serious drop in support for only a 2 year old product.

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Anyone think we're going to see our SE's left behind when iOS 13 is announced on Monday?

I could be remembering this wrong but at WWDC 2018 they said iOS 13 would support all the same devices as iOS 12.

Edit: I even went and did a web search for ya:

https://ios13update.com/ios-13-compatibility/

 

[Mac 128]

I could be remembering this wrong but at WWDC 2018 they said iOS 13 would support all the same devices as iOS 12.

Edit: I even went and did a web search for ya:

https://ios13update.com/ios-13-compatibility/

Sorry, did Apple say that, or is that the extrapolation by the author?

Also, why update the iPodTouch if they’re going to continue to support the 4-year old 2015 iPodTouch?

 

[Sharewaredemon]

Sorry, did Apple say that

Yes Apple said that somewhere at or around WWDC 2018, as I recall. I found that article in my search and didn't go any further. I only read Macrumors so it was on this site I would have read it.