[HN Gopher] The Best iPhone
___________________________________________________________________
The Best iPhone
Author : rpgbr
Score : 522 points
Date : 2022-07-28 22:27 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (notes.ghed.in)
(TXT) w3m dump (notes.ghed.in)
| Lio wrote:
| I think this article sums things up nicely.
|
| The SE is a very right design.
|
| I think it's its soft edges that I really like.
|
| I'd be happy if they could swap the lightning for USB-c and
| squeeze in a slightly larger screen but even if they can't I'd be
| happy if they just kept roughly as is.
|
| The SE is dull and boring in all the most wonderful ways. It's
| the phone you buy if you don't want to talk to people about
| phones.
| Aeolun wrote:
| When I went looking for a phone for my wife, the only requirement
| was that it was 'not too big'.
|
| In a whole store full of smartphones, this left _literally_ two
| options. The iPhone SE, and some weird Chinese tiny model.
|
| I'm just sad that everything needs to be so huge...
| magic_hamster wrote:
| > Almost nobody notices you have a new phone; when someone does,
| the conversation ends quickly and invariably in a sentence like
| "it's just like the old one, only faster".
|
| I never understood the mindset of getting a new phone so other
| people will notice. Do you remember what brand and model your
| friends use? If so, why do you care?
|
| > It is a crazy strategy of Apple to put the "brains" of its most
| expensive phone, the iPhone 13 Pro Max (+USD 1.099), in its entry
| model, low cost (USD 429). No other company does this.
|
| It will be even crazier for Apple to design and manufacture an
| entire separate line of chips just for this phone. Reusing the
| chip currently in production is convenient which is why other
| companies do this as well (DSLR sensors and processors instantly
| come to mind).
|
| Good for you for liking your phone. But this reads a bit too
| young and eager. Good luck with your reviews going forward.
| pg_bot wrote:
| I have this phone and my only gripe with it is the button. It
| isn't as tactile as previous models so it doesn't feel like
| you've actually clicked it. I'm assuming this has to do with
| water resistance but I'm not certain.
| Crosseye_Jack wrote:
| That and the tact switch was a common failure point.
|
| I have the home button haptic set at 3 and unless i'm thinking
| about it, its good enough to trick my brain into the same
| feeling.
| dilyevsky wrote:
| It isn't a real button for like three versions now (since
| iphone 8 or so) - it's a haptic sensor which i think also plays
| fake sound through the speaker. Since it's the only iphone that
| even has center "button" now it's still the best phone imo
| culi wrote:
| I wish the "buy it for life" movement had real momentum in
| phones. No I don't want some super modular phone that could be
| upgraded as parts wear out. I don't have anything against those,
| but I'd like my phone to actually be waterproof...
|
| What I want is something with the build quality of an iPhone.
| Something so well made that they get the same battery life as
| other smartphones despite having half the battery size. But
| something that I can trust will last a really long time. But
| everything about the phone industry seems specifically structured
| against that possibility
| acover wrote:
| The issue is battery life degradation and 3rd party software
| aims for newer devices.
| pkrumins wrote:
| The best phone is no phone.
| [deleted]
| centilliard wrote:
| The best 'cheap' phone that was ever released in the US was the
| $499 Google Nexus 6P by Huawei in 2015. It was an octa-core phone
| that made Apple's dual core iPhone 6s (also released in 2015)
| look like an overpriced joke. The 6P's aluminum body was lighter
| and thinner than the iPhone 6s, its camera took much better
| pictures _by far_ especially in low light conditions
| (restaurants, evening travel, etc), the iPhone's old backlit IPS
| LCD screen had _nothing_ on 6P's gorgeous AMOLED. It took Apple 2
| years to catch up to the 6P, with their iPhone X, and even then
| it didn't beat the 6P in every category. It was a beast of a
| phone. Mine finally died last year after 2 years of heavy use and
| 4 years of being a backup phone.
|
| See for yourself:
| https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=7588&idPhone2...
| addled wrote:
| My wife enjoyed her 6P, then it died prematurely of bootloop.
| As did the warranty replacement one.
|
| Got a double payout from the eventual class action suit.
| cloverich wrote:
| My wife and I loved ours, but both bootloop suicided at the 13
| and 15 month mark. _Both_. Out of warranty by 1 and 2 months.
| That was my official departure from Android (which I otherwise
| loved). I've never had a problem with the 6 iPhones I have
| owned (3 before, 3 after) -- but ironically my Wife's second
| iPhone after _also_ suicided. She somehow negotiated a free
| replacement 6 months out of warranty, so iPhone still came out
| ahead. I had a pretty good experience with the Nexus 5 (my
| favorite for its time) and the Pixel 2 (not my favorite form
| factor, otherwise great).
|
| Both make great phones but having a popular phone has a really
| killer feature where it works out a lot of bugs. Not perfect,
| but I think if iPhones had the same level of issue as the Nexus
| 6 there'd be an extended warranty or something comparable.
| roneythomas6 wrote:
| I agree with your comment. The camera was really impressive and
| it was first nexus phone where the camera outperformed an
| iPhone. But I think the video quality wasn't that great when
| compared to iPhone. Mine started shutting down prematurely in
| Canadian winter after more than a year of use. But Google
| replaced mine for free even after the 1yr warranty expired.
| Ended up with Pixel 2 which had even better camera than Nexus
| 6P. The first iPhone to outperform Pixel 2 for low light was
| the iPhone 11. But during those times the video quality really
| sucked on both Nexus and Pixel, which it still does to the day.
| wonderbore wrote:
| Man it's been a while since I read someone comparing raw specs.
| Android phones always looked better on paper but sucked
| compared to the iPhone experience in every way. I don't even
| say this as an Apple user because I tried so many times to
| switch to Android when I looked at the specs myself.
|
| Even before the iPhone I looked at the brand new 2G, no GPS,
| 240p screen, 1Mpx camera iPhone and laughed from my "old"
| 3G/VGA/GPS/2Mpx Windows Phone. Until I tried the iPhone and
| there was no going back.
| centilliard wrote:
| I'll give you a pass on the Apple fanboism, seeing as you
| made the poor judgment call to get a Windows phone ;)
|
| On second thought, are you sure you're not still holding your
| iPhone wrong?
|
| http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/06/25/iphone.problems.re.
| ..
| mdasen wrote:
| > It was an octa-core phone that made Apple's dual core iPhone
| 6s (also released in 2015) look like an overpriced joke
|
| The iPhone 6s gets a single-core Geekbench of 528 while the
| Nexus 6P gets 208. The Nexus 6P's multi-core score was 520 -
| less then the iPhone 6s' single-core score. The iPhone 6s'
| multi-core score was 970 - 87% higher than the Nexus 6P.
|
| Yep, it had 8 cores. Good for it. It was still a lot slower.
|
| https://www.anandtech.com/show/9820/the-google-nexus-6p-revi...
|
| AnandTech also found it a lot slower. Mozilla's Kraken web
| browser benchmark took 2.4x longer on the Nexus 6P. The iPhone
| scored around 1.9x higher on Google's Octane benchmark.
|
| It's really hard to argue with Apple's superior processor
| performance. I guess if you're looking for more cores with
| inferior performance, the Nexus 6P fits the bill. MORE CORES!
| centilliard wrote:
| I had expected 8 slower cores to outperform the 2 slightly
| faster cores in multi-core benchmarks, so the results are
| somewhat surprising, but I guess Apple's wide pipeline design
| keeps on giving. Thanks for the benchmark data.
|
| For what it's worth, the statement you quoted did not
| initially contain the number of cores. 6P felt super snappy
| (at least on Android 6, not so much on Oreo) and I added the
| cores for dramatic effect, but that backfired. I'll leave it
| as-is so others can notice and learn from my mistake once
| they read your reply.
| MonaroVXR wrote:
| I don't agree with you, since a friend and had the iPhone 6s
| Plus and 7 Plus (Me) and a friend if mine the Huawei P9 Plus
| and the 6P, 6P was nowhere. The best shot was taken in black
| white with the Huawei P9 Plus and it literally beat my iPhones
| and I still use that picture for several things.
| centilliard wrote:
| I'm a bit confused. If you're trying to say that Huawei's P9
| (released in 2016) took better pictures than Huawei's 6P
| (released in 2015) and than the iPhones, then I don't think
| there's anything to disagree over. They both took better
| pictures than the iPhones, seeing as they're both Huawei
| phones released shortly one after the other.
|
| Now that I think about it, you might be saying that P9 was
| more wide-spread in the US than the 6P, which would also be
| confusing, because I don't think the P9 was officially sold
| in the US.
| rr888 wrote:
| I had a 6p it was great but cheap construction. First battery
| wore out after 9 months, second one wasn't much longer,
| especially in the cold. Lots of other people had hardware
| problems, it was rare to see them after a few years.
| notRobot wrote:
| I would pay a decent chunk of money for an iPhone SE clone that
| runs Android. I'm so tired of big phones. I can't do this
| anymore.
|
| Past discussions:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31411191
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30405011
| h4waii wrote:
| Pixel 5 + GrapheneOS makes me feel the same way about my device
| as the author.
|
| It's small enough to pocket in a pair of lightweight shorts.
| It's bland to look at, no branding, symmetrical bezels all
| around, but stuffed with all the features and functionality I
| want.
| borissk wrote:
| There are individual customers that will pay for all kind of
| crazy features. But the vast majority of the customers buy
| bigger phones. There's a rumor the iPhone Mini sells so badly
| Apple will not release any new versions.
| fomine3 wrote:
| Let's see today appeared Zenfone 9, it loosks good.
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32271660
| allset_ wrote:
| 5.9in is not small.
| hasperdi wrote:
| The display aspect ratio is 20:9. It's a bit taller than
| iPhone SE 2, but similar width. So 1 hand use friendly.
| dnissley wrote:
| An independent effort to fund the development of such a phone
| is being organized at https://smallandroidphone.com/
| akvadrako wrote:
| The Pixel 4a is probably your best bet; that's what I use.
| Still getting updates and it's quite decent, though it's a
| couple years old now.
| allset_ wrote:
| Love the size and weight of my Pixel 4a. I broke the screen
| on mine a few weeks back, and paid over half the original
| price of the phone to have it repaired.
| wffurr wrote:
| Last update is scheduled for August 2023.
|
| https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=.
| ..
| radicaldreamer wrote:
| iPhone 13 mini will probably be the last small phone we'll see
| for a while.
|
| There's the Balmuda phone on the Android side as well. The
| market simply does not support small screen devices.
| simonmales wrote:
| Running Asus ZenFone 8. Screen size is relatively normal
| compared to the monsters that other manufacturers ship.
| akvadrako wrote:
| Screen size doesn't matter though; the body is within a
| couple mm of an S22 and thicker.
|
| Same with the Zenfone 9.
| MereInterest wrote:
| I'm on the Pixel 3, which at 5.5" is right at the upper limit
| of what I consider acceptable. Looks like the ZenFone 8 is
| 5.9", and is being described as "compact".
| smoldesu wrote:
| Zenphone 9 got it's review embargoes lifted today! Really
| cool, from what I can tell: https://youtu.be/J_0teOgTAhQ
| JansjoFromIkea wrote:
| Samsung XCover 5 seems the best bet atm, to the point I'm
| surprised I hadn't heard of it earlier; smaller than just about
| any other android phone I've encountered in years (almost
| iPhone Mini sized), has a removeable battery and theoretically
| should have zero need for a case. The double combo of Samsung
| promising longer support cycles and it technically being an
| enterprise model mean it should be supported longer than most
| Android phones would be too.
|
| New they're a bit pricey for the specs but you can find them
| like new used on ebay for half RRP.
| neop1x wrote:
| I am using Sony Xperia 5 II and I am quite happy with it. It is
| not that small but it's acceptable for me: 68 x 158 millimeters
| (2.68 x 6.22 in). And it also features a headphone jack! :P
| pcurve wrote:
| I have iPhone 11. At 44 I use large font setting so I can use
| it without glasses. I can't imagine going smaller. :(
| nebula8804 wrote:
| Then you'd want the iPhone Mini right? Its smaller than the SE.
| tristor wrote:
| Also, it retains TouchID which is superior to FaceID despite
| being considered a less premium feature. I also rock and love my
| iPhone SE.
| bch wrote:
| I Like my iPhone SE (currently 3rd gen, previously 1st gen), but
| goodness is it ever _slippery_. It's lovely to look at, but tough
| to use without covering it in a case.
| highmastdon wrote:
| This is precisely the reason I have an iPhone 12 mini. Form
| factor is just good to drive with one hand. I like the cornered
| edges more as it slides less easily from my hand. Price is just
| right. Build quality is better than the SE. All in all, really
| happy. I've jumped from iPhone 6 to the 12 mini. That's how long
| I can handle a phone. When I did the iPhone 6 battery replacement
| deal for EUR35 (?) my gps was broken afterwards so I got a
| replacement refurbished phone. So you could say I used two iPhone
| 6's, but still...
| cryptoegorophy wrote:
| Best iPhone for me is the one that takes the best pictures. I
| have small kids growing up and one thing that you might regret is
| not taking enough quality pictures with the "always available"
| camera. For this reason I also have "live" photos feature.
| at_a_remove wrote:
| I am still rocking an iPhone SE, first generation. However, it
| has done a few troubling things as of late and I guess I must
| prepare myself to get a third generation. I feel like five years
| is a decent span for a phone. And so I have a screen protector
| and an Otterbox on order. Finding out that it won't support IOS
| 16 makes this kind of an inevitable purchase.
|
| TouchID, plus the tiny size, makes it a one-hander if I want, and
| I like that.
|
| I am unsure what I will do with my original phone.
| beckingz wrote:
| New SE is... fine?
|
| ~10-20% better on every dimension than my old android phone.
| SergeAx wrote:
| I am using a phone I bought almost 4 years ago for exactly 400
| USD (thanks, Gmail, for great search feature). I am looking for a
| reason to buy a new one, but cannot imagine anything except for
| slightly degraded battery. I am well off financially, but just
| can't imagine a reason to buy a phone for $1000, not to mention
| rumored $1200 for iPhone 14 (yes, I am aware of USD inflation for
| last 4 years).
|
| Ah, and it is a flagship Xiaomi, with great AMOLED display,
| enough RAM and storage and best (for the time) Snapdragon SoC.
| Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
| The lack of fingerprint sensor on latest iPhones is very
| disappointing. My trusty MotoZ4 has it directly in the screen and
| I love it so much that I refuse to buy myself any other phone
| that doesn't have fingerprint sensor on the front panel or built
| in the screen.
| lolive wrote:
| The 6s.
| ndespres wrote:
| I agree that it's the best one they sell now. I just had to
| retire my iPhone SE first-generation from 2016 which was finally
| starting to fail on me. Coming from that, the newer 3rd gen SE
| still feels too large in my hands. My biggest gripe, though, is
| the glass back instead of the old aluminum back. I think this
| smoothness is the reason the thing keeps falling out of my pocket
| no matter where I sit or what I'm wearing. The thing will not
| stay put!
| fleddr wrote:
| A large phone makes consuming lots of content quite comfortable,
| from social media to general reading to watching videos. Which
| means you'll use it a lot. You'll normalize it and won't even
| bother to move to a larger screen.
|
| Therefore, intentionally buy a sucky phone that adds friction.
| You'll use it less, in moderation, only for things of some
| importance. Plus it costs less. Big quality of life improvement.
|
| Remove all non-essential apps to reduce reasons to use it even
| more. Next, physically detach from the object. Leave it in
| another room, forget all about it.
|
| Unlearn what has become second nature.
| charles_kaw wrote:
| I don't think phones are bad. I don't think having it with you
| all the time is bad. I think what's bad is letting it draw you
| in constantly. Install all your dumb apps, but also turn off
| notifications for anything but direct messages. You'll feel
| better.
|
| But speaking of "dumb apps"... I specifically resist using my
| phone as content consumption. Even with a big screen, it kinda
| sucks compared to a laptop or tablet. Fidelity matters to me.
|
| But also... I like having a small phone because it fits nicely
| in my pocket. I like having a small phone because I can use it
| with one hand. It's not even about friction, just ergonomics
| and getting the hell out of my way.
| prepend wrote:
| I run an SE and it's great. I like it's size and its price.
|
| Phones should be cheap and simple. I don't want to pay more for a
| phone than a Mac book air.
| mysore wrote:
| yeah i wish i had one of these over the 13 pro. i basically never
| use the camera.
| hardwaresofton wrote:
| I was hoping to see my phone and I was not disappointed.
|
| > It is very likely that this is the last iPhone SE of its kind,
| the last "iPhone with a button" (a recurring joke here in
| Brazil). The reception from critics has been lukewarm and sales,
| apparently, below expectations. That's a shame.
|
| This is saddening to read, and with how Apple is it's not like
| buying more of the same phone as a backup would work -- they'd
| all stop working at the same time, probably.
|
| The iPhone SE is so cheap that I could _throw my phone to the
| ground for fun_ and not be bothered about buying a new one except
| for the annoyance of moving stuff over (which was actually really
| easy thanks to hard work by apple engineers). It 's an intrusive
| thought (who would want to just throw their phone to the ground
| for no reason?) but knowing it's easily remedied is so freeing.
|
| We really need to start pushing frugality as a society. I know
| it's bad for GDP and status games, but some things just...
| shouldn't be spent on that much. Phones nearing identical
| quality/functionality are one of them.
| alephxyz wrote:
| > I know it's bad for GDP
|
| That's the broken window fallacy
| hardwaresofton wrote:
| It looks like the sarcasm went undetected. I thought noting
| GDP in the same sentence as status games was enough of a
| signal.
| clairity wrote:
| it's not the same, but apple could add the home button on the
| side, even if they remove it from the front. it could
| incorporate the fingerprint sensor like the ipad, or they could
| use an in-display fingerprint sensor, combined with the removal
| of the front camera, and voila, their holy grail single slab of
| glass iphone!
|
| i still use my trusty 6S because i prefer the fingerprint
| scanner and home button, plus having a real headphone jack is
| useful every now and then.
| hardwaresofton wrote:
| > it's not the same, but apple could add the home button on
| the side, even if they remove it from the front. it could
| incorporate the fingerprint sensor like the ipad, or they
| could use an in-display fingerprint sensor, combined with the
| removal of the front camera, and voila, their holy grail
| single slab of glass iphone!
|
| This is such a huge design question -- the button layout of
| the phone is now muscle memory for me! I do wonder if they'd
| make such a drastic change.
|
| > i still use my trusty 6S because i prefer the fingerprint
| scanner and home button, plus having a real headphone jack is
| useful every now and then.
|
| That's exactly what I upgraded from. I do miss my real
| headphone jack!
|
| What's your plan for support/new devices going forward?
| clairity wrote:
| i'd put the button where the thumb lands on the right side
| (even though i'd personally prefer the left, most people
| would prefer the right). i do love that i can put my phone
| upside down in my back pocket and lift it out with my thumb
| on the button and have it be open to the home screen when
| it's face up in front of me.
|
| my plan is, i'm gonna use this thing until it dies! =) but
| no, i'll probably upgrade next year, as the 6S no longer
| gets ios updates as of this year but i see no need to
| upgrade quite yet. i'm not sure if i'll get a 13 mini
| (assuming no more minis to come) or splurge and get a 15
| (that i don't really need, but it'll be new and shiny and
| irresistable).
| vgel wrote:
| Not GP, but I also still run a 6S(+). I recently replaced
| the battery using an iFixIt kit, which fixed my main
| complaint with it.
|
| It still runs dog-slow, especially on modern websites,
| which is both bad and good in that if I keep the Reddit app
| uninstalled and use New Reddit, the memory leaks crashing
| my Safari tab is a good indication to stop using it :-)
| Unfortunately HN doesn't have such a feature...
|
| I didn't hear about the iOS 16 dropping support rumors
| until now :-(. But apparently the security updates will
| keep coming for a few years. I guess once apps start
| dropping support for iOS 15, I'll have to switch.
| empressplay wrote:
| I have an OG SE and when it dies I'll find another used one!
| gumby wrote:
| I'd be happy with an iphone 14 or 15 mini. (I'm not ready to get
| rid of my 12), but for similar reasons as described in this post.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I feel like I could use an iPhone 13 mini for at least 3 more
| years. I used an iPhone 6S plus from Nov 2015 to May 2020, a
| 2020 iPhone SE from May 2020 to Nov 2021, and I gave that to my
| kid and took my wife's iPhone XS, which has been in use since
| Sep 2018.
|
| I want a 13 mini size phone, but I am waiting for the XS to
| stop being usable.
|
| I just want them to keep selling a mini size phone, whether it
| be 13 or 15. I see no difference until it has been at least 4
| years in my use cases.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| The (actual) perfect phone is the gen 1 SE. I literally just
| returned my gen 3 and ordered two new sealed in the box gen 1
| SE's on eBay for $150 a piece. I've been using this model for 8
| years. I'm set on phones for the next decade.
|
| I'm hoping and praying that Apple will someday make a modern 5G
| phone with the dimensions and features of a gen 1. But until then
| this is my phone. It is literally perfect and there's nothing on
| the market remotely similar.
| torstenvl wrote:
| Care to explain why they're "trash"? What didn't you like about
| it? Just the rounded corners?
| runjake wrote:
| They aren't trash. I think the OP is trying to say they don't
| like the way the current SEs look.
|
| I just bought my kids their own SE current generations, and
| me with my 13 Pro is kind of jealous of how ergonomic,
| pocketable, and usable (home button) they are.
|
| Edit: OP edited their comment to remove the "they are trash"
| verbiage.
| CalChris wrote:
| I stopped caring about the look after I started putting my
| $650 12 Mini in a Quadlock case which by itself is kind of
| dorky. I don't even care about the color anymore. Whenever
| I take it out to clean it looks brand new.
| victor22 wrote:
| 13 mini? I have an iPhone 8 which is just perfect, I switched
| to my old iPhone 11 Max 2 days ago but I decided to sell it and
| go back to the 8. No reason at all to upgrade from the 8 except
| for better camera on the SE's or minis. All apps and everything
| runs the same for 1/3 the price.
| miffy900 wrote:
| I 100% agree, the iPhone 5 form factor was and still remains
| the closest to the perfect phone.
|
| > I'm hoping and praying that Apple will someday make a modern
| 5G phone with the dimensions and features of a gen 1. But until
| then this is my phone. It is literally perfect and there's
| nothing on the market remotely similar.
|
| That's probably not going to happen realistically; the mini and
| iPhone 8-form factor SEs are still pretty good phones.
|
| I bet in the future though the current mini iPhones will
| probably end up being a future generation SE.
| nateb2022 wrote:
| What? I'm not sure if you're aware, but all the SE models have
| the same "bubble" exterior you describe, so I'm not sure how
| one can be better than another in that aspect.
|
| Also what? The 3rd gen iPhone SE has 5G.
| mastazi wrote:
| the 1st gen SE design looks nothing like the newer models, it
| was actually based on the iPhone 5 design, see pictures here
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE_(1st_generation)
|
| The SE 2nd and 3rd gen on the other hand are based on the
| iPhone 6/7/8 design which is quite different
| toomim wrote:
| What do you do about the battery life on old SE's from ebay? Do
| you upgrade the battery?
| ramesh31 wrote:
| Yeah they are honestly 50/50 at this point whether they even
| work out of the box. Fortunately the battery is really easy
| to replace.
| Cyberdog wrote:
| I also upgraded from an SE 1 to an SE 3, and I've been really
| happy with mine. The larger size was a little annoying at first
| but I've adapted.
|
| I too would rather have had a phone with the smaller size of
| the original SE, but I've found the larger phone an acceptable
| trade-off for the speed, memory, and battery life upgrades I
| got going from the SE 1 to the SE 3. Let's just hope the SE 4,
| if there is one, isn't much bigger.
| BbzzbB wrote:
| Am I cheap, poor, frugal or outdated to find it mildly funny
| US$400-450+tx are considered cheap phones nowadays?
|
| Not that I mind as I'm able to find good value (in my opinion and
| for my needs) in second-hand markets for electronics (couldn't be
| more satisfied with my $100 Pixel 3a and aging T430s laptop), I
| just find it impressive how much price references have shifted
| over time as flagship phones ran from $400-500 well into the
| $1-1.5k range[0]. Maybe I wouldn't be so confused about it if I
| understood what use people have for their phones to hold so much
| compute. Aside from the undeniably sick cameras, it seems to me
| like most people have supercomputers to browse social medias as
| AAA-mobile-gaming doesn't seem prevalent at all here (AFAIK it is
| in Asia).
|
| Millennial yelling at clouds, signing off.
|
| 0:
| https://fdn.gsmarena.com/imgroot/news/21/09/iphone-13-steve-...
| Bud wrote:
| Just to cite one example, all that blazing compute is what
| enables the cameras to work as well as they do.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| My phone is the thing I use most out of all things I have.
|
| So spending a few extra cent per hour of usage to get a nicer
| one is very easy to justify.
| agent008t wrote:
| But do you _want_ to be spending so much time on your phone?
|
| To me, buying an expensive phone is somewhat like buying an
| expensive tobacco pipe. It will just encourage you to use it
| more. When in fact, most of the 'use' is worse than useless.
|
| $180 is about how much a phone should cost, and even that is
| too much what with forced (completely unjustified)
| obsolescence. $450 for a 'budget' phone is madness. $1000+
| for a flagship is insanity. Unless you have a specific,
| legitimate need for it - most people don't.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Sounds like we should both have the phones we have :)
| ramraj07 wrote:
| Exactly. Contrary to popular belief no one became poor by
| buying Starbucks or iPhones. For most folks their biggest
| financial blunders are likely always about real estate,
| marital, or career related not your petty cash spending
| habits.
| Toutouxc wrote:
| In the US maybe, but there are many countries where housing
| or services are much cheaper, while iPhones cost the same.
|
| In the poorer regions of my reasonably modern European
| country, getting even the base model of every iPhone
| generation would put significant stress on most families'
| finances, but it's what some folks actually do because it's
| such a status symbol.
| babypuncher wrote:
| The price is "cheap" because it is low enough that most
| carriers will give it to you basically for free if you trade in
| your old phone and/or agree not to switch to a different
| carrier for 18-24 months.
| minerva23 wrote:
| That's not free. They're amortizing the cost of the phone
| into the service fees.
|
| Even budget carriers do this. Google Fi charges $450 for the
| 6a or $240 if you agree to two years. Their cheapest lines
| are $15/mo, which is $360 over two years, so you can see how
| they can offer the $210 discount.
| babypuncher wrote:
| It is functionally free if you were going to pay for the
| same service from the same carrier for that period of time
| anyways.
| chadash wrote:
| I mean it's all relative, but yeah, $429 starting price for a
| phone coming from a company that is known to support their
| products for a minimum of 5 years is really not bad. Especially
| since these phones hold their value far better than any other
| brand on the market. I bought an iphone SE (2nd gen) in 2020
| for $450 and sold it for $230 in 2022, so it worked out to
| about $110/year. It was a fantastic phone, but I upgraded to a
| 13 mini because my work offered to pay for the phone. I used to
| have a Moto E, which I think most people would consider a
| "cheap" phone and a) it wasn't a great phone b) i had no desire
| to keep it more than 2 years and c) by the time i was done
| using it, it's secondary market value was low enough that i
| didn't bother selling it.
| superjan wrote:
| It took me a long, long time to get used to having an expensive
| device on me that is bulky, fragile, not waterproof (includes
| iPhones after you drop it once), requires daily charging, and
| not durable in general (due to battery or sabotage by update).
| Jewelry is more expensive but has none of these issues.
|
| They are certainly very useful, but I don't think the current
| standard is the best compromise.
| another_kel wrote:
| I bought iPhone 11 when it came out, never wear a case and
| dropped it numerous times. It still works fine, with the
| original screen intact(not counting some scratches).
|
| It survived even flying from an e-scooter after I've hit a
| bump on 15 km/h and sliding couple meters on asphalt
| afterwards.
|
| And after all that it still had no problem when I dived into
| the pool with it and shot how I'm riding on a water slide.
|
| Maybe I'm just lucky but it feels like you are exaggerating
| iPhone fragility. They've improved a lot recently.
| superjan wrote:
| Perhaps we were unlucky. Fyi: the standard iPhone warranty
| does not cover water damage (and it was just a spill, not
| submerged). Found out the hard way.
| elzbardico wrote:
| FWIW dropped my iPhone 12+ several times (a recurring
| occurrence with some pants I use when I put the phone in the
| front pocket and sit on my office chair). So far, I can still
| wash it and even use it in the pool with the kids.
|
| Of course, YMMV.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| I don't know about everyone else, but as a professional in the
| film/video world having a new-ish (I upgrade every 3 years or
| so) iPhone actually helps me do my job.
| TAForObvReasons wrote:
| The real draw is the camera. The ease of taking videos,
| especially of your kids, is worth the price tag for many. And
| the camera is a differentiating factor between the lower and
| higher tier models. Is the state-of-the-art camera needed?
| Debatable, but once family and memories are involved all
| economic rationality goes out the window.
| kome wrote:
| expensive smartphones are Veblen goods [1] by now, they mostly
| make no sense, but they will be bought for other reasons
|
| Personally, I won't spend more than 200 eur for a new phone.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good
| MAGZine wrote:
| but... your pixel was more than $100 new. the phone you use
| does not normally fit into the category you describe. the only
| part that makes it work is the "second hand," bit.
|
| cheap/expensive is relative, and $400 is cheap for a phone (for
| north american audiences).
|
| fwiw, i find even pixel phones to be sort of slow after a
| couple years into software updates, mostly between
| multitasking/app switching. so I think that the compute
| actually doesn't really scale well into the future as you
| imply, which is a separate unfortunate fact.
| BbzzbB wrote:
| I wasn't trying to compare second-hand price vs new, I just
| added that since I didn't want to come off as complaining
| when I'm not really concerned by the cost of new phones (or
| electronics for that matter), it was just an observation. If
| anything, I'm thankful for consumerism enabling me to buy
| from an ample supply of quality second-hand electronics.
|
| >cheap/expensive is relative
|
| I guess that's kind of my point if there was one. Today's
| cheap smartphones are at the price of flagship phones from
| <10 years ago. I find it noticeable how far goalposts have
| moved when it comes to what cheap (let alone expensive) means
| for smartphones. Which is just a remark and not a criticism,
| consumers command markets as it should be and I'm more than
| aware my habits are not extrapolatable.
| bubblethink wrote:
| Through luck or minor hacks, I have been able to keep my
| phone costs less than $100 a year over the last decade. The
| nexus and pixel lines have almost always offered a new phone
| around the $300 mark (black friday, trade in, some promo,
| etc.) and they last for about 3 years.
| 29083011397778 wrote:
| > i find even pixel phones to be sort of slow after a couple
| years into software updates
|
| I assume that's because they're Google's software updates.
| Removing all Google apps, and most phones are _fast_. My
| BlackBerry KeyOne, with its midrange chipset, is still fast
| five years after it was released. Hell, I wanted a smaller
| form factor for a few days, and threw my SIM into my Nexus 5.
| Changing apps, installing updates, and navigating with OSM
| were all just as fast as 2013, when the phone was new. I even
| flipped through a few Tiktok videos to try it out - and while
| the first video stuttered a bit, everything after that was
| _still_ quick.
|
| Google Apps, like Google Play Services, the Play Store, and
| especially Maps, all seem to expand over time to consume all
| available resources. OS updates don't slow down your phone -
| the software you just want to run (and are pushed _heavily_
| to keep up-to-date) simply keeps getting heavier.
| cercatrova wrote:
| If I removed all Google apps, my phone would be like a
| paperweight to me. Maps, Photos, Calendar, Gmail, Drive,
| Books, YouTube and others are all critical to my workflows,
| and even just for navigating the world and taking photos in
| general.
| brewdad wrote:
| You can find replacements for all of those through
| f-droid. You do lose a little bit of functionality and/or
| polish with those alternative apps though.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| There's no replacement for Google Maps and Google Photos
| in the current world IMO.
|
| That feels hyperbolic, but any alternative to Map that
| I've seen were either:
|
| - strongly platform limited (e.g. only works on
| android/iOS, and you lose bookmarks, preferences, or even
| finding consistent info when using any over device)
|
| - use inconsistent apps (e.g. OSM will have different
| clients on different platforms, which crosses the first
| point)
|
| - be straight bad (e.g. Apple Maps in low population
| areas)
|
| - have little to no third data integration ("what's the
| website of that business I'm looking at")
|
| Photos is another can of worm, as outside of Apple Photos
| and Flickr every service gaining popularity just died a
| horrible death. Then Apple Photos is heavily platform
| limited, and Flickr isn't great for personal photo
| maintenance and sharing for many reasons, not going into
| the Yahoo part of it.
|
| These two products have I think a stronger stand than
| Gmail or even Google Search, and they are the closest to
| someone's day to day reality.
| blfr wrote:
| Yes, excellent points.
|
| And then Google Photos works together with Google Maps
| Timeline to show you pics taken on a given day in a
| certain place. Theoretically possible on any platform
| since photos have appropriate metadata, but practically
| only available from Google.
| ghaff wrote:
| >not going into the Yahoo part of it.
|
| Flickr hasn't been owned by Yahoo for a number of years
| at this point. I've had a paid Flickr account for quite a
| few years but I admit I don't use it a lot these days.
|
| I find Google Maps is in a different category than
| Photos. I use Photos from time to time for image
| identification but that's pretty much it. (And there are
| a lot of alternatives for that these days.)
| makeitdouble wrote:
| Flickr is now independent, but it was part of Yahoo for
| so long I'd guess most people having all their photos in
| it probably used a Yahoo account. I'll confess I tried
| accessing mine after a years long hiatus and it didn't
| work (endless password resets)
|
| On alternatives, which storage/sync and management
| service do you see working at the same level as Photos ?
| I'm genuinely curious and would move if it matches up
| (Basically, what is the Gmail->Fastmail like go to
| alternative for Photos ?)
|
| Image identification looks to me like a very fringe use
| for a photo storage service, or perhaps you're referring
| to searching all your photos for specific keywords ?
|
| PS: Reminds me of the photos services curse from "The
| Prompt" podcast, where every time they'd present a
| competitive photo service, like Everpix, it would go out
| of business or something horrible happen to it a few
| months in.
| ghaff wrote:
| I use Flickr for a curated subset of my photos but it's
| honestly been a while since I've uploaded anything.
|
| I have Apple Photos but only what I shoot on my iPhone.
|
| Primarily though I organize and edit photos locally with
| Lightroom Classic. (And, in addition to local backups,
| it's backed up by Backblaze along with all my other
| files.
| cercatrova wrote:
| That's the problem though, those f-droid alternatives are
| nowhere near Google apps' functionality. Believe me, I've
| tried, and I've always gone back to GApps.
| _carbyau_ wrote:
| Sadly Maps is the killer phone app for me. Otherwise I'd
| try harder to get rid of the google stuff on my phone.
| brewdad wrote:
| Yeah, I switched to iOS but still keep Google Maps around
| for the times when Apple Maps doesn't quite work the way
| it should. I'm still 90-95% Apple Maps but sometimes I
| have to call for backup.
|
| Google also works better for "browsing" the neighborhood
| to see what businesses are nearby.
| rovr138 wrote:
| I mean, in the case of phone comparisons, what you want to
| benchmark is the phone with it's default services and apps
| (which is what people use).
|
| If you can modify those, then what's the comparison on? How
| fast it boots to no apps or services running?
| rejor121 wrote:
| We are arguably in a tech golden age where all this cool
| stuff is cheap now.
|
| Look at video cards. Counting for inflation those things were
| expensive. Then they got cheap. Now they're gonna get
| expensive again ( look at the proposed prices for 4000 series
| GeForce cards ).
|
| I think we are eventually going to see more expensive phones
| simply because people won't really need to buy new ones
| anymore.
| throw7 wrote:
| You are not. And the camera in the pixel 6a is the same as it
| ever was and they made it worse by replacing the rock solid
| back fingerprint reader with a junk "under the glass tesla AI
| is coming next year" reader.
| NovaVeles wrote:
| I'm in the same camp as you. Running an T420 instead. ;)
|
| My phone is a top-low end phone or a low-mid end Oppo A 53? Or
| something like that. It does everything I need with loads of
| head room. Will just run it until death.
| hgazx wrote:
| Flagships are now so much better than when they costed $400.
| But don't worry because there currently are phones that cost
| $200 and are better than what you got for $400 years ago, so
| you're covered too.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| > Am I cheap, poor, frugal or outdated to find it mildly funny
| US$400-450+tx are considered cheap phones nowadays?
|
| I can't speak to whether you're any of those, but I can say
| this. Anyone spending significantly more than that (I'm
| included in this category) is either:
|
| - Buying it for the quality of its camera (me again, not that
| I'm an especially avid photographer; I almost exclusively take
| pics of my pup)
|
| - Some mix of spending too much or not realizing they're in one
| or more categories below (some large majority, I'd wager)
|
| - Doing a cost benefit analysis that favors spending more
| upfront for a longer-term investment (me again _again_ ,
| although my phone ownership lifecycle has shortened
| significantly; it's still beneficial because my hand-me-downs
| benefit loved ones)
|
| - Married to the software (me once again, much moreso on mobile
| than on general purpose computers these days)
|
| - Enthralled by compute power or some other hardware
| particularity (o_0 I'm probably just getting old but I mostly
| don't get this... okay I'm amused that my phone is more
| powerful in many ways than its current high-end laptop
| companion)
| RealityVoid wrote:
| - cares about SW updates
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| I think that falls squarely under "married to the
| software"? At least it was part of the spirit of I
| intended.
| mjgerm wrote:
| You have to admit that there is some gap between "I want
| the latest re-rounded corners on app icons" (which fits
| into that category neatly) and "I don't want 4 years of
| unpatched 0-days still open on my phone" (which I'd argue
| does not).
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| I don't know why I have to admit this, but sure I'll
| grant it. I don't think the former is a reasonable
| characterization of "married to the software", I think
| it's a caricature.
| stephenboyd wrote:
| The first generation iPhone from 2016 can still be updated
| with the latest iOs version.
| SECProto wrote:
| I think you're missing a big one that applies to most people
| I know:
|
| - Locked into two year contracts where a phone upgrade is
| "free" every two years, but they are spending $100+ per month
| for that "free" phone
|
| As a Canadian, I have a $50 plan with 12 gb of data (pretty
| good deal for here). If I wanted to get a new iPhone 13, I'd
| have to spend $300 up front (would be offset if i had an old
| device to trade in), plus an additional $33/month for two
| years, plus choose a plan that was at least $60 base. So I'd
| get a "free" phone every two years (as long as I had an old
| device to trade in every two years, and paid twice as much
| per month).
|
| I won't do these things, so I have just replaced my $300 all-
| in phone from 4 years ago with a $400 all-in phone.
| closetohome wrote:
| Your description of that deal doesn't really add up. If
| you're putting down $300 and paying $33/month, that's just
| buying a phone.
| SECProto wrote:
| Yes, but if you have a two year old iPhone then they give
| you a $300 credit for trading it in. And you're already
| paying $95 a month (to cover your two year old phone), so
| the monthly cost ends up being the same. And the only
| alternative the salespersons will mention is buying the
| iPhone outright for $1200. So people think they are
| getting a deal (when they're actually just financing a
| phone over two years with an overpriced plan)
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| That definitely feels like it falls under the spending too
| much category, but I've only once financed a phone (should
| be mine pretty soon I think!) and hope I never need to
| again.
| SECProto wrote:
| That's fair, I just find that the number of people who
| fall into that specific source of "spending too much"
| makes it important to specify. Most providers bury the
| actual phone cost somehow, and only focus on the monthly
| total - normalizing people spending $100/month on cell
| services
| enlyth wrote:
| I have a rule that I spend the most money on things I use the
| most.
|
| Mattresses, phones, computers, desks, chairs, etc. Is a
| thousand dollars for a phone a lot? Well, depends on how you
| look at it. I use it for more than an hour a day, every day,
| so a 1000 dollars over two years for a device like that
| doesn't seem insane to me. Comes out to about a $1.40 a day.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| I have no rule but my heuristic is to spare no expense on
| things that matter most to me, but to research them if I'm
| not already sure what I want. That research often factors
| in price because "spare no expense" can be absurd when it's
| blind. Multiple orders of magnitude absurd when you're not
| paying attention and think you have that lack of attention
| available.
| badpun wrote:
| Being taxed $1.40 a day EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE doesn't
| sound insignificant.
| enlyth wrote:
| To own my own pocket supercomputer that also functions as
| a high quality photo/video camera? I'd gladly pay that
| "tax". It's about the equivalent of one meal a month in a
| restaurant.
| vlunkr wrote:
| I think that's a good thing to consider when making a
| purchase, but it's also very one-dimensional.
|
| To me 1000$ for a phone is a lot because it's only
| marginally better than a 500$ phone.
|
| Also phones are big liability. Odds are a good mattress or
| chair will last ages. A phone lasts 2 to 3 years generally.
| hattmall wrote:
| So, are phones actually more powerful than computers? I know
| obviously there's a scale, but my understanding is that x86
| stuff is an entirely different league than anything built for
| mobile. I wasn't really acutely aware of this until I started
| building some small form factor entertainment systems. After
| doing some research and testing I was getting far better
| performance out of old model x86 Chromeboxes than even the
| latest mobile hardware.
| sgerenser wrote:
| A15 in the iPhone SE is far faster than any atom-class CPU
| which is what you typically find in a chromebook. On
| JavaScript benchmarks it trades blows with 12th gen Intel
| laptop CPUs.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| My iPhone 13 Pro Max absolutely beats my 2019 MacBook Pro
| 16" on several benchmarks. Subjectively it also very
| readily remains useful and responsive for many tasks when
| the same laptop doesn't for the same task.
| ramraj07 wrote:
| None of your reasons cover the hordes of people buying the
| pro models when there's absolutely no reason to. Especially
| in India. I live in an upper middle class apartment complex
| and half the folks living here have a 13 Pro. It costs 60%
| more if not higher here than in the US as well. You have to
| be in the 99.5th percentile of salary earners to cover the
| price of the phone in a single months salary.
|
| It's all about image and prestige and that's one of the
| biggest reasons nowadays if you ask me.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| > None of your reasons cover the hordes of people buying
| the pro models when there's absolutely no reason to.
|
| I'm fairly certain the second item does?
| _fat_santa wrote:
| My suggestion is to buy them used. So far I've purchased ~4
| Apple devices for family members on Swappa, each time I got a
| pretty good discount over the new device. So while an SE is
| $429 new, you can find one in mint condition on Swappa with 95%
| battery health (the most important detail when buying a used
| iOS device IMO) for $220, and if you're tight on cash and want
| to really go cheap, buy one that's been scuffed up for around
| $130.
| mrweasel wrote:
| The iPhone SE is in the high end of what I'll pay for a phone.
| Sadly it's also the only smart phone available to me, as I
| don't want an Android phone.
| freetime2 wrote:
| > The single camera, by the way, is very close to the main one on
| the top models. Apple's marketing gives the impression that every
| year the new iPhone cameras leave the old ones in the dust. The
| truth is, I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the
| photos of the iPhone SE, those from my girlfriend's iPhone 11 and
| my iPhone 8.
|
| It's a bit odd to compare the iPhone SE to the iPhone 11, and
| then say it's the same as the "top models". The jump in image
| quality and image processing is pretty significant from the
| iPhone 11 to the iPhone 13, in my opinion. And video is
| significantly improved, too. Maybe it's not something that
| everyone would notice or care much about, but for me it was well
| worth the upgrade.
| nottorp wrote:
| [quote] It is very likely that this is the last iPhone SE of its
| kind, the last "iPhone with a button" ... The reception from
| critics has been lukewarm and sales, apparently, below
| expectations. That's a shame. [/quote]
|
| That might be because people who really wanted a small phone
| might have gone for the 12/13 mini which is even smaller. I never
| considered the 8 "small".
| rpgbr wrote:
| Maybe, but mini version will be phased out in iPhone 14 lineup.
| Besides, iPhone SE is way cheaper, and I suspect part of its
| success is due to pricing.
| JustSomeNobody wrote:
| I'm one of the few who believe Apple will bring the mini back
| as the next SE in a couple years.
| nottorp wrote:
| Yeah, SE is the cheap one atm while the Minis are the small
| ones. I got two Minis for the ladies of the house. Because
| they wanted small phones.
|
| Both the SE and the Mini sell pretty well by any other
| company's standards except Apple, I think...
| justinator wrote:
| I have the last iPhone SE and it's great, except I have monsterly
| large hands, and I shoulda thought about that before buying this
| phone. Just paid it off, so that's nice for the ol' phone bill.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| I got the iPhone 13 Mini. I suspect that it will be the last of
| that form factor.
|
| I use a first-gen SE (tiny screen) as my low-end test (iOS 14).
| mikestew wrote:
| The only reason my spouse and I both bought 13 Minis is because
| we suspected the same. We otherwise were fine to hold onto
| X-gen iPhones for a little longer (despite their carrier-deck
| screens). I hope we're all wrong about that "no more Minis"
| thing, but if we aren't, it's going to be "cold dead hands"
| time[0].
|
| [0] As in, "pry it from my...", for those not familiar with the
| saying.
| skyyler wrote:
| I don't see any reason to get rid of my 12 mini yet. I hope I
| never will.
| gandalfgreybeer wrote:
| I'm on the same boat. I am considering getting the 13 mini
| though since this seems like the last of this form factor for
| a while.
| freediver wrote:
| Upgraded my 8 to it and not happy with it too.
| gnicholas wrote:
| > _The single camera, by the way, is very close to the main one
| on the top models. Apple's marketing gives the impression that
| every year the new iPhone cameras leave the old ones in the dust.
| The truth is, I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the
| photos of the iPhone SE, those from my girlfriend's iPhone 11 and
| my iPhone 8_
|
| Probably true, but the 11 is not exactly the newest iPhone out
| there. The 13 has noticeably better low-light performance, when I
| compare it to my old 11 Pro. L
| rpgbr wrote:
| Yeah, it was the only one available here for a comparison.
|
| Low light in the (only?) scenario on which iPhone SE's camera
| really lags behind the more expensive iPhones. I can't
| understand how Apple gave it the portrait mode, but not the
| night/low light mode. It seems something dependent on processor
| power, which it has plenty.
| cnees wrote:
| If they next WWDC keynote announced double the battery life and
| half the weight, that would be great, but what would really
| inspire me would be a brand deal with Levi's. If they could put
| iPhone-compatible pockets in women's jeans... wow, what a future.
|
| Even the SE is a tad too big for one hand for an average-height
| woman (that is, me) and sticks out of most of my pockets, but
| it's the best Apple has to offer me.
| elxr wrote:
| > in its entry model, low cost (USD 429).
|
| The iPhone SE isn't "low cost" considering the alternatives from
| android land, and the disappointing battery life. I think a big
| reason this phone is so well liked on here is the general woeful
| state of the budget, compact phone market.
|
| With LG gone, Google Nexus gone, HTC gone, OnePlus's descent into
| mediocrity, and Motorola churning out huge phone after huge
| phone, options are slim. The new Zenfone 9 looks solid, but
| that's a flagship phone. I hope they release a smaller, more-
| budget focused version next.
| madeofpalk wrote:
| The statement is correct. The iPhone SE is _Apple 's_ entry
| model, low cost iPhone.
|
| Absolutely, in the whole market it would probably be a mid-
| range smartphone.
| elxr wrote:
| I agree with most of what you said. But the way "low" cost
| (not "lower" cost, which is the wording I'd use) is used to
| describe a $430 phone with these specs is a little
| disingenuous to me. Maybe it's not that this thing is cheap,
| but that spending $800+ on phones for the average person is
| absolutely ridiculous.
|
| It bothers me that Apple has so much mindshare among the
| public that people only judge their phones/devices in
| comparison to Apple devices, while ignoring any non-Apple
| options.
| sgjohnson wrote:
| > It bothers me that Apple has so much mindshare among the
| public that people only judge their phones/devices in
| comparison to Apple devices, while ignoring any non-Apple
| options.
|
| There's actually a lot of hidden cost to switching
| platforms. For me there are 2:
|
| 1. I hate Google more than I hate Apple (irrelevant for
| most people)
|
| 2. I'm balls deep in Apple's ecosystem. Never mind the
| hardware. All paid apps? Gone. All in-app purchases? Gone.
| Everything you've bought on iTunes store? Difficult to
| access.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Definitely low cost comparing to any other current iPhone. For
| me, Android isn't an option (too deep into Apple ecosystem).
| sgjohnson wrote:
| > The iPhone SE isn't "low cost" considering the alternatives
| from android land
|
| It absolutely is. The cost is still relative to how much
| marginally better flagships cost, not to how much a
| significantly worse barely-smartphone costs.
| geenew wrote:
| The article mentions the ability to take pictures with blurry
| backgrounds (aka bokeh).. fwiw, that feature exists on the SE 2nd
| generation.
|
| To join in the old-man-fist-shaking, the SE 1st generation was a
| far better size. You can use the SE 2nd generation with one hand,
| yes, but in practice it involves frequently double-light-tapping
| the omni-button to slide the screen down halfway. (Or, maybe, I
| just have small hands, IDK).
| 0x38B wrote:
| Text recognition in the camera also works on the 2020 iPhone
| SE, along with blurred backgrounds in portrait mode.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| Can we just have a conversation about how my Pixel 4a's camera at
| 4K gets smoked by an iPhone SE/iPhone 5 taking video at 1080p...
| I'm not an iphone guy but I do keep one in my pocket for taking
| video.
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| Google has long chosen cheaper, lower-quality camera sensors,
| knowing that their still image processing is beyond what Apple
| has on offer and will make up for any deficiencies. Apple tends
| to go for more expensive, higher-quality camera sensors and
| less software processing, and that is more clearly visible when
| shooting video, where image processing requires more processing
| power than what a phone is currently capable of.
| WrtCdEvrydy wrote:
| Damn it, Google.
| kalleboo wrote:
| When YouTubers use an Android camera to record some short clip
| on-the-go, it's always so obvious - it usually has that obvious
| "jello-vision" rolling shutter feel that old digital cameras
| had. Meanwhile it took me ages to realize that Doug DeMuro uses
| an iPhone for like half of his shots (only noticed due to the
| characteristic green lens reflections)
| christophilus wrote:
| To everyone who is running old Android devices, do you just not
| care about security updates, or is there something I'm missing?
| Been thinking of switching from my dying iPhone 7 to a GrapheneOS
| device, but the extremely short support window has given me
| pause.
|
| Also, any phone recommendations?
| troorl wrote:
| The original SE is still kicking. If not for the battery, I'd
| stick to it for another 3-5 years.
| thom wrote:
| I upgraded to the 13 Pro Max from the 8 Plus and I'm still
| annoyed several times a day by interactions that are strictly
| worse without the touch sensor. Today it was because you used to
| be able to unlock just by holding your phone with your thumb on
| the sensor. But now you have to raise it to your face, hope it
| works after a couple of goes with your sunglasses on, and then
| even when it does you have to swipe up to see what you were last
| looking at. It made checking a map on a webpage repeatedly feel
| like torture. It's a tax on every single interaction with my
| phone and while I love the storage and the screen I have thought
| about ditching it.
| cyberlurker wrote:
| I also miss the fingerprint sensor. It's fast and effective. I
| wish they would add it to the power button or if they can
| improve the tech, under the screen.
| easton wrote:
| Driving in the car with a Face ID phone is a nightmare. You
| hand it to the passenger to look at, it's locked, you have to
| try to look at it while your driving, then if you get unlucky
| and it locks you have to enter your passcode while you're
| driving (I have an alphanumeric passcode and it's very hard to
| enter if I'm not looking at the phone). Touch ID, I could just
| plop my thumb on the home button without looking.
| gameshot911 wrote:
| You're right, unlocking the phone every single time you want to
| interact with it _is_ exceedingly tedious.
|
| Which is why I remove the FaceID/passcode completely. The
| overall improvement to my QoL is well worth the increased risk.
| And all my truly sensitive apps are passcode protected, anyway.
| paulmd wrote:
| There is also the middle ground of a lock timeout - if you
| use your phone more than, say, once an hour, it'll never
| lock, but if you drop it on the ground and it sits there for
| an hour it'll be locked if someone finds it.
| yazaddaruvala wrote:
| This would change my life! FaceId protect specific Apps +
| Settings.
|
| Let guests (or myself) use Google Maps, Calculator, etc
| without a lock screen.
| neither_color wrote:
| I have a magic keyboard with TouchID and it's made me really
| nostalgic for phones with TouchID. Never need to tilt my head
| or raise my hand to log into anything anymore.
| wanderr wrote:
| I use my phone extensively throughout the day but modern phones
| are good enough for most things. All I want is an excellent
| camera built in, the higher optical zoom the better. It can be
| the most boring thing in the world otherwise. I hate that I
| always must shell out for a flagship phone to get this. Sure, I
| have a really nice camera too, but the best camera is the one you
| have on you and it's not practical to lug around something extra
| at all times.
| kringo wrote:
| I love the box design of iPhone 12/13 mini, otherwise would have
| gone for this!
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| I bought a Mini with great excitement, thinking that it would
| take me back to the glory of the "my phone fits my my pocket and
| I can type with one hand" days.
|
| I kept it for 3 months, and then traded it in for a Pro. It turns
| out that the world has moved on. Web pages are getting harder to
| read on small screens. I had to squint a lot. The phone's short
| height means that it often doesn't charge "vertically" in Qi
| chargers. It doesn't fit in my car's integrated phone holder, it
| just rattles around.
|
| And I really missed the zoom lens.
|
| So I'm OK with the Pro, and I will get used to slightly larger
| phones.
|
| (The "Max" is still stupid.)
| sircastor wrote:
| I've got a 12 mini and I'm quite happy with it. I admit that I
| don't charge it wirelessly because I have a snap ring on the
| back. I'm disappointed that the form factor is dead going
| forward.
| Swizec wrote:
| I love my 13 mini and it's easily my favorite iPhone since the
| 5.
|
| The only thing missing is the zoom. Wish they replaced the
| useless 0.5x lens with the 2x. Everything else about this phone
| is perfect
| Bud wrote:
| The 0.5x is far more useful than the 2x. Most of the things
| one would do with the 2x can be had by just walking a bit
| closer to the subject. Or by just shooting at 1x and
| cropping, since there's resolution to spare.
|
| But the 0.5x very frequently enables indoor shots that are
| impossible to get otherwise. Because you can't back up for a
| wider view if you're next to a wall.
|
| Apple chose well.
| Swizec wrote:
| > Most of the things one would do with the 2x can be had by
| just walking a bit closer to the subject
|
| Except for the main reason I ever used it: depth of field
| and more natural proportions.
|
| Digital zoom can't do that and no portrait mode is not the
| same.
|
| On my old phone I would often switch to 2x and walk _away_
| from the subject to get a better photo.
|
| Here's a good example of how faces change when shot with
| different focal lengths: https://imgur.io/gallery/ZKTWi
| theshrike79 wrote:
| > (The "Max" is still stupid.)
|
| The Max is only stupid if you're in the "phone is a phone"
| group.
|
| For the "my phone is my main computing device" people it's a
| really good device.
| jen729w wrote:
| 13 Mini lover here. I find the small screen an advantage,
| because it makes me less likely to look at web pages on it. I'm
| actively trying to use my phone less, while not pretending that
| living modern life without a phone is essentially impossible.
|
| When I do succumb to my own weakness and look at something on
| the tiny screen, I often think, meh, this isn't great, just do
| something else!
| mjamesaustin wrote:
| ^Yes, this! Got a mini too as part of my mission to reduce
| phone time. I still use it plenty, and haven't once missed
| having a bigger screen.
| skaber wrote:
| Fully agree with you. I need the practicality of a smartphone
| but want to reduce screen time. The 13 mini forces me to use
| my laptop if I want to read or perform a task.
| MrScruff wrote:
| Another 13 Mini user here and I love it. Upgraded from a 6s and
| I was shocked to see the size inflation. First thing I want
| from my phone is for it to comfortably fit into my pocket. Also
| single hand usage. The actual screen estate is pretty close to
| the 6s so I don't feel like I've lost anything.
| greenthrow wrote:
| > The "Max" is still stupid.
|
| It's a lazy, bad name but it is objectively a great product. It
| is extremely successful.
|
| Dismissing it because it doesn't work for you is as absurd as
| dismissing shoes too big for you or pants made from a material
| you don't like. Other people do, the world is not about you.
| rTX5CMRXIfFG wrote:
| Ironic how you point out the subjectivity of what a likable
| phone is while also saying how the Pro Max is _objectively_
| great, lol. By the end of the day the person that you're
| replying to is just expressing an opinion, which is allowed.
| bamboozled wrote:
| Why did you go for a Pro over a regular iPhone 13 (for
| example).
|
| I'm trying to workout which one to get, way too many options in
| 2022.
|
| I do a lot of outdoor stuff, not sure if I want the weight of
| the pro, is it worth it?
| ZephyrBlu wrote:
| Pro has 120hz refresh rate vs 60hz for the regular.
| hgazx wrote:
| I'm not sure when the 14 will be released but I would wait if
| you can. It will be better at (most likely) the same price
| tag.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| > Why did you go for a Pro over a regular iPhone 13 (for
| example).
|
| The zoom lens. Worth the price alone.
| batiudrami wrote:
| As above and 6GB memory not 4GB. The processor is fast enough
| that it will be good for 5+ years with a battery replacement
| midway, but the 4GB ram might end up hurting before that.
| alx__ wrote:
| > processor is fast enough that it will be good for 5+
| years
|
| This is how I feel, 3 years later, after getting the 11 Pro
| in 2019. If I do upgrade this year, I'll give it to my dad,
| and he'll probably use it till it breaks :)
| shp0ngle wrote:
| I love my 13 mini, but the battery is really bad. It's really
| noticeable, especially coming from XR.
| easton wrote:
| I know this is all anecdotal, but my 13 mini lasts
| consistently longer than my 8 ever did and I'm super happy
| with the battery. I've never had it not make it through a
| day, even when GPS and brightness is cranked with the Disney
| World app (which is why I had to carry a battery with my 8
| when I went there). Makes me wonder how long the Xr battery
| would last with my workload.
| shp0ngle wrote:
| Well, XR regularly lasted about 2 days for me. I didn't
| have to think about charging almost at all.
| nebula8804 wrote:
| I use the Anker magnetic car mount and it works like a dream
| for the Mini. I think it successfully attached 100% of the
| time?
| gnicholas wrote:
| I love how pocketable my 13 mini is. When I first got it, I
| would be walking around and not remember if it was in my pocket
| or not -- it's that light/small. My prior phone was an 11 Pro,
| which had a nice heft to it but was sometimes difficult to push
| into my pants pocket (especially when sitting). The 13 mini
| slides in easily, no matter the angle.
|
| I do wonder if the battery will hold up over time, especially
| as I start going to conferences and other all-day events. It
| was a non-issue during the first year, when I was almost always
| at home.
| aeharding wrote:
| My favorite part of the 13 mini is the wallet fits so
| satisfyingly. It was made for it.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Hey as a film/television guy the max is a dream. Don't discount
| it completely just because it's not for you!
| petercooper wrote:
| I have luckily had the opposite experience. I've always had the
| biggest phone I could get (Pro Max and all the rest) but
| decided to try the 13 Mini after hearing so many good things.
| Given how fussy I usually am, it's been amazing. The pros
| outweigh any cons for me, but it seems the Mini is going the
| way of the dodo in future anyway and the SE really is a step
| too far down for me.
| Aeolun wrote:
| > the SE really is a step too far down for me
|
| Down? What does the mini have that the SE doesn't?
| idle_zealot wrote:
| Magsafe, Face Id, nearly full-screen display, and a better
| camera array (I think?).
| ginko wrote:
| >Face Id
|
| I switched from an iphone 7 to a 13 mini and I dearly
| miss touch ID. It worked a lot better than face id IMO.
| When the new SE was announced just months after I got the
| mini I was pretty bummed.
| OriginalPenguin wrote:
| Also uwb for Air tags.
| kasey_junk wrote:
| For me, and this is irritating, magsafe. All my other
| devices have it and the peripherals are better with it.
|
| I agonized over this dumb thing but am terribly happy with
| my mini, in ways I haven't been since the original SE.
| massysett wrote:
| Just hold on to your current phone. I upgraded to the 13 mini
| from the 7 Plus expecting it to be faster. It isn't. I'm
| still glad I upgraded because the mini is smaller than the 7
| Plus while giving up only a little bit of screen size, and I
| can use it without a case because it's not shaped like a bar
| of soap.
|
| But this showed me that phone performance is no longer a
| reason to upgrade, so I'll probably hold on to this one even
| longer than I kept the 7 Plus.
| [deleted]
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| I'm not sure how you could say the 13 isn't faster than the
| 7. That seems like a perception/expectations issue.
| gnicholas wrote:
| What do you do on your phone that the 13 mini isn't faster
| than the 7 Plus? I've had both of these phones -- the 13 is
| my daily driver, and I have the 7 plugged into a TV as a
| media hub. While it isn't unbearably slow, it's noticeably
| slower than the 13 for pretty much everything.
| massysett wrote:
| I know that objectively speaking the chip in the 13 is
| leaps and bounds faster. But in my daily use I don't see
| it. Safari is no faster. Maps is no faster. Some apps
| like Sonos still have startup time.
|
| Probably the apps I use just aren't CPU bound, or they
| need other optimizations to make them faster. Which
| probably makes me like most people. My wife is still
| happily using an iPhone 8 and she will probably replace
| it only when it completely goes out. Since phones are so
| durable now--the home button doesn't even wear out--that
| might take years more.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Interesting! Makes me want to go do a speed test to see
| where the biggest differences are One app that comes to
| mind is Camera, which is super fast to load on the newer
| phones. When taking photos of babies/toddlers, load time
| is important! But you're right that some apps probably
| have similar load times across devices because the
| weakest link is a web connection (Google Nest, looking at
| you...).
| rabuse wrote:
| I love the size of my mini. It's perfect for one handed
| operation.
| fossuser wrote:
| I have the 13 mini and love it - I'm sad it'll be the last one
| for a long time. The 12 was great too, but the battery life hit
| was noticeable- the 13 fixed that.
|
| I would prefer the telephoto lens to the the warped wide angle
| (which I find useless). I also miss out on the high refresh
| rate display (for the 12 year none of the phones had it).
|
| The mini is probably my favorite iPhone design of all time.
| It's basically a 5 (my previous favorite) with a full screen
| display.
|
| It's a shame we'll lose a small phone that doesn't compromise
| on features this year - I don't want an SE.
| jrib wrote:
| if apple would have moved to usb-c, I would have jumped ship
| to the iphone 13 mini when I needed a phone. Sad that they
| won't be making them for a while.
| Bud wrote:
| Out of curiosity, why? USB-C offers no marked improvements
| over Lightning, none whatsoever, plus it's more fragile and
| the port size is significantly larger.
| InefficientRed wrote:
| Travel. Travel. Travel.
|
| Having everything USB-C just makes travel so much easier.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| I travel a lot and "having everything USB C" didn't help.
|
| I had:
|
| - a USB C cord that only supports power but up to 100W
|
| - a USB C cord that supports power up to 60W and data at
| USB2 speeds. But didn't work with my USB C powered
| portable display. Because it didn't support video.
|
| - a USB C cord that only supported power up to 60W and
| data and video.
|
| I'm usually traveling with:
|
| - My MacBook Pro 16 inch (USB C)
|
| - Mouse/Keyboard (lightning)
|
| - iPad Air 3rd Gen (lightning)
|
| - iPhone 12 (lightning)
|
| - AirPods Pro (lightning)
|
| - Beats Flex (they hang around my neck and I don't have
| to worry about them falling out on the plane if I dose
| off) USB C
|
| - a four in one wireless charger that I sit by my bed at
| the hotel. (USB C).
|
| - a Anker battery pack (USB-C)
|
| - portable monitor (USB C)
|
| - Watch - weird Apple proprietary wireless charging.
|
| But now I only travel with these cords for most of my
| devices:
|
| Female USB A/USB C on one end and USB C/lightning on the
| other end. They support data up to 480Mbps and power up
| to 60W. They are $13.00. They are cheap and not too
| thick.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092ZT8CJ9
|
| But for a truly "universal cable", I have three of these:
|
| - Female USB A/USB C on one end
|
| - lightning, USB C, and Micro USB on the other end
|
| - 10GBps data transfer
|
| - supports video over USB C
|
| - Supports charging up to 100W.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093YVRHMB
|
| They are like $35 and are much thicker and a little
| unwieldy and I don't _need_ them just for charging
| anything but my computer and connecting my secondary
| display.
|
| BTW, this is my portable USB Monitor
|
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095GG31KX/
|
| I can't use my iPad as a second monitor using the native
| ability in MacOs because of corporate software. I found
| out later that I could use Duet.
| coder543 wrote:
| If you're just going to declare all of that to be
| factual, what response should anyone give? If there is
| "no improvement, none whatsoever" then obviously
| Lightning should win! But that's not the case at all.
|
| Lightning places the springs inside the port, instead of
| on the cable. So, when the springs wear out, you need a
| new phone instead of a new cable.
|
| Lightning directly exposes the pins on the cable to the
| environment and corrosion, which is not a better design
| for durability and longevity.
|
| I have no idea where you're getting the idea that USB-C
| is more fragile than Lightning. It isn't, although this
| seems to be a persistent belief. All evidence I've seen
| points to the opposite conclusion, at least as far as the
| port is concerned, and everyone should care a lot more
| about the port than the cable. Ports are much more
| expensive to replace than cables. We're also not talking
| about the flimsy microUSB connector, which was rife with
| problems.
|
| The USB-C port has also been repeatedly proven to be
| small enough to fit into the current crop of iPhones, so
| why does the minuscule difference in size matter? It
| isn't the limiting factor for anything.
|
| But, none of that really matters. What matters is that
| approximately all of my other devices use USB-C, but I
| have to either carry around a Lightning cable or a
| wireless charger just for my phone. Why? It's incredibly
| annoying to need yet another type of cable, and Lightning
| isn't better at _anything_. If Lightning was so much
| better, Apple should have pushed for it to become the
| standard instead of USB-C, as Apple has been part of the
| USB-IF for a very long time, and Apple would have used it
| on their laptops instead of USB-C... but they didn 't do
| either of those things. Even Apple is moving away from
| Lightning, first on their iPads, but it is clear they're
| going to do this across the board over time.
|
| Even worse, Lightning is limited to USB 2.0 speeds on
| iPhone. Apple introduces iPhones with a terabyte of
| storage and the ability to record _massive_ 4k ProRes
| video files... but how are you supposed to get those
| multi-gigabyte files onto a computer for editing?
| Lightning at slower-than-WiFi speeds? WiFi at 600Mbps
| instead of USB-C at 10Gbps? None of it makes any sense.
|
| It is _way_ past time for Apple to switch the iPhone to
| USB-C, but it apparently won 't happen until next year.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| > Lightning places the springs inside the port, instead
| of on the cable. So, when the springs wear out, you need
| a new phone instead of a new cable.
|
| In practice I've never had a Lightning port fail while
| the USB-C port on my Macbook loosened so much that it
| wouldn't hold any cable.
| jrib wrote:
| Even without any improvement, I don't want to have to
| worry about having multiple cords for my phone. I charge
| my phone at night while I sleep, so as long as it charges
| fully in a couple of hours, that's "good enough" in
| exchange for the convenience of a single cord.
| fossuser wrote:
| Rumor is the next iPhone will be usb type c, but I thought
| they'd just remove the port entirely.
| jacobyoder wrote:
| Was on the fence last year between a 12 mini and the latest
| SE (which this article is about, I think).
|
| I somewhat regret the 12 mini, not because of the size (or
| even battery - it's fine for my daily use), but the face ID.
| As others have said, it's just too interruptive. (well, they
| didn't say that word exactly, but it's what I think).
|
| Rumors I'd read last year would be that a 13 or 14 would have
| a 'button' underneath the glass screen, so we'd effectively
| have a 'home' button without the need for a physical button.
| Not in the 13, and I've not heard about it in the 14 (yet?)
| but would welcome that. The touch-id flow I had grown used to
| was so ... useful and fluid. Part of the reason I don't think
| I recognized it as much was 2020/2021 - so much of my regular
| life was thrown out of whack (travel/meetings/etc) that the
| impact of moving to face ID wasn't all that noticeable. As
| we're 'returning to normal' more and more, and I'm 'out'
| more, the day to day impact is more noticeable.
| tass wrote:
| I just picked up a 13 mini and this is what would push me
| over the edge to return it. I keep having to take my
| sunglasses off to make it recognise me.
|
| If a 14 mini came out with Touch ID I'd be all over it, but
| for now I think I'm going back to the SE.
| recursivedoubts wrote:
| Right phone.
|
| Wrong edition.
|
| 1st gen SE forever.
| tomduncalf wrote:
| I miss 3D Touch too! Great feature but awkwardly integrated and
| promoted
| rejor121 wrote:
| Apple is missing out by not placing a fingerprint reader on the
| apple logo on the back of the case. So stupid.
|
| Masks are still a thing, and while I have a 12 mini, it doesn't
| open with my masked face (although it's fine when I'm wearing
| sunglasses, weirdly enough). The fact that it _can_ open with a
| masked face makes me question the security of face detection.
|
| I want my fingerprint sensor back. Masks will not be going away (
| corona resurgence and potentially a monkey pox pandemic anyone? )
|
| To this end, I think the SE is a great phone, outside of its
| size. It should be smaller. Hell, the 12 mini could've been even
| smaller but no dice.
|
| I'll probably not buy another phone until a much smaller one is
| released. I will even go to Android based phones if one releases
| in three or four years
| vbezhenar wrote:
| It's not like there are plenty of small androids around... It
| seems that the best phone today is SE (old model with iPhone 4
| design). Not sure if it's still supported or sold, but it
| should be powerful enough to support calls and sms with enough
| frame rate.
| baisq wrote:
| Masks have gone away already. It's time to move on. Monkeypox
| requires you to wear a mask on your ass, so that won't
| interfere with FaceID operation.
| tantalor wrote:
| > retained the same design of the 2014's iPhone 6
|
| Too bad they didn't retain the design of the 2013 iPhone SE,
| which was better.
| wwweston wrote:
| 1st SE was 2016.
|
| But it is in fact a fantastic design. Still am using mine. :)
| rpgbr wrote:
| Yes! Although I think by today's standards most of apps would
| be cramped in that little screen.
| prodent wrote:
| The design of the first iPhone SE (which came out it 2016) is
| that of the iPhone 5 (which came out in 2012).
| als0 wrote:
| It really is the best. People would come up to me and say "wow,
| you have a _classic_ iPhone". Now I'm just waiting for Apple to
| release an iPhone Classic!
| tambourine_man wrote:
| I'll have to give up on my original SE as it won't support iOS
| 16. But it's the best phone I ever had. The others look comically
| large. And Touch ID is awesome.
| ppjim wrote:
| To me, SE stands for "Steve's Edition".
| wyclif wrote:
| Steve Jobs was right about the size of the iPhone.
| badpun wrote:
| The phone is great, but the form factor is terrible. The phone is
| slippery, hard to pick up and hard to hold in hand. It's such a
| "looks over function" failure on Apple's part. No wonder that,
| with iPhone 13, they eventually went back to the old design (with
| right angles instead of all the slippery roundiness). No we have
| to wait another 5 years till that form factor trickles down to
| the SE line.
| elzbardico wrote:
| The ironic part was when android manufacturers started
| mimicking this design; it was a factor in making me go back to
| the iPhone. I have had my current one for over a year, and the
| only falls it ever suffered were from my pocket in some pants
| when I sit in my office chair and start lazily reclining. If it
| ever slipped from my hand, it was so rare that I can't
| remember.
| wackget wrote:
| The best is still the 6s because it has a 3.5mm headphone jack.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| The problem with the new SE is that it comes on the heels of the
| old SE. My first smartphone was a 2nd gen SE that I bought around
| July 2020. I plan on keeping it as long as I kept my previous
| dumbphones: 4-6 years (i.e. however long the battery lasts). If
| they keep releasing SE's at the current pace, my next phone will
| be a 4th or 5th generation SE. There is literally no feature they
| could add that would entice me to replace it before then.
|
| I'll allow that battery life might sway me to pull the trigger
| after 3-4 years, but barring that my phone more than meets my
| needs as-is.
|
| Know your customers, folks.
| kube-system wrote:
| On the other hand, the delta between the resale price of an old
| SE and the purchase price of a new one makes upgrades very
| cheap.
| [deleted]
| aronhegedus wrote:
| I agree! I stopped getting iPhones because I thought 1000PS was
| too much when a google pixel was 300PS. However I got the SE for
| 500, which I thought was fair, and I love that it's just simple,
| no messing around with 3 cameras etc
| teekert wrote:
| Tbh you don't really notice the amount of camera's (my iPhone
| 12 mini is my first iPhone and my first phone with > 1 camera,
| I also got it because I like smaller, good Phones.), it
| switches automatically when zooming.
| phplovesong wrote:
| Still think the best iPhone ever made was the 4S. Back then, mac
| products still were 100% focused. Since jobs, things are getting
| worse. Stability has gone down, and focus is mostly in
| "unnecessary" features.
| asciiresort wrote:
| I'm literally sitting at the Apple store waiting for my newly
| purchased IPhone SE to sync to the cloud, opened up my laptop and
| saw this.
|
| I was deliberating whether to buy the IPhone 13, but with the
| IPhone 14 coming out next month, the IPhone SE is a good
| temporary phone. It's less than half the price of the IPhone 13
| Pro, so it was a no brainer.
| throwaway378037 wrote:
| 100. Knew I wasn't alone on this!
| simonmorg wrote:
| Great writing. I just feel a new design is needed. I feel the
| constant movement between straight edges and curved is annoying
| and costly for the end user.
| ibudiallo wrote:
| I bought a OnePlus 3 when it was the cool underdog phone for
| $450. That was 6 years ago. After 5.5 years the battery started
| draining faster than usual so I replaced it. The only reason I
| had to switch phones was because my children chewed and drooled
| all over it, destroying the volume buttons.
|
| With such a solid phone, I went back to oneplus to get the latest
| and greatest. So much has changed in this time spam. In their
| latest phone, they don't even have the alert slider. I
| reluctantly got the 9 pro.
|
| Longer version: https://idiallo.com/blog/oneplus3-6-years-later
| ranger207 wrote:
| I still have my OnePlus 3T, my first Android (coming from
| Windows Phone, RIP). Running Lineage and microg, although all
| but only a couple of apps are from F-Droid. I haven't seen any
| need to upgrade yet
| desertraven wrote:
| I have had my iPhone 6S for six years now, and it's still going
| strong. I've replaced the battery a couple of times and the
| screen more than a couple. I can do everything I need with it,
| and it's the perfect size. So I have no desire to upgrade until I
| must.
| clairity wrote:
| i have a 6S and only had 1 battery change, and that was on
| apple, since mine was recalled for a defective battery problem.
|
| as noted in my other comment, i'd be ok with a full screen
| version of this phone if they put the home button on the side
| and keep the fingerprint scanner (in button or in screen) and
| leave off the front facing camera (pinhole camera is acceptable
| too, but not a notch). i'd prefer to keep the headphone jack,
| but that's probably asking too much of apple.
| Crosseye_Jack wrote:
| > i'd prefer to keep the headphone jack, but that's probably
| asking too much of apple.
|
| Yeah the headphone jack being removed pissed me off too.
| However the lighting to 3.5mm adaptor isn't as bad as I
| thought it would be. Sure it was an extra PS9 I wish I didn't
| have to spend, but was also a figure that I didn't lose any
| sleep over when ordering it.
|
| The adaptor just lives on my headphones as I use a differnt
| pair at my desk. The only reservation about it now is "Will
| it fray like all other apple cables do with time?"
|
| EDIT: Also had a 6s. Had 2 battery changes and the phone was
| due for a 3rd before recently just swapping the phone. First
| was done by Apple for free (excluding the cost of travelling
| to the Apple store and turning it into a shopping day :-P),
| the other I did myself at home with a 3rd party battery.
| DennisP wrote:
| Holding onto my 6s as long as I can, because of the
| headphone jack. My headphones are kind of expensive. I also
| plug them into my laptop. If I'm putting an adapter on and
| off all the time I'll keep losing adapters, but I'd rather
| not buy a second pair of nice headphones.
| Crosseye_Jack wrote:
| A silicone tether like the ones you can get for the cap
| on the Apple Pencil. Yeah another item you shouldn't
| need. But it would keep the adapter tethered to the cable
| so you won't lose it as you swap between phone and
| laptop.
| clairity wrote:
| yah, headphone jack isn't a deal killer, but i do like
| having it. an adapter is ok but not great.
| FearlessNebula wrote:
| You'd rather have big iPhone 6s bezels than a notch? I agree
| that a hole punch is preferable to a notch. I really wish
| they'd put a fingerprint scanner in the Apple logo on the
| back of the phone.
| clairity wrote:
| i don't want the bezels, but it's what i have, and the
| notch is just as unappealing to me, along with faceID and
| no home button. i'm hoping to skip the notch when i
| upgrade.
|
| the back would be ok, but one of the reasons i like the
| side button with fingerprint sensor (or in-screen) is that
| it can be face up on a surface and you can still actuate
| the sensor. it's not that big a difference, but it is
| slightly better UX.
|
| i also like the fingerprint version over faceID because
| it's not 2 steps to open the phone most of the time, but
| still gives you the option to see the preview screen when
| desired (pressing the home button with the
| fingernail/fingertip).
| MBCook wrote:
| The 6S is now out of software update range. You need at least
| an 8 for iOS 16.
|
| Within two years most apps will probably stop supporting iOS 15
| so you'll start having issues.
|
| It's obviously served you great, but it might be time. And the
| difference in performance (CPU and camera) will floor you. Plus
| wireless charging is awesome.
| johnfernow wrote:
| > Within two years most apps will probably stop supporting
| iOS 15 so you'll start having issues.
|
| Some might, but I don't think most will, and I feel overall
| there's a fair chance they may not run into many problems.
| Let's look at the top 20 apps' iOS requirements for their
| latest app version: - ZOOM - iOS 8.0 - TikTok - iOS 10.0 -
| Disney+ - iOS 14.0 - YouTube - iOS 12.0 - Instagram - iOS
| 12.4 - Facebook - iOS 13.4 - Snapchat - iOS 12.0 - Messenger
| - iOS 11.0 - Gmail - iOS 13.0 - Cash App - iOS 13.0 - Amazon
| Shopping - iOS 13.0 - Netflix - iOS 14.0 - Google Maps - iOS
| 13.4 - DoorDash - iOS 14.0 - Spotify - iOS 13.0 - Widgetsmith
| - iOS 14.0 - WhatsApp - iOS 12.0 - Venmo - iOS 13.0 - Google
| - iOS 14.0 - Google Meet - iOS 13.0
|
| So 7 of these apps can have their latest version run on the
| iPhone 5S (iOS 12), which released nearly 9 years ago and
| hasn't received a major update in almost 4 years. None of
| these apps require the latest version of iOS, and only 4 of
| them require the second most recent version of iOS.
|
| However, many if not most of these apps will allow you to
| download an older version if you aren't running the latest
| iOS version, and it will often continue to work.
| Realistically, most people probably won't care if their Gmail
| app is running an old version if it still works.
|
| > It's obviously served you great, but it might be time.
|
| If it becomes an issue, they can upgrade at that time if they
| feel it is necessary. I don't see any reason to upgrade
| prematurely though.
|
| Yes, in theory their device will be insecure once it stops
| receiving updates. In practice, I'm aware of exceptionally
| few people who have been infected by a virus on an
| unsupported iPhone. They can disable JavaScript in the
| browser if they want to be extra secure (not that that
| mitigates all vulnerabilities, but unless they're notably
| rich, famous or powerful, they're probably unlikely to be
| targeted.)
| desertraven wrote:
| I have a similar outlook, in that I'll upgrade when forced.
| Even now I sometimes encounter apps that won't run on the
| phone, but they're yet to be so essential to warrant an
| upgrade.
| temende wrote:
| > It's obviously served you great, but it might be time.
|
| Isn't it sad that there has to be a "time" to upgrade? Why
| can't phones be like refrigerators or microwaves where if you
| don't care about the latest features you can just buy them
| once and keep them for 20+ years?
| wwweston wrote:
| Original SE for me, also six years old. One screen replacement,
| original battery.
|
| Only things I'd change about it if I could would be more space
| and a better camera.
|
| I suppose the OS upgrade treadmill will move on sometime in the
| next year and I'll have no choice but to replace something
| that's otherwise perfectly serviceable, and it's too bad there
| will be nothing with a headphone jack.
| JudasGoat wrote:
| As someone in the same situation, I plan on keepng the SE as
| a music player after it loses support.
| MrScruff wrote:
| I was holding out with my 6s until a month ago but finally
| jumped ship to a 13 mini. It's a great upgrade. Unfortunately
| staying on an old iOS version isn't possible since apps will
| start requiring iOS 16 at some point.
| temende wrote:
| Just wondering, how much did it cost to get the battery and
| screen replaced? And did you do it via Apple or a third-party
| repair shop?
| ljosa wrote:
| Apple's battery replacement service is about $50 including
| shipping. Took a little less than a week for me.
| temende wrote:
| Interesting, $50 isn't too bad. What did you do while your
| phone was gone for repairs? Did they give you a loaner?
| selectodude wrote:
| They will give you a loaner but I think the vast majority
| of Americans live close enough to an Apple Store where
| they'll swap the battery in 30-60 minutes. I pop in, drop
| the phone off, go fuck off for a beer or two, come back
| to a fresh new battery. Super straightforward.
| temende wrote:
| > I think the vast majority of Americans live close
| enough to an Apple Store
|
| I don't, which is I why I was asking haha.
| desertraven wrote:
| I actually did it myself with instructions online. The screen
| is a bit of a pain because everything sits on top of the
| screen, so every component need to be removed and then
| reinstalled on the new screen. Battery is only 10 minutes.
|
| As for how much, I think $20 for battery, $50 for screen
| (iirc)
| temende wrote:
| That's impressive! I would never trust myself to repair my
| own hardware haha.
| FearlessNebula wrote:
| Well the "must" is arriving this fall unfortunately. The 6s is
| not going to receive iOS 16. It had a really good run though, I
| believe the longest of any iPhone so far but I figure it's only
| going to keep getting longer now that they stopped being so
| stingy with RAM
| nebula8804 wrote:
| As someone who held onto the iPhone 5S for years after its EOL
| and then held onto the iPhone SE first gen for as long as
| possible (until a cracked screen and second shot battery forced
| an upgrade) I can confidently say this guy is missing out.
|
| I held on to the old phone because of my thinking of the
| "stability and perfection" of its old design.
|
| I avoided the iPhone 6/7/8/SEv2 era like the plague because of
| just how unfinished it _felt_. It was slippery, it felt
| uncomfortable in the hand, and I hear it was not the best at
| repairability. It also just does not look good in my opinion.
|
| At the time THAT phone felt like the one was was unfinished. Now
| this guy is saying its the one that is "like a well-finished
| product". Its the same design that I felt was unfinished. I
| conclude that this talk of finished vs unfinished design is just
| a matter of taste and perception. There is nothing that
| fundamentally changed from iPhone 8 vs iPhone SEv2/3. It still
| inherits my complaints from above.
|
| In reality he just hasn't put in the time to give the iPhone 13
| and iPhone 13 mini designs an honest chance. They are the current
| "unfinished" designs. A few years down the line he will be saying
| the same thing about that design once it comes out in iPhone SE
| v4(or 5/6/7 whatever).
|
| Now to be fair there is something great about small cheap phones
| that pack a lot of value. It is just what it is. Last gen design
| that some prefer while others do not. Its not anything special
| nor "perfected".
| JansjoFromIkea wrote:
| Switched from iPhone SE 2016 to an iPhone Mini, tbh the loss of
| touch ID alone was enough to mean it felt like a big quality of
| life drop. Less so now that I don't have to be wearing a mask
| so often but still feels significantly worse and I'd happily
| trade some screen space for it.
|
| I suspect a big chunk of why the SE is still around with its
| current design is a concern of how put off some older users may
| be from having to adjust to a less consistent unlocking system.
| nebula8804 wrote:
| Its been 5 years since FaceID came out. My bet is on the fact
| that they need a low cost model in the lineup and they still
| have the old tooling for the iPhone 8 series so TouchID just
| happens to be there. Apple is not the type of company that
| keeps legacy things around if they can help it regardless of
| how some users might feel.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Even though I really like the SE, obviously there are infinite
| ways to make a good phone. Turns out this old one works for me,
| plus it's cheap, really fast, and I'm used to it -- what else
| can I ask for a phone?
|
| Pricing is a very strong factor here, I have to say. Brazil
| almost always tops the "more expensive iPhone in the world"
| lists. SE's price is really fair, kind of an outlier in Apple's
| lineup.
| nebula8804 wrote:
| It seems like pricing is the only real factor there based on
| what I am seeing in the article. If the Mini design was the
| same price then all of a sudden it seems like that would be
| the "great design".
|
| Its not even really an amazing deal. In exchange for the
| latest CPU you get essentially 8 year old LCD (with slightly
| newer contrast ratio from ~7 years ago), the same old case
| design with same old grade of aluminum and they exclude U1
| co-processor. Also, camera seems like its from iPhone 7/8 as
| well(5-6 yrs old but could be wrong about this)? Its only a
| good deal because iOS is such a valuable ecosystem and the
| fact that it grants you entry into that ecosystem at such a
| low price makes the phone so much more alluring than it
| really is.
| joemi wrote:
| re: "only real factor"... Among other differences between
| the SE and the Mini, the Mini doesn't have touch ID button,
| does it? The article mentions "I have already argued in the
| past that I prefer this iPhone model over any newer one,
| Face ID capable." So it would seem that the lack of touch
| ID on the Mini would be a detriment to the author.
| dontlaugh wrote:
| I'd absolutely buy a mini, if it had Touch ID in the power
| button.
|
| The poor ergonomics of Face ID just don't compare.
| ciconia wrote:
| The best iPhone, or Android phone, you can get is the one you
| inherit for free from a family member or a friend. I recently
| upgraded my 7-year old Moto G play, which was getting a bit
| flaky, to a 4-year old Samsung S9 that I got from my brother. It
| works just fine, and will probably serve me for 3 more years
| before I need to upgrade again.
| xwdv wrote:
| I don't know how you guys can stand the iPhone SE, the thick
| bezels at the top and bottom make it feel so claustrophobic.
| smm11 wrote:
| Love the S.
|
| Carry the Galaxy S21. S is the work phone, but did I mention I
| love it?
| tootie wrote:
| Counterpoint: any phone made in the past 5 years is just about
| the same. I have a working 6 year old Motorola with a sturdy
| battery and I've never felt it lacked anything I need. It runs
| modern websites and apps just fine. I honestly have no idea what
| people are talking about when they compare phone features these
| days. There hasn't been a useful innovation since fingerprint
| unlock.
| rpgbr wrote:
| I knew I wasn't the only one fond of small, cheap-but-great
| phones! :)
|
| Btw, this is my first post in English. I cover tech here in
| Brazil for +10 years and run a +9 years old independent, self-
| sustainable publication written in Portuguese. Now, I decided to
| give it a shot in another language, despite still feeling
| uncomfortable with my English. (I hope I haven't misspelled
| anything!)
|
| If you enjoyed this brief iPhone SE review, may I ask you to
| subscribe to my blog's newsletter or its RSS feed? They are both
| on site's footer. No spam ever, unsubscribe whenever you want.
|
| Thanks!
| emeril wrote:
| still rocking my iPhone se 1st gen (though I painstakingly had
| to change the battery on my own at the beginning of the
| pandemic...)
|
| it's even smaller than the newer ones!
| tomcam wrote:
| Your English is indistinguishable from that of the top 10% of
| writers or so. I had no reason to believe you are not a native
| speaker until you linked to your page with photo samples
| written in Portuguese.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > I had no reason to believe you are not a native speaker
|
| "Now, I decided to give it a shot in another language" and
| "may I ask you to subscribe to my blog's newsletter or its
| RSS feed? They are both on site's footer." both read non-
| native to me; I'd expect a native to say "Now, _I 've_
| decided..." and "They are both in/on _the_ site 's footer".
|
| But I agree with everyone else that rpgbr's English is
| excellent, more than adequate to publish English-language
| journalism. It is extremely difficult to get all the details
| of a foreign language right every time, and in most cases
| it's not a standard worth reaching or worrying about.
|
| (And if you do worry about it... practice is the best way to
| get there.)
| di3goleite wrote:
| Great post! I loved this reading. Btw, I'm Brazilian too. :D
| pantulis wrote:
| Great english, mate. Rock on!
| paul7986 wrote:
| Only thing I like about my 2nd iphone SE bought this year (had
| the 2020 version) is that it has Touch ID.
|
| Other then it's trash with low battery life and at times
| becomes non-responsive like the SE 2020 did.
|
| What is wrong with Apple .. every other smartphone has touch id
| system. Its been five years and Touch ID for me is the best UX.
| It is grab my phone without even looking at it and it's open.
| Compared to grab it & swipe up while looking at it which is two
| steps vs. one. Those two steps while driving is dangerous
| (chide me all you want cause you use your phone when you drive
| too .. either sometimes, to a little or a lot)!
| soneca wrote:
| It was cool to see your name when reading the post. I follow
| Manual do Usuario on Twitter and I liked it a lot. The podcast
| is great as well. Congrats on your work!
|
| I am also very happy with my iPhone SE 2nd gen. I only migrated
| from Android to iOS after they launched a cheap and small
| model.
| reidjs wrote:
| Also a huge fan of the iPhone SE and will keep buying them
| until they stop making them. Don't take my thumb print away
| from me!!! I write a lot and it's slightly faster to unlock via
| thumb (when it works) than face. Also it works in the dark, eg,
| when you think of something in the middle of the night or when
| your face is covered.
|
| The only way to beat thumbprint is authentication via nfc, for
| example using a biometric chip in your hand, but that's not
| palatable for most ;).
|
| Posted on a SE gen 2
| spullara wrote:
| FaceID also works in the dark and works with masks. Also
| works when you have gloves on :)
| Bud wrote:
| Face ID doesn't work very well in the dark, and it's
| especially awful if you're lying on your side using an iPad
| in bed in the dark, since the angle is wrong.
|
| Touch ID was markedly superior in contexts like this, in
| addition to being easier to activate.
| busymom0 wrote:
| It works perfectly fine in dark. I use it every night. It
| uses a very different tech than just a simple camera.
| scarface_74 wrote:
| FaceId works perfectly in pitch darkness. I just tried
| it.
| Angostura wrote:
| Never had a problem with FaceID in the dark and I lie in
| bed on my side
| Macha wrote:
| FaceID sounds way more reliable for you than it is for me.
| It can't recognise me if I change my glasses.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Well, some iPhones work with masks -- my girlfriend's
| iPhone 11 doesn't.
|
| Gloves aren't necessary here :) I live in the (allegedly)
| Brazil's coldest state capital, Curitiba, and you can get
| through winter here without them.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| > Gloves aren't necessary here
|
| Gloves are used in more scenarios than just cold weather,
| motorcycle gloves for one example.
| Aeolun wrote:
| Wearing motorcycle gloves would make it impossible to
| touch anything on your screen anyway?
| sssilver wrote:
| Most gloves accumulate enough dirt over time for touch to
| start awkwardly working. Some newer ones have a layer
| applied to the index finger to make it work.
|
| Gloves are not the big problem, my experience is that
| FaceID is useless when motorcycling because of the
| helmet.
| jsjohnst wrote:
| > FaceID
|
| We are talking about phones without FaceID here. This
| article and thread are referencing the iPhone SE.
|
| > my experience is that FaceID is useless when
| motorcycling because of the helmet.
|
| Seems to work fine for me when opening the visor. Do you
| mean with it closed or open it's not working for you?
| rpgbr wrote:
| You're right. Anyway, I don't work or do anything that
| calls for gloves -- haven't use them in... I don't know,
| 20+ years?
| 8ytecoder wrote:
| I wear gloves when I ride my bicycle. Unlocking it is
| necessary to access certain functions that you can invoke
| with Siri. Even without Siri, most gloves these days are
| designed to work with capacitive touch.
| hosh wrote:
| In those scenarios, might as well go with
| https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s22-flip/
| Thlom wrote:
| But doesn't work with sunglasses.
| mjhagen wrote:
| Yes it does.
| raydev wrote:
| I used to have my phone unlocked before it was even out of
| my pocket. FaceID at its fastest (I have a 13 Pro) feels
| slow.
|
| I haven't had a TouchID phone since 2018 and I still miss
| it. It never made me wait.
| spullara wrote:
| I rarely even think about FaceID whereas I had to
| actually do something for TouchID. Better experience for
| me and many others.
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| Your english is great. I couldn't even tell it was written by a
| non-native speaker. Keep writing! You have interesting things
| to say.
| NonNefarious wrote:
| I had no idea. Your English is better than a lot of Web posts
| from Americans, who can't even spell "too."
|
| While I agree that the SE is Apple's best offering for the
| money, the new one fails hard in one main way: ergonomics.
| While the original SE (which I still use) has flat sides, the
| current SE went back to the dumb rounded slippery edges. This
| is a vestige of Jony Ive stupidity: make the phone ever-
| thinner, then round the edges so it wants to flip sideways out
| of your grip at all times. Oh, and make sure the screen isn't
| recessed at all, so when it does flip out of your grip it is
| sure to break.
|
| Notice that Apple returned to the flat sides on all of its
| current phones except the SE. It's almost as if they wanted
| make the SE less appealing.
|
| The lack of a Home button on the new iPhones is a massive pain
| in the ass and a stupid regression, mainly for the lack of
| Touch ID but also for app-switching.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Thanks!
|
| Yeah, I also prefer the flat sides (miss my old iPhone 5),
| but SE's rounded one isn't much a problem for me. Maybe I'm
| too zealous, but in seven years using this type of phone,
| I've never dropped one. (They dropped for another reasons,
| such as sliding from a uneven table thanks to the glass back.
| It survived without any scratch, anyway.)
| gvurrdon wrote:
| I would agree - the round edges are a PITA. The glass back
| makes it very slippery as well. I'm using an 8 Plus still as
| it has TouchID (I find FaceID far too creepy) and a large
| screen, which helps with my failing eyesight. It would be
| excellent to have something like this but with flat edges.
| TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
| I want an iPhone SE sized phone with something similar to my
| Ulefone Power Armor 13's battery life.
|
| The Power Armor 13 weights nearly half a kilogram, and because
| of this I almost never drip it - you certainly know you've got
| hold of it, and the battery lasts so long I sometimes forget it
| needs charging till I get a 15% warning somewhere around day
| four to six.
| AzzieElbab wrote:
| I would go for cheaper phone but I really value good screen. I
| read books on my phone. I don't like owning multiple mobile
| devices just to read books
| rjzzleep wrote:
| I'm not sure where you live and what locale you want, but
| depending on the LTE bands of your region, the Hisense A9 has
| a fantastic eink screen. It's a Chinese OS with at parts
| janky english translation.
| _carbyau_ wrote:
| Read a review, that A9 seems fantastic. Made by Nokia or
| similar and I'd give it a go.
| vizzah wrote:
| Try iPhone 13 mini!
|
| SE would have been my choice if Apple never released this
| model.
|
| Mini is slightly smaller than SE and it's a crucial factor for
| me. And it also has more usable screen and where initially I
| was wary of FaceID - I don't miss the button! :]
|
| I hope Apple continues with SE+mini merged model for the
| future.
| ciropantera wrote:
| How's the battery life? My wife got a 12 mini and while I
| love the size, the battery is abysmal and barely lasts a day
| for her.
| whittingtonaaon wrote:
| I use the 13 mini and am satisfied. The battery life is good,
| which is important... but I actually prefer touchID to
| faceID. The reason, I guess, is more consistent success and
| no accidental unlocking. It's also nice to be able to unlock
| a phone on your desk without picking it up.
| WelcomeShorty wrote:
| As a motorcyclist I can not even use FaceID with a full
| face helmet and typing my access phrase is not an option
| either so I can only use touchID.
| thenewwazoo wrote:
| At the cost of some potentially reduced security, I've
| found that my iPhone will unlock while I'm wearing a
| full-face helmet as long as the chin bar isn't too high
| on my face, and the "unlock with a mask on" feature is
| enabled. It's hit or miss, but I usually give it a shot
| before pulling off a glove to passcode-unlock. It's worth
| trying again, if you haven't in a while.
| WelcomeShorty wrote:
| Thanks, will give the "unlock with a mask on" feature a
| shot.
| nailer wrote:
| As another point of data, I use the 13 mini and am
| dissatisfied with the battery life. Listen to a podcast on
| your commute and watch tiktok on your lunch break and
| you'll be charging at 5PM.
| augustk wrote:
| The iPhone 13 Mini has those sharp pocket destroying edges
| though.
| atemerev wrote:
| Well I am certainly not carrying a device with two fragile
| glass surfaces without a protection case :( So it doesn't
| matter at this point.
| als0 wrote:
| Are you for real? The edges are not sharp at all.
| augustk wrote:
| Not razor sharp but sharp enough to leave marks on your
| trousers after some usage. Here is an example:
|
| https://i.imgur.com/HZNUoVd.jpg
|
| The iPhone SE has completely rounded edges which is more
| pocket friendly in this regard.
| busymom0 wrote:
| Looks like it gave those jeans some character!
| codesnik wrote:
| You're talking about iPhone SE2, probably. I'm still
| using original iPhone SE, and its shape is on every pair
| of jeans I had in those 5 years.
| adrian17 wrote:
| > And it also has more usable screen
|
| Funnily, after playing with both for a couple minutes in the
| store, I decided on an SE exactly because of 13's screen.
| Because of rounded corners, the way it rendered content
| sometimes became downright ugly and didn't actually grant any
| extra space: http://puu.sh/JdxXl/985552f316.jpg
| dhritzkiv wrote:
| That's true in that specific context (most websites in
| Safari) in that specific orientation. The extra screen real
| estate you get in native apps, or even Safari in portrait
| orientation is not nothing.
| rpgbr wrote:
| I considered the 13 Mini, gave up due to two things: it's
| (really) expensive here in Brazil, and its cameras (or its
| main camera) isn't noticeable better than the one on SE. I
| couldn't justify spending the extra money for pretty much the
| same phone plus some niceties.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| I agree. The mini is smaller but has a larger screen than the
| SE. Face ID works really well.
|
| I just hope the 13 has better battery life than the 12. My 12
| mini drains half the battery on idle within 24 hours if
| mobile data is enabled.
| simonh wrote:
| I appreciate that's a fair concern, perfectly legitimate,
| but how far we have come that only having half a charge
| after 24 hours is disappointing.
| fauigerzigerk wrote:
| That's half a charge after leaving the phone idle for the
| whole 24 hours. It's disappointing compared to previous
| generations of iPhone and even compared to much cheaper
| Android phones.
| chasd00 wrote:
| i'm not sure which one i have but i know i have hte mini form
| factor and i love it. My wife and oldest son have the
| gigantic tablet form factor and it feels like i may as well
| be using an ipad hah. (and they hate using my phone too)
|
| edit: settings -> general says it's an iphone 12 mini
| justintoon wrote:
| You spelled "misspelled" correctly, which earns a point in my
| book because (in a profound display of irony) a lot of native
| speakers misspell that one!
| troad wrote:
| "Misspelt" is the usual UK/Commonwealth spelling, if that's
| the spelling you're referring to. "Misspelled" is the usual
| North American variant. Both are correct!
| moonbooth wrote:
| Not the person to whom you're replying, but I think they
| mean many English speakers misspell the word with only one
| "s": "mispell" (sic), "mispelled" (sic), etc.
| jonsen wrote:
| Or three?
| throwaheyy wrote:
| Lol at the first time an American _tried to_ correct me on
| this.
| protonbob wrote:
| Your English reads very well. I would not have known it wasn't
| your first language if you hadn't mentioned that you were from
| Brazil.
| q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote:
| Your writing is excellent. The grammar is almost flawless (see
| below). Beyond that, I enjoyed your writing _style_ as well --
| strong opening, thoughtful variations in paragraph length and
| sentence structure, and generally concise and focused.
|
| If you are interested in some small feedback to improve a
| little more: the final three sentences in the article were the
| only ones where I saw something that could be improved.
|
| > I have already argued in the past that I prefer this iPhone
| model over any newer one, Face ID capable.
|
| I'm pretty sure this is grammatically correct as-is. (English
| is funny like that...) Having said that, the more natural-
| sounding way for a native-speaker would be to lose the
| appositive and avoid trying to turn "Face ID" into an
| adjective. So it would be something like: "I have already
| argued in the past that I prefer this iPhone model over any
| newer one with Face ID."
|
| > It is perhaps the closest to a perfect gadget I have ever
| used -- no wonder, it is the third "same" device I buy in seven
| years (before, the iPhone 6S in 2015 and the iPhone 8 in 2017).
|
| I'm pretty sure the verb tenses are _technically_ correct, but
| the last bit is not how a native speaker would write it, and
| there 's an extraneous comma. Instead of saying 'no wonder, it
| is the the third "same" device I buy in seven years,' a more
| native-speaker way of writing it would be: 'no wonder it's the
| third "same" device I've bought in seven years.'
|
| (EDIT: I was thinking about this a little more because
| something about the sequence of words "third same device" still
| didn't sound quite natural. Iterating, I think it could sound
| even more natural like: 'no wonder I've bought the "same"
| device three times over the last seven years.')
|
| > If, despite all the rumors, in five years there is a "5th
| generation iPhone SE" with this same look, but updated
| internals, it will most likely be my next phone.
|
| This sentence is solid and native-sounding as-is. A
| professional editor, though, might object to the overwhelming
| number of commas (even though all the commas are grammatically
| correct!). They might suggest eliminating some of the
| repetitive clauses and moving things around a bit to make the
| sentence flow more smoothly. The end result might be something
| like this: 'If, despite all the rumors, there's a "5th
| generation iPhone SE" in five years with the same look and
| another round of updated internals, it will most likely be my
| next phone.'
|
| I hope that's all helpful and not _too_ nitpicky. Like I said,
| your writing is fantastic as it is! I 'm looking forward to
| reading more.
| stripline wrote:
| Great reply. I agree that the writing in the post is
| excellent. While we're giving constructive feedback I'd add
| this sentence:
|
| > I cover tech here in Brazil for +10 years and run a +9
| years old independent,
|
| It should be past tense "I've covered", and in English we do
| everything backwards so 10+ and 9+ are more natural. So I'd
| change that to:
|
| I've covered tech here in Brazil for 10+ years and run a 9+
| years old independent,
| rpgbr wrote:
| That's a great feedback! Thanks for it, I'll edit the post :)
| alister wrote:
| > no wonder, it is the third "same" device I buy in seven
| years
|
| > no wonder it's the third "same" device I've bought in seven
| years
|
| > no wonder I've bought the "same" device three times over
| the last seven years
|
| I liked your critique a lot: showing progressively better
| sentences and explaining why each is better. As a native
| English speaker learning Brazilian Portuguese, I have the
| inverse problem of the OP. I'd like to find a book or app
| that does more or less what you did ---- start with a
| moderately difficult sentence in Portuguese the way an
| English speaker might say it, then progressively improve it
| while explaining the reasoning along the way.
|
| Maybe such a thing exists for people learning English; I can
| confidently say that there is an order of magnitude more
| resources for people going from Portuguese to English than
| the other way around.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Oh, good luck with that! You've probably heard this, but
| Portuguese grammar is super hard. Except for teachers,
| enthusiasts, and academics, I guess nobody here really
| knows, let alone explain most of our grammar rules.
|
| Speaking for myself, as a journalist who've written for
| major outlets in Brazil, I get away with writing (mostly)
| correctly based on feeling (reading a lot also helps a
| lot!).
| skavi wrote:
| I was considering commenting how much I enjoyed your writing
| style as I was reading the article. I had no idea you were a
| non-native speaker.
| [deleted]
| idle_zealot wrote:
| Your English is generally quite good. The one thing I'll note
| is that I've not seen native speakers use notation like "+10
| years" in the context you do. Generally we'd write that as "10+
| years" read as "ten-plus years" or ">10 years" read as "over
| ten years".
| wbercx wrote:
| How would you interpret "+/- 10 years"?
| simonh wrote:
| +10 years could be interpreted as 10 years in the future,
| and makes perfect sense in that context, but -10 years for
| the past seems weird. I'm not sure why.
| Macha wrote:
| As a margin of error.
|
| "this tree was planted 200 years ago, +/- 10 years" -> the
| tree was planted between 190 and 210 years ago.
|
| "this comet will next be seen in 100 years, +/- 10" -> The
| comet will visible between 90 and 110 years from now.
| wbercx wrote:
| Yeah, interesting. In The Netherlands it is commonly used
| to mean "more or less", or "approximately", unless it is
| used in formulas.
| davidbanham wrote:
| For "approximately 10 years" I would note it as ~10.
| Native Australian English speaker.
| wingerlang wrote:
| I don't think they are comparable really.
|
| 10+ years means over ten years.
|
| +/- 10 years is an addition/subtraction and making a range.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Thanks for the tip! I guess I use "+10 years" because of how
| we say in Portuguese ("mais de 10 anos", as the "more than"
| comes first than the "10 years").
| oxygenoxy wrote:
| I suppose more people would read ">10 years" as "more than 10
| years"?
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| Your English is excellent, and I was surprised to learn that
| it's not your first language!
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| Casteil wrote:
| I love my SE 2 - I've had it for ~2.5 yrs now and I'll most
| likely have it for another 2+. It's a very fast phone, and I
| like the relatively small form factor compared to most other
| phones these days that all seem to have colossal screens and
| are comically large when held up to the ear.
|
| I'll also take TouchID any day over FaceID. The one thing that
| would get me to upgrade before 2+ yrs from now (other than
| unexpected failure of my SE 2) is a 13 Mini-like iPhone with
| touchID.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Yes I chose the SE for my latest phone after the X packed up (it
| was a refurb and I think that was the reason).
|
| Anyway the main things I like:
|
| * Price per performance (Paid about US$482 for this from a
| discount retailer).
|
| * No notch
|
| * Older-style interface and gestures which I think are more user-
| friendly. E.g. double tap button to see running apps.
|
| * A button!
|
| What I dislike:
|
| * When playing some games the screen seems more friction-y which
| can hamper precision.
| pjerem wrote:
| FaceID works great but I miss TouchID for one unique reason :
| with Touch ID, the Apple Pay UX is pure genius : just take your
| phone in your pocket with the thumb on the button. Place it on
| top of the payment terminal. You are done.
|
| With Touch ID you have to prepare the phone by unlocking it
| before making the payment. Which means that you have to stare at
| your phone while you are interacting with the merchant. It's odd
| and unnatural.
|
| Well, it's not that bad neither really important but the initial
| UX was wonderful in its objectification of the phone as a
| convenient payment method.
|
| (And don't talk me about Apple Watch, payment experience is
| terribly unnatural as it means making weird moves with your
| wrist).
| h3daz wrote:
| I just double-click the right-hand side button in my pocket,
| then double-check this is the correct card - thus unlocking the
| phone by me looking at it. Do it everyday without issues
| what-the-grump wrote:
| FaceID, sucks. It pulls attention away from whatever I am doing
| and forces me to fully stop. I hate it so much that I am
| seriously considering using a pixel 3 as a soft token/rsa fob.
|
| I have dozens of mfa codes 5 apps, requiring me to stop, look
| at my phone wait for it find my ugly face so I can click 'yes
| it me', in Okta, MS Authenticator, Duo, Google Authenticator,
| Symantec VIP, is ridiculous.
|
| I want my freaking 6s with a phone jack. /endrant
| whywhywhywhy wrote:
| I'm suspecting FaceID on my phone is also unlocking itself
| after I've locked it on its way back to my pocket.
|
| I'll take it out, pay. Lock it and pocket it. Then later hear
| it's started playing music or find half typed gibberish
| messages or random phone numbers because it's been activating
| in my pocket.
|
| Never happened on any iPhones I've owned till I got the 11
| with FaceID
| neither_color wrote:
| FaceID is also still terrible if you need/want to wear masks,
| even with the updates it still doesn't recognize your face half
| the time. Likewise, the FaceID with mask recognition may work
| to unlock your phone but then NOT work to open the APP whose
| notification you clicked on in the first place.
| cnity wrote:
| I wonder if you could fingerprint hand movements. Then you
| wouldn't even have to strategically place your thumb.
| canbus wrote:
| Recently replaced a screen and battery on my old iphone 8 and it
| has become my daily driver. It works really well! I don't really
| think a phone needs to be any bigger than this design.
| fanf2 wrote:
| I have an iPhone 13 mini and an iPad mini. The iPhone is a handy
| size but my eyes are ageing so it is not always easy to read. But
| Face ID is just annoying. The iPad's combination of Touch ID and
| USB-C is much more convenient.
| polishdude20 wrote:
| I'm still rocking my pixel 2. Best phone I've had and still going
| strong with the original battery. Great android experience, not
| too big and the photos are still awesome.
| mrmincent wrote:
| The SE is great, both my parents received one each for their
| birthdays this year. Nice bright display, a button to help escape
| any stuck programs, and a great new camera for them to take
| pictures of caravans, cactuses, and kids. I've got an iPhone 11
| and will probably sidegrade to an SE in the next year or two, and
| the space in my pockets will thank me for it.
| tcmart14 wrote:
| I got an iPhone SE last year (my first iPhone) and so far it has
| been a great phone. Probably one of the best phone's I've had and
| well worth the value. I've had some of the flagship Pixels, and
| they were fine. For my own use case, cost for flagship models
| versus what I use it for don't match up very well. The iPhone SE
| is great in this area. It isn't an expensive phone and powerful.
| Sure it has less features than the flagship iPhones, but they are
| features I wouldn't use anyways.
| commoner wrote:
| > It is a crazy strategy of Apple to put the "brains" of its most
| expensive phone, the iPhone 13 Pro Max (+USD 1.099), in its entry
| model, low cost (USD 429). No other company does this.
|
| The $449 Pixel 6a, which was released today, has the same Tensor
| chip as the $899 Pixel 6 Pro. This is advertised prominently on
| the product page:
|
| https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_6a
| Bud wrote:
| True, although that Tensor chip is around 24 months behind
| Apple's chips, and the gap is getting wider and wider.
| ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
| But that chip is not as good as the apple one. In fact not even
| close.
|
| The battery life on that one is atrocious compared to the apple
| one.
| borissk wrote:
| On the other hand it can do live voice translation without an
| internet connection. Can Apple do that?
| pineconebutt wrote:
| white_dragon88 wrote:
| More importantly, who cares? You're describing an insanely
| rare edge case.
| jibbers wrote:
| Yep.
|
| https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/translate-text-
| voice-...
| ilrwbwrkhv wrote:
| I feel Apple actually does more on device ML stuff than
| Google devices.
| throw7 wrote:
| yeah, but they screwed up everything else about the 6a. it's
| clear it was just a dump on the bang per value sector. I would
| have jumped to a 6a if they designed it for the sector but they
| clearly did not.
| bamboozled wrote:
| Yeah but it's Google, it's probably Naive, but I just hate the
| company and the business model.
| smoldesu wrote:
| That also makes them wrong, which is still true regardless
| about how you feel about the companies. Besides, it's a
| ridiculous statement anyways: for example, Nothing's first
| phone is coming out soon, which means their most expensive
| and cheapest phones will be running the same chip. Failing
| that, there's dozens of Android companies that made lines of
| handsets using the exact same SOC (like ZTE) because it's
| cheap to develop. Regardless of the companies involved,
| saying they're the "only one that does this" is like saying
| your local diner is the only one making you a real
| cheesesteak.
| bamboozled wrote:
| Did you mean to respond to my comment? Beause if so, I have
| no idea how to interpret it or what your point is.
| xyzzy123 wrote:
| I don't think it's crazy though; I think it reflects that in
| software / OS development you save a lot of dev & qa time by
| minimising your hardware fragmentation.
|
| Also that if you have special sauce (eg a tensor chip), you
| want to give it to all users if you can, or developers won't
| bother optimising for it.
| fomine3 wrote:
| It's also true for hardware. I think this is primary reason
| rather than software because bleeding edge SoC R&D fixed cost
| should be higher.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| Though if the iPhone SE 2016 and the Pixel 3a are anything to
| go by, the new iPhone SE will probably have software support
| for 2x or longer than the Pixel 6a.
| cowtools wrote:
| The pixel 3a is still supported by AOSP distros like CalyxOS:
|
| https://calyxos.org/install/
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| While I appreciate that some phones can be supported by the
| community, I think it's unreasonable to expect that the
| community continue support in place of OEMs. Especially
| ones like Google, that can set the tenor for the entire
| Android ecosystem.
| hgazx wrote:
| No SafetyNet, so useless for some of us.
| commoner wrote:
| As of May 2022, SafetyNet basic attestation works on
| CalyxOS by default for the Pixel 3a and later:
|
| https://calyxos.org/news/2022/05/07/location-safetynet-
| fix/
| initplus wrote:
| Even on the latest model Pixel phones Google still refuses to
| commit to more than 3 years of Android updates... They have
| at least lengthened the security update timeline to a whole 5
| years.
|
| I bought an iphone around the launch of the Pixel 4, which is
| now nearing it's end of support. Meanwhile Apple has provided
| the latest updates to devices that launched 7 years ago.
| syrrim wrote:
| The difference being that since every app dev expects
| iphones to be on the latest ios version, as soon as your
| phone goes out of support it will become obsolete quickly.
| Android has a larger install base of users on old os
| versions, so you can expect support even if you aren't on
| the latest one. New ios versions usually have the
| disadvantage of being poorly optimized for older models,
| and I personally have never cared much about the new
| features. So staying on the old os version indefinitely
| might be a better option as long as apps still support it.
| MAGZine wrote:
| I could be wrong but I think qualcomm is the biggest
| obstacle for google in supporting older phone versions.
|
| they won't ship updated drivers for new android versions
| for old phones.
| borissk wrote:
| And they will charge OEMs quite a big sum for every new
| Android versions on an old phone.
|
| But given that Google now uses their own SOCs, rather
| than Qualcomms, they can provide updates for their phones
| for a lot longer.
| [deleted]
| jcfrei wrote:
| On a related note: recently bought an iphone and specifically
| bought the standard one and not the pro. now I've noticed that
| macro shots are a lot lower quality than on (older) iphone pros
| or even my old samsung s8. does anybody know whether that's on
| purpose?
| jmkni wrote:
| This is exactly why I like the 13" Apple Silicon Macbook Pro, it
| looks boring, if you saw me using one you'd probably assume it
| was 5 years old and had an i5 in it or something, but actually an
| insanely good laptop.
| King-Aaron wrote:
| Genuine question, what's the best phone to look at currently if
| the camera is your main focus on a device? I'm past the point of
| caring about speed or storage, as its all much of a muchness now
| I feel... But I want an actual camera that just happens to have a
| phone attached to it.
| fomine3 wrote:
| Photo or video? I heard that there are many competitive devices
| for photo, but iPhone is seems to the best for video.
| King-Aaron wrote:
| Yeah mainly still photo, it would be super handy to have
| video that can be used along side our other camera footage
| though (a friend and I do a lot of automotive mechanical
| youtubing so having phone video is occasionally handy). I had
| heard that the iphone is really good with it, I might need to
| have a play with the 13.
| victor106 wrote:
| iPhone 13 pro,
|
| Not everyone's choice but I love it
| mattmar96 wrote:
| I had the same iPhone SE for about a year or so. I would have
| said all the same things as the author about it while I owned it.
| But, after it got damaged and I replaced it with an iPhone 13 Pro
| I have to say I much prefer the Pro. The only thing I miss is
| Touch ID but the 120hz oled screen, multiple cameras, and far
| better battery life more than make up for it. I don't mean to be
| a downer about the SE. I was just happily surprised with this new
| phone.
| 1270018080 wrote:
| I can't understand how just about everyone in America is okay
| with needing 2 hands to use a phone. If they ever get rid of the
| mini line I don't know what I'll do.
| sq_ wrote:
| Curious about this quote:
|
| > The only feature that Apple has denied for any reason other
| than technical is night mode when taking pictures at low light,
| absent here.
|
| I was under the impression that night mode more or less required
| the 2+ camera package of the current phones in order to gather
| enough light, depth, etc. information for it work well. Given
| what the author said, I guess I was wrong about that... anyone
| with some image processing knowledge able to elaborate a bit on
| how night mode works?
| jrm4 wrote:
| Can we officially lay to rest the egregiously stupid, but often
| parroted economic notion of "consumer preference" being the
| ultimate driver of everything? By now it's quite clear that "the
| range and variety of cell phones people would buy" is far wider
| that what we actually have.
| testmasterflex wrote:
| From article: "The 3rd gen iPhone SE can take pictures with the
| background blurred and identify text directly from the
| viewfinder."
|
| What does author mean on both here?
| bri3d wrote:
| Besides the economic / niche issues - I love my iPhone mini, I
| loved my Xperia compact, apparently people on HN also love their
| minis, SEs, and compacts, but nobody else does - there are real
| technical problems with making small phones.
|
| We seem to have reached a local minima with phone mainboard/CPU
| size. Generation over generation, the last 2-3 years worth of
| phones share similarly sized logic boards. So, as more and more
| internal footprint is dedicated to camera hardware, less and less
| is available for battery.
|
| As phone chipsets appear to have also bottomed out on TDP and
| idle power, this means that either battery life gets worse,
| cameras get cut even more, or phones get bigger. Unless or until
| Apple make a small-phone _specific_ processor and introduce a new
| process with a stripped-down CPU (which will make the same HN
| readers mad, eye-roll), we're back to giant phones for now.
| acd wrote:
| I miss three things from new iphones:
|
| * The 3.5mm headphone jack for plugging in wired headphones.
| Wired headphones often last longer than wireless headphones.
|
| * The physical home button, way easier to use than gestures.
|
| * The full length status icon bar. On newer iphones not all icons
| are shown only a few. Which means you cant see if the VPN icon is
| connected/visible. Old iphones had full length icon bar.
| slategruen wrote:
| Still holding on to my 6s though not as a main driver exactly
| because of these reasons.
| M3t0r wrote:
| Same here. Gotta replace the battery some time soon, but
| still _very_ happy with it. If it should ever break, this SE
| generation looks like the best replacement option.
| pkdpic wrote:
| I just miss that 8th inch jack... and I would have bought one if
| it had a jucier camera... still love it tho SEsquad for life
| yreg wrote:
| For years I want Apple to release a grid of four phones
| consumer | pro ====================+==============
| ~6" || iPhone | iPhone Pro
| ------+-------------+-------------- ~5" || iPhone mini
| | iPhone mini Pro
|
| I get that battery will be always better on the larger phones,
| but I don't see a reason why the best camera should be available
| only on the largest phone.
|
| People who want small phones don't necessarily want a cheap phone
| and people who want a cheap phone don't necessarily want a small
| one.
|
| Apple has done this before, when the mac lineup was all over the
| place and they rehired Steve. He cleared it up into this simple
| grid: consumer | pro
| ===================+============== desktop || iMac |
| Power Mac G3 --------+----------+--------------
| laptop || iBook | Powerbook G3
| sgjohnson wrote:
| Their "pro" phones are also for consumers.
|
| "Pro" hasn't meant "professional" in a very long time.
| yreg wrote:
| There's no such thing as a professional phone user. In
| Apple's nomenclature "pro" means the more expensive and
| better model.
| sgjohnson wrote:
| My point exactly.
| leowoo91 wrote:
| I am happy with my iphone8 which is equivalent of SE with a
| larger screen, however saddened by the fact that I always have to
| clean up its charging port and its square casing of the original
| wired headphone I prefer to use..
| seehafer wrote:
| Another iPhone SE fan here. Among all the other benefits listed
| in this post, there's also no notch. I hate the notch and I can't
| believe Apple industrial design is fine with it being a permanent
| feature of its products.
| lostgame wrote:
| I am positive it isn't permanent - but _damn_ if it isn't
| awful, ugly; and the complete antithesis to Apple's usually
| extraordinary design decisions.
| saagarjha wrote:
| I am incredibly upset that this person decided to write up an
| article about "the best iPhone", correctly recognized that the
| best iPhone has an "SE" in its name, then decided to show a
| picture of something else? Everyone knows iPhone SE has an
| ergonomic 4" Retina display, chamfered edges, and a blazing fast
| A9 processor, NVMe storage, and 2 GB of RAM, similar to its more
| expensive and slightly older sibling.
| SllX wrote:
| I rocked the previous iteration of the SE for just over a year
| since my previous phone was in dire need of a battery replacement
| and I didn't want to figure out how Apple was handling that mid-
| pandemic. I reasoned at the time that I needed a phone with Touch
| ID because I didn't yet have an Apple Watch, and I was using my
| phone as my wallet.
|
| It was a good phone that served me well primarily as 1. A wallet
| 2. An Overcast player and 3. A phone in approximately that order
| whose shortcomings became immediately apparent the moment I
| started going outside and socializing without a mask again in the
| Summer of 2021. The screen and battery for example were both
| downgrades from my 6s+.
|
| I'm rocking an iPhone 13 Pro Max now primarily because I demand a
| lot more of my phone when I'm actually not living in a cave, and
| I fully appreciate having a giant screen, an enormous battery, a
| bunch of power saving tech like the variable refresh rate screen
| and a very fancy triple-lens camera. All things that are
| irrelevant when your phone lives in a dock for a year. The
| magnetic wallet attachments are a nice touch that carry a few
| cards but also serve to round out the back of the phone in such a
| way as to provide a better grip and stabilize the phone on a
| surface.
|
| The iPhone SE is a very good phone and a very good value, but
| "best" changes depending on your circumstances and lifestyle. I
| couldn't rock an SE without constantly managing the battery,
| something which was an issue when I wanted to record some video
| at my best friend's wedding reception after carefully
| micromanaging the battery all day. With the 13 Pro Max I can walk
| out early in the morning and not even think about the battery at
| any point in the day, letting the phone do all the background
| tasks it wants to make my life easier, downloading anything at
| all in the background over 5G and have plenty of charge left when
| I get home in the evening. It feels like a phone without
| compromises, but all of that can be mooted by a change in life
| circumstances.
| LtWorf wrote:
| In a novel by an obviously feminist author, they were having
| smaller phones when women had to make phones. As if phones do fit
| in men's hands -_-
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53717123-the-end-of-men
| hedora wrote:
| I guess in this utopia, women still don't get reasonable sized
| pockets?
|
| That's pretty much how it went in the 50's feminist bastion
| Devil Girl From Mars.
| bschwindHN wrote:
| The article is correct in that the iPhone SE is the best iPhone,
| but it's the 2016 version which is best :)
|
| Cheaper, smaller, still runs iOS 15, and has a headphone jack.
| [deleted]
| flenserboy wrote:
| Very happy with my SE 2, other than battery life. A $20-on-
| clearance external pack, which is about the size of the phone and
| can be stowed away, makes for a good combination. The larger
| phones look nice, but that's not enough.
| karimmaassen wrote:
| I'm a BIG fan of my 13 mini. Bought it last December and
| absolutely love the small form factor. The battery is no problem
| at all, even with extensive use. I easily have 20% or more left
| at the end of the day and it's not even an issue when having it
| used for CarPlay.
|
| I'm saddened by the idea there will never be a mini again.
| nebula8804 wrote:
| What makes you think there will never be a mini again? Yeah
| Apple won't release a 14 mini from the rumors it seems but
| there is always a chance of another mini coming down the line a
| few models from now.
| bironran wrote:
| Not having the Touch ID lose Apple at least one, if not more,
| upgrades. At least in my case. I'm on an iPhone 7 that's
| definitely showing it's age. I would e upgraded a long time ago
| but held off "because maybe the next version will have Touch ID
| back."
|
| Well, that never happened and I'm now in the position of having
| to upgrade a phone that's starting to crash due to battery
| issues, will probably be out of iOS updates in September and is
| frankly getting too slow for even simple yet surprisingly power
| demanding apps.
|
| I don't know what I'll upgrade to. Likely an iPhone, but which? I
| hate buying something that's not the current generation but the
| thought of having to deal with Face ID multiple times a day
| leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
| ibash wrote:
| Can confirm, moved from an iPhone 7 to a 13 mini, Face ID fails
| ~40% of the time, it sucks.
| williamjackson wrote:
| The iPhone SE, described in the article, has Touch ID.
| bironran wrote:
| Yeah, but "not latest tech". Hard to swallow that.
| rpgbr wrote:
| Most of latest tech? I found it to be a great upgrade
| coming from the iPhone 8: overall faster, slightly better
| battery life, better camera with a few new tricks. As I
| wrote in the article, I wouldn't mind upgrading every four
| or five years to new versions of this phone with newer
| internals. It just works.
| williamjackson wrote:
| I guess it depends on which "tech" specifically you care
| about. The jump from an iPhone 7 to the 3rd gen SE will
| probably feel amazing, considering it has the same SoC as
| all the iPhone 13 models. Sure, the SE doesn't have the
| nice camera system like the high end models, but again,
| coming from a 7, it will be quite an improvement for you.
| bluescrn wrote:
| I still miss the headphone jack.
| yuy910616 wrote:
| I have the iphone 8 - love it. I'm planning to own it for the
| long haul and make the jump from 8 to 18 (when it comes out).
|
| Thank you Tim for making this a 10 year wait, and not 20
| jonbaer wrote:
| IMO, the only thing missing from the SE is the U1 chip for NI
| Aperocky wrote:
| I paddleboard so I bought a iPhone 12 mini so it doesn't weigh
| down my pocket that much.
|
| It continued the spirit of the SE.
| tomcam wrote:
| Agree with OP completely. Also, with iCloud I found the 64G
| version absolutely usable. I always used to max out the memory on
| my phones because I have a huge photo album, but iCloud support
| swaps the pictures in and out of memory quickly and
| transparently.
| post_break wrote:
| I have a 12 mini. It's so good. Then I got the 13 pro for the
| better camera and I can't go back to 60hz displays. It's like
| something is visibly wrong with any screen that doesn't do more
| than 60hz any more. And the 14" macbook pro has higher refresh
| rate but the ghosting is so bad it renders it pretty much moot.
| dyeje wrote:
| I bought an SE 3 as my first iPhone recently. Very happy with it,
| it's hard to find a good, small phone these days.
| di3goleite wrote:
| My iPhone SE is the 2nd gen one. I love this phone, despite some
| ocasional lags when I try to do some app switch or when I try to
| take a picture suddenly. Is anyone here facing these same
| problems? I really enjoy this phone, but seems Apple is trying to
| force me to make an unnecessary upgrade.
| sokoloff wrote:
| I bought a second gen SE on craigslist while waiting for a
| screen for my Xs Max. I'm using it right now as a secondary
| device and don't notice any particularly common lags on the
| SE2.
|
| Battery health is down to 89%, meaning it was a little annoying
| to use as a daily while traveling but that was my only
| complaint (and I'd have no problem replacing the battery to
| alleviate that if I wanted to keep using it as primary).
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