I was in your camp, then I got a ring that sticks to the back of the phone. I stopped using a case because I no longer drop my phone, and have even started really stupid things like texting while biking. A ring let's you use bigger phones one handed. Those popper things are more popular but inferior in every aspect.
It's already not what most people would call a sensible price. Seems difficult to significantly shrink a phone that has a pair of M.2 slots in it though.
I wonder if you'd find the Xperia Ace (or an XZ2 if you want used) close enough for you. I think the Xperia line is where I'll be looking for my next phone, personally. https://phonesized.com/compare/#632,968
Edit: additionally, it looks like the Xperia is thick enough to have no noticeable camera bump. Has a 3.5 mm jack too; I like the look of this quite a lot.
I won't upgrade from this old used SE until some phone manufacturer produces a working phone that will fit in a pocket. It boggles the mind. I tried the Jelly Pro, which ran Slack and a handful of critical apps, but the battery life was only a few hours.
My X fits in some of my pockets but not all. I’d definitely go down to a smaller phone if Appel made one; the size jump from SE to X was a bit of a shock.
Yeah, Honor Play was £260 or something, 6.3" but fits in all my pockets and has almost the power of a flagship. How small are these people's pockets, and how do you, I dunno, play chess or read articles or check out how your photo turned out?
Cool, another supporter of a smaller iPhone. I upgraded my SE to a newer SE after buying a clearance SE from the Apple store. If they could make a high res. screen that essentially is the entire front of the phone (ala the trend for larger phones), I'd be impressed and upgrade.
I wonder what data is motivating Apple with regard to phone sizes. I assume trends towards video and image consumption are really pushing for larger screens. Anyone have any insight or knowledge?
On one side having a significantly smaller screen to cater to limits app developers quite a bit, so removing the 320px option would be welcomed there.
Another factor is the things that drive a person to spend $500+ on a phone are probably quite far removed from what they actually want from a phone from day to day. A big huge all encompassing screen is gonna outperform something that actually fits in your pocket every time.
> On one side having a significantly smaller screen to cater to limits app developers quite a bit, so removing the 320px option would be welcomed there.
I develop iOS apps and love my iPhone SE. It's a bit difficult to develop for that screen size, but it's only a little bit of additional effort and I wouldn't give up my phone for that. Plus, even if iPhone SE went away there are new devices with that form factor (for example, the new iPod Touch) that will be supported for quite some time.
I've noticed this: web apps for mobile and even iOS apps seem to spill over. Is there a tool for helping you to develop for the varying screen sizes? (SE surely is an outlier here, but still, the question stands).
Honestly, the biggest one is just using the device regularly: you'll be able to tell what'll work and what won't a lot easier. It's clear when people design an interface for a device they haven't used (even Apple does this for certain apps). Get a physical iPhone SE (they're quite cheap) and use it as a development device. Or even better, use it as your actual device.
> The actual device, while larger, isn't much. Like a half inch in length, and a quarter inch in width.
You're off by almost a factor of 2, and furthermore that makes these increases significant in relative terms.
The 5S is 4.87"x2.31", the X is 5.65"x2.79", that's +0.78"/+16% in height and much worse +0.48"/+21% in width.
The phone is more "surface efficient" (phone diagonals goes from 5.4" to 6.3", or a 0.9" (and 16%) increase where the screen increased by 1.8") but it's still significantly bigger.
The bezels are completely different, so comparing screen sizes is misleading. The outer dimensions of the iPhone X are 5.65 x 2.79 inches, iPhone SE is 4.87 x 2.31 inches. That's 0.78 inches taller and 0.48 inches wider.
Mostly, I hope they bring TouchID back, preferably via a scanner on the back of the phone.
Outside of providing a bigger screen, FaceID is strictly worse:
- When I pulled my old iPhone out of my pocket, I would have my finger on the scanner and it would be unlocked before it reached my face. With FaceID on the iPhone X, I have to wait a few seconds.
- If you wake up and you're squinting as you look at your phone, FaceID won't work
- If you're wearing a hat and sunglasses, FaceID might not work
- If you're doing something else but you want to unlock your phone on the side in preparation for your next task, you have to stop and look at the phone
My TouchID drops to like a 10% success rate if the humidity's much different from it was on whatever day I set it up. Or if I've done any work with my hands in the last week or so and roughed my fingers up a bit. Or if I've looked at water in the last hour. I've configured it several times and it never gets much better. I end up using the code most of the time. Probably need to just disable it, it fails so consistently that it'd be faster just to use the code every time.
That's on a 7+, though, and Macbook fingerprint sensors seem a little better (more like 50% success rate) so maybe it's just because it's an early version of the hardware.
I don’t have humidity problems but it’s a nuisance in the kitchen if I have a recipe up on the iPad. Whatever’s on my hands I have to wash off and then thoroughly dry. Depending on how messy my hands are, sometimes I’ll swipe sideways and type in the passcode with a clean knuckle.
If I didn’t need clean fingers to unlock TouchID to begin with, iPad OS’s new voice control accessibility feature would be great for in the kitchen. No need to touch the tablet at all any more.
But if you're in a pool with your family and want to take a photo, TouchID isn't going to work. And if you've been running and sweating and want to unlock your phone, many times it won't work. And if you're riding your bike in the woods and want to unlock it - right, gloves...
Maybe you're doing those activities extremely often, but for me they're edge cases vs the amount of times FaceID doesnt work for me when I'm simply wearing sunglasses, or a hat, or just in odd lighting.
I have both a work issued iPhone, and a personal pixel with a fingerprint unlock. I cannot recall any time I had issues with the pixel over the last month, while I'm extremely annoyed just thinking of how many times FaceID either took multiple seconds or didnt work at all.
Touch ID and Face ID both have cases where they don’t work well (gloves/wet fingers, and sunglasses/squinting).
The thing I like better about Face ID is that it lets you hide the text of your notifications by default but then reveal it as soon as you look at the phone, which is nice for privacy.
I never enabled the setting to hide notification text in the past because it was too inconvenient before Face ID.
It's rumoured to have a 4.7-inch screen, so probably not much smaller than the iPhone 6,7 and 8, even if they are able to reduce the top bezels somewhat.
"Apple is also working on its first low-cost iPhone since the iPhone SE. That could come out as early as the first half of 2020, the people said. The device would look similar to the iPhone 8 and include a 4.7-inch screen." -- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-05/apple-wor...
According to gsmarena.com iPhone 8 is 4.7" and SE is 4.0"
The SE must be my favourite phone ever since the Nokia 3310 (although the Yotaphone was up there for pure novelty of having an e-ink display on the reverse). It was practically perfect and it could take more of a beating than the latest X series phones.
An SE sized X would be nice (with the Face ID and stuff), with a higher screen resolution, but I think it would become more fragile as a result.
Presumably Apple doesn't make a new SE because it would kill their margins. And it'd be hard for them to make the SE expensive because it would probably be thicker, with a cheaper screen, worse battery life and worse performance (because of battery & cooling).
But I'm sure they could come up with some semi-plausible reason to make an "SE Pro" so they can keep those margins. How about owning the extra thickness and giving it a massive battery and using the depth to put killer camera optics in?
I understand the obsession with margins, but at this point they're really taking risks with brand loyalty.
My 2009 MacBook Pro could still handle pretty much any 2019 computing I need to do, but the new OSs won't support it. That's understandable really, but how sorry is it that the 2019 keyboard is so bad that I prefer my 2009 model, even though it's slower to wake and boot.
My SE handles all phone tasks I throw at it, no problem (maybe the battery life could be better), but I hate all the new models. Apple pretty much perfected the laptop around 2014 and the phone with the SE in 2016. These are classic styles that were the culmination of a decade of design tweaks and component improvements. Each of those older generations could have been maintained with no more than small improvements in components (e.g., SSD) and ports going forward (until some kind of revolution in computing interfaces) and they would have happier customers.
I doubt a company like Apple would re-introduce a product like the SE which at this point is that far off the current median product range they manufacture.
If they can make money selling a $450 iPhone 8 they can surely make money selling the SE. If they made money selling it in 2017 why wouldn't they make money in 2019?
> it would probably be thicker, with a cheaper screen, worse battery life and worse performance (because of battery & cooling).
I might be wrong, but I recall that even though the SE had technically inferior components, including display, it seemed it had _better_ battery life than the latest iPhones of the time. I believe the latest was the iPhone 6 at the time. Presumably OLED might have changed this?
It was the iPhone 6s that came out in the fall of 2015 before the SE's release in spring of 2016. The battery life was better to the 6s and 6s Plus, depending on the task. But, the 6s Plus beat it in quite a few tasks (by a lot), such as standby time, talk time, and audio playback.
They still make the iPod touch. It even has an A10 in it. The 128 GB model is $299.
The 128 GB iPhone 8 is $499 with an A11.
They don't have to sell a new iPhone SE for less for $499. I'd pay that for it. Small is a premium. But would selling it at $399 really kill their margins?
Edit: the iPhone 8 64GB refurb pricing is now $379. That's a pretty good deal:
Is it possible to have a softphone app on the iPod Touch?
You would just need a wireless hotspot that the iPod would always be connected to, to use it as a phone (or maybe people can start bucking the trend of always being connected).
It's the same size as the SE, except a hair thinner, and has a 3.5mm headphone jack!
Sure, I know a few people that use iPod touches as their “main phone” using VoIP apps. But they’re of the paranoid hacker type and want a device that’s easy to lock-down from phoning home 24/7. It works out for them since they don’t tend to make or receive actual phone calls much.
Only issue is most of these VoIP services can’t be used in a multi-factor authentication scheme since they don’t support short code SMS.
> It is unlikely that any of my friends and family members are going to move to Android, where there is a wide variety of hardware form factors to choose from.
There's hardly any good iPhone SE-sized Android phones anymore. I have a Sony Xperia Somethingsomething Compact and it's the only option I'm aware of, and it's not really that great. I've never had an iPhone but if they release a new SE I'd probably jump ship in a heartbeat.
I had to replace my Xperia X Compact (2016) recently. The latest Compacts weight much more and cost like flagship phones, which they are. However I'm not interested into something weighting so much and costing some 600 Euro. I compromised on a Samsung A40 which is the smallest modern Android phone I was able to find. It costs 200 Euros and weights 140 g. Compared to the Compact is a much better phone. Bezel less OLED screen and still the 3.5 audio jack. It's as wide as the Compact and thinner. Unfortunately the A40 is too long and I can feel the difference when I put it in the pockets on the legs of hiking trousers: it starts hindering movements. The shorter and thicker Compact didn't. And the extra 2 cm of length aren't really worth much. I would cut them off and still have a better phone than the Compact.
I bought an iPhone SE earlier this year because I couldn't find an Android phone in that size (I'm an Android developer). I generally prefer Android as an OS but the size and form factor is excellent.
I'm hoping there's a decent Android phone in an SE size by the time my SE dies.
I currently use a gigantic iPhone X, but I found my old iPhone 5S (basically the same design as the SE) the other day and was amazed at how small it was. That was one of Apple's great designs.
I'll chime in as another iPhone SE supporter. I'm still rocking mine, which itself replaced a four year old iPhone 5. Best form factor of any such device I've ever owned. I replaced the battery in both after two years, as the iPhone 5 one was completely shot and the one in my SE was not doing well (and at whatever Apple considers 75%). Otherwise both have been near bulletproof.
Keeping SE supported fragments iOS market and burden the developers. iPhone 8 is now the low-cost iPhone roughly at SE price point with a screen size that you kind of have to support anyway.
Android on the Jelly Pro was usable but recharging 2-3 times per day was not. Just a little bit bigger, please, to support a bigger battery and a slightly larger on-screen keyboard.
It's form factor too, not just price point. The form factor is the only reason I switched from Android, and I'd happily pay the full iPhone 11 price for a phone the size of an SE with iPhone 11 internals.
Do you use any other Apple products? I feel the same way about paying a premium for a phone I don't like, but iMessage is what is keeping me from switching (back) to Android.
My personal computer is a 2014 MacBook. My work computer is a MacBook. Being able to message freely from my laptop to others on iMessage is a really nice feature.
I can't figure out what's great about iMessage. Is it just what I get when I send a text message to someone who also has an iPhone, and it uses a blue bubble to show it's encrypted?
In practice, I have maybe one friend who regularly uses text messaging. Everybody in my neck of the woods uses Hangouts, Messenger, Threema, etc.
Well native iMessage is a lot nicer to use than a pile of web/electron apps. I say this as an Android user whose 8GB MacBook struggles under the weight of a handful of messaging apps.
I'm precisely in the same boat, but what are the iOS alternatives? There are none. Wouldn't touch anything Android with a long pole, because it has Google attached to it. Windows phone is a joke (if it still exists)... and there's nothing else that's not a dumb phone, is there?
Windows phone is long gone because u.s. carriers refuse to support them.
One way Windows failed as a mobile OS is large storage requirements; "bloat" is one thing but a safe and reliable 'update' system adds overhead that made cheap Win mobiles marginal.
Palm Phone, 3.3" display. It's kind of pricey for what you get but it's got to be the smallest thing out there that isn't a smartwatch with a SIM card slot.
Having something like a Palm Phone that also acts as a hotspot would be a nice mashup. You can be productive with your laptop or tablet when you are able to sit down and pull it out or you can just have a very basic phone that doesn't let you do too much when you should be doing something else. I know that a lot of the time that I'm on my phone, I should be doing other things like actually working, talking to those around me, or just simply enjoying my surroundings. I still want the ability to contact someone quickly if I need to but I don't want to let myself get easily distracted with the phone in my pocket.
My 3 year old SE finally broke. I spent 900 replacing it with an XR because they refused to release another SE and I value the emphasis on privacy and security.
But not again. I feel they’ve squandered the good will they’d earned with me by giving me a worse phone at double the cost. I don’t plan to purchase another.
Check out places like Swappa, I've got a backup SE in mint condition for my current SE. Well within reason for prices compared to trust issues w/ Craigslist.
If it makes it a few more months your best bets will probably be the Nokia 6.2 or 7.2 (depending of your processor and camera desires). You're also going to need to look at the phone width for what's comfortable, a lot of the Android screens have been going for more stretched screen sizes so just the screen size may not be informative enough.
I'm still using my iPhone 4S, but I have a Samsung S9 for backup in case it should fail. The power button is already gone, but I use the charging cable to power it on and pull the battery to power it off!
I changed the battery on the 4S three times.
Last year I meet a translator from Russia who had a 3GS with the original battery! That really made me regret I sent in my original iPod Nano when Apple said the batteries where dangerous and replaced them with a 6th gen for free, who's battery died only a year later!
Now we know why, you can't sell light bulbs that last forever because the customer won't come back... one gen later the iPad Nano was gone from the market.
Please do it. I would buy it on a heartbeat. I don’t like carrying this tablet sized display (XS). I miss my SE, it was just too sluggish and restarting too much when I replaced it.
Also, I have a feeling that the reason why they don’t do it is because bigger screen generate more engagement.
Every year I wait on bated breath at the release of a similarly compact phone to the SE. I even recently bought a new one right before they removed them from the store, so I have 2 year apple care+ for it to tide me over.
Ordinarily I would vote with my wallet, but there are no compact Android phones either.
Ironically I still own a Oneplus One which is quite old by todays standards; and I distinctly remember it being called a "Phablet" due to it's obtuse stature in comparison to its contemporaries. However it would not look out of place today, in fact in comparison to my friends iPhone Xs (not max) it hardly seems at all larger!
I would merrily slam down 1K+ EUR for a real flagship phone at a size I can actually use.
(also, I wonder how women get on, since generally they have smaller hands than men.)
my wife swears by hers - makes it much more comfortable to hold while thumb-scrolling. She's not really one to put her phone in her pocket, though. If it's not in her hand or put down beside her, it's in her purse.
PopSocket Rings are huge in SE Asia. My theory on why is because so many women ride tandem on a motorbike and scroll through their phone while riding as a passenger. I see it all the time here in the Philippines.
Maybe, but I have a mix, my partner has a large phone and carries a backpack(!?) with her everywhere, but her closest friend has an iPhone 5 (which she doesn't update the OS on because "it will get slower").
So in my circles it's already 50/50. But I do see iPhone 5's and SE's amongst my circles more commonly than I should given the age of the phone. I'm not 100% on why, though I often ask. And it's incredibly rare that it's a cost decision.
I type with two thumbs on a phone because I type with two hands on a keyboard. In fact, one hand is tied up on a computer - on a mouse - more often than I can't use one with my phone. It's an acceptable tradeoff.
I’ve found every iPhone since the original 3.5” form factor too hard to use with one hand. I simply can’t reach all corners one-handed with anything larger.
I’ve been out of luck since the iPhone 4, so I often go for the largest. Might as well get the best camera and battery life.
That "study" in that article is hilarious. The author observed people in Airports, Subways, Cafes etc. and whenever someone was using a Smartphone, he took notes (so it is more of an observation that a study). This is biased in so many ways.He went to places where people usually have to kill time, and do so with their smartphone. He didn't observe all those people that had a smartphone in their pocket passing by, going for their day. I don't use my smartphone to kill time, and I restrict myself from using it when not necessary. Yes, it is a tool, I need it to check the bus schedule, buy a ticket etc. And thats it, and thats why I would be totally fine with a 5" display.
I liked the Nexus 4 form factor as well. I've bounced around to larger phones, including the Nexus 6, Pixel and Pixel 2... but I recently went back to a Sony device (XZ1 compact) because it:
(1) Has a headphone jack
(2) Has the same processor as my Pixel 2
(3) Is actually a usable size (roughly the same as the Nexus 4)
I have giant hands and large pockets available but will always prefer a smaller phone.
A thousand times this. My absolute number one requirement (after things like, um, the ability to make phone calls) is that it fit in my front-left pocket. I didn't upgrade to the last model for this reason and no other.
But I can only assume that Apple does plenty of market research on their products, so I assume people aren't checking off "the thing is too damn big" under "reasons I didn't upgrade?"
I can fit the larger phones (though still prefer the SE size), but my wife has demonstrated how even the SE is often spilling out of whatever pocket or other way-smaller device holding pocket is on her clothing items. Unless fashion trends change, or everyone who uses purses goes for some giant bag (and likes keeping their phones in a bag, not on their person), there is a large number of people who could use a smaller phone.
I know a lot of women who find the pocket situation in women's clothes very frustrating. They feel like they're being dictated to that showing off the line of their hip is more important than actually being able to carry anything useful.
On Samsung Galaxy S6 and later models, one can tap the home button three times to shrink the screen so that everything can be reached with one thumb. It's called "one-handed mode". I can't say I've used it very often, but when I need it, it's there.
My LG G7 has a two window mode (you can slide the division between the two windows up and down). Also there are now many apps that can run in small floating windows, most notably video players.
I wouldn't even call the SE compact. It's just normal. It's the size that Steve Jobs said fits comfortably in your hand, and since hand sizes haven't changed, it's still true today.
It’s actually a bit bigger, the original iPhone was 3.5” screen and the iPhone 5 got taller.
I have to give up a bit of grip to get my thumb to the top corners of the screen, but it’s a lot better than anything else and I’d say worth the trade off for the extra space. Bigger than this I’m not convinced.
>Oneplus One which is quite old by todays standards; and I distinctly remember it being called a "Phablet" due to it's obtuse stature in comparison to its contemporaries
Wait what? This doesn't make sense. I remember getting OnePlus as well (bought it for a friend in Europe) and the screen size was pretty mainstream at that point. It had 5.46" size. It got released the same year Apple released 6+ which had bigger screen, and in US it doesn't get more mainstream than that. In no particular order a list of other pretty successful smartphones released in 2014:
Er, all of your examples except maybe the HTC and the Droid Turbo and the iPhone are labelled Phablets (and Apple only because they seem to be immune to the label); the Galaxy Note series is original phablet line and the OnePlus One was bigger than the contemporary iteration of that line.
Your list reinforces the point you are using it to argue against.
>Galaxy Note series is original phablet line and the OnePlus One was bigger than the contemporary iteration of that line.
No it wasn't, check the specs. My point is at the point when majority of phones were released in "phablet" sizes no one considered them to be odd anymore. 3 years earlier, perhaps but not in 2014. I remember getting zero strange looks walking around with 6 plus.
I understand that when OnePlus One was launched it was in the "Phablet" category. My point is I don't recall anyone using that label on mine (or on my IPhone 6+) because larger phones were becoming a lot more mainstream at that point.
I keep having to ask this every thread, but you know you can double tap the home button and it will bring the screen half way down so you can reach easier.
I have no problem using my 8 one handed, and can even use it one handed while biking
I have slightly smaller hands, and holding my old 7 one-handed was a chore - and besides, I don't want to double tap for reachability and disrupt how I'm used to doing things when I'm holding the phone with both hands.
I downgraded to an SE recently and the only thing I miss is the screen size; traded that for headphone jack, smaller form that fits my hand nicely, and a design I like better.
I always assumed this feature was added so apps that were optimised for the old side wouldn’t require two hands and new ui features like swipe nav would eventually phase it out.
Yet here I am years later still double tapping my home button several times a day
They still have the “reachability” feature, however. It’s a gesture (that I never use intentionally, but I think it’s a swipe down at the bottom of the screen).
Today I learned it's still available on those devices -- apparently it's hidden behind an option in Settings > General > Accessibility and off by default.
I don’t think Apple has confirmed any EOL for the SE. It’s not sold in the USA anymore, but isn’t it still produced in India for that market (maybe ending now that the 11 is announced, I’m not sure)?
I bought the SE for my kid ($149 on Amazon) as he was getting frustrated when using my old iPhone 4 which was slow and unresponsive. He absolutely loves it and I'm kind of jealous of how small, lightweight and portable it is vs my iPhone XS - definitely the best price/form factor for kids and can definitely see the appeal of smaller phones esp. if you don't spend a lot of time in using App's or browsing where the small screen real-estate hurts UX.
The SE would probably also be better from an environmental perspective, since it would use fewer materials. Why are they forcing everyone to buy big phones, whether they like them or not?
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[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 203 ms ] threadTouch ID as well. Preferred over Face ID... grab phone with thumb it opens instantly (my personal experience).
Another year for myself Im not refreshing my iPhone. I did every year from 2009 to 2018; bought the XS last year and returned it. EDITED
I don't care much which OS I have to run, they are all the same now. I just want a smart phone that fits in a single hand.
I tried the palm and it is a bit too small, and the battery life was insanely bad.
Maybe Purism could think about making a Librem 4 after the 5 releases. Double-down on the hacker-hobbyist niche.
Might be hard to sell for a sensible price in that case.
The specs are far from the Librem 5, and software support is basically DIY, but at $150 it might be worth trying if you want a Linux hobbyist phone.
Edit: additionally, it looks like the Xperia is thick enough to have no noticeable camera bump. Has a 3.5 mm jack too; I like the look of this quite a lot.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jnco-jeans-comeback-cost-250_...
I wonder what data is motivating Apple with regard to phone sizes. I assume trends towards video and image consumption are really pushing for larger screens. Anyone have any insight or knowledge?
Another factor is the things that drive a person to spend $500+ on a phone are probably quite far removed from what they actually want from a phone from day to day. A big huge all encompassing screen is gonna outperform something that actually fits in your pocket every time.
I develop iOS apps and love my iPhone SE. It's a bit difficult to develop for that screen size, but it's only a little bit of additional effort and I wouldn't give up my phone for that. Plus, even if iPhone SE went away there are new devices with that form factor (for example, the new iPod Touch) that will be supported for quite some time.
So by developing apps compatible with the SE, it’s also helping the visually impaired.
So, an Iphone X?
- SE: 4.0" (10.16 cm)
- X: 5.8" (14.73 cm)
(source: https://www.gadgetsnow.com/compare-mobile-phones/Apple-iPhon...)
X's display is 45% larger, but the phone's total size is larger too.
You're off by almost a factor of 2, and furthermore that makes these increases significant in relative terms.
The 5S is 4.87"x2.31", the X is 5.65"x2.79", that's +0.78"/+16% in height and much worse +0.48"/+21% in width.
The phone is more "surface efficient" (phone diagonals goes from 5.4" to 6.3", or a 0.9" (and 16%) increase where the screen increased by 1.8") but it's still significantly bigger.
~ Many people using phone as their only connected device (i.e., no computer at home)
~ Increased video and image consumption
~ More and more women buying smartphones (women tend not to be inconvenienced by large screens since they often store their phone in their purse)
Outside of providing a bigger screen, FaceID is strictly worse:
- When I pulled my old iPhone out of my pocket, I would have my finger on the scanner and it would be unlocked before it reached my face. With FaceID on the iPhone X, I have to wait a few seconds.
- If you wake up and you're squinting as you look at your phone, FaceID won't work
- If you're wearing a hat and sunglasses, FaceID might not work
- If you're doing something else but you want to unlock your phone on the side in preparation for your next task, you have to stop and look at the phone
That's on a 7+, though, and Macbook fingerprint sensors seem a little better (more like 50% success rate) so maybe it's just because it's an early version of the hardware.
If I didn’t need clean fingers to unlock TouchID to begin with, iPad OS’s new voice control accessibility feature would be great for in the kitchen. No need to touch the tablet at all any more.
I register two fingers, one with "normal" hands, and one after a session of rock climbing.
I have both a work issued iPhone, and a personal pixel with a fingerprint unlock. I cannot recall any time I had issues with the pixel over the last month, while I'm extremely annoyed just thinking of how many times FaceID either took multiple seconds or didnt work at all.
The thing I like better about Face ID is that it lets you hide the text of your notifications by default but then reveal it as soon as you look at the phone, which is nice for privacy.
I never enabled the setting to hide notification text in the past because it was too inconvenient before Face ID.
a 4.7 inch screen with similar bezels to an X would be about .1 inches smaller than an 5S/SE.
According to gsmarena.com iPhone 8 is 4.7" and SE is 4.0"
An SE sized X would be nice (with the Face ID and stuff), with a higher screen resolution, but I think it would become more fragile as a result.
But I'm sure they could come up with some semi-plausible reason to make an "SE Pro" so they can keep those margins. How about owning the extra thickness and giving it a massive battery and using the depth to put killer camera optics in?
My 2009 MacBook Pro could still handle pretty much any 2019 computing I need to do, but the new OSs won't support it. That's understandable really, but how sorry is it that the 2019 keyboard is so bad that I prefer my 2009 model, even though it's slower to wake and boot.
My SE handles all phone tasks I throw at it, no problem (maybe the battery life could be better), but I hate all the new models. Apple pretty much perfected the laptop around 2014 and the phone with the SE in 2016. These are classic styles that were the culmination of a decade of design tweaks and component improvements. Each of those older generations could have been maintained with no more than small improvements in components (e.g., SSD) and ports going forward (until some kind of revolution in computing interfaces) and they would have happier customers.
I might be wrong, but I recall that even though the SE had technically inferior components, including display, it seemed it had _better_ battery life than the latest iPhones of the time. I believe the latest was the iPhone 6 at the time. Presumably OLED might have changed this?
The 128 GB iPhone 8 is $499 with an A11.
They don't have to sell a new iPhone SE for less for $499. I'd pay that for it. Small is a premium. But would selling it at $399 really kill their margins?
Edit: the iPhone 8 64GB refurb pricing is now $379. That's a pretty good deal:
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/FQ6K2LL/A/Refurbished-iPh...
You would just need a wireless hotspot that the iPod would always be connected to, to use it as a phone (or maybe people can start bucking the trend of always being connected).
It's the same size as the SE, except a hair thinner, and has a 3.5mm headphone jack!
spec comparison: https://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Apple-iPhone-SE,Ap...
Only issue is most of these VoIP services can’t be used in a multi-factor authentication scheme since they don’t support short code SMS.
I’d pay iPhone pro money for an SE2 with iPhone XR or 11 hardware.
The SE to me is not a budget phone, it is a premium flagship and I am willing to pay for the feature of being small.
There's hardly any good iPhone SE-sized Android phones anymore. I have a Sony Xperia Somethingsomething Compact and it's the only option I'm aware of, and it's not really that great. I've never had an iPhone but if they release a new SE I'd probably jump ship in a heartbeat.
I'm hoping there's a decent Android phone in an SE size by the time my SE dies.
Until then, I’ll keep my iPhone SE and disable JavaScript.
iOS used to be much better than competition, but I don't think that's the case now.
I never liked big-ass phones, and in my opinion the best iPhone design was the iPhone4, this one was a real masterpiece.
But I won't pay a premium for a phone I don't like, when my SE will no longer do its job, it will be replaced by a cheap Android device.
My personal computer is a 2014 MacBook. My work computer is a MacBook. Being able to message freely from my laptop to others on iMessage is a really nice feature.
In practice, I have maybe one friend who regularly uses text messaging. Everybody in my neck of the woods uses Hangouts, Messenger, Threema, etc.
I'm precisely in the same boat, but what are the iOS alternatives? There are none. Wouldn't touch anything Android with a long pole, because it has Google attached to it. Windows phone is a joke (if it still exists)... and there's nothing else that's not a dumb phone, is there?
One way Windows failed as a mobile OS is large storage requirements; "bloat" is one thing but a safe and reliable 'update' system adds overhead that made cheap Win mobiles marginal.
Simple commodity device... I think they might lose some loyals users here. I've been an iOS user since 2007.
Having something like a Palm Phone that also acts as a hotspot would be a nice mashup. You can be productive with your laptop or tablet when you are able to sit down and pull it out or you can just have a very basic phone that doesn't let you do too much when you should be doing something else. I know that a lot of the time that I'm on my phone, I should be doing other things like actually working, talking to those around me, or just simply enjoying my surroundings. I still want the ability to contact someone quickly if I need to but I don't want to let myself get easily distracted with the phone in my pocket.
Glad to hear someone else shares this opinion! Still rocking an iPhone4 here.
But not again. I feel they’ve squandered the good will they’d earned with me by giving me a worse phone at double the cost. I don’t plan to purchase another.
I changed the battery on the 4S three times.
Last year I meet a translator from Russia who had a 3GS with the original battery! That really made me regret I sent in my original iPod Nano when Apple said the batteries where dangerous and replaced them with a 6th gen for free, who's battery died only a year later!
Now we know why, you can't sell light bulbs that last forever because the customer won't come back... one gen later the iPad Nano was gone from the market.
Ordinarily I would vote with my wallet, but there are no compact Android phones either.
Ironically I still own a Oneplus One which is quite old by todays standards; and I distinctly remember it being called a "Phablet" due to it's obtuse stature in comparison to its contemporaries. However it would not look out of place today, in fact in comparison to my friends iPhone Xs (not max) it hardly seems at all larger!
I would merrily slam down 1K+ EUR for a real flagship phone at a size I can actually use.
(also, I wonder how women get on, since generally they have smaller hands than men.)
PopSockets. In my neck of the woods they are almost as common as phone cases. Some men also use them.
Oh wow, this is horrible.
https://www.google.com/search?q=phone+ring&tbm=isch
The women around me adopted larger phones earlier, because they had purses to carry them in.
So in my circles it's already 50/50. But I do see iPhone 5's and SE's amongst my circles more commonly than I should given the age of the phone. I'm not 100% on why, though I often ask. And it's incredibly rare that it's a cost decision.
If her iPhone 5 is still running iOS 6, she is correct.
Bringing the SCR-300 back in style?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCR-300
People with smaller hands, regardless of gender, often use two hands. Once you're used to using two hands, there's no reason to have a smaller screen.
I've no interest in anything bigger than a 7/8, myself. An XS might be borderline okay.
I’ve been out of luck since the iPhone 4, so I often go for the largest. Might as well get the best camera and battery life.
There has never been a successor to the Nexus 4.
(1) Has a headphone jack
(2) Has the same processor as my Pixel 2
(3) Is actually a usable size (roughly the same as the Nexus 4)
I have giant hands and large pockets available but will always prefer a smaller phone.
But I can only assume that Apple does plenty of market research on their products, so I assume people aren't checking off "the thing is too damn big" under "reasons I didn't upgrade?"
I however always have a bra strap. I end up storing my phone there most of the time.
On Samsung Galaxy S6 and later models, one can tap the home button three times to shrink the screen so that everything can be reached with one thumb. It's called "one-handed mode". I can't say I've used it very often, but when I need it, it's there.
For the iPhone X it's also there: https://mashable.com/2017/10/31/how-to-use-iphone-x-reachabi...
Not exactly convenient though.
I have to give up a bit of grip to get my thumb to the top corners of the screen, but it’s a lot better than anything else and I’d say worth the trade off for the extra space. Bigger than this I’m not convinced.
As is, I have no inclination to give up my SE, and if it fails I'll almost certainly pick up another off eBay or similar.
https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/some-hands-on-time...
Wait what? This doesn't make sense. I remember getting OnePlus as well (bought it for a friend in Europe) and the screen size was pretty mainstream at that point. It had 5.46" size. It got released the same year Apple released 6+ which had bigger screen, and in US it doesn't get more mainstream than that. In no particular order a list of other pretty successful smartphones released in 2014:
- Galaxy Note 4 (5.7")
- Google Nexus 6 (6")
- HTC One (M8)(5")
- LG G3 (5.5")
- Droid Turbo (5.2")
Where do you live?
Your list reinforces the point you are using it to argue against.
No it wasn't, check the specs. My point is at the point when majority of phones were released in "phablet" sizes no one considered them to be odd anymore. 3 years earlier, perhaps but not in 2014. I remember getting zero strange looks walking around with 6 plus.
> The Samsung Galaxy Note series is a series of high-end Android-based _phablets_ and tablets developed and marketed by Samsung Electronics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OnePlus_One
>Type: _Phablet_
The overton window has shifted so much that things that used to look ridiculous and had to be labelled as a portmanteau look ordinary today.
I downgraded to an SE recently and the only thing I miss is the screen size; traded that for headphone jack, smaller form that fits my hand nicely, and a design I like better.
Yet here I am years later still double tapping my home button several times a day
Please don't :(
Women actually have it better since they always have their purses to put their phones on.
Apple has in fact stated that iOS 13 will run on the SE:
https://www.apple.com/ie/ios/ios-13/
I believe the internals are approximately the same as the 6S, and I would expect that both will be supported for the same amount of time.
I don’t think Apple has confirmed any EOL for the SE. It’s not sold in the USA anymore, but isn’t it still produced in India for that market (maybe ending now that the 11 is announced, I’m not sure)?
Apple discontinued the iPhone SE at the tail end of 2018
Actually it was on September 12, 2017, the day they announced the iPhone X [1], even if they had it on sale for a while early this year.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE