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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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 voilà, 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.
> 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 voilà, 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?
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
> 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 :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...).
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.
FaceID has been a revelation for me. TouchID was rather touchy... If my finger was a bit damp it didn't read. If my skin was too dry, it wouldn't read. FaceID hasn't failed me yet.
I've also experienced some flakiness with Touch ID, bit Face ID has been even worse. It frequently fails when a strand of loose hair partially covers my face.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I've seen exactly one person in real life get gunk build-up in a USB-C port, making things feel loose, and just cleaning that out solved the problem. Considering the moving part is on the cable, the port itself should be fine.
I've never personally dealt with loose USB-C or lightning ports on any of my devices, which is why I pointed out that a technically inferior design just doesn't matter at all here, but you can find plenty examples online of people complaining about Lightning ports too if we just want to talk anecdata.
In practice, they're both fine for charging devices. Even if Lightning were technically superior at charging devices, which it doesn't seem to be, it still wouldn't matter. Lightning sucks for other reasons, like requiring me to bring an additional cable on trips, and not supporting USB 3 speeds on devices that have enormous storage and where Apple intentionally helps you generate enormous files that need to be transferred. That's why I placed so much emphasis on these points in my comment, and said none of the earlier stuff mattered.
You didn't seem to have trouble posting a different response/opinion. And I'm glad you did, as I welcome the debate, even though I disagree.
As a side note, there is nothing technical limiting Lightning to USB2 speeds. It's fully capable of being adapted to USB3 speeds if Apple wants to. I would agree with you that Apple should have done this by now on the iPhone. I imagine they will. But as for how we're supposed to move big files around? AirDrop does a great job at this and is extremely fast, and requires no setup, and doesn't require that you have the right cable around, plus you can even AirDrop to many folks at once. I use this all the time in music rehearsals and for sharing photos or video.
AirDrop is actually so fast that the bottleneck is NOT the full speed of the WiFi chip that is present; it's usually the speed of the SSD or SD card you're reading from. AirDrop is blisteringly fast. Especially on newer devices with WiFi 6 hardware.
Side note 2: recent iPads actually do have USB3-capable Lightning ports.
It's not a miniscule difference in port size at all, btw. It's actually quite significant. And yes, it is a limiting factor in at least two ways: how thin the device can become, and how strong the case frame can remain at its weakest point, which is inevitably in the area surrounding that port.
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.
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.
Thanks for the tip on a holy grail cable. I have a few just like that but am always annoyed at their max 60W PD and USB 2.0 speeds. Still, the adapters are configured the same and it's totally worth it to be able to always connect anything to anything.
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.
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.
They can put a fingerprint sensor on the side like the iPad air or other android phones. That would be really nice. May be even call it iPhone air so that it goes with their iPad air and MacBook air. But we know apple wouldn't do that.
FWIW, i never did faceID with glasses, but it does recognize me, and in the last 6 months or so I've noticed that it works even with sunglasses on (and masks sometimes too).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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)
I suppose that's an advantage of having such an old phone, you can take risks without expensive consequences. In saying that, once you've done it once the risk is low with the right precautions (outlined in the online guides).
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.
> 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 £9 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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
> 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?
> 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.)
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
It was cool to see your name when reading the post. I follow Manual do Usuário 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.
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 ;).
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.
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.
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.
FaceID works great in the dark (I'm always surprised at how well) and at angles (as long as I'm holding the phone to match the angle of my face, which seems pretty natural to me).
You don't think about it even when you see the spinning lock?
Finding the button with my thumb in my pocket was just impulse. Phone unlocked by the time I'm looking at it.
I have to start looking at my phone, watch the screen wake up, FaceID takes a minimum of a half-second? A full second? Feels like an eternity. Longer if I have a mask on but that's only recent, it used to not work with a mask at all.
I think that's my problem. There's nothing I can do to make it faster, I just have to wait for my face to be at the right angle so it can scan me. With my fingerprint, I was fully in control of how fast the unlocking process would be.
FaceID doesn't work if I yawn. Or if I sneeze. Or am squinting in the sunlight. Or if the phone is on my desk, fully readable, but not pointed at my face.
And, yes, all of these cases happened in the past month. I miss the TouchID. It was simple and I can't recall it ever failing me.
Not for me. Looks like it might work if I disable "require attention" (weather has been pretty bad this summer, so I don't have my shades close by to test).
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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!
“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!
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.
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)!
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.
> 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.)
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.
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.
> 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.
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!).
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".
+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.
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”).
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
> 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
483 comments
[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 307 ms ] threadPast discussions:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31411191
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30405011
There’s the Balmuda phone on the Android side as well. The market simply does not support small screen devices.
Same with the Zenfone 9.
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.
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#zippy=...
New they're a bit pricey for the specs but you can find them like new used on ebay for half RRP.
Phones should be cheap and simple. I don’t want to pay more for a phone than a Mac book air.
> 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.
That's the broken window fallacy
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.
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?
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
Also what? The 3rd gen iPhone SE has 5G.
The SE 2nd and 3rd gen on the other hand are based on the iPhone 6/7/8 design which is quite different
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.
> 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.
I use a first-gen SE (tiny screen) as my low-end test (iOS 14).
[0] As in, "pry it from my...", for those not familiar with the saying.
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.)
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?
The zoom lens. Worth the price alone.
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 :)
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.
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.
Down? What does the mini have that the SE doesn’t?
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.
I agonized over this dumb thing but am terribly happy with my mini, in ways I haven’t been since the original SE.
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.
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.
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.
I've never personally dealt with loose USB-C or lightning ports on any of my devices, which is why I pointed out that a technically inferior design just doesn't matter at all here, but you can find plenty examples online of people complaining about Lightning ports too if we just want to talk anecdata.
In practice, they're both fine for charging devices. Even if Lightning were technically superior at charging devices, which it doesn't seem to be, it still wouldn't matter. Lightning sucks for other reasons, like requiring me to bring an additional cable on trips, and not supporting USB 3 speeds on devices that have enormous storage and where Apple intentionally helps you generate enormous files that need to be transferred. That's why I placed so much emphasis on these points in my comment, and said none of the earlier stuff mattered.
As a side note, there is nothing technical limiting Lightning to USB2 speeds. It's fully capable of being adapted to USB3 speeds if Apple wants to. I would agree with you that Apple should have done this by now on the iPhone. I imagine they will. But as for how we're supposed to move big files around? AirDrop does a great job at this and is extremely fast, and requires no setup, and doesn't require that you have the right cable around, plus you can even AirDrop to many folks at once. I use this all the time in music rehearsals and for sharing photos or video.
AirDrop is actually so fast that the bottleneck is NOT the full speed of the WiFi chip that is present; it's usually the speed of the SSD or SD card you're reading from. AirDrop is blisteringly fast. Especially on newer devices with WiFi 6 hardware.
Side note 2: recent iPads actually do have USB3-capable Lightning ports.
http://www.josh-ua.co/blog/2015/3/15/usb-c-dimensions-size-c...
https://blog.ugreen.com/usb-c-vs-lightning-port/
Having everything USB-C just makes travel so much easier.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
Too bad they didn't retain the design of the 2013 iPhone SE, which was better.
But it is in fact a fantastic design. Still am using mine. :)
I don't, which is I why I was asking haha.
As for how much, I think $20 for battery, $50 for screen (iirc)
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.
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 £9 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.
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).
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.
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?
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.)
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.
Carry the Galaxy S21. S is the work phone, but did I mention I love it?
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!
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.
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
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.
Gloves are used in more scenarios than just cold weather, motorcycle gloves for one example.
Gloves are not the big problem, my experience is that FaceID is useless when motorcycling because of the helmet.
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?
Touch ID was markedly superior in contexts like this, in addition to being easier to activate.
I haven't had a TouchID phone since 2018 and I still miss it. It never made me wait.
Finding the button with my thumb in my pocket was just impulse. Phone unlocked by the time I'm looking at it.
I have to start looking at my phone, watch the screen wake up, FaceID takes a minimum of a half-second? A full second? Feels like an eternity. Longer if I have a mask on but that's only recent, it used to not work with a mask at all.
I think that's my problem. There's nothing I can do to make it faster, I just have to wait for my face to be at the right angle so it can scan me. With my fingerprint, I was fully in control of how fast the unlocking process would be.
And, yes, all of these cases happened in the past month. I miss the TouchID. It was simple and I can't recall it ever failing me.
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.
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.)
it's even smaller than the newer ones!
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)!
"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.)
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.
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.
> 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,
> 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.
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!).
10+ years means over ten years.
+/- 10 years is an addition/subtraction and making a range.
"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.
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.
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.
https://i.imgur.com/HZNUoVd.jpg
The iPhone SE has completely rounded edges which is more pocket friendly in this regard.
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
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.
This is why I like my Shoei Neotec (I) modular / flip-up helmet. Especially since I got it 40% off when then Neotec IIs were announced. :)
The integrated sun visor is also nice.
edit: settings -> general says it's an iphone 12 mini
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
https://calyxos.org/install/
https://calyxos.org/news/2022/05/07/location-safetynet-fix/
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.
they won't ship updated drivers for new android versions for old phones.
But given that Google now uses their own SOCs, rather than Qualcomms, they can provide updates for their phones for a lot longer.
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.
The battery life on that one is atrocious compared to the apple one.
https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/translate-text-voice-...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53717123-the-end-of-men
That's pretty much how it went in the 50's feminist bastion Devil Girl From Mars.
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).
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).
Wrong edition.
1st gen SE forever.
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.