9 ms·
I'm amazed by the sizing. The SE appears to be gone. This means the smallest device you can buy is the 7/8. Many still find this to be too large. Considering Ap
by oh_hello 8y ago
I'm amazed by the sizing. The SE appears to be gone. This means the smallest device you can buy is the 7/8. Many still find this to be too large. Considering Apple's history of selling older iPhone models at a lower price, it seems like two years from now the bottom of the line will be the Xs and Xr announced today. The smallest lower-end iPhone available at that time would be the Xs which is larger than the 6/6s/7/8. Obviously I have no idea what Apple has planned, but the push to increasingly large devices seems like a bad idea.
- tfandango 8y agoI have some younger kids who have the SE models, I like them because they are cheap(er), they work in the apple ecosystem I have, they are small enough for kids to carry around w/o breaking them, and I can easily track everyone. I won't be buying them any of these new ones, either stick to older SEs or purchase cheaper androids for them now.
- topbanana 8y agoMuch the same story here. Was hoping for an SE 2 for my kids as they're moving up to secondary school and hoped they could keep their iPad game progress. Android ahoy
- em500 8y agoWhat's wrong with the SE1?
- lifeisgood99 8y agoIt's not sold anymore
- em500 8y agoIt is, just not from the Apple store. https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ "Available at authorized resellers"
- bunderbunder 8y agoTranslation: "Discontinued, but 3rd-party retailers will keep selling their stock until it runs out."
- em500 8y agoSo what's wrong with topbanana buying the SE for his kids right now?
- bunderbunder 8y agoNothing, but should probably move fast if the intent is to get a new one.
- untog 8y agoFor one, it won't be supported anywhere near as long as a device launched today. It would still be getting iOS updates during their entire high school career.
- ppeetteerr 8y agoAren't the new 7's near the same price as the old SE's? You also get something cool with the 7, no breakable home button :)
- retromario 8y agoiPhone SE started at $349. iPhone 7 starts at $449, so somewhat more expensive.
- geerlingguy 8y agoAnd a _lot_ larger. 'Reachability' is pretty much required for one-handed use, so it makes using the phone more annoying.
- tfandango 8y agoyea. I usually buy them a phone when they head to middle school because communicating with them becomes more important for pickups after school etc. Even the 7 seems a little too big for them, and they are definitely more breakable even with a case (aside from the mechanical button as you mention), more surface area I guess. I'd love an SE sized super-budget iPhone (for kids).
- lowlevel 8y agoIf the 128gig SE was $1000 I'de still buy it.
- mpg33 8y agoI think the iPhone XS is only marginally larger than the 7/8 and has a much larger display.
- ynniv 8y agoThe size of the display is actually the important measurement for one handed use. My thumb can reach the far corner of the screen on the 8 but not the X.
- mkagenius 8y agoThere is a thumb extension sold in Japan for such iphones.
- mortenjorck 8y agoThe swipe-based navigation system on the X family actually makes a huge improvement on the old “reachability” feature of the 6/7/8/Plus. Instead of the awkward double-touch-the-home-button-without-pressing gesture to slide the screen down for one-handed use, you can actually just swipe the little home indicator down instead of up and it will do the same thing, only faster. For some reason, this isn’t enabled by default, but it’s a big enough usability improvement that I would actually consider a large X-family iPhone because of it.
- kartickv 8y agoThat's a good point, and an argument for why the iPhone X should've had the same screen size as the iPhone 8, just with smaller bezels. Besides, the slightly bigger body of the X (ignoring screen size) makes it slightly less comfortable to hold in my hand.
- 21 8y agoThe market has spoken loud and clear since 2010, when Androids bigger than iPhone became popular. iPhone dragged it's feet till 2013/2014 because they didn't want to appear conceding that they were wrong, but eventually they had to buckle.
- untog 8y agoThere haven't really been many attempts at making small flagship-quality devices in years. Didn't the SE immediately sell out when it was released? I struggle to believe no similar market exists today, but Apple obviously has a easier and more profitable path maintaining the device collection they announced today. I just wish they didn't. I was thinking about replacing my SE with whatever was announced today, but instead I'll be continuing to use it until it dies/isn't supported any more. Maybe I'm alone on that, I dunno.
- kgwgk 8y agoYou’re not alone! I think I may replace my aging SE with a new SE. Edit: I was wondering if an Apple Watch / iPod Touch combo could be an option but it seems they don’t play well together.
- giobox 8y agoI wonder how much of a factor size was in SE sales; of course some customers clearly chose it with size a primary concern, but I suspect many more bought it because it was a good phone at an attractively low price. The iPhone 7 still carries the flag for price conscious customers today, even if it is more expensive. The SE was a very unusually strong low end value proposition by Apple standards at 349 dollars for the 32GB handset, and I suspect this _much_ more than size mattered. Cheap small sized Android handsets have never really sold in remotely meaningful numbers in recent years (and Sony made some resonably solid designs), which gives me further pause as to how well "small" as primary feature sells now. It is definitely a shame for those who did value the SE for its size, but iPhones are unabashedly mass-market devices, and for better or worse bigger appears to sell. I do think an imaginary SE design with the full size screen design of the X with FaceID etc would be a gorgeous looking little device though...
- Apocryphon 8y agoDoes anyone think they'll make a next-gen SE next year? It could simply be they didn't want to release four phones this year.
- chooseaname 8y agoI have a 6s and I'm going to get an 8 at the new lower price. That should last me a few more years as phones are "fast enough" now. Hopefully, by the time I need another phone, the bigger is better thing will have passed.
- aczerepinski 8y agoI was really hoping for a sweet new SE replacement. I don’t want a big phone but I do need to upgrade my SE’s battery and move on from a 16gb drive. What are my options?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- JansjoFromIkea 8y agoBought a 32GB one myself to get out of that situation, along with the larger battery were the assurances that (second hand) it was probably a year newer than the 16gb (16 and 64 models were year one, 32 and 128 were year two).
- jotjotzzz 8y agoAside from the size, I'm more concerned at the prices of phones going over the $1k+ mark as the new normal. Sigh.
- ballenf 8y agoProbably pointless to argue this, but I really see new iPhones as cheaper than ever given how long I can keep one without feeling left behind. I have an old 6 that is quite snappy on iOS 12 beta for everything but intensely graphical new games. I really don't expect to replace last year's X for at least 2-3 years. It wasn't that long ago that it was crazy to keep a phone longer than a year. Now, AppleCare really needs to be extended a year to 4 full years from 3.
- riantogo 8y agoI bought last year's iPhone X and it was $999 for the cheaper version + $200 for apple care + $160 for airpods + $20 for case + Taxes.
- codesternews 8y agoI think the most important reason of having bigger devices is performance vs battery. You can not extend a smartphone and give feature like OLED, Neural Engine etc without considering affect on the battery. They want bigger device to solve many those issues. If they release the iPhone SE update they can not compete with other iPhones in terms of feature and performance. Also it have huge involvement of iOS updates also. When they release iOS update you have to think all the device these updates support else people will make noises.
- NeedMoreTea 8y agoI would expect quite the opposite. The bigger the screen the more dramatic the power draw to illuminate all the extra square inches. That was borne out by my experience with the SE when I first got it, having better battery life than any other smartphone I'd owned. My plan for now is to hang on to the SE for another couple of years, with battery replacement when it gets too tired.
- michaeljbishop 8y agoSmall point, but you are assuming the only direction a phone can grow is height and width. Thickness would also allow a larger battery.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- heisenbit 8y agoThis give Apple 2 years time to replace the SE. Actually more one year to research, observe the various markets and to decide and then one year to implement. In any case the button seems to be dead 8-( so any small form factor phone won't be a straight successor of the SE. The reason I don't totally discount the SE is the effective lowering of prices by Apple in the new line-up. They clearly want to grow on the lower end of the price band now.
- Joeri 8y agoI went from a 5.2 inch phone to an SE myself, largely for size reasons. Those big phones are just too cumbersome, even if the screen is nice. I'm very disappointed they didn't use the edge-to-edge screen ability to reduce the physical size and keep the screen size the same. A 4.7 inch screen in an iPhone X design would be perfect for me. It would be barely bigger than the SE with a much bigger screen.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 8y agoI also recently went to an SE from a 6S. The iPhone Xs costs $1349 for a 512 GB device!
- kartickv 8y agoYes, the 4.7-inch screen is optimal for me, too. Apple should've kept this screen size and made the bezels as small as possible. This applies to the SE, too -- keep the screen size and makes the bezels smaller. In a way, the iPhone XS is a step back from even the iPhone 6, because it's bigger. Apple seems to be doing things arbitrarily nowadays, like Dell and other OEMs that Apple (fans) loved to mock years ago.
- ksec 8y agoAn 19.5 : 9 Screen Body with the same width of iPhone SE would incidentally lead to a 4.7" iPhone Xr. I think it is highly likely we see that next year. Although also likely to cost $649.
- trixie_ 8y agoDuring Steve Jobs Rationally sized phones No gimmicks Few model numbers After Steve Jobs Phablet sized phones Gimmicks everywhere (Animoji, AR, etc..) Lots of confusing model numbers Basically Apple has become like every other phone manufacturer. It goes to show how much a good leader at the top of a company matters. I will keep using a SE for the foreseeable future. Fits in my hand Cheap to self replace screen/battery Has a headphone jack
- appleiigs 8y agoDuring Steve: imac, power mac, macbook, macbook pro. Now... WTF.
- threeseed 8y agoMore revisionist nonsense. You left out a few models which makes the product lineup almost identical to today: MacBook Air was released in 2008. Mac Mini was released in 2010.
- dang 8y agoCan you please edit the name-calling out of your comments here? ("revisionist nonsense", "this comment makes no sense"). I appreciate that your comments have gotten less uncivil over the years. Please don't relapse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- appleiigs 8y agoThe MacBook Air didn’t overlap with MacBook as it does now. The Mac Pro didn’t overlap wih the iMac Pro as it does now. The iphone overlapping 7,8,Xs,Xr. iPad Pro 10.5 overlap with regular iPad.
- flipgimble 8y agoAnd yet despite your criticism they are selling more devices than during Steve Jobs by a large margin. My iphoneX is by far the most usable and comfortable form factor of a smart phone I’ve used in the past decade. I’m just glad Apple has far better ways to decide on their device strategy than internet hot takes to so reliably and predictably miss the boat.
- jiveturkey 8y ago> seems like a bad idea. Bad idea for whom, and why? Because of your personal preference for a smaller phone? Clearly, the market doesn't agree. Well TBH, I don't know the market numbers, but surely Apple doesn't cull their lineup of products that are selling well?
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoThe iPhone 8 is still available in a 4.7" screen, right? That's only marginally larger than the iPhone SE's 4.0" screen. I use an iPhone SE, but only because it was ~AU$400 cheaper than the 4.7" iPhone 8. Edit: I'd like to be on the record as having said I think these large screen size phones are, for my use case anyway, ridiculous. I work in a metal fabrication workshop and have to have my phone on me. There's no way a 5.8" phone is going to last more than a month in my pocket.
- balladeer 8y agoOne reason I moved to iPhone SE from a 5.5 inch Android one and a half years ago was its size and form factor which among all the options available at the time seemed perfect to me. (The other reason was of course being invested in Mac ecosystem all over) I would want to go back to stock Android after I retire this SE, but when I look around I don't really see a decent 4 inch stock Android phone either.
- beenBoutIT 8y agoApple's adoption of Face ID is a big deal from a design POV. Apple was famous for adopting superior technology early and with Face ID they're adopting inferior technology late. https://www.apple.com/iphone-xs/face-id/ https://www.apple.com/iphone-xs/face-id/
- zuppy 8y agoface id is more relible than touch id. you no longer have to remove gloves, you can open it with wet fingers and it is faster. also, all mu touch id phones started to give more fingerprint recognition fails after 1year+