19 ms·

As a current iPhone SE user, here's my assessment: Pros: * Feature set in terms of processor, camera, etc., is exactly what I want * Continued presence of To

• racl101 7y ago
  You might as well give up on the headphone jack bud. It ain't coming back.
  • minikites 7y ago
    And give up on the screen size. The number of people who want a phone to fit in their hands and pockets is effectively zero compared to people who want huge screens to scale up content size or watch videos on their commute.
    • richardwhiuk 7y ago
      If you wanted a massive screen, the iPhone 11 has been out for ages (although at a premium price point)
    • svantana 7y ago
      Not only that, but as an SE owner I can attest that many apps and web pages have more or less broken UIs on its screen. And I can't blame creators for not wanting to spend effort on a form factor with small and diminishing user share.
      • ryantgtg 7y ago
        I'm the opposite type of (amateur) developer - I designed an app with an SE as my testing device. I was months into the development process before I said, "hey maybe I should look at the app on an XR." But it was pretty simple to scale the design up. I mostly just adjusted some left/right margins for the larger devices.
      • scarface74 7y ago
        Well, the dimensions are still important because the zoom mode of the iPhone 6s, 7s, 8, and the new SE are the same dimensions as the regular SE.
    • btown 7y ago
      And frankly this is part of Apple's premium positioning. If your primary concern is comfort of the form factor, then you're not willing to sacrifice your comfort to signal that you're using Apple's [attainable-]luxury product, and if you're not willing to sacrifice for luxury you're probably not likely to pay for it in the first place. For now, they're happy to let those people go to the Android world. We'll see if that persists into this economic recession, or if they start to move more aggressively downmarket to boost their numbers. But it's a very valid strategy.
      • codq 7y ago
        Funny you say that, since Apple was notoriously late to the large-phone game.
    • iso1631 7y ago
      > The number of people who want a phone to fit in their hands and pockets is effectively zero You're not wrong, but seriously, what is wrong with the world?
  • recursive 7y ago
    There's a difference between wanting something and having an expectation that you'll get it. For instance, I have an expectation that my phones will have a jack, which is one of the reasons my phone isn't Apple.
    • dangus 7y ago
      .
      • recursive 7y ago
        > People who don't want to buy an iPhone because of it should just not buy them and stop hammering away at this dead horse. That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm already not buying iPhones. The only reason I'd ever mention it anymore is when I see comments like this. > You might as well give up on the headphone jack bud. There's no reason to give up on headphone jacks. > Finally, it has to be pointed out that people who complain about this omission underestimate how much internal space a headphone jack wastes in a phone. I can't be underestimating it if I'm not estimating it. Some phones have jacks. Some don't. I buy the ones with jacks. I don't notice a difference in size.
        • deleted 7y ago
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        • barbecue_sauce 7y ago
          I don't think the headphone jack will make much of a difference to size (specifically thinness) until they can completely eliminate all ports and move completely to wireless charging. I think that's their endgame here, as ports are the biggest hurdle to the thinness which their industrial designers (and marketers) fetishize.
          • recursive 7y ago
  • iso1631 7y ago
    I can accept a headphone jack is a premium thing, I can live without it, but it's another straw, along with the downgrade in size and cosmetics.
    • floatingatoll 7y ago
      Framing the headphone jack as a "premium" feature may not match the views of others, and should not be considered an assumption to be taken for granted. Headphone jacks are not necessarily considered a premium feature by all phone users. They are by some, as is evident, but that view cannot be taken for granted — even here at HN.
      • iso1631 7y ago
        > Headphone jacks are not necessarily considered a premium feature by all phone users. Neither is a large screen, indeed I consider large portable electronics to be decidedly non-premium. A premium feature is something I'm willing to spend money on - a phone the physical dimentions of a traditional SE, with a 3.5mm jack, dual sim cards, a modern processor, and a decent amount of storage. Others may have other views on what premium is.
  • Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    My opinion continues to be as follows: As of January 2020, there is nothing any phone manufacturer has added that I would be willing to exchange my headphone jack for. Until that changes, I will either stick with my iPhone 6S, or upgrade to the best Android phone with a headphone jack available at my time of purchase. I'd like to have a phone with a better screen and a nicer camera, and I'd even be willing to pay a lot of money for one, but those features just aren't worth the loss of my headphone jack. The one thing I could see being worth my headphone jack is a folding screen, but it seems like we're still a ways away from those being durable enough. (And if some company does ever decide to put a headphone jack in a folding phone, that's the one I'll buy.)
    • Nursie 7y ago
      I have a USB C->headphone dongle. Came free about three phones back. Works fine. If I need to power the phone at the same time, I have a USB-C -> headphone and USB-C dongle. I keep that one in the car. It cost about 5 bucks. Can you not do this with Apple kit?
      • Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        You can get a Lightning adapter for iPhones. The problem is, I know myself—I will lose the adapter, likely right before a long trip. I can't keep the adapter plugged into my headphones indefinitely, because then I wouldn't be able to connect them to my other devices (multiple computers, etc).
        • derefr 7y ago
          The iPhone comes (came?) with a pair of headphones that have a Lightning jack on the end of them, in place of a headphone jack. Just use those with the iPhone and use your regular headphones with everything else. Or, if you want good headphones, then just let in the missionaries who've been telling you to accept Bluetooth as your Lord and Savior. (There are some really good Bluetooth headphones nowadays—studio-monitor quality audio, enough battery life to get through a working day, and <$200. I refused Bluetooth until headphones surpassed this bar, but they eventually did, about two years ago.)
  • nikofeyn 7y ago
    other phones never got rid of it, such as the lg v-series, and other phones have brought it back, such as the sony xperia 1 ii. these phones are just as thin or thinner than the iPhones with the same ip rating. why is this downvoted? these are facts. i just presented some examples from other manufacturers.
• shaunparker 7y ago
  No Night Mode for the camera. It's disappointing that they're not enabling it, but I guess it's not surprising.
  • Leherenn 7y ago
    Why is it not surprising? The processor should definitely be up to the task. Just market segmentation? I'm not an Apple expert, but it does not seem like something they do.
    • shaunparker 7y ago
      I'm not surprised because it's the differentiating camera feature between the SE/XR and the 11. My friends and family that have Night Mode love it, but most don't care that much about multiple lenses. I too believe the SE is up to the task. Hopefully someday Apple will issue a software update that enables it. Either way, I'm going to upgrade as the 1st gen SE camera is showing its age. Everything else about the 1st gen is still good enough for me.
  • deadmutex 7y ago
    I am curious to know why you say it is not surprising. FWIW, The Pixel 3A (which went on sale last year for ~$400, included night mode).
• _bxg1 7y ago
  FWIW I've got some wired headphones I really love and I bought a dongle for them when I got my iPhone XS in 2018. I really don't notice it; it just feels like an extension of the cord.
  • iso1631 7y ago
    If there were two native lightning ports that could be nearly as good as a 3.5mm jack. The lightning+3.5mm bodge jacks retain the functionality at a reduction in usability, but just about work for a non-premium product. An SE case with an upgraded processor would have been perfectly good.
    • _bxg1 7y ago
      When was the last time you plugged your phone into anything except to charge? And when was the last time you needed to charge it and listen to music at the same time? All I'm saying is, lots of people who are going on and on about the headphone jack are upset out of principle, even though it won't actually degrade their user experience to a meaningful degree. I'm not saying it was the right decision, necessarily, but I'm saying you'll have a better time if you just accept it and move forward. It really isn't that bad. Edit: Personally I only ever charge at night, and only ever use headphones when I'm walking around/driving somewhere. I guess battery life varies, but I also suspect that a lot of people are eagerly charging at every opportunity, even if they'd last the day without doing so. My XS lasts two days on a charge, usually.
      • zymhan 7y ago
        I have often wanted to charge my phone and listen to it at the same time. Wireless charging helped, but I really missed being able to plug my iPhone 8 into a power bank and my headphones at the same time.
        • drusepth 7y ago
          Playing Pokemon GO beat this into me hard. It used to be such a battery drain that you pretty much had to constantly be plugged in to a power bank with everything non-essential turned off (wifi, bluetooth, brightness, etc). But when you're out walking around, it was also way more enjoyable to have some kind of music or at least in-game sounds. Plugged in, with music. For as many hours each day as the power banks would allow.
• Causality1 7y ago
  As a non-iPhone user, the standout feature to me is the 16:9 display. I'm so sick of phones with absurdly tall screens and dearly wish I could get an android with flagship internals and a 16:9 screen.
• philliphaydon 7y ago
  When I went from iPhone 7+ to the iPhone 11 Pro Max, I was 100% convinced I would HATE Face ID... It's why I avoided the 10. But damn it's one of my favourite features! Until Wuhan Flu happened because I wear a mask outside so I have to type my pass code in :( Other than the mask issue. I'm convinced Face ID > Touch ID. Edit: Wow people super upset over me liking Face ID.
  • dang 7y ago
    It was flagged obviously because you put an unrelated flamebait phrase in the middle of your comment. That's not cool, and we already asked you to stop this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22824585 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22824585.
    • philliphaydon 7y ago
      What flame bait phrase? You linked me to a comment where I told a guy off for making excuses for china. In this one I said I’m wearing a mask because of the Wuhan flu. How is what I said flame bait?
      • dang 7y ago
        There's disagreement around whether "Wuhan Flu" is a good way to name the disease. There are arguments for and against it, but which argument people prefer is strongly (entirely?) correlated with their political commitment, so tossing a phrase like that into an HN comment is political flamebait. Edit: here is an example of the sort of low-rent, repetitive thread that such things lead to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22886052 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22886052. Would you please stop feeding this here? It's the sort of thing this site is explicitly not for.
• wnissen 7y ago
  You have to add $75 a year to the operating cost of these phones, for AirPods, which appear to have a design life of about 18 months, max. I am very frustrated as the SE is really getting to end of life. I have bought 3 of them in the past month from various eBay sellers with good feedback. One fake, one had a badly degraded battery, and the other went into a reset loop after a couple weeks. There's not much out there. Apple's privacy is second to none, usability is very good (though if they introduce one more type of swiping I'm going to go mad. What's next, Force Swiping?), but the hardware is getting extremely inconvenient. Even my buddy who has large hands complains that the phone is too big and heavy.
  • ocdtrekkie 7y ago
    Can't you use... any other Bluetooth headphones with it? I feel like saying you have to use AirPods is a bit disingenuous.
    • dangus 7y ago
      Yes. You can use $20 Amazon bluetooth headphones. And you can use a $9 adapter that fits in any wallet or purse easily: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35... And they come with free lightning headphones in the box.
      • Frondo 7y ago
        When I got an iPhone 8, it came with that adapter in the box. I do keep a spare we had lying around in my cross-body bag too, for times like using someone's aux cord in a car. Yes, it's another thing you can lose, but in practice I don't think it's really a problem -- certainly not the issue that would decide a phone for me, since rarely are all other specs equal.
    • rcruzeiro 7y ago
      Or the headphone adaptor, or the lightning earpods that are included with most iPhones nowadays.
• 333c 7y ago
  For me, I prefer the 4" screen but I can handle a slightly bigger screen. Touch ID is a must and I'm glad they kept it. But the loss of the headphone jack will be bad, so I'll stick with my current SE as long as it's supported.
  • SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
    > so I'll stick with my current SE as long as it's supported. Seems to me you can assume that’s about to end.
    • dan-robertson 7y ago
      Why? Apple tend to support their phones for many years after newer models are released
      • jandrese 7y ago
        The original SE is about 4 years old now, which is close to retirement age in Smartphone years. It should be noted that the SE uses the same class hardware as the 6s, which is at the very bottom of Apple's currently supported list.
    • 333c 7y ago
      This article[0] from MacRumors in January seems to indicate all iPhones currently supported by iOS 13 will be supported by iOS 14. [0]: https://9to5mac.com/2020/01/26/ios-14-devices-rumor/ https://9to5mac.com/2020/01/26/ios-14-devices-rumor/
• reaperducer 7y ago
  can I contribute to COVID-19 research without getting a bright red phone? Yes. Write a check. Mail the check. Done.
  • cptskippy 7y ago
    Exactly. The entire point of the red phone is to shout at other people "look at me, I'm a good person because I supported a charity!" Apple doesn't offer low key signaling. You're either a brow beater or a stealth support of charity.
    • Hamuko 7y ago
      Pretty sure people buy the red iPhone because they want their iPhone in red.
      • ebg13 7y ago
        TBF, I'm going to do it because I want my phone in red _and_ because it's literally a free gift to a charity at no additional cost to me.
      • cptskippy 7y ago
        If that were the only reason then Apple wouldn't associate it with Product Red. The Red iPhone is signaling and that's the whole premise of Product Red. The charity appeals to vane people who feel the need to show off and exploits them for good.
    • draw_down 7y ago
      I think it's ok if people want a red phone.
    • dkonofalski 7y ago
      That's such a false dichotomy. You can want a red iPhone, want to support charity, and not be a brow beater. C'mon.
      • 7y ago
• mobilio 7y ago
  Also current SE user. I can live with all that cons... EXCEPT for size! It's too big...
  • tfehring 7y ago
    Same. I'm seriously considering making this [0] my next phone when my current SE croaks, though I really don't want to go back to Android. [0] https://palm.com/pages/product https://palm.com/pages/product
• DangerousPie 7y ago
  FWIW I thought I would miss TouchID for a long time until I finally bought a new iPhone and realised that FaceID actually worked much better than I expected. Yes there are some occasions where it doesn't work well (when you're trying to unlock the phone without looking at it properly) but there are also many occasions where it works much better. Most of the time my phone now unlocks so smoothly that I don't even realise it was locked. So on balance I think FaceID would actually be a plus.
  • nolok 7y ago
    I'm sure that's a huge help for people who like to check their notifications or other things on their phone while it's sitting on the desk without picking it up. There are tons of situation where your face is not in front of the phone yet you would still like to unlock it without contorting you or it, and how well face I'd work or not has nothing to do with it.
    • DangerousPie 7y ago
      Yes, that's one of the occasions where I have noticed it not working well. I guess it just depends on how often you do that and how annoying you find it to have to lift the phone up a bit. Not a big deal for me.
      • zionic 7y ago
        Or having to remove your sunglasses, or when you have a face mask on, or when the ambient sunlight/IR is too high for the sensor to read the tracking dots it projects on your face. FaceID introduced a huge swath of new failure modes while simultaneously reducing security. Not acceptable.
        • DangerousPie 7y ago
          Yes, I will admit that it's not great with a face mask. But then that wasn't really an issue until a few weeks ago. Never had problems with glasses or too much sunlight but that might just be a perk of living in a country that's not particularly sunny.
• CalChris 7y ago
  Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable Yes, I'd be leaning towards trading my SE in for this except for the headphone jack which I use a lot. Now I'll have to wait and see if iOS 14 supports my phone. Otherwise this looks like a solid improvement. $400 is the north end of what I'm willing to pay before I look at refurbs and last year's model.
  • mumblemumble 7y ago
    I would happily make do with the dongle, but the Apple dongle's built-in DAC is noticeably poor. And, the iPhone having a lightning connector instead of a USB one, there really aren't a lot of alternatives on the market, especially if you're looking for a reasonable price point. It's really frustrating. I use my phone to listen to music at work, and while I'm far from being an audiophile, things like a tinny high end are still annoying. Where Apple has spent so much time marketing to creatives, you'd think they would pay more attention to something like this. My impression, though, is that they're so caught up with the cash cow that is AirPods and wireless Beats headphones that they just don't care anymore.
    • dan-robertson 7y ago
      This person finds the DAC to be extremely high quality: https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-quality.htm https://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/lightning-adapter-audio-qu... . Perhaps it’s a placebo. Perhaps the performance has degraded. Or perhaps his measurements are wrong.
      • mumblemumble 7y ago
        Or perhaps there's a manufacturing error or some cable damage in the one I listened to? Or, for that matter, I have no idea what the impedance was on the headphones I was using; it was a pair of cans that could well have been more than 100ohm. In any case, thanks for sharing. These test results are definitely reassuring.
        • 7y ago
• Wistar 7y ago
  My old SE is about as perfect a size for me as there can be: with an Otterbox it fits in a vest pocket. That's what I need. This new one is too big and that is such a disappointment.
• rvz 7y ago
  I wouldn't buy it at this price right now unless you had bought a iPhone 6S or 5S (They are actually the same, except for the screen size) in the last 2 years. The removal of the headphone jack was something seen as treasonous for Apple to do at first, but then they will then tell you to purchase wireless earphones instead. Making it impossible to listen to music without being discovered via bluetooth trackers / scanners. If those aren't problems for you, then it seems to be a reasonable buy for other customers who bought older phones. But if it were me, I would buy one in a year and a half when the price eventually drops further.
• jray 7y ago
  * Form factor is, candidly, still too big for my tiny hands +1 This is critical for me.
• rmellow 7y ago
  > Form factor is, candidly, still too big for my tiny hands As someone frequently getting pinky finger injuries from holding my phone, I feel you. Popsockets are a solution, but an annoying one that changes the form factor my phone and doubles as a potent trigger for fidgeting.
  • arrosenberg 7y ago
    https://www.loopycases.com/ https://www.loopycases.com/ Still changes the form factor, but without the fidgeting problem. The case makes it easy to pop the phone in and out if you need the original form factor.
    • binaryblitz 7y ago
      I would love this if I could collapse the loop. I hate that I can't put my phone down flat on my desk.
• lixtra 7y ago
  > Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable I was thinking the same till I bought an iPhone 11. The tiny adapter for 10 bucks is not that much of a hassle. I have one in my backpack and one at my workplace. I also bought a wireless charger. All that is not expensive compared to the phone itself.
• everdrive 7y ago
  Form factor is frankly too big for pants. Have you ever tried to squat with an iPhone X in your front pocket?
• deleted 7y ago
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• shorts_theory 7y ago
  I would probably upgrade just for the battery. iOS 13 is very smooth on my SE but the battery is just nuked without battery saver on all the time.
  • Keverw 7y ago
    Have you checked the battery health/cycles? Mine was like that, even iOS at once unexpectedly shutdown... The battery page in settings, under Battery Health should tell your capacity and other info. for me a new battery fixed everything... and batteries aren't usually covered under warranty as far as I know in general but Apple replaced it for me. FedEx Overnighted it to their repair center in California, and then back. So only without a phone for a few days. Kinda like a brand new phone just by changing the battery.
    • shorts_theory 7y ago
      That's the thing. The battery is still healthy and it looks like it retains 90% of its capacity on the Battery Health setting page. I bought my SE very late into its lifecycle (June 2018), so I'm not sure why it's acting this way. I have had a problem with the phone rapidly losing charge in cold weather though. Did you also have severe battery drain on your SE on iOS 13 before replacing the battery?
      • Keverw 7y ago
        Yeah, at the point before I got it replaced seemed like sometimes you could watch the percent going down in real time. But then at times I’d be at a few percent and it’d run lot longer then I expected. I know the OS itself prompted me to get a repair. Got a popup when restarting about a unexpected shutdown. So maybe that helped with the replacement process.
  • ggreer 7y ago
    Apple will replace the battery for around $50. Though their stores are closed so you might have to send it in. Another option is to get a battery replacement kit from iFixit.[1] I did that and it doubled my SE's battery life. 1. https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone/iPhone-SE-Replacement-Battery/IF327-004?o=7 https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone/iPhone-SE-Replacement-Ba...
• Kiro 7y ago
  > Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable While you think it's unacceptable the rest of the world has moved on a long time ago.
• valuearb 7y ago
  There is a headphone jack, it’s the lightning port. Or use Bluetooth. This whining over the headphone jack is getting old. Inconvenient? For some. Unacceptable? Only to a tiny fringe faction. Get over yourself.
• jidiculous 7y ago
  I'd say that the availability of eSIM is a pro as well, although that just seems like a catch-up to most modern smartphones now.
• devy 7y ago
  > * Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable Sorry, you can't have IP67 water resistance with that 3.5mm headphone jack. Edit: a lot of folks proved me wrong. I feel that I need to clarify: Apple's design goal is to make it thiner, more integrated, less components more battery space and unified input/output interface, all that combined with water resistance, is not practical. All the 3.5mm examples I am seeing doesn't attempt to make it thin and light albeit water resistant.
  • PHGamer 7y ago
    LOL the samsung s10 says otherwise.
  • camgunz 7y ago
    My Galaxy S8 has IP68 water resistance and a 3.5mm jack. I guess if you need the extra .5 meters that's non-negotiable, but still feels like a niche use case.
  • ravoori 7y ago
    My LG v35 has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and is ip68 certified
  • detaro 7y ago
    Motorola Moto x4 has both.
  • kawsper 7y ago
    IP67 Rated Audio Jacks do exist: https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/c/cui/ip-rated-audio-jacks https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/c/cui/ip-rated-...
  • dade_ 7y ago
    Sony Xperia Compact series
  • urineaut 7y ago
    That's not true, although I assume it may be harder to water-proof devices with each possible opening in the chassis. There are some water-resistant phones with a headphone jack and an IP68 rating even. The LG V30 for example is a beast. Semi-regular usage on rainy days works without any issues. Even using it as a flashlight it survived 30min of pouring rain. I had to wait for the USB-C port to dry up to charge it after getting home, but it still survived without any damage whatsoever. Other phones that are both water-resistant and have a jack [1]: * Pixel 3a * Galaxy S10 * Huawei P30 * and a lot more If I remember correctly, Apple tried to justify its removal due to its size and water-resistance. I wonder when (not if) Apple will remove the power plug due to "water-resistance" and insist on using Qi charging (even though it has worse efficiency[2]) and cloud services instead of transferring data via cable. [1]: https://www.androidauthority.com/phones-with-headphone-jack-825984/ https://www.androidauthority.com/phones-with-headphone-jack-... [2]: https://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/data/downloadables/1/5/2/7/john-perzow-efficiency-of-wireless-charging.pdf https://www.wirelesspowerconsortium.com/data/downloadables/1...
• kkylin 7y ago
  I hung on to my 5S for the longest time before finally getting an 8. I'm happy with the 8's form factor, but it's definitely at the upper limit of what I'm willing to carry around in my pocket all day. I can operate it with one hand, though sometimes a little awkwardly. I hated not having the headphone jack for a long time. But AirPods (which I do love) have taken care of that problem.
• pwenzel 7y ago
  Bummed on the lack of headphone jack. I create music on my iPhone SE and pipe it into a mixer and studio headphones. Not going to lose sleep over the color schemes because I will be buying a case for it anyway. That's how my current SE has lasted so long!
• sgt 7y ago
  Headphone jack is overrated. Keep the DAC as close to your ears as possible if you are an audiophile. For the rest of us casual listeners, the adapter is fairly cheap and just keep one connected to your headphones (or in the headphone bag if you got one).
  • dade_ 7y ago
    I am willing to accept no headphone jack only if the device supports USB-C, like my new iPad Pro and every other product I have purchased in the last 4 years.
    • sgt 7y ago
      Personally not too important to me, but I fully agree that it is time to change the port to USB-C. I am not sure why Apple is lagging behind on this, as I don't think it would have any negative effect.
      • unethical_ban 7y ago
        Lovingly, this is a phone built from scraps of previous models. If we get USB-C on an iPhone, it will be on the iPhone +1 or +2.
  • postalrat 7y ago
    Show me some audiophile headphones with a DAC and I'll believe you.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• wiremine 7y ago
  > Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable I think I'm in the minority, but I haven't really missed the headphone jack in my iPhone 11. I have the Echo earbuds, and those have been good to great for my use cases. This continues to feel a bit like the 3.5 floppy and CD-ROM removals from the Mac: a lot of people hated it, until it was a nonissue.
  • SlowRobotAhead 7y ago
    You aren’t in the minority. You are in the silent majority though. Most people -and really emphasizing most in terms of what people actually buy not what they complain about online- don’t care about a 3.5mm jack. It’s gone, it’s never coming back. To that end, once iPhone goes USB-C it’ll accelerate this majority non-issue.
  • cm2187 7y ago
    That's one more battery to manage. Perhaps a better comparison is wireless mouse or keyboard.
  • lazyload 7y ago
    > a lot of people hated it, until it was a nonissue While I got the Airpods Pro when they launched and loved them at first, the battery degradation and seemingly worse ANC performance has really irked me given their price. I've also tried using cheaper wireless earbuds, but their connectivity can be spotty. I know it's not the worst issue, but I do miss being able to take a pair of wired earbuds and use them freely between my laptop and phone and not have to worry about their battery lives.
    • mackrevinack 7y ago
      how long did it take for the battery to start degrading? its odd how people never seem to mention that problem when they are taking about how great their bt headphones are I think bluetooth receivers are the way to go. you get the wireless aspect for the most part and can change track/volume without having to take out your phone. you can use it any headphones or earbuds you have with the fiio one I own, you can charge it while using it so you are never caught if you are near a power source or have an external battery chargers. and if not then at least you can quickly switch to being directly plugged in there's also a much better chance that I will be able to replace the battery at some point in the future. with bt headphones, they are so small that it would be almost impossible to take it apart successfully
• zitterbewegung 7y ago
  If this came out six months ago I would have considered buying this vs the iPhone 11 Pro. The one thing about small phones is that you can operate the phone one handed. The iPhone 6-8 and the SE's design is pretty much at the limit that you could operate the phone one handed.
• redisman 7y ago
  The batteries on original SE's are seeming to reach end-of-life now so I think I'll still have to jump to this. I've bought 2 used ones and had 2 new ones and they've all got dead/dying batteries.
  • deeblering4 7y ago
    If thats the only issue with your phone, aftermarket battery replacement service is pretty reasonable. 50 dollar ballpark and takes like 5 minutes. Just have a search in your area for phone repair shops.
    • sumantsharma 7y ago
      Cost me $49 at the local Apple store for the same a few months ago btw.
• deeblering4 7y ago
  > Price point is, admittedly, fantastic Thats the biggest thing for me. I got my first iphone when they were around this price. Nowadays I have a hard time spending ~1k on a new phone, so I end up shopping used. Granted it’s my personal preference to buy the handset outright, I’m happy to see a hardware refresh on a more budget friendly option for a new iphone.
• acklenx 7y ago
  You say "As a current iPhone SE user... Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable" But you're a current user... so clearly you accepted it. And as long as you do (accept it, keep buying phones without headphone jacks) why would anyone change? The message you are sending (in the only way they care about $$$) is that you do in fact accept phones without headphone jacks. Just reading what you're writing...
  • PunksATawnyFill 7y ago
    Are you not aware that the original (not this new) SE had a headphone jack? He is a current user, meaning obviously the original one.
  • cglong 7y ago
    I'm pretty sure the original SE has a headphone jack.
  • randy_tutelage 7y ago
    You are aware that the current iPhone SE has a headphone jack, right?
  • iso1631 7y ago
    The iphone SE came out in 2016, it was an iphone 6s in a 5S case, with the size advantages of a 5s case, but the advantages of a 6s' cpu. There is still no replacement.
  • dstaley 7y ago
    I think you're confused: the original iPhone SE, the one the parent comment is mentioning, has a headphone jack. The new iPhone SE, the one that hasn't been released yet, doesn't.
• redisman 7y ago
  They should've called it the iPhone 8 2.
• cryptozeus 7y ago
  Iphone SE owner here: after airpods I do not miss headphone jack
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• arkj 7y ago
  >>but not sure that'll be possible (maybe I can borrow somebody's iPhone 8). My SE broke recently and I had to switch to iPhone 8 (They stopped selling SE by then in India). I am able to manage but the form factor is no where as comfortable as the old SE. >> Price point is, admittedly, fantastic True for the developed nations but still on the higher side for India and South East Asia. If they could price it at 299 in India it will sell like hot cakes here but iPhone always misses the bus here in India.
  • rorykoehler 7y ago
    My impression of India was that up could either easily afford the iphone or you were in the market for a budget phone. Not much middle market. Is that a correct assumption?
    • arkj 7y ago
      That used to be correct in the past but things have changed here a lot. There is a growing population of the middle class. Nothing compared to what is there in the developed countries but nonetheless with some significant purchasing power. The mean income of the 90th percentile in India in 2004 was about 113 USD a month.[1] In the next 4 years the GDP has increased ~4x. [2] Now even if we assume (I don't have data from a study on this) the 90th percentile income doubled, it leaves them with 226 USD a month. I can say from personal experience that is a modest assumption. My own salary has increased 40x in this time period. If you consider my friends (a sample space of 30) whose salary I keep track, the average increase is around 20x. Now it is very reasonable (as the phone has become a very personal "being") to assume that someone in this income will spend a month of their salary on their phone. Now that is a market size of 120 million people and increasing. On a personal note, I run a operations company of ~40 people and their average salary is ~300 USD a month and everyone has a phone that costs more than 200USD. So I think it's reasonable to assume Apple is still missing the bus. [1] https://ihds.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/pdf-files/02HDinIndia.pdf https://ihds.umd.edu/sites/default/files/publications/pdf-fi... [2] https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:IND:GBR:CAN&hl=en&dl=en https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...
• alexellisuk 7y ago
  I had an iPhone 8 and Pixel 2 for a while. Both fit well for average-sized hands and I can barely type on my wife's iPhone SE. I'd consider this one for her but the lack of headphone jack is a problem.
• 2OEH8eoCRo0 7y ago
  I'm torn on headphone jack. It feels very antiquated to dedicate a single large port to analog audio signals where USB can pretty much do anything.
• dkonofalski 7y ago
  I disagree on the headphone jack. I haven't missed it at all since buying an iPhone 7, especially with AirPods. I do, however, agree whole-heartedly about the form factor. The iPhone 5 was the perfect form-factor to me and I miss it terribly.
• ttizya20 7y ago
  Complete BS 'cons', this product is great, admit it. 1. airpods you peasant 2. my hands are f*king huge anyways this phone is still probably too small 3. already donated to Covid research without going through a corporation, I'll take white.
  • josteink 7y ago
    > 1. airpods you peasant Why would anyone accept the worst sound quality the market has to offer? For the price of the AirPods you can get wired ear-buds or over-ears which literally provides you with 10x the sound fidelity and listening experience. And they all require that good ole’ standards-compliant jack. When it comes to audio, I’ll only take the best. And the AirPods aren’t even in that competition. Peasant indeed, eh?
• perplex 7y ago
  > Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable Don't forget you can still use the lighting to 3.5mm adapter. It's no longer included free but at least it's available. Cost around $9.
• Tepix 7y ago
  Regarding the price point being fantastic - that may be true for an iPhone but not for smartphones in general. For 480€ i can get a pretty high end Xiaomi phone for example. Or three very decent Xiaomi A3 phones with multiple cameras and an OLED screen.
• unethical_ban 7y ago
  I have come to realize that headphone jack advocates in phones really do seem to be a minority. * If you use wired headphones on your phone, a dongle is just a few inches of cable * Most who use wired headphones accept the quality and comfort of apple earpods that plug into the lightning port * Most people in general who use their phones for audio use bluetooth. Note: I am using the metric of average American consumer, not other countries. Those are observations. My personal opinion is that you cannot get much smaller in display size than the 2020 SE without reducing UI functionality or having a pen. I am not sure 2020 apps would function well for any significant number of users with an iPhone SE 2016 form factor. Also remember, this may be a good market for them to get into, but Apple is doing this so they can use existing parts and processes. This is not a top down design of a compact phone. --- PS: My personal "Why did you do that" is removing fingerprint. They should have moved it to the back, if they cared about borderless display. Face recognition depends on lighting, and me looking at my phone.
• xenospn 7y ago
  I don't think the headphone jack is coming back. Ever.
  • m1sta_ 7y ago
    Written from my galaxy s10
    • Cu3PO42 7y ago
      I also got the S10e because it has a headphone jack. The S20 also got rid of it :(
• drusepth 7y ago
  I wasn't following the leaks (if any) but I was excited for this announcement. Looking for a new phone to replace the 6S and this one looked like it might encroach on "small" territory. It's about an inch past the ideal but probably doable (even though it's as big as the 6S) and it's at a great price point but the lack of headphone jack is a single nail in the coffin that does it in for me.
  • iso1631 7y ago
    So what are you going to get instead?
    • drusepth 7y ago
      Not a clue yet. The Pixel 4a looks promising, but is once again huge. It's for my wife, so it might come down to whether she prefers that jack or something that fits in her hand, but I'm in this thread to google the other phones here and hopefully find something that checks both boxes.
• flattone 7y ago
  >lack of headphone jack My significant other got some bluetooth for xmas. (A nice bose since she is wildly anti apple, im not totally clear on why) She was into them for about a month. With cabled audio it is sort of unavoidable to miss that never having to charge, pair, unpair, removing phone pairing history (example rental car retaining contact info), just plugging in is so clean, reliable. Honestly in the case of BT vs 3.5 jack i believe we invented in reverse order. She has since stopped using the >$100 Bose and prefers a 20 sony earbud where one of the two ear buds is actually totally smashed (i drove over it, sadly. Shes a total catch. So the missing audio jack is my only barrier to new iphone SE entry. I wonder whether anyone has considered some pcb+3d printing a slim fitting adapter which might extend the length of a phone but then provide the existing port and add a 3.5. In other words Is there any attempt at integrating the usb c Or lightning to 3.5 adapter into a clean little clip on / case thing. Re rental car Bluetooth cleanup issues https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/08/what-your-phone-telling-your-rental-car https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/08/what-your-phone-te... And to be clear im not anti bluetooth at all. It just seems to be a not yet rightly set up system for security and convenience, naturally.
• eric_cc 7y ago
  > Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable Surprised there are people out there feeling this way. Join us here in the year 2020.
• sagichmal 7y ago
  > Lack of headphone jack is still unacceptable Sorry, friend, but this ship has sailed. No point calling unacceptable what is now unavoidable.
• zaroth 7y ago
  As an everyday user of FaceID IMO it is superior in every way to TouchID. However, that’s just an opinion. What’s indisputable is that FaceID enables removal of the Home button, which is also a massive positive in and of itself. Every iPhone I’ve ever owned that had a Home button ultimately had the first thing to fail be the Home button. Not always a complete failure, but at least a partial failure that would make the phone highly annoying to operate. Besides the Home button wearing out, it also limits the screen size. A full screen is better in every way. In particular by giving significantly more space for the keyboard to be shown without taking up most of the available vertical space. And so having a biometric unlock which is (arguably) better is really just 1/3rd of the benefit of FaceID. You get a more durable phone, a phone easier to waterproof, and a more usable phone with a better aspect ratio. That said, the lack of FaceID on the new SE is extremely disappointing to me. I gather they just couldn’t make the margins work at $399.
• JoshuaRLi 7y ago
  Agree with all these points (also an iPhone SE 2016 user). One more point to consider is whether or not the iPhone SE 2016 will continue to get OS updates.
• ectospheno 7y ago
  My 5'1" college age daughter who still shops in the kids section of most stores uses a 4.7" phone and loves it. How small are your hands?