6 ms·

Finally time to replace my SE. Pretty happy with 4.5 years for a smartphone lifespan.

uxp100 6y ago
Yes, my touchscreen is behaving strangely now, and I had a battery replacement along the way, but I also got 4 years out of my SE
- abhishekjha 6y ago
  Now that you mention it, I got 3 years with my SE today with one battery replacement. It is not holding much charge though.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    I’ve had one battery replacement and really need another if I were to keep using this. It’s back in the “degraded performance” mode where the processor throttles peak performance down because if it tried to draw as much power as it wants, the battery can’t keep up and it spontaneously turns off. Going from this to a 12 may be a bit of a shock, but it’s a modern camera that I’m more excited about than anything else. And having enough RAM to switch between more than two apps without them having to relaunch all the time.
- jkestner 6y ago
  Just got my wife's original SE its third screen. I freaking love that this product has been around long enough that parts and labor for a new touchscreen are $49.
  - wlesieutre 6y ago
    An even more affordable option is to not break the screen ;)
mikepurvis 6y ago
I'm still rocking a first-gen iPhone SE as well— I actually picked it up a few months ago for next to nothing, second hand with a smashed screen, and swapped the screen from my former 5S to it. Happened to get double the storage along the way, as well as iOS 13 compatibility for my country's Covid exposure app. As a device, I love that it's small, and it having cost me very little means that I'm not nearly as paranoid about losing or breaking it. And the screen swap/upgrade experience was great too— so much so that I expect my next device (in a year or two) will be the iPhone 8, with the explicit intention of doing a similar upgrade down the line to the 2nd gen SE.
dont__panic 6y ago
I've replaced my 2016 SE's battery once through Apple ($29 battery lawsuit program) and once myself ($29 and an hour of my time, via iFixit). So the whole phone cost me something like $460 over 4.5 years. I'm looking at the 12 Mini. - It doesn't have a headphone jack, so I'll have to buy an adapter to use my chonky set of headphones with it. - Apple phased out TouchID, and my state is experiencing it's worst-ever COVID numbers currently. So I'll just have to enter my passcode whenever I'm wearing a mask now, which is something like 40% of the time. - It comes with a lighting<->USB-C cable, but not a wall plug. I don't have any USB-C wall plugs. Am I supposed to only charge this thing off my work laptop, or should I buy a $20 USB-C wall plug from Apple? My current lightning cable is fraying 4.5 years in so I need a replacement. - The phone is advertised at $699, but it's actually $730 if I want to use it on non-Verizon/non-AT&T (I use Google Fi). Huh? - 64GB is the same storage size as my current SE, which is just a little too small for me to store local Spotify songs (lots of trips in the mountains with crappy signal) and podcasts. So I'll have to step up $50 for the 128GB version if I want this to last me any reasonable number of years. So I can either use my current SE, which is still treating me great... or I can cough up $780 + tax for the phone + $20 for a wall wart + $20 for a headphone adapter. So like $900 total. Maybe I'll pass on this one.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  Similar boat, except: - I don’t know when the last time I plugged wired headphones in was, so Bluetooth only is fine for me. - I’ll still have all the same charging cables that I have now, the lightning to USB-C cable is nice but I’d be fine with out it. This is going to be a backup cable for my USB-C power bank, since I already have a cable with that. - The $30 price difference is bulllshit, agreed. It’s shitty of them to be marketing these prices with a $30 AT&T/Verizon discount included. I’m on T-mobile, so no discount even if I stuck with them, but will likely be switching to Mint. - I haven’t filled 64 gigs on my SE yet, but I’m certainly glad I spent the $100 to get it over the 16 GB base model. Looking at getting a similar life out of a new phone, I should plan on the $50 for 128 GB. The things that I want are: - Modern camera technology, especially night mode and the ultrawide. Many years ago I paid $700 for a cannon 10-22mm ultrawide lens, I don’t know if this is superior in every way to my (oldish) DSLR, but as they say the best camera is the one you have with you. And most of the time I don’t have my SLR, let alone it’s extra lenses. - On that note, compatibility with Moment cases and M-mount lenses. A small phone is more important to me than the 3rd telephoto camera in the Pro phones, but it’d be nice to have the option to mount a decent quality telephoto or macro lens. - More RAM. The SE does a lot of relaunching apps when switching between more than two things, and it’s not particularly fast at it. Losing TouchID is a bummer, but a trade off I think I’m willing to make. I could drag this phone out for another year if I had to (barring hardware failures), but I’m looking forward to the upgrades.

Yes, my touchscreen is behaving strangely now, and I had a battery replacement along the way, but I also got 4 years out of my SE

abhishekjha 6y ago
Now that you mention it, I got 3 years with my SE today with one battery replacement. It is not holding much charge though.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  I’ve had one battery replacement and really need another if I were to keep using this. It’s back in the “degraded performance” mode where the processor throttles peak performance down because if it tried to draw as much power as it wants, the battery can’t keep up and it spontaneously turns off. Going from this to a 12 may be a bit of a shock, but it’s a modern camera that I’m more excited about than anything else. And having enough RAM to switch between more than two apps without them having to relaunch all the time.
jkestner 6y ago
Just got my wife's original SE its third screen. I freaking love that this product has been around long enough that parts and labor for a new touchscreen are $49.
- wlesieutre 6y ago
  An even more affordable option is to not break the screen ;)

mikepurvis 6y ago

I'm still rocking a first-gen iPhone SE as well— I actually picked it up a few months ago for next to nothing, second hand with a smashed screen, and swapped the screen from my former 5S to it. Happened to get double the storage along the way, as well as iOS 13 compatibility for my country's Covid exposure app. As a device, I love that it's small, and it having cost me very little means that I'm not nearly as paranoid about losing or breaking it. And the screen swap/upgrade experience was great too— so much so that I expect my next device (in a year or two) will be the iPhone 8, with the explicit intention of doing a similar upgrade down the line to the 2nd gen SE.

dont__panic 6y ago

I've replaced my 2016 SE's battery once through Apple ($29 battery lawsuit program) and once myself ($29 and an hour of my time, via iFixit). So the whole phone cost me something like $460 over 4.5 years. I'm looking at the 12 Mini. - It doesn't have a headphone jack, so I'll have to buy an adapter to use my chonky set of headphones with it. - Apple phased out TouchID, and my state is experiencing it's worst-ever COVID numbers currently. So I'll just have to enter my passcode whenever I'm wearing a mask now, which is something like 40% of the time. - It comes with a lighting<->USB-C cable, but not a wall plug. I don't have any USB-C wall plugs. Am I supposed to only charge this thing off my work laptop, or should I buy a $20 USB-C wall plug from Apple? My current lightning cable is fraying 4.5 years in so I need a replacement. - The phone is advertised at $699, but it's actually $730 if I want to use it on non-Verizon/non-AT&T (I use Google Fi). Huh? - 64GB is the same storage size as my current SE, which is just a little too small for me to store local Spotify songs (lots of trips in the mountains with crappy signal) and podcasts. So I'll have to step up $50 for the 128GB version if I want this to last me any reasonable number of years. So I can either use my current SE, which is still treating me great... or I can cough up $780 + tax for the phone + $20 for a wall wart + $20 for a headphone adapter. So like $900 total. Maybe I'll pass on this one.

wlesieutre 6y ago
Similar boat, except: - I don’t know when the last time I plugged wired headphones in was, so Bluetooth only is fine for me. - I’ll still have all the same charging cables that I have now, the lightning to USB-C cable is nice but I’d be fine with out it. This is going to be a backup cable for my USB-C power bank, since I already have a cable with that. - The $30 price difference is bulllshit, agreed. It’s shitty of them to be marketing these prices with a $30 AT&T/Verizon discount included. I’m on T-mobile, so no discount even if I stuck with them, but will likely be switching to Mint. - I haven’t filled 64 gigs on my SE yet, but I’m certainly glad I spent the $100 to get it over the 16 GB base model. Looking at getting a similar life out of a new phone, I should plan on the $50 for 128 GB. The things that I want are: - Modern camera technology, especially night mode and the ultrawide. Many years ago I paid $700 for a cannon 10-22mm ultrawide lens, I don’t know if this is superior in every way to my (oldish) DSLR, but as they say the best camera is the one you have with you. And most of the time I don’t have my SLR, let alone it’s extra lenses. - On that note, compatibility with Moment cases and M-mount lenses. A small phone is more important to me than the 3rd telephoto camera in the Pro phones, but it’d be nice to have the option to mount a decent quality telephoto or macro lens. - More RAM. The SE does a lot of relaunching apps when switching between more than two things, and it’s not particularly fast at it. Losing TouchID is a bummer, but a trade off I think I’m willing to make. I could drag this phone out for another year if I had to (barring hardware failures), but I’m looking forward to the upgrades.