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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

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.
bartvk 6y ago
> So I'll just have to enter my passcode whenever I'm wearing a mask now If noone is around you, you can just pull down the mask for a second. At the moment, in my country (N/W Europe), I personally don't see the harm in this.

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.

bartvk 6y ago

> So I'll just have to enter my passcode whenever I'm wearing a mask now If noone is around you, you can just pull down the mask for a second. At the moment, in my country (N/W Europe), I personally don't see the harm in this.