7 ms·

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 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.

jrib 4y ago
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.
- Bud 4y ago
  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.
  - coder543 4y ago
    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.
    - Nextgrid 4y ago
      > 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. 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.
      - coder543 4y ago
        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.
    - Bud 4y ago
      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.
  - InefficientRed 4y ago
    Travel. Travel. Travel. Having everything USB-C just makes travel so much easier.
    - scarface_74 4y ago
      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. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092ZT8CJ9 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 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/ 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.
      - extr 4y ago
        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.
  - jrib 4y ago
    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.
- gonehome 4y ago
  Rumor is the next iPhone will be usb type c, but I thought they’d just remove the port entirely.
jacobyoder 4y ago
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.
- tass 4y ago
  I just picked up a 13 mini and this is what would push me over the edge to return it. I keep having to take my sunglasses off to make it recognise me. 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.
  - theWreckluse 4y ago
    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.
  - jacobyoder 4y ago
    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).

jrib 4y ago

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.

Bud 4y ago
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.
- coder543 4y ago
  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.
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    > 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. 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.
    - coder543 4y ago
      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.
  - Bud 4y ago
    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.
- InefficientRed 4y ago
  Travel. Travel. Travel. Having everything USB-C just makes travel so much easier.
  - scarface_74 4y ago
    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. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092ZT8CJ9 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 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/ 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.
    - extr 4y ago
      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.
- jrib 4y ago
  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.
gonehome 4y ago
Rumor is the next iPhone will be usb type c, but I thought they’d just remove the port entirely.

jacobyoder 4y ago

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.

tass 4y ago
I just picked up a 13 mini and this is what would push me over the edge to return it. I keep having to take my sunglasses off to make it recognise me. 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.
- theWreckluse 4y ago
  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.
- jacobyoder 4y ago
  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).