iPhone SE (2016) Old IPhone SE Battery Replacement?

[ericainge6]

My current primary phone now is the iphone 13 mini. I have an old iphone SE that I used for many years before this and that was my primary iphone. I still like it as the size is very good. But battery is not good and people say do not upgrade IOS from IOS 14 to IOS 15 which is what everyone seem to say. Do most people agree with this? I had that IOS 15 software update showing for over a year or so and never upgraded it to that.



I bought this old IPhone SE brand new over 5 years ago. I remember the phone was so fast. I used to use an iphone 4s. I think it was after a year or so, the battery was getting a little bad. Then I think close to 2 years was when the battery got much worst. I remember I went to apple store when they had that promotion where they replace your battery for like 29 dollars or so? I'm sure many of you remember that?



The battery was very good for another year or so. I think when it was close to 1.5 years, is when the battery is bad. I don't believe I had the battery replaced in over 3 years. Now I'm using it as a backup phone. Is it worth it for me to get a battery replacement for it or not? Also I had considered maybe resetting it and starting it as brand new. Would you recommend that? Also if I were to reset it and wipe it without replacing the battery, would you say it would be good? At the moment it lags quite a bit but still usable. I heard once you upgrade it to IOS 15, you won't like it. If getting a new battery, does apple store do it? If so how much? Or it's not worth it? Again its a backup phone. What about buying the battery on ebay and do it yourself? However this is very hard for someone who isn't tech savy right? I would not want to open the iphone myself etc.

 

[MK500]

I assume you are talking about the 2016 iPhone SE with the A9 CPU.

This is a pretty great phone, and still is quite fast. I used a 6s which has basically the same internals as my daily driver until this week. My teenage daughter uses an SE as her main phone and refuses to consider upgrading even though I offered her an iPhone X that was available. She likes the size, touchID, and headphone jack. If it's fast enough for a modern teenager...

You mentioned the battery was replaced once already. You should download the free coconutBattery to your Mac and connect the SE to your Mac to see what the battery state of health and cycle count is. You may not need to replace the battery. If it's sluggish it could be that the storage is too full or it could be the battery causing Apple to slow it down for safety. I would go ahead and wipe it and see if performance is better. You can always restore a backup from your new phone to mirror it in the future.

The SE is one of the easier phones to replace the battery in if you know what you are doing and have the right tools. There are often phone repair shops in malls and such that will do this kind of replacement while you wait. I would check what the pricing is for that in your area.

If you do choose to do the repair yourself, there are two things you need to watch out for:
1) The tiny ribbon cable that connects the touchID button to the motherboard. When you open it you must only open it a small amount (centimeter or so) before detaching this cable or it will rip. If it does rip you will lose touchID functionality as the touchID is linked to the specific phone -- and have to buy a new button assembly. The best way to avoid this is to use a special suction tool (iSclack) from iFixit; but that's not worthwhile if you are only doing this once. I have many years experience doing repairs, and have the tools, but this part still worries me every time. Also disconnection the cable is a quite fiddly job with a tweezers or pointed plastic spludger to remove the tiny metal cover that holds the connector down.
2) As with all iPhone you have to very carefully pull out the tape that adheres the battery to the case. This is super tedious and if you break it you will have a really unpleasant time removing the battery.

So, in summary, it's like a 5 minute job for an expert to replace this battery; so best to let someone do it who knows what they are doing. But they should be able to do the replacement for less than $50USD with a large profit margin. The battery part only costs them around $15USD.

While the SE is plenty fast today; it would not surprise me if Apple decides not to support any further major iOS revisions on this generation phone. So iOS 15.x is likely the end of the line. This limits it's long term life, which is unfortunate.

You may find there is a decent market for selling the SE as well, since it is the most powerful iPhone that still has a headphone jack. It's quite popular for audiophiles for this reason. It's a great phone to keep around as a music streamer. A decent portable DAP (say from Fiio) can cost $500 to $1200; so you may find these iPhones with headphone jacks have an even higher resale value in the future. I find the DAC/AMP in the SE to be very good quality for normal impedance headphones; and far better than anything you would experience with wireless headphones.

 

[Reno Raines]

My current primary phone now is the iphone 13 mini. I have an old iphone SE that I used for many years before this and that was my primary iphone. I still like it as the size is very good. But battery is not good and people say do not upgrade IOS from IOS 14 to IOS 15 which is what everyone seem to say. Do most people agree with this? I had that IOS 15 software update showing for over a year or so and never upgraded it to that.



I bought this old IPhone SE brand new over 5 years ago. I remember the phone was so fast. I used to use an iphone 4s. I think it was after a year or so, the battery was getting a little bad. Then I think close to 2 years was when the battery got much worst. I remember I went to apple store when they had that promotion where they replace your battery for like 29 dollars or so? I'm sure many of you remember that?



The battery was very good for another year or so. I think when it was close to 1.5 years, is when the battery is bad. I don't believe I had the battery replaced in over 3 years. Now I'm using it as a backup phone. Is it worth it for me to get a battery replacement for it or not? Also I had considered maybe resetting it and starting it as brand new. Would you recommend that? Also if I were to reset it and wipe it without replacing the battery, would you say it would be good? At the moment it lags quite a bit but still usable. I heard once you upgrade it to IOS 15, you won't like it. If getting a new battery, does apple store do it? If so how much? Or it's not worth it? Again its a backup phone. What about buying the battery on ebay and do it yourself? However this is very hard for someone who isn't tech savy right? I would not want to open the iphone myself etc.

I too have an SE 1. I got a new battery put in it and I think it was worth the money. I don’t use it as a phone anymore but as an iPod touch when working out etc. I think if you still use it another battery may not be a bad idea.