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What It's Like Using an iPhone SE in 2019
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Because not everyone wants a giant phone. Have had my SE for 3 years and still love it to death. Hate using larger phones, i find them impracticable.
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Different people different pretences. The larger iPhones are not enjoyable for me as they are too big to be practical or comfortable to use.
Everyone loving the iPhone SE should sign this:
https://www.change.org/p/apple-bring-back-iphone-se-small-phones
https://www.change.org/p/apple-bring-back-iphone-se-small-phones
"It's not the size that counts, it's how you use it"
There you go.
The SE serves me well as a mobile communicator, and an occasional consumption device on the move. It is neither my only computer -- like many in here -- nor my primary computer, which I do rely on for serious work.
Wrapped with the best Apple aesthetic, devoid of the camera protrusion, holding an outstanding real-world battery life, and a 3.5mm headphone port that plugs directly to my vintage, classic-car radio. And, to add, provides the best price-performance among all the newer-generation iPhones.
So, what is there not to like?
There you go.
The SE serves me well as a mobile communicator, and an occasional consumption device on the move. It is neither my only computer -- like many in here -- nor my primary computer, which I do rely on for serious work.
Wrapped with the best Apple aesthetic, devoid of the camera protrusion, holding an outstanding real-world battery life, and a 3.5mm headphone port that plugs directly to my vintage, classic-car radio. And, to add, provides the best price-performance among all the newer-generation iPhones.
So, what is there not to like?
I have no problem being able to afford the larger high-end phones, and readily bought an XS for my daughter and an XR for my wife when they asked for them. But I continue to use an SE. It has nothing to do with affordability, and everything to do with quality and comfort.
Every time MacRumors posts a new story about the SE, plenty of us come here saying how much we love the SE, and how much we would love for Apple to build us a new SE-sized phone with the latest, greatest ("modern") internals.
Not going to happen. In any year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_SE/30
Possible with this logic:
"The new iPhone SE"
iPhone SE 2
iPhone SE/20
iPhone SE/12 Bionic
Look how far we've come from "System Expandable"
Personally I don’t like SE anymore as it is outdated for me but I know a bunch of people that complain about the size... they are expecting a smaller iPhone, handy and easy to hold. Some of them cannot understand Apple strategy about pulling out of market higher demand product. Some of them consider to switch to Android.
The SE is a nice phone. I used one up until June 2018. But as a developer, I'm not fond of these for one reason: the screen is too small in landscape. Not absolutely, mind you, but just relative to the keyboard.
I wouldn't mind seeing a new SE if it was fashioned off the iPhone X's design, adding more vertical space, but it's still going to be very constrained in landscape mode.
I don't know what a good solution is. I like small phones.
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This is throwing me for a loop. Did you mean SE or something else? Because the SE is nearly the lightest iPhone ever released.
To each and their own.
But I expect a bit less opinions in an article like this.
Looking forward to more reviews in this series.
Next up: What It's Like Using a Mac with a 5400-RRM Hard Drive in 2019.
Next up: What It's Like Using a Mac with a 5400-RRM Hard Drive in 2019.
You make it sound like the SE is from ten years ago haha. Several of my family are still using 6S's with no problems. Heck, I'm rocking an iPhone 5 with iOS 6. Does everything I want of it, though it could use some upgraded specs and a current browser.
I have relatively large hands and I find it far easier to type on than the larger iPhones, oddly enough. I love that screen size.
I like small displays...and small phones. I still have no problem with 3.5" displays, either.
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The SE is a very productive minimalistic phone. It is smart enough for different forms of communication while being too small for distractions (media consumption, games, and entertainment). It is one handed and very pocketable.
I wouldn't mind having a foldable iPhone SE.
Could someone provide me a source where Apple literally said the SE was “discontinued”? I’ve brought this up before, and obviously it seems supplies are dwindling and one can argue about the precise definition of ‘discontinued’, but articles all over the web keep stating it and I can’t ever see where this was made fact. I’m not saying it definitely isn’t I’m just asking to point me to where this was stated. Was it in a keynote? An official press release? A letter or email to a customer? An interview with an Apple executive?
It’s still supported by the latest version of iOS, it’s still (kind of) available to buy, Apple still lists it as “Available at authorized resellers” on their own website still, so...
Are we saying that it’s not being produced anymore and is therefore discontinued? Is that verifiable too?
MacRumors’ rules says you should be able to source factual statements (“Rules: Sources. If you claim that something's a fact, back it up with a source. If you can't produce evidence when someone asks you to cite your sources, we may remove your posts.”), so I am genuinely asking. Again...
When did Apple state or otherwise prove the iPhone SE is “discontinued” as the most recent device or as a product line which may or may not receive a refresh (either will do!).
It’s an open question to MacRumors or anyone else who can point me to good evidence, thanks.
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When Apple has screwed every last red cent it can from it's customers, then and only then when the world if fully saturated with smart phones will Apple supply to people what they want. At the moment though, a four inch phone would reduce sales of their more expensive phones, because for a lot of people a phone is just a phone.
LOL. Yeah, it acts like a poleaxed cow on a mid-2012 MBP sometimes under Mojave, allthough once it recovers from the effort to round up a list of files in a folder you open, for instance, it seems to hum along ok if you actually want to open one of them.
But that momentary whitespace in the file folder window just looks like "Uh, Wut?" and makes me laugh except when I'm in a hurry for the data. It's pathetically slow. Remember when 5400rpm was touted as a speedy drive? Time flies...
I have to ship my MPB out for kb replacement later this spring, I'm getting an SSD installed at the same time. The kb damage is on me, so might as well be in for a pound as a penny.
EDIT: but on topic: my SE still remains a favorite iPhone, even though I now use it as WiFi only.
I just went to the clearance site and bought another iPhone SE, because I don’t expect Apple ever to extract its metaphorical head from its metaphorical bum, and release the SE again. I shall never EVER EEVVVAAARRRR buy an iPhone without a headphone jack, or not in this form-factor.
PERIOD.
It’s why I bought that last one, as a backup for the backup for the backup to my current phone, before they disappear.
I don’t find it “old” or “slow” or “small”... I find it speedy compared to my iPhone 5S, capacious in contrast to the 16GB (really 11GB after the OS gobbles up over a quarter the alleged “capacity”) it had. The size is perfect, it has oodles of memory, it fits comfortably in my pocket, and I can generally one-hand it. Apple seems to have a seriously distorted view of what “old” is, and that distortion appears to have spread to MacRumors here.
PERIOD.
It’s why I bought that last one, as a backup for the backup for the backup to my current phone, before they disappear.
I don’t find it “old” or “slow” or “small”... I find it speedy compared to my iPhone 5S, capacious in contrast to the 16GB (really 11GB after the OS gobbles up over a quarter the alleged “capacity”) it had. The size is perfect, it has oodles of memory, it fits comfortably in my pocket, and I can generally one-hand it. Apple seems to have a seriously distorted view of what “old” is, and that distortion appears to have spread to MacRumors here.
For some people, including me, the 4” iPhone wasn’t about being a budget phone. If they fit the latest internals and slimmed down the bezels in a 5s/SE form factor, I would pay up to $899 for it. I don’t shoot professional video or photos, I watch videos but to me it doesn’t really make a difference whether I’m watching them on 4” or 5.8” display: it’s still a small screen so who cares.
However, the main reason I loved it was the one handed use. I live in a big city and move around in public transportation where I can’t usually sit down. Being able to use your phone one handed was a blessing. Reachability is just trying to address a problem that’s a side effect of phones becoming too big. It’s clumsy and still doesn’t often eliminate the need for a second hand.
However, the main reason I loved it was the one handed use. I live in a big city and move around in public transportation where I can’t usually sit down. Being able to use your phone one handed was a blessing. Reachability is just trying to address a problem that’s a side effect of phones becoming too big. It’s clumsy and still doesn’t often eliminate the need for a second hand.
Naah. Some of us that are female and actually DO have "smawl an' effeminate" hands like being able to dial with the same hand the device is being held with. Besides, have you ever dealt with the ugly reality of how stupidly small the front pockets in women's pants are? Christ on a cracker.. my SE *barely* fits in them.
Why should SE be a budget phone? I am like many willing to fork a tiny sum in exchange for a high end 5” phone. Utility value of a smaller phone cannot be diminished since 80% of my tasks are accomplished on SE; for the 20% I have an iPad. If Jobs were alive there would have been no bigfoots and quite possibly by now Apple would have invented a foldable phone to fit the 5” form factor.
I’m hoping to get something like 8 to 10 years of service from each of my now 4 iPhone SEs, which should last me, likely, for the rest of my life.
If I can’t make them last the rest of my life, and Apple doesn’t bring them back... well... I guess I’ll just have to die earlier.
Or switch to a different kind of phone.
Honestly after I had read some post in here tonight from someone who bought an annual prepaid plan and SIM for an SE (Mint Moble in CA?) I thought about looking into equivalents here because I've upgraded to an XR which I like very much for a lot of reasons, but most definitely not as a phone and not for carrying around as one outside.
I'm using the SE now as WiFi and every time I pick it up I think about reviving it as a phone. I'm not going to buy another carrier line and mess with my plan there, which has a discount carried forward year to year on no-contract now,,,, and I only use even the XR on WiFi calling since I live in a dead zone. So it would be an unjustifiable expense to bother with the SE as phone again, I suppose. But the heft and size of the XR make one handed use impossible and the thing doesn't sit in a jeans pocket. These are turning out to be bigger deals to me than I had even imagined.