iPhone SE - Are There Any Obvious Reason NOT to Buy One RightNow?

[Jimbo]

I'll be getting my first smart phone soon as I'm cord cutting and dumping everything other than Internet. This will be my first cellphone since 2001.
I'll keep the thing until it breaks or unless a killer app comes around that demands that I upgrade.

I don't like the 6S and it seems that the iPhone 7 will have not much really new and I like the smaller form factor, so is there any reason to wait until the Apple announcement happens in September for the 7 (lower price maybe for the SE?) or can I buy with confidence now? I don't expect that the SE will be updated in September.

I want to stay with the Apple ecosystem as I have a few hundred dollars invested in mathematical apps on my iPad that I don't want to throw away by going Android.

Am I overlooking any obvious signs to wait?

 

[swanysto]

I can't imagine they would drop the price tag on it, it is already pretty low for a smart phone. It only came out a few months ago, so I don't think you will see an upgrade for it in the next couple months either. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Jimbo]

That seems like a Go.
I'll drop the hammer tomorrow.

 

[ControlD]

I had the same thoughts this past weekend, but we went ahead and bought one for my daughter anyhow. It seems like a decent little phone.

 

[Kazukian]

So hard to tell what Apple is planning unless they're doing the controlled leak thing. I'd say it's a safe bet for some time, and am guessing it's a product they won't update unless there's a good reason for them to do so.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm pretty much in agreement with everyone here, and now I have my iPhone SE right next to me safe inside its Otter Box and ballistic glass screen protector.

I'm now wondering if I shouldn't have gotten a bigger phone.

 

[lxskllr]

Before I got my first smartphone, I thought I wanted a small phone. I got the GS5, which was on the top of my size range. Turns out, that's just about perfect. It's a good balance between usability, and protectability in the field. I wouldn't want to go much bigger or smaller. My boss's iphone5 looks like a toy in comparison, and I wouldn't enjoy using it.

 

[Deeko]

I have the iPhone SE and I'm happy with it. I love the size, and the performance is great. I have a hard time seeing Apple releasing a new one so soon or dropping the price, so if you're in the market for a small sized phone at a good price, I can't see why you wouldn't buy it, no - unless you want the Sony Z5 Compact, which I also have, and is also excellent.

 

[Jimbo]

Follow up / aftermath...
I'm generally happy with it but I wished I had gotten a bigger phone.
As a smartphone, it's great, but my bigger than average hands make me wished that I got the 6s.
A 6s in an Otterbox Commuter case doesn't have the slippery bar of soap feel that an unprotected phone has.
Too hard for me to type and the web browsing is good, but not suitable for reading much.
I might trade it in for a 7, if the reviews are good.

The glass screen covers just beat the hell out of the plastic ones.
I'll be using those for forever on any phone I buy in the future, and the Otterbox Commuter just rules. Perfect!

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[Eug]

I have the iPhone 5S, which is the father of the SE. The phone works fine and the size is more suited for my small hands, but I find that some sites are designing their sites these days to suit larger screens more. It has to do with layout, font size choices, size of multimedia elements, and even whether or not you can zoom. If you have perfect eyes like a teenager, then it's often OK, but for older (but not old) eyes like mine, it becomes a problem.

I spoke with a web designer friend about this and he still designs for compatibility for even 3.5" phones but agrees that emphasis these days is on phones with more screen real estate, and some web designers even just completely ignore smaller phones. I suspect that's just because it's easier to do so, and they may not even have 3.5" to 4" phones to test with anyway.

So, to make a long story short, instead of getting an SE to replace my 5S, I ordered a 7 Plus instead. This will be impossible for me to use one-handed, which makes me wonder if I should have ordered a smaller one instead, the 7. However, the uninspiring specs of the 7 made it easy. The 7 Plus is just so much better than the 7 that it was a no-brainer. Especially important to me are the extra GB of RAM and the better camera, but the better battery life is also very nice.

Note though that they did drop the price of the iPhone SE last week. The base model 16 GB is still $399 in the US, but they dropped the 64 GB down to $449. So, as of September there essentially is no point in even considering the 16 GB model. The SE line now consists of only one viable option IMO, which is the 64 GB model for $449.

 

[lopri]

If you can deal with the screen size then I don't see why not.