iPhone SE

[poofyhairguy]

Everything says this is a 6S in the 5s form factor without 3D Touch. Makes me wanna trade my 6+ for it. It's too big. You think VZW will give me $500 for a 128gb 6+?��

Swappa will.

 

[theeedude]

Meh. Old phone with a tiny 640p screen and new CPU shoehorned in.

 

[dawheat]

Smart play by Apple, but not particularly exciting. They already sell a surprising number of 4" iPhones today and while they will see a bump in sales, I'm not sure I buy that there is going to be a sustained sales increase for this form factor or a large number of people going back down from a 6/6S.

I think it'll be jarring for many who *think* they want to go back to 4" but then realize how much screen they lose. It's one thing when you've never used anything else, very different after you're gotten acclimatized to a larger screen.

At $399 however, they are probably taking a bit of a hit to their margins, though with the 16/64 setup their overall margins are probably fine since most will be forced to go 64GB.

To me the biggest take away is that even Apple is forced to go back to the well to keep sales growth going for smartphones. With saturation, companies will increasingly be forced to go after niches to gain incremental sales. If this prompts an Android OEM besides Sony to release a 4.6" flagship (somewhere between the size of the 6S and 5SE), so much the better.

 

[theeedude]

I am guessing their margins will be fine in percentage terms, since outdated components are cheaper to make. But in dollar terms, every iPhone 6s sale cannibalized by SE will be $250+ lost in revenue.

I still think used 5S for sub $150 is a better buy on iOS side. 4" screen is going to suck regardless of what CPU you stick in there.

On Android side, here is what $400 got me last year:
-Galaxy S6 (32GB + best screen in the business)
-Samsung Wireless charger from B&H
-Samsung External battery from B&H
-Samsung bumper case from B&H
-Level on ear headphones (nice) from Samsung offer
-2nd Samsung wireless charger from Samsung offer
-2nd Samsung external battery from Samsung offer
Did not get the $50 Samsung Pay rebate that I was supposed to get, but still, that's quite a haul compared to getting a 4 year old design tiny screen phone for same price.

 

[vi edit]

Has there been anything confirmed on the SE being 1GB or 2GB of RAM?

 

[Mopetar]

Someone posted earlier that AT has stated 2 GB of RAM.

anandtech says its 2GB LPDDR4 (same as 6S).

http://anandtech.com/show/10170/apple-announces-iphone-se

"The iPhone SE is a substantial upgrade to the iPhone 5s. Starting with the internal hardware, we see that the SoC moves from the Apple A7 SoC to Apple's A9. Going by Apple's numbers, the iPhone SE's CPU performance is reported to be 2x higher than the iPhone 5s, and the GPU performance is roughly 2.85x higher. The amount of RAM has increased to 2GB as well as from LPDDR3 to LPDDR4, which is definitely needed with the increase in RAM pressure on iOS over the last few years."

 

[vi edit]

In the crosswalk grid it still says "unknown" under the RAM section for the SE. So it's still not certain.

 

[Rakehellion]

Wow, so much hype for just a small phone that looks exactly like an older iPhone.

You only care about how it looks?

 

[linkgoron]

In the crosswalk grid it still says "unknown" under the RAM section for the SE. So it's still not certain.

It had 2GB earlier.

BTW - if the phone only has 1GB instead of 2GB then I take back my earlier statement.

 

[Rakehellion]

I don't think it says anything about force touch other than they only offer it on premium devices.

I'm pretty sure Force Touch requires the special glass only offered in the 6 and above. Regular LCDs don't like it when you press forcibly on them.

 

[Rakehellion]

This sort of fragments the app ecosystem though. Really limits how you can use as a developer. By not including it in the cheapest SKU they are telling developers that it is not a feature you can design an app around.

You can, but the app will require a 6s.

It also isn't on the iPhone 6 or any iPad model.

 

[Rakehellion]

Exactly.

On the flipside if this thing really has 2GB of RAM that is going to put the 2014 iPhones in the ground that much faster because developers will start to target having 2GB of RAM.

Also it's kind of weird that the low-end phone is now better than the iPhone 6.

 

[Rakehellion]

BTW, why are Apple's phones so BIG?

The 4" iphone SE is 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm, while the 4.6" sony z5c is 127 x 65 x 8.9 mm. They're almost the same size, while the z5c has an iphone 6s sized screen.

Note that while the z5c is a bit thicker, it also has a significantly larger battery - 2700mAh vs 1652mAh.

So it's slightly bigger and has a slightly bigger screen. Sounds about right.

 

[casiofx]

I am guessing their margins will be fine in percentage terms, since outdated components are cheaper to make. But in dollar terms, every iPhone 6s sale cannibalized by SE will be $250+ lost in revenue.

I still think used 5S for sub $150 is a better buy on iOS side. 4" screen is going to suck regardless of what CPU you stick in there.

On Android side, here is what $400 got me last year:
-Galaxy S6 (32GB + best screen in the business)
-Samsung Wireless charger from B&H
-Samsung External battery from B&H
-Samsung bumper case from B&H
-Level on ear headphones (nice) from Samsung offer
-2nd Samsung wireless charger from Samsung offer
-2nd Samsung external battery from Samsung offer
Did not get the $50 Samsung Pay rebate that I was supposed to get, but still, that's quite a haul compared to getting a 4 year old design tiny screen phone for same price.

Samsung? No thanks.
Hated the amoled screen, the glare from the light emitting diode directly to the eye without another layer hurts, unlike traditional lcd.

Second, hated the poor software update supports even when the phone i had before is the flagship.

Saying from past experience of owning 3 samsung phones. Never again.

 

[theeedude]

You are in minority there on the screen. I absolutely hate using my wife iPhone 5S after using S6. Dull tiny screen that belongs in an antique store.

 

[Rakehellion]

You are in minority there on the screen. I absolutely hate using my wife iPhone 5S after using S6. Dull tiny screen that belongs in an antique store.

The 5s is two years old now. There are newer screens.

 

[theeedude]

The 5s is two years old now. There are newer screens.

SE is going to get same old 640p LCD from whoever gives it to Apple cheapest.

 

[Arachnotronic]

SE is going to get same old 640p LCD from whoever gives it to Apple cheapest.

Apple displays are generally sourced from LG Display, Japan Display, and Sharp.

 

[Bryf50]

Hated the amoled screen, the glare from the light emitting diode directly to the eye without another layer hurts, unlike traditional lcd.

Lol what?

 

[casiofx]

Lol what?

You want layman's term?

Hurts my eye especially in the night, felt like looking at the lamp.

Traditional LCD have a layer of LCD between the light source and the user.

AMOLED has a layer of tiny leds directly illuminate to the user without a layer of LCD, since the individual leds can form the image unlike light source of lcd (led or ccfl)

 

[theeedude]

Apple displays are generally sourced from LG Display, Japan Display, and Sharp.

And you think they are going to start a new line of LCDs for the SE or just keep shipping 5S screens?
Apple is not going for best phone in this form factor. If they were, they would have started over with the design and fit at least a 4.3" screen with less bezel in there.
Apple is going for a phone that is cheap enough to grab some additional customers at the $400 price point without being good enough that someone considering a 6S would say SE is good enough. Those are some tight constraints there in terms of ceiling on both price and value.
It's the phone equivalent of the original VW Beetle that was made for like 70 years.

 

[theeedude]

You want layman's term?

Hurts my eye especially in the night, felt like looking at the lamp.

Traditional LCD have a layer of LCD between the light source and the user.

AMOLED has a layer of tiny leds directly illuminate to the user without a layer of LCD, since the individual leds can form the image unlike light source of lcd (led or ccfl)

I guess you are one of the few people who prefers less contrast and washed out black levels. You could probably emulate it on an AMOLED screen by rendering dark gray instead of black. Maybe Samsung should offer an LCD fanboy video setting.

 

[nerp]

Game changer.

Not.

(Posted near my iPhone 6s).

 

[Bryf50]

You want layman's term?

Hurts my eye especially in the night, felt like looking at the lamp.

Traditional LCD have a layer of LCD between the light source and the user.

AMOLED has a layer of tiny leds directly illuminate to the user without a layer of LCD, since the individual leds can form the image unlike light source of lcd (led or ccfl)

Light is light. I'm failing to see where this layer of LCD prevents the light from glaring off your eyeballs or something. It sounds like you should've just turned the brightness down.

 

[linkgoron]

So it's slightly bigger and has a slightly bigger screen. Sounds about right.

did you look at the ratios? It is not "about right".

The iPhone se has a 60.8% screen-to-body ratio while the z5c has a 68.9% screen-to-body ratio. For reference the 6s has a 65.6% screen-to-body ratio and has a virtually identical screen with the z5c.

The 6s is 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm vs 127 x 65 x 8.9 mm for the z5c vs 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 for the SE while the screen sizes are 4.7" ,4.6" and 4" respectively (Note the height differences).

EDIT:
You can see the difference here:
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/si...Sony-Xperia-Z5-Compact/phones/10001,9611,9501
The z5c and the iphone 6s basically have the same screen, while the z5c is much closer in size to the iPhone SE.