My work bought me an "upgrade" to the XR, as my SE is starting to show some battery issues. But after a day of playing with the XR, I put it back in the box to send back to Apple.
Compared to the SE, the XR is 50% heavier -- even without a case. It doesn't have a good edge to hold onto being so thin, so it makes you want to hold on by the front. But every corner of the front of the device is a UI element that you can accidentally interact with. FaceID failed 90% of of the time for me -- and unlike the fingerprint reader, 100% of the time in the dark of night. That's before I get to the simple annoyances, like how it's not flat, doesn't fit in the pocket so well, and blasts my face full of light in the night.
So Apple lost a sale by not offering a product I want. If my SE breaks, I'll probably just pull my iPhone 1 out of storage -- it still works, has a great form factor, and a much lighter weight than any of Apple's current lineup. Sure EDGE is a little slow and I won't be able to use my Apple Pay, but those are problems I can live with. I live on large screens all day. I don't need a huge phone to be my computer.
I want a choice -- even if that choice is a remanufacture of a 2016 design. An updated design -- say an SE/30 -- would be great. But between that and the keyboard issues in the Macbooks, they've made an Apple fan with upgrades provided by work skip several product cycles. I read enough of these threads to know I'm not the only one. I just wish I knew why they kept leaving money on the table in the pursuit of thinness.
> If my SE breaks, I'll probably just pull my iPhone 1 out of storage
Fix it? The guides (and tools) from ifixit are great, screen will take a couple hours at most if you don't have shaky hands. Battery isn't too hard of a swap either.
If it's a screen, working pulls are like $30 from ebay. I don't recommend the aftermarket ones as the colors skew cold. My girlfriend's on her third SE screen now (we don't like cases) and it's still way cheaper than buying a replacement phone.
Nationally it's only used by T-Mobile in very small amounts of spectrum, and only as fallback of last resort or for legacy things like burglar alarms. Regionally, there might be some rural specialty carriers using it (stuff like indigo wireless for the mining industry).
AT&T shut their footprint off completely a few years ago to free up spectrum in 850mhz.
My SE started overheating in May and wasn't reparable. The genius tried to sell me on a bigger, newer phone, but I declined. Before I walked out he offered me a brand new SE from the stock room for (I think) $270. Just insist that you're interested in nothing but an SE.
Hoping the new one lasts until they come out with a proper replacement. I don't care if the CPU, camera, etc. are 2-3 generations behind. There's nothing I use the phone for that the SE can't handle just fine.
> I'll probably just pull my iPhone 1 out of storage -- it still works
The phone may still be functional, and the iPhone may be smarter, but I recently pulled out a flip phone from that era and it couldn't connect to any nearby cell towers. It was too out-of-date.
> My work bought me an "upgrade" to the XR, as my SE is starting to show some battery issues.
I got my 5S's battery replaced super cheap literally downstairs from my apartment. I suspect I might end up doing that again, though a potential lack of security upgrades might make me itchy.
Compared to the SE, the XR is 50% heavier -- even without a case. It doesn't have a good edge to hold onto being so thin, so it makes you want to hold on by the front. But every corner of the front of the device is a UI element that you can accidentally interact with. FaceID failed 90% of of the time for me -- and unlike the fingerprint reader, 100% of the time in the dark of night. That's before I get to the simple annoyances, like how it's not flat, doesn't fit in the pocket so well, and blasts my face full of light in the night.
So Apple lost a sale by not offering a product I want. If my SE breaks, I'll probably just pull my iPhone 1 out of storage -- it still works, has a great form factor, and a much lighter weight than any of Apple's current lineup. Sure EDGE is a little slow and I won't be able to use my Apple Pay, but those are problems I can live with. I live on large screens all day. I don't need a huge phone to be my computer.
I want a choice -- even if that choice is a remanufacture of a 2016 design. An updated design -- say an SE/30 -- would be great. But between that and the keyboard issues in the Macbooks, they've made an Apple fan with upgrades provided by work skip several product cycles. I read enough of these threads to know I'm not the only one. I just wish I knew why they kept leaving money on the table in the pursuit of thinness.