Apple Store leaks 4.7-inch ‘iPhone SE’ name

https://9to5mac.com/2020/04/02/exclusive-iphone-9-launch-imminent-2020-iphone-se-in-red-white-and-black/

by Tomte • 6 years ago

121 110 6 years ago

dang• 6 years ago

Url changed from https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/2/21206497/iphone-se-9-name-..., which points to this.

drusepth2• 6 years ago

This looks potentially very interesting. I haven't been following leaks and the article doesn't mention: will this model sport a headphone jack?

sq_2• 6 years ago

Definitely interesting. I'm personally happy with my more recent iPhone, but I know a ton of people who wish their 6s would last forever because of the size and the headphone jack. I think most of them would upgrade if this were available at the mentioned $350-400 price range.

jlgaddis• 6 years ago

I've been holding on to my 6s and planned to as long as possible but, at that price point, I think I'd probably go ahead and upgrade to one of these.

drusepth2• 6 years ago

Yep, my wife's still on the 6S for that reason. I'd love to find her a new iPhone that fits her must-haves (a small screen and a headphone jack), but at this point it looks like she might end up with her first Android ever (probably the Pixel 4a, pending how the size shakes out).

Keeping an eye out though!

sinstein• 6 years ago

I upgraded from my 6s to X a year ago. Broke my X in the last few weeks and have been using the 6s again and it is such a delight to use such a handy phone.

I am planning now to get rid of the X and switch to the next small phone from Apple

agloeregrets2• 6 years ago

Notably, prepaid carriers will sell these locked for ~$200, those will move.

kylec• 6 years ago

Probably not. The iPhone SE is rumored to basically be an updated iPhone 8, which does not have a headphone jack. The iPhone 7 which preceded it did not have a headphone jack either.

That said, I wouldn't completely discount it as a possibility. If Apple removes 3D Touch that could give them some extra room, and Apple does still sell iPads and an iPod touch with a headphone jack, so it's conceivable they might decide to put one on the SE as well.

tgv• 6 years ago

The iPhone 8 comes with a cable to connect 3.5mm headphone jacks, but it takes the place of the power adapter.

JensRex• 6 years ago

extra room

That excuse as been thoroughly debunked, since Apple no longer includes a headphone port on iPads either. It was purely a financial move to sell their own wireless headphones, after they bought the "Beats by Dre" brand name.

diebeforei485• 6 years ago

Highly unlikely. The few people who still use 3.5mm headphones could purchase the $9 adapter from Apple.

battery_cowboy3• 6 years ago

Apple was planning to price the new model from $399

I've been wanting to get off "Google play services" and into a smaller, cheaper phone. I don't need the huge screen and tons of features like my Pixel 2 XL has, I just need a phone, messaging, maps, and sometimes the internet to pay bills and 400 bucks is a pretty good price for a few years of that vs. I think I paid 1200 for my Pixel 2 XL (and the same for my wife!). With this, I could get one for each of us and a spare for the same price as a single phone and lose the Google privacy-ending bullshit at the same time.

bebna• 6 years ago

U know that especially pixel phones can be unlocked[0] for alternative roms without google?

Alternatively you can debloat an android with a desktop thanks to adb, when you don't want to unlock and reset your phone for a new rom.

There are already enough open source alternatives to replace Google software from android phones. Even some who replace Google play services for the apps that need it, while only having minimal contact with Google servers.

Especially with your needs it is really easy to go Google free on the phone you already own. In any other place I would think you just don't know better, but here it just sounds like an excuse.

[0] https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-2-xl/how-to

f6v• 6 years ago

I guess some people want something that "just works".

pzmarzly• 6 years ago

I lived without Google Play Services on Android for 3 years before moving to iOS, and while it was a decent experience when all you need is a tiny computer (web browsing, videos via VLC and NewPipe), it lacked what one would expect of smartphone (no location services augmenting GPS, no mobile banking, most chat apps were broken in some way) and even „dumb” phones (the custom ROM I used had a bug where it often wouldn’t let me hear anything in an incoming call, probably something with VoLTE, but I don’t recall whether I ever fixed it). The iPhone is a complete opposite - multimedia and web browsing sucks, but GPS, permission model and Apple Pay are executed nicely.

throwaway9d02912• 6 years ago

I was in a similar position but after monitoring the traffic made by my iPhone, I ended up going back to Android (though not stock).

The problem isn't Apple, Apple is great when it comes to their stock apps. The problem is all the third party apps you end up installing. They just don't care about your privacy. Half of them will bundle "analytics" that you have no power to turn off and there isn't the same open-source community for iOS that there is for Android.

What I ended up with is an open-source ROM with MicroG (in my case a custom build of AOSP but LineageOS + NanoDroid, LineageOS for MicroG or Elementary OS all work) with open-source apps for most purposes.

This way the only proprietary code running as part of the OS is the device drivers. Everything else is open-source.

Practically, pretty much everything works except for in-app payments. Those will work if you install the modified Play Store that's distributed as part of NanoDroid but that means installing the Play Store as a privileged app, which brings you right back to the original problem.

As for apps, I mainly use Maps from F-Droid (open-source build of Maps.me), OsmAnd, FairEmail, Riot, Fennec, Slide for Reddit and Bitwarden. These are all open-source.

The main closed-source apps I have installed are the local public transportation app (I'm in a country with strong privacy protections, so I trust it), the government-provided weather app and the usual financial stuff.

At some point I'll install a firewall for those too.

I want to emphasise that I don't feel like I'm giving anything up with this setup. The only thing that doesn't really work is in-app payments. I'm using a Pixel phone so I can even sign the ROM with my own private key and lock the bootloader so that nothing else can be flashed.

jorvi2• 6 years ago

The biggest issue with going that way is that a lot of financial apps refuse to run on rooted and/or custom ROMs. Neither does Netflix.

friendly_fren• 6 years ago

Why would you buy a cheaper phone when you already have an older high-end one? You don't need to upgrade every few years.

xouse• 6 years ago

As far as cost goes, I paid $250 for my pixel 3xl in near mint condition. New phones lose so much value in their first year that you can buy them for a fraction of their retail value. I can keep it till it's no longer supported in oct 2021 and sell it and buy another great phone for $2-300 and repeat every 2ish years.

The premium on buying brand new phones is outrageous.

qzw• 6 years ago

The price point is nice, but my wife, who is holding on to her SE for dear life, will be disappointed in the increase in size. I still think if Apple had made an SE 2 with a 4.7" all-screen phone, which would be closer to the dimensions of the original SE, they would've made a lot of people very happy.

a012• 6 years ago

I like the idea of a all-screen 4.7" phone, or even 5" is maller than 99% of smart phones in the market (this is my vague estimation). It's because I can use the phone with 1 hand.

hbcondo714• 6 years ago

Ditto, the 4-inch form factor with the original SE was perfect for one-hand use. If they removed Touch ID and made the SE full screen, I would switch from Android to Apple in a heartbeat.

dep_b• 6 years ago

I've done some calculations and if it's true that the next iPhone X styled phone in September will be slightly smaller the rumored dimensions will be almost the same as the SE while being edge-to-edge. I'm holding on to my SE too waiting for this phone to drop.

reacharavindh• 6 years ago

Same here. The iPhone X design in iPhone SE size would be a dream device. One handed usability and fairly recent hardware would be just a lovely device I’d pay a fortune for and stay with for quite a few years!!

pentae2• 6 years ago

It's a shame they aren't making that size anymore, it was such a nice elegant size. But I'm sure they looked at the data and know that they'll sell even more of these with the 4.7" because for most people on a budget it's their primary computing device.

ido• 6 years ago

As a former SE user (used it for a couple years till the it was too bent/damaged to repair) my problem was that increasingly newer apps are made for larger phones & if you don't have a 20 year old's eyesight the screen is too small for comfort sometimes.

nemetroid2• 6 years ago

"Accept our cookies" popups taller than the screen (and with scrolling disabled), such that you can't press OK, are getting increasingly more common.

larzang• 6 years ago

Yeah I always thought the screen-size on my 5 was perfect, but a week after buying an XR I fully came around to living with a large phone. It really was just a massively better experience.

I would have bought an updated SE if they had been available at the time, but I don't regret the XR purchase.

kick• 6 years ago

You can turn the font size up across the board on iOS. It probably won't help you now, but I figure it's worth stating for anyone else who may have one in this thread.

vbezhenar• 6 years ago

I'd prefer 3.5" like iPhone 4S. It was perfect size. Nowadays it's almost impossible to find even Android phone of this size with good hardware and quality.

captn3m02• 6 years ago

I went down this road, trying to look for an alternative to my SE with one hard goal: Support Guarantee (The SE was released in 2016 and is still supported).

I looked at _all of the Android One_ devices, which have guaranteed EoL timelines, and the smallest device was still 5+". The smallest was Sharp S3 at 5", but only available in Japan (and released in 2018). The smallest 2019 Android One global release was the Nokia 2.2 at 5.71". There has only been one release in 2020 (Nokia 8.3 - 6.81").

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_One#Products_by_year_o...

coldpie2• 6 years ago

It's not "almost impossible," it is impossible. The only decent Android phones on the market are 5.5+".

nemetroid2• 6 years ago

I use a SE privately and have an iPhone 7 for work. This seems like a "least bad" option if my SE were to break, but not much more.

OwnsE• 6 years ago

I'm mostly excited for the product pages as Apple has some good ones

corentin88• 6 years ago

Based on the new information 9to5Mac has learned, Apple will simply call the new entry-level model “iPhone SE” while referencing the new hardware as the 2020 version.

Sounds like an April fool’s to me

moltar• 6 years ago

I want the original SE form factor dammit

gentleman11• 6 years ago

I wish companies would use descriptive names for their products. The iPhone X/XR/SR/SE lineup names are just gibberish

rimliu• 6 years ago

Can you provide examples of such names?

soylentgraham• 6 years ago

Galaxy edge

Rerarom• 6 years ago

I suppose you didn't enjoy 2002-2004 when almost all phones were like that

alpaca128• 6 years ago

It feels like Apple product naming gets closer and closer to the confusion known from other manufacturers. Back then it was just the iPhone with an incrementing number afterwards. Now we get 2 different iPhone generations(8 and X) launched at the same time with a gap inbetween, and additional letter combinations afterwards with unknown meanings. What does XR mean and what XS? No idea, but those two letters cost extra.

grandinj• 6 years ago

Without a strong design person at the top to push against this, marketing loves to comes up with these things. For some reason, they really dislike the simplicity of simple numbering. Probably because it doesn't give them any scope to do much.

s1t52• 6 years ago

Back then it was just the iPhone with an incrementing number afterwards.

I just had to look this up - the only actual increment in version numbers was iPhone 8 following iPhone 7. And even that counts just barely considering that they released iPhone X a month after 8.

I agree with your feeling on the confusing product line though - it mostly comes from very similar models being released at the same time which wasn't the case in the past.

agloeregrets2• 6 years ago

Well yes. That’s why they make the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro...the X was supposed to be “ten” but that just got turned into X, so that didn’t help. But the SE is just they capitalizing on a successful prior model that people liked.

pentae2• 6 years ago

I agree. If I was running the marketing department i'd name this upcoming SE the "iPhone Classic"

yodsanklai3• 6 years ago

I'd really like to have a smaller phone but the lack of a second sim in iphone is a deal breaker. I don't know how iphone users do when they travel to foreign countries. One particular use case that I have is: get 4g from my foreign sim, and get authentication codes from my bank from my home sim to validate some purchase.

spinningarrow• 6 years ago

The higher-end models do support eSIM though and a lot of carriers seem to be adding support for this. It’s not quite as convenient as being able to swap out two physical SIMs but for traveling it could work to have your primary ‘home’ SIM as an eSIM that’s always there and the travel SIM as a physical one.

ValentineC• 6 years ago

The higher-end models do support eSIM though and a lot of carriers seem to be adding support for this.

Apple's website has a list of carriers that support eSIM: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209096

From what I'm seeing, it's mostly the primary carriers and "travel data" providers that are adding support for eSIM. If someone is on a MVNO for daily use (I am), they might be out of luck.

gurkendoktor• 6 years ago

It's even worse if you use iMessage. If you take out your usual SIM card to replace it with a foreign one, people can't iMessage you anymore, unless they use your Apple ID (email address) for it. Other apps like WhatsApp have an option to keep using the previous number even in the absence of the SIM card.

h4waii• 6 years ago

This shouldn't happen unless you intentionally switch your account over, which might happen due to Apple's persistent nagging with the red bubbles on iCloud and iMessage settings suggesting you to.

bhaak• 6 years ago

I don't know how iphone users do when they travel to foreign countries

The snarky answer is "Americans and Japanese don't leave their country and Europeans have essentially free roaming in Europe."

But I can buy roaming packages for almost every country in the world from my provider. That's what I do now instead of getting a SIM from the country I travel to. I used to do that but it was too much of a hassle for the handful of weeks per year I might be abroad.

Another option is to use one of your old phones with a local SIM.

evgen• 6 years ago

This is completely the right answer. Another factor to consider is that while there used to be a time when a tourist or business traveler might have needed to place (or receive) a POTS call for a local hotel or restaurant it is now possible to replace most of these interactions with web pages you can hit from your mobile device or messaging systems like WhatsApp or WeChat.

yodsanklai3• 6 years ago

I can buy roaming packages for almost every country in the world from my provider.

At least for me (european), roaming packages are much more expensive than local sims. Nowadays, I just get a $10 to $50 sim at the airport right after exiting the plane, and that covers all my need for a few weeks. A few years ago, I thought dual sim was a gadget, but I couldn't do without now .

plorkyeran• 6 years ago

My $50/month T-mobile plan comes with free unlimited international data in most of the world, so I just don't bother with getting a local plan while traveling any more.

yodsanklai3• 6 years ago

I see. Here in Europe, my monthly plan is much cheaper (about 10 euros a month), but international plans are more expensive, so it makes sense to get a cheap local sim when traveling outside Europe.

jventura• 6 years ago

I guess it will sell well although I still prefer my 5S's (or the current SE) size..

zelos• 6 years ago

I've been clinging onto my SE, but I think I'm grudgingly accepting that the form factor is too small. Maybe I'm just getting old and need things bigger so I can see them.

prvc• 6 years ago

It only seems that way because currently, everything is designed for a larger screen size.

poarneemn123• 6 years ago

Nice, time to say goodbye to Google

limograf• 6 years ago

Oooh. I might actually buy an iPhone from Apple this year instead of from the used stock of random phone companies. I think giffgaff is only down to third class condition SEs so this is good news! My hands are just too little for the new phones.

Google maps is fairly unusable on the SE because they've covered the actual map with so much junk you can't see where you are or where you're going, but everything else works fine for me. And there are other maps. That's honestly the only app I can think of that is properly broken. I'm probably the phone equivalent of the recalcitrant IE user but I'm sticking with the small size phone for as long as pos!

dijit4• 6 years ago

There are two markets I see:

1) 4" phone users who have no viable option, even in Android-land.

2) Price sensitive users who want something to get them in to the eco-system.

Apples problem is conflating the latter with the former, they see iPhone SE sales booming and consider that it must be because they need a good entry level low cost phone, then the iPhone 8 and iPhone XR comes out to lackluster sales[0][1].

So they re-release the iPhone SE and sales boom again[2].

Apple, I don't care what it costs, I do not want a phone that is not operable with one hand. I'm a guy (with relatively petite hands) but I can't imagine how it is for girls. The idea that I have to stop what I'm doing to interact with my phone (putting coffee down or whatever) is stupid.

Technology is a tool it does not need to engulf my life, it should be able to be as discrete as needed.

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bensin/2017/10/23/why-is-anyone...

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2019/01/09/apple-iph...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19479636

graeme2• 6 years ago

You’re missing how the SE was created: it’s a relic of old supply chain parts, now sold at a cheaper price. The original SE was a rehash of the 5/5S casing, with 6S internals.

It wasn’t mace because of any particular belief about size. 5/5S was just the old phone. It was easy to continue that size for a while, but probably hard now without a market.

The new SE is the same story: old iphone 8 casing, iphone 11 components. Easy to make from supply chain detritus, so why not make it?

But, you might be interested in the rumours of a small iphone 12 this year. It sounds like Apple has been listening to small phone advocates, and appears to actually be making them.

But that will be a new phone. The SE style phone’s type is instead dictated by whatever was current 2-3 years ago.

dijit4• 6 years ago

Yeah, I'm not blind to the fact that the form factor was dictated by the spare parts and manufacturing process investment for older phones; I'm really not denying that at all.

I'm just indicating that some people are buying the SE not because it's cheap, but because it's the best (or only) option for a 4" high end phone, and while I can't quantify the proportions of price-sensitive vs. size-sensitive; my anecdotal evidence that it's more size-sensitive than price-sensitive. At least in the circles I travel in.

But, you might be interested in the rumours of a small iphone 12 this year. It sounds like Apple has been listening to small phone advocates, and appears to actually be making them.

There's always something on the horizon which never seems to materialise, the iPhone 11 [Pro] was supposed to be small, then the SE2 rumours which are now bunked. At some point soon I'll just go all-in on an iPad Pro or some other tablet and interface with it very sparingly, via headphones and the watch.

coldpie2• 6 years ago

There are two markets I see:
1) 4" phone users who have no viable option, even in Android-land.

Yessssss. I have a Pixel 3A, the smallest decent Android phone on the market, and it is waaaay too huge, so I'm really excited about this release. While I've been on Android for over a decade, I'm willing to switch if it means I can use my phone one-handed again. But more importantly, maybe this release will convince the Android copycats to make a human-hand-sized phone so I don't even have to switch. I figure I'll give it 6 months and, if no one has announced smaller Android phones, I'll just switch to iPhone. I'm done with phablets.

barbs• 6 years ago

I don't think this release is what you're after - it's 4.7 inches, not 4 inches.

I'm an Android developer and generally prefer Android as an operating system, but I switched to a 128gb iPhone SE a year ago and still love the phone. I can still recommend that model if you find one second-hand.

dade_2• 6 years ago

If size wasn’t the issue, I would probably have the biggest monster iPhone today. For the SE form factor (maybe reduce the top and bottom bezel for some more screen size) and USB C (because lightning in 2020 is insulting) I’d switch back from Android for nearly any price. SE was my last iPhone. Also, a headphone jack would be nice, but I’d live without.

auiya2• 6 years ago

I'm in the former camp. I'd pay $6-800 easily for a properly small, one-handed device that runs iOS. The fact that it's cheap is just a bonus for me.

thanatropism• 6 years ago

I'm going to switch to Android because (a) I'm kind of priced out at this point and (b) I'm a nice headphones kind of guy and want my damn 3.5mm jack.

BossingAround• 6 years ago

Sadly, a lot of Android phones are dropping 3.5mm jack too.

hamilyon2• 6 years ago

Xperia XZ2 compact is small enough and powerful enough to be considered as iPhone SE replacement

dijit4• 6 years ago

Sadly that is already multiple years old (2, at this point) which makes it only 1 year younger than the iPhone SE (And the SE is actually more powerful based on benchmarks).

I don't want to go into "who supports hardware longer" or "how long phones last" but I don't think this is a true successor.

Ghjklov• 6 years ago

I have one. It's kind of heavy for its size though and slippery due to the rounded edges. The touch display is not the best in terms of responsiveness.

Plus for someone considering an iPhone SE, the XZ2 doesn't have iOS.

One thing I'll note though: Surprisingly my XZ2 did get the full upgrade to Android 10 from Android 9. So that's pretty great considering it's 2 years old.

pseudalopex• 6 years ago

It's only slightly smaller and 50% thicker than an iPhone 8.

Shivetya• 6 years ago

well I have been considering buying my parents the Apple Watch, however this requires an iPhone to pair with even if you just have watch without cellular connectivity. An iPad will not work.

So a low entry priced phone pair up would make it more palatable to me if not others.

dijit4• 6 years ago

Wow, you're right[0].

I guess that means I wont be continuing with the apple eco-system as the phones are simply too unpalatable at this point, as soon as the SE is out of support I'll have to find an alternative. That's distressing.

[0] https://www.businessinsider.com/does-apple-watch-work-with-i...

ajconway• 6 years ago

but I can't imagine how it is for girls

Girls love their large phones, they are easy to type on, and visual content consumption is much more comfortable.

ksec• 6 years ago

For anyone who has been following Apple closely, we should know [0] and [1] are simply false. ( Most if not all of those mainstream media are wrong every time with Apple I dont know where to start ) Not to mention they are not "entry level low cost phone". It is the same narrative every year. Apart from the trade war in 1 quarter every iPhone release has been within Apple's guidance, and more.

The truth is Apple may know better than most of us. Out of the small group of user who bought iPhone SE, most of them bought it for its price and not its size. If there was indeed a market for smaller smartphone, you could bet Android would have at least a few selection. But there are none. Zero. Even the king of SKUs Samsung doesn't ship a single small Android phone just proves the market is simply not there. Or at least for the Android targeted market.

Truth to be told, As much as I love to have an updated iPhone SE, if it was priced the same as the iPhone 4.7" where everything else being equal, I would likely have pick the the 4.7" just to be safe. Basically it comes down to market want cheap AND small, not cheap OR small.

Another point worth mentioning, Once Apple perfected the All Screen narrow bezel OLED manufacturing to the point it becomes a commodity, the 4.7" Screen Size ( With 19.5 : 9 Ratio ) will be exactly the same as the iPhone SE 4" Size.

nicwolff• 6 years ago

Look, I have an iPhone 11 Pro, I just don't want to carry the fucking thing around. So I have an iPhone SE which is what's in my pocket unless I know I'll want a really good camera. And I tried to find a digital camera as good as the 11 Pro's for less than $1000!

I have an iPod Touch too, which is what I use around the house. It's the iPhone SE only half as thick and no cellular or Touch ID. Until I got the refurbished SE I was carrying the iPod Touch and a Verizon MiFi around – still more convenient than the 11 Pro!

tantalor• 6 years ago

Nowhere does this article say "4.7-inch"

HumblyTossed• 6 years ago

No, but everyone is pretty sure it will be that size.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/2/21206497/iphone-se-9-name-...

stephc_int13• 6 years ago

I don't care about the price, I won't buy a new iOS devices until I can use it with one hand. And I care more about the headphone jack than the waterproof feature.

AnonC• 6 years ago

The headphone jack is not coming back to iPhones, ever. Apple is quite focused (stubborn?) on such changes, forging a future and sticking to it (almost all the time).

imagetic• 6 years ago

I love my iPhone SE. I'd buy two to horde them if that was an option. Not particularly excited about having to move up a size.

OrangeMango• 6 years ago

My wife prefers the SE as well, and I got a couple spares by offering whatever the trade-in value was plus $10 or $20 for great condition phones.

You might be able to still find some and at this point they'll only cost you $50 or less.

kdtsh• 6 years ago

Ill keep my SE until Apple stops supporting it (which I believe it’s supposed to once iOS 14 comes out), and at that point this new device looks like the natural progression unless I can find a modern iPhone which is cheaper.

I like the size of the SE a lot, but it’s still an anomaly today - e.g. when I play my Switch, I go back to my phone and it feels weirdly small. I’ll get used to having a bigger phone. I won’t get used to buying a phone which is more expensive than my computer though, so whether I end up getting an SE 2 really just depends on if I can find a cheaper refurbished XR/XS.

Ive got a pretty hard price limit on devices which has been drilled into me. There’s no way I can see myself spending more than $1000 on a computer or $500 on a phone. This means I end up with a 2-3 year old refurbished model most of the time, but that’s been working out fine for me for years now, so I’ll keep at it until I’ve got a good reason to change my behaviour.

rusk• 6 years ago

This is up on the apple web site now https://www.apple.com/ie/iphone/compare/

Apple Store leaks 4.7-inch ‘iPhone SE’ name

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