iPhone SE

[raghu78]

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

Pleasantly surprised with the $399 price point for the entry level iPhone SE SKU which is even lower than the $449 of the 5S which has been discontinued. The iPhone SE literally packs all the goodness of iPhone 6S except

http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/

1. No 3D Touch.
2. 1.2MP front facing camera with f2.4 aperture (5MP on 6S with f2.2 aperture)
3. First generation Touch ID (2nd gen Touch ID on 6S).
4. LTE (LTE-Advanced on 6S).

Nonetheless impressive to see a device so powerful at a USD 400 price point especially from Apple. The best part is it has significantly better battery life than 6S as it retains the 5S model's exterior design which is 7.6 mm thick (vs 7.1 mm for 6s) and has a smaller 4 inch display to power (vs 4.7 inch on 6S).

 

[ChronoReverse]

It's going sell like hotcakes. Price is the biggest driver and this phone is a very good phone even before that.

 

[gorcorps]

Isn't this just another attempt at the 5C?

 

[KeithP]

Pleasantly surprised with the $399 price point for the entry level iPhone SE SKU which is even lower than the $449 of the 5S which has been discontinued. The iPhone SE literally packs all the goodness of iPhone 6S except

Doesn't the SE also only come with 1GB of RAM vs 2GB for the 6s?

-KeithP

 

[paperwastage]

Isn't this just another attempt at the 5C?

yes

but Apple says they sold 30 million 4" iPhones last year

and they'll get a lot more with an updated (and cheap) 4" iPhone

 

[raghu78]

Isn't this just another attempt at the 5C?

I disagree. iPhone SE is a true replacement to iPhone 5S. In fact I think the price is so good that it will take market share from the mid-range Android phones and cannibalize a little bit of iPhone 6S sales too.

Frankly I think getting a iPhone SE 64 GB for USD 499 is a much better decision than getting a 16 GB iPhone 6S for USD 649. 16GB is just too less in this day and age. Packing the phones with 12MP cameras which do 4K video recording and then giving 16GB of storage is a joke. Anyway I think this phone is going to be a hot seller. :thumbsup:

 

[raghu78]

Doesn't the SE also only come with 1GB of RAM vs 2GB for the 6s?

-KeithP

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."

 

[linkgoron]

16GB is unacceptable on a phone without expansion.

That said, for 500$ I think that the 64GB version is a very good buy.

 

[poofyhairguy]

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

Where is the VR product Apple? Where is the Continuum competitor?

Oh well, at least it lacking Force Touch kinda proves what a flop that was.

 

[gorcorps]

I disagree. iPhone SE is a true replacement to iPhone 5S. In fact I think the price is so good that it will take market share from the mid-range Android phones and cannibalize a little bit of iPhone 6S sales too.

Frankly I think getting a iPhone SE 64 GB for USD 499 is a much better decision than getting a 16 GB iPhone 6S for USD 649. 16GB is just too less in this day and age. Packing the phones with 12MP cameras which do 4K video recording and then giving 16GB of storage is a joke. Anyway I think this phone is going to be a hot seller. :thumbsup:

It's a joke that 16gig is even offered anymore. 32gig should be the base by now, but then they wouldn't be able to get as many people to upgrade to 64gig then so I guess it's smart.

It at least looks better built than the 5c was, so that's good.

 

[gorcorps]

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

Where is the VR product Apple? Where is the Continuum competitor?

Oh well, at least it lacking Force Touch kinda proves what a flop that was.

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

 

[raghu78]

16GB is unacceptable on a phone without expansion.

That said, for 500$ I think that the 64GB version is a very good buy.

exactly. the iPhone SE 64GB for USD 499 is a really good deal. iPhone 5S and older iPhone users just got a big reason to upgrade.

It's a joke that 16gig is even offered anymore. 32gig should be the base by now, but then they wouldn't be able to get as many people to upgrade to 64gig then so I guess it's smart.

It at least looks better built than the 5c was, so that's good.

I agree that 16GB is useless. In fact I would go so far as to say that Apple should look at 32G/128G/256G capacities for next gen iPhone 7. As far as the iPhone SE is concerned it could be the sleeper hit product which Apple needs desperately. This phone is basically a no brainer for any person who wants a mid range compact phone. I see Apple taking market share from mid-range Android phones with this product.

 

[Arachnotronic]

This is a really good product at a reasonable price. I think it'll do well.

 

[quikah]

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

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.

 

[raghu78]

This is a really good product at a reasonable price. I think it'll do well.

I think the pricing is aggressive. Given the exterior design and thickness of 5S it will have better battery life than iPhone 6S, as Apple claims. In fact I think the iPhone SE 64G model could be a huge hit.

 

[poofyhairguy]

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.

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.

 

[raghu78]

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.

Apple may have cannibalized the iPhone 6 and 6S (a bit). Right now I don't see a logic in buying a iPhone 6 16G for USD 549 when you get a vastly improved iPhone SE 64G for USD 499. A9 with 2GB RAM is so much better than A8 with 1 GB RAM. I think Apple is counting on iPhone SE to stop the decline in iPhone unit sales. I think it might just work.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I think it might just work.

We will see. I personally think Apple misjudged the market. I mean some people want smaller phones and some people want cheaper phones, but those aren't always the same people.

Samsung actually has a lot of success in emerging markets selling low-end and midrange phablet phones because for a lot of people their smartphone IS their only computer so a bigger screen really helps their quality of life overall. Samsung doesn't worry about that cannibalizing Note sales because these people don't have flagship money in their pocket anyway.

I do think this easily provides the most value of any iPhone ever released, as it hits all the right notes (outside of size) and it gives people who clung to the 5S an actual reason to upgrade. But overall I feel that this phone is held back for the same (probable) reason the Intel Atom CPU line sucks- Apple doesn't want to give the people the cheap phablet they want because that will cannibalize the 6S and 6S+ like crazy.

I am very interested to see what Apple does with the iPhone 7. It is obvious that they have hit a wall refining the concept of what the iPhone had been so far, and they are having trouble selling the benefits of a phone that aren't as easy to see such as a color or form factor. The iPhone 7 needs to be a leap greater than anything Apple has done so far to give its core customers a reason to upgrade. I am excited to see what that leap is.

 

[linkgoron]

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.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Bezel mostly. The iPhone's basic design and layout hasn't changed even though it's no longer necessary to have large bezels.

 

[sweenish]

I think the 30M number for 5S had much more to do with price than size.

I think this phone will sell a ton based on its price, and not its size.

But that's because I think the small phone crowd is a vocal minority.

 

[Commodus]

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

Where is the VR product Apple? Where is the Continuum competitor?

Oh well, at least it lacking Force Touch kinda proves what a flop that was.

They weren't going to introduce any earth-shaking products at a spring event in the company's Town Hall. WWDC is where you'd see any software or other big platform shifts.

The absence of 3D Touch likely isn't a response to market successes or failures. It's probably because Apple is repurposing the 5S body and can't cram the haptic engine inside without significantly hampering battery life. Well, that and its absence helps Apple lower the cost/upsell you to the 6S.

To me, the big deal is that it's $399 -- that's $50 less than any entry-level iPhone has ever cost. Even if Apple is being stingy by sticking to 16GB, that still lowers the barriers. As Apple mentioned in its presentation, many Chinese customers buy the 4-inch iPhone... imagine telling them that they're not only getting up-to-date hardware, but that they can pay less than they did the last time around. This is how Apple keeps iPhone sales brisk until it's ready to launch the 7.

 

[paperwastage]

I think the 30M number for 5S had much more to do with price than size.

maybe a little of both, more for the price side

and with this $399 starting price, apple will see very healthy numbers for their next few quarterly

 

[Mopetar]

Much better spec-wise than I would have guessed and I'd probably get one, but after they didn't have a 4" phone announcement last fall, I gave up on them ever resurrecting an up-to-date 4" model and I needed a replacement for my aging Motorola.

Yeah the 16 GB entry-level model isn't great, but they don't want to cannibalize their own sales with it so of course it's going to have something that sucks. Even with that I'm still really surprised that it's as good as it is hardware wise. After that 5C I would have expected a much more stripped down phone with an older SoC and less RAM. It's basically a 4" iPhone 6S with the older style.

 

[Lyfer]

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+?��