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Poll: Will you buy the upcoming 4-inch iPhone 5se?

With Apple’s much rumored upcoming iPhone 5se on the horizon— an upgraded version of the iPhone 5S that retains the 4-inch display size for diehard fans of the model— we want to find out if you plan on upgrading when the new device launches. That’s the question we ask in today’s poll, in addition to what device you’re upgrading from (or downgrading, depending on how you look at it). 

There are a few things to consider unlike usual Apple and iPhone product launches. It looks like the iPhone 5se, as we previously reported is the current plan for the device’s moniker, will break up Apple’s usual fall release schedule with a mid-year iPhone refresh. It will also be unusual in that Apple is releasing an upgraded model of an already aging iPhone, the iPhone 5S. The thought is that the model will cater specifically to diehard fans of the smaller 4-inch display that was last included in a flagship model with the iPhone 5S. It will also get the usual upgraded internals— new processors, cameras on par with the iPhone 6, NFC, upgraded Bluetooth, Wi-Fi chips, etc— and color options that resemble Apple’s current iPhone 6s lineup. 

But apart from the 4-inch display, will the upgrades that the 5se packs in be enough for you to upgrade from your current 4-inch iPhone, or perhaps even make the switch from a larger iPhone model?

And will it matter that Apple isn’t planning to make the iPhone 5se part of its most advanced, top of the line iPhone lineup— Apple is planning a design that is said to closer resemble the old 5S than the newer, rounder design of the current iPhones apart from cover glass with more modern curved edges. And adding to that, it might not exactly be the most desirable or freshest design for an iPhone around, especially by the time the iPhone 7 inevitably drops sometime later this year in the fall. Also keep in mind, as we noted in our original report, that Apple plans to discontinue the current 5s with the 5se available around the same price points. 

Apple is currently planning on using its March Apple Watch 2 and iPad Air 3 press event to also introduce the new iPhone 5se and likely announce shipping and availability details.

So are you planning on upgrading to the iPhone 5se? And will you be upgrading from the 4-inch iPhone you’re currently using? Switching from a larger iPhone now that Apple has a new 4-inch model? Or holding off to see what iPhone 7 has to offer?

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Comments

  1. I got a new iPhone 6s a month ago so no :)

  2. tigerpork - 8 years ago

    It depends on the price. If it’s $300 no contract, then yes.

    • That would be amazing. Seems like it could replace iPod Touch at that price for many buyers. Especially parents, who might buy it for a child, use it as a fancy iPod Touch, and then activate it on a network when the child got a little older.

    • Heather Lopez - 8 years ago

      Very ambitious, maybe two years from now.

    • YU No - 8 years ago

      At that price there won’t be aluminium on Earth to satisfy demand.

    • BFSEsq - 8 years ago

      Yeah, I can’t imagine Apple making it that cheap. My prediction is that once we all find out the price, people all turn on this :-P

    • JBDragon - 8 years ago

      The price point is not happening. Apple is in the game to make money. Not lose money like most of Android is doing right now!!! If you want a cheap phone, but a Android phone. They’re literally giving those things away!!!

  3. I want a 5-5.2 inch iPhone, and a 5.5″ iPod Touch since we’re all dreaming….

  4. Greg Kaplan (@kaplag) - 8 years ago

    The thought is that the model will cater specifically to diehard fans of the smaller 4-inch display

    I think that thought might be off, at least from my perspective. I’m a diehard fan of small phones but I don’t think the new 4″ refresh will hit the mark.

    Not until it’s on par with the larger flagship models

    That’s not it either. That’s like expecting the macbook air to be as good as the macbook pro. What I want is the Macbook. It’s even less powerful than the air, but has new features like retina display, force click trackpad, and a way nicer body even. I want a phone that makes more interesting compromises – not just safe ones will make it ok at everything for it’s size.

    I think this 4″ is phone is for the same market as the macbook air is in the lineup. It will be the cheapest entry into iphones but not be as thin as it could or be as powerful as it could. It would just be a good all around phone and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just not what I want but I’ll take it since I’m not that hopeful what I want will come out before my 4s keels over. Eventually the macbook will be the future of laptops and I think the 4″ i’m invisioning will be apart of the future of iphones. Probably in 2018 when they switch to oled, the headphone transition has already been started, the screen has touch ID built in or whatever technological wizardry that can work in between now and then.

    I’m only kinda nervous they surprise everyone with a 4″ iphone 7 too. That would suck to buy this only for a new design to come out. Or maybe this has the new design already like how the ipad mini came out before the ipad air. Like the rumors on the design seem so iffy. It looks like a 5s! except it doesn’t! What does that even mean. Glass on the back? lines on the back? If they solved the lines thing why would that be a high end feature. This device will need a new case anyway. So yes. Very excited for this. Very excited for March.

  5. Doug Aalseth - 8 years ago

    I like the idea. However the 5C is running fine. Unless something unfortunate happens I’ll wait.

  6. Robert Alexander - 8 years ago

    It has to beat the Nexus 5X off contract price for me to plunk money down on it.

  7. triankar - 8 years ago

    If it’s just a curvier 5S, I’m not jumping.
    If it’s a 4-inch iPhone 6, I’ll probably wait till next year. I do enjoy 3D Touch and the better camera on 6S (4.7″), after all.
    If it’s a 4-inch 6S, even with a lesser CPU, I’m DEFINITELY jumping!

    Whatever the scenario, I will never EVER buy an iPhone with only 16GB storage, so I hope it does come with bigger storage options. 32GB minimum.

  8. sally (@FedGoat) - 8 years ago

    If it had All the specs as the 6S+: ois, 2GB, 3D touch, 1080p, A9, then I would.

  9. mannyleaders - 8 years ago

    Nope. Smaller phone. Smaller battery. Last time I checked the 6 & 6s were selling just fine at their current size. Why go backwards to appease a small few?

    • David Kaplan - 8 years ago

      they’re actually not. Apple uses iPhones to get most of their profit and the sales are predicted to slip this quarter.

    • John Willis (@Javbw) - 8 years ago

      Some People have small hands. Some People have small Pockets. Some people like a small phone. People who aren’t going to use the phone as a tablet, but truly as a pocketable phone – there has to be some smaller options to appease certain customers. And Apple **easily** knows, with hindsight, that there is demand because they can watch the sales of 5S and 5C and see the upgrade cycles for older phones that are still active. So they know there is some kind of market *segment* worth addressing, otherwise they would never bother to make one. This is not a “small few”. My wife still uses her 5S, I believe, For this reason. This is something I have heard form many people here in Japan. I will upgrade my 6 to a 7 Plus because I want the bigger screen – but she has has an iPad – and carries her phone in her pocket everywhere. Just as a Mac Mini and Mac Pro serve different segments, so do different phone sizes. And with Apple’s addressable market with the iPhone basically “all middle class or better humans on Earth” – 10% of that market would have healthy sales. It would probably outsell all Macs combined per quarter. So it doesn’t surprise me one bit to see Apple addressing a complaint I have heard from many people. And it shouldn’t surprise you either.

    • Appease a small few!? 60% of the iPhone user base is still using the smaller phone models. That means there’s potentially hundreds of millions of users waiting to upgrade. I’d hardly call that a small few. And how is offering a smaller phone next larger phones going backwards?

    • Steve Lawrence - 8 years ago

      Smaller battery, but less pixels to power. It’s the same with the current 5S vs 6/6s. The 5S battery may be smaller but it lasts the same amount of time because of its lower drain.

  10. Matthew Wyatt - 8 years ago

    So 85% no for one reason or another …. great market

    the other 15% were going to buy the normal iphone anyway

    I love apple but this is as dumb as no 4k for the apple tv

    • Steve Lawrence - 8 years ago

      I think you’re misinterpreting it. What the results actually show is that the vast, vast majority who have signalled via their answer that they currently have a 4″ phone (I.e. 5s or older) would upgrade to this. There are a TON of people holding onto 4″ phones and Apple desperately want them to upgrade. I think they’d be encouraged by this poll. They were never building this phone for people who already have a 6 or 6s.

  11. David Kaplan - 8 years ago

    this is 9to5Mac I’m assuming every reader has an iPhone 6S so they won’t upgrade until the 7 or 7S.

  12. Still have IPhone 5 because 6 is to big for my little hands, so yes this phone is nice.

  13. bl666 - 8 years ago

    Hope to keep 5S I have for 5 or 10 years. It costs more than the first three TVs I ever owned and I not made of money!

  14. Richard Chopp - 8 years ago

    Give me an a9 with 2gb ram and im in.

  15. Charlypollo - 8 years ago

    I may upgrade my wife’s 5s, only if it has good hardware. A good camera, better battery, and 3d touch. Oterwise it’s pointless.

  16. Ryan - 8 years ago

    Probably have my wife upgrade her 5C

  17. Karabo Mkw Makwela - 8 years ago

    i will kindly wait for the Iphone 7, my Iphone 5 still works perfectly, sluggish but perfect

  18. But the iPhone 5SE IS on par with the larger flagship iPhones (except of 3D Touch).

  19. kevicosuave - 8 years ago

    I’d buy a 4-inch iPhone as a second iPhone if dynamic activation switching is offered for free. I have a 6S+ and plan on getting a 7+. It would be nice to also have a small iPhone I could use when I’d doing activities (like hiking).

  20. AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

    I just got an iPhone 6S as an upgrade to my 5S from two years ago. But I am still not happy with how the 4.7″ phone is still juuust too big for my hands. So I would consider going back to 4″ if a new 4″ model was released when my upgrade cycle comes back around and it is as powerful as the 4.7″ and 5.5″ models.

    I really wish Apple would make a 4.3~5″ phone. The 6 form factor is literally only slightly too big to use one-handed for me.

  21. latin4everyone - 8 years ago

    Despite being a Mac disciple since 1984, there are two reasons I’ve never bought an iPhone or iPad.

    iPhone: My stupidphone is just a tin can on a string. I don’t need the geegaws smartphones tout. No GPS, I know where I am; no camera, I’m too old and too fat for selfies; no ‘net for the illusion of being connected.

    iPad: Size matters. I’ve always thought iPads were too small till the iPad Pro. WHY isn’t it a phone?!? (I’d rejig my wardrobe with Captain Kangaroo pockets!) I may just take the plunge.

    The bug with both these is iOS. I LOVE the Mac OS (since X!). iOS is frustratingly limiting.

    Apple Watch? Give me a break! Doesn’t everybody look at the time on their stupidphones?

    • Avieshek (@avieshek) - 8 years ago

      Does it matter?

    • blakthundar - 8 years ago

      All I could hear while reading this was (In the voice of Clint Eastwood) “Get off my lawn!” Jokes aside, I have the iPad Pro and totally love it. I think that as long as you could adapt to iOS, to which I believe they’re going to keep bringing features for richer multitasking i.e. make it more like OSX, you’ll enjoy it.

    • Marc Orcutt - 8 years ago

      Some people are just unwilling to give up their sun dials and tube radios I guess…

    • Steve Lawrence - 8 years ago

      So you have no need for any of the fundamentals of a smartphone or tablet, yet you feel limited by iOS? Don’t get it.

  22. 4hitch - 8 years ago

    Plans to change my iPhone 4 to iPhone 5SE (if 2 GB RAM)

  23. Prior to the iPhone 6 I would´ve said ‘yes’, but not anymore. Heck, anything smaller than the iPhone 6/6s feels like a toy to me. :P

    But I can definitely see a new, smaller iPhone would be interesting for a lot people. I think it’s good of Apple to think about them. Might even increase sales for the next quarter, although by a small margin.

    • blakthundar - 8 years ago

      While I don’t have much of an interest in a 4″ screen, as I went for a Note II instead of the iPhone 5 due to screen size, I think this could be bigger for Apple’s sales than many realize. I think a lot of 4/4S holdouts (which is quite a few) will be excited to upgrade to this.

  24. jramskovk (@jramskovk) - 8 years ago

    Wife is using an iPhone 4s, so she’s definately a candidate.

  25. sar2607 - 8 years ago

    They shouldn’t release a ‘5se’, but a ‘6s-mini’. Now, that I would go for. I think 3D touch is the killer feature of the 6s series, any device they create without it may seem obsolete now. Who knows, maybe the rumours are false and they do release a ‘6s mini’ ;)

    • Steve Lawrence - 8 years ago

      I agree. 5se makes no sense since the only thing about it that relates to the 5s is the screen size. For all intents and purposes, the rumoured specs are a couple of generations post-5s so I think they will sell themselves short in terms of perception if they go with that name.

  26. Joe (@realofficialjoe) - 8 years ago

    For work purposes I’m going from a 6 to a 6S Plus so no smaller phone for me.

    If this had come out when the 6 did I probably would have gone for it then though as I liked the size at the time…

  27. i got a 6S as my main phone, but i’m still using an iPhone 5 as a secondary phone, so the new 5SE would be such a nice upgrade TBH

  28. thejuanald - 8 years ago

    Poll results are hilarious because everyone on this site used to scoff at the idea of a larger than 4″ all the way up through the 5S. People on here laughed and laughed at the Note.

    • Steve Lawrence - 8 years ago

      The less fickle among us still do laugh at the note, and the 6Plus / 6sPlus. We sensibly held onto our smaller screens, which actually make sense compared with human biology, and the 5se is our reward.

      • thejuanald - 8 years ago

        My note 5 that I am typing this on with one hand belies your statement about making “sense compared with human biology”.

      • JBDragon - 8 years ago

        Ya, I got the Smaller iPhone 6, not the PLUS version. I wouldn’t buy a 4″ version if the specs were not the same as the larger version. Weaker CPU, etc, no thanks. Which is why phones like Samesungs so called MINI versions of their larger phones also fail so bad because of the weaker CPU and other things with the phone the larger versions have. Then assuming everyone must want the larger phones!!! When it’s really, people want the best performance and features over all. Not necessarily the largest.

        I’d always laugh because on Android BIG Phones was everything right? But then the so called Mini 7″ Android Tablets were the big thing also which I never understood. You want big phones, but SMALL tablets. It made no sense. The size difference wasn’t all that much. Why even bother with a MINI tablet when you have a large phone anyway? With a 3.5″ or 4″ iPhone, a Mini iPad, ok I guess, at least that makes a little more sense since the size gap is a little larger. Now with a 5.5″ iPhone, why would you get a mini iPad? makes no sense at all either. Bigger phones, bigger iPads, which is why I think Apple released their larger Pro version. Now that makes sense to me.

  29. tony cook (@tonycook_uk) - 8 years ago

    If the spec is right, I’ll be upgrading from my iPhone5. I don’t want a cheap phone or a low spec phone, just don’t want a large phone. The 6/6S is just too big to use with one hand and I don’t need a bigger screen – sat at a Mac all day and use an iPad during the evening.

  30. jrv6 - 8 years ago

    My 5s died (stuck home button and glitchy power switch)
    I moved to a 6s an it is too big and too slippery.
    The new font is bleh to bad…. (Not a function of the phone model but a factor in reducing my level of joy)
    I don’t need 3D Touch yet (what is the killer functionality ? )
    I will go back to a smaller iPhone in about 16 months
    It should optimize speed, battery and beauty (the 12″ MacBook of iPhones) but it does not need everything the 7 or 7+ will have.

    Every apple product needs to be a fetish object for its intended user. There is a user who values sleek and simple.
    There are others who love big things with a pile of futuristic features that let them explore the limits of what is possible with a pocket computer. Apple can satisfy both ends of the spectrum within a coherent ecosystem. Very powerful

  31. tohaklim - 8 years ago

    I would pay a premium/plus price for if it had the battery and tech of 7, but being released before that it would be another “inferior-by-design” iPhone. I miss the 4′ days

  32. I’m currently at a crossroads. I’ve used iPhones since the 3GS in 09. Currently I’m using a 3 year old 5, considering my options. 1.Do nothing and wait for the phone to die or no longer get updates. 2. Get a Nexus device. Been getting kinda bored of the same old iOS, especially since they still don’t let me set defaults, Siri is not getting smarter fast enough, UI is getting kind of stale even though iOS 7 and up changed the look, elements stayed virtually the same. If I’m going to have to drop $300+ on a phone it better have specs worthy of the price tag. 3. Wait for this update since the iPhone 5 is already kind of a stretch in my hands, especially for one handed use.

    What I’d like to see: 4″ screen, at least A8 processor with 2GB RAM(like the iPad mini 4 and current AppleTV), 16GB $399 64GB $499, iPad Air 2’s camera modules. If it doesn’t come close to this I’ll probably consider switching to Android because I’m tired of paying higher prices for lower specs, and it wasn’t always this way.

  33. Rodrigo Alves de Brito - 8 years ago

    It’s been two months since I went from a 5S to a 6 Plus, and anything smaller than that makes me feel claustrophobic. That’s funny because I never thought I would ever buy a 5.5″ phone, but no regrets at all.

  34. Kevin Roa - 8 years ago

    No.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.