Apple’s March 21st event is just five days away and we have a comprehensive rundown on what to expect including details on the new 4-inch iPhone SE. As I’ve previously written about and discussed on 9to5Mac’s Happy Hour podcast, rumors of a smaller iPhone with modern specs sound mighty compelling to me for multiple reasons.
But the iPhone SE isn’t a 4-inch iPhone 7 (or a 4-inch iPhone 6s for that matter) which does dilute the appeal a bit for me. Based on what we currently know, however, I’m likely going to switch from the iPhone 6s Plus to the iPhone SE — at least for a while — but I’m drawing my line in the sand now on what the new 4-inch iPhone would need to have for me to really consider it.
I’ll preface this by saying that I can’t see a situation where I stick with the iPhone SE beyond September when the real successor to the iPhone 6s debuts. My interest in the iPhone SE for now starts with my general dissatisfaction with the size of the iPhone 6s Plus. It’s a nice phone, but it’s just a bit too big for me to use one-handed without balancing it awkwardly and often uncomfortably.
I concede that Samsung may be better at large-screened phones for now until Apple reduces the chin on its Plus models. Simple tasks like swiping back when holding the iPhone in my right hand and changing between alphabetical and emoji keyboards or hitting send on messages is still tricky for me one-handed. The 4-inch phone I’m sure I’ll find is a bit too limiting just as the 5.5-inch phone is uncomfortable, so my expectation is that the 4.7-inch phone is the sweet spot.
So here’s the plan: use an upgrade available on my family account and pick up the SE, let a family member use the 6s Plus for now, go full time on the SE until the fall when it’s time to trade in the 6s Plus, then I’ll likely go 4.7-inch iPhone 7 and pass down the SE to family. (I’ve given this a lot of thought, can you tell?)
With that being said, I could very well do the same thing now but replace the iPhone SE in that scenario with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6s … the appeal of the SE, though, is that it will technically be a newer phone and have the added benefit of letting me experience a modern 4-inch iPhone.
So here’s my line in the sand:
Live Photos — This is what got me in this situation in the first place. I really love Live Photos. Whether it’s a snapshot of my kid posing for a photo, a selfie with my grandma, or a sunset at the French Quarter in New Orleans, I seriously treasure being able to look back at my favorite photos and experiencing the sound and motion just before and after the shot. 100% must have this, and luckily our reporting says to expect it.
Apple Pay — This wouldn’t be a deal breaker as even the iPhone 5/5c/5s without Apple Pay can pair with Apple Watch which has Apple Pay, but I actually prefer using Apple Pay with the iPhone as it feels just a tad less awkward for me. No Apple Pay would also mean losing out on in-app Apple Pay, which is required for Exxon Mobil’s paying-for-gas setup. 80% in terms of importance, and Apple Pay is one of the flagship features planned for this upgrade.
12 MP camera — As an iPhone 6s Plus owner, I’m using the best camera (which is important to me) that Apple sells, so it would be hard to justify downgrading to an inferior camera. The iPhone 6 camera was great (I actually like all of my iPhone shots since the iPhone 4) but I’m sure my iPhone 6s shots are better … I could live with an 8MP camera again, considering it’d only be for a few months, but it would be a buzzkill no less. (The front-facing camera isn’t expected to be 5MP like the 6s, but instead 1.2MP which is disappointing.) 50% importance to me, and likely to happen.
A9 processor — Processing power year-over-year is similar to camera quality; I probably couldn’t tell you which iPhone has an A8 and which has an A9 in a blind test. But in theory, there are gains to be had when using the newer processor, which I already own, so an A8-equipped iPhone SE wouldn’t be appealing. 30% importance to me, and our reporting says expect it.
Visual differences — OK, I’m really not going to be picky here about what qualifies. The difference between the AT&T and Verizon iPhone 4 was a slight antenna design change, and that level of difference would satisfy me. We’re expecting the iPhone SE to look nearly identical to the iPhone 5s, save for slightly curved edges versus the scratch-prone shiny chamfered edges. Sounds cool to me. I’m sure most people will throw a case around that, though, and you won’t notice, but I never used a case before the slippery iPhone 6. Another thought: I’d expect the iPhone SE to replace the FCC markings on the back with an SE logo just like the iPhone 6s did with the S logo. 10% importance to me, and our reporting says expect slightly tweaked edges with a nearly identical design to the 5s.
3D Touch — Believe it or not, 3D Touch is on my list of things that the iPhone SE doesn’t need to have my interest. I use 3D Touch every day on my iPhone 6s Plus, mainly on Home screen icons to jump into parts of apps, but I don’t really miss it on my iPad and I wouldn’t consider it a huge loss if the iPhone SE didn’t offer it. 0% importance to me, and based on our reporting, that’s a good thing as the iPhone SE will be limited to two-dimensional interactions.
Storage — I’ll be considering storage when Apple details the iPhone SE on Monday. My iPhone 6s Plus is 128GB, but I could easily get by with 64GB (or even 32GB) thanks to Apple Music streaming and iCloud Photo Library. 16GB is still pretty hard to live with even with those two services. We’re expecting 16GB and 64GB options at around $450 and $500, replacing the iPhone 5s at 16GB and 32GB tiers (although $550 for 64GB wouldn’t surprise me). $500 for 64GB puts the iPhone SE at $250 less than the $750 64GB iPhone 6s, and $150 less than the $650 64GB iPhone 6. (When you divide the price over 12/18/24 month plans, the difference starts to disappear, which makes choosing higher storage capacities easier but makes picking iPhone SE over iPhone 6s harder to justify.) 100% important that 16GB isn’t the only option, but that’s not something we’re expecting.
Color — Finally, I’m curious which of the dozen shades of space gray we’ll see used for the iPhone SE. Look here to see how the iPhone 5s is darker than the iPhone 6. Same is true for iPads, the MacBook, and iPods. Color isn’t a huge factor for me when considering the iPhone SE, although I’d love to see the return of Slate, if only for the SE, but I think we’re at a 0% chance of that happening. Instead, we’re expecting the usual suspects: black/space gray, white/silver, white/gold, and a new addition to the 4-inch lineup, white/rose gold.
So there you have it, my line in the sand. As I mentioned a couple of months back, Live Photos are a must for me and I’d greatly prefer an iPhone 6s-class camera, but an iPhone 6-class camera would suffice while 3D Touch isn’t high on my list of requirements for considering downsizing from the iPhone 6s Plus to the iPhone SE.
Rare as the situation may be, I’m eager to jump from the 5.5-inch iPhone to a possibly inferior 4-inch iPhone for the next several months, and I’m sure anyone still using an iPhone 5s or earlier model with no interest in a larger phone is even more excited. Stay tuned for Apple’s even on Monday, March 21st, at 10 am PT/1 pm ET, which we’ll be covering in depth, and let me know your thoughts about what the iPhone SE would need to have for you to consider it as well.
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So what does the iPhone 6s have that you don’t want/need in the SE, again? (Other than the screen size…)
Regarding colors, they just lost their taste of design. Since 4 years they are experimenting to find real appealing color in hardware and software as well. Every new release has new shades of colors in app icons!
there are reasons why the colors have been slightly different. One is the color of the aluminum, they have moved to a different grade/allow aluminum and I’m sure that’s part of the reason and they might have different anodizing partners and they have their own abilities to create different colors. Anodizing is not the same process as mixing batches of paint or pigment and creating a color. A lot has to do with what company and process they use and what material they are trying to anodize as the metal alloy is slightly different thus causing different hues when going through the anodizing process.
Image quality doesn’t have much to do with megapixels. What you want is the best image quality, it sounds like. I would expect that the 6 camera is not as good as the 6S, just because I’m sure they improve the camera each year, at least a little bit. I’m definitely in on the 5se.
All I need a a modern processor and a great camera.
…And for it to look nothing like the 6
I’ve been very interested in the SE. A faster processor and a better camera than my 5C would be nice. I realized something this week though. My wife is on her phone, a 6, all the time. She uses it for work, for meetings, for notes, she uses it A LOT. Me, not so much. So if my 5C were to expire suddenly I wouldn’t get ME a new phone. We’d get HER a new phone, and I’d get her old one. So I’ll look for most of the things on your list, not on my next phone, but on the one after that…in about four years.
Isn’t it crazy that just a few years ago iPhones were too small. Now the phones are too big.
But the bottom line is that Apple should not gimp phones based on size. There are still a number of people that want a “powerful” and “feature” packed phone in a smaller body. I can understand that screen resolution and battery size will take a hit but leave the other stuff alone.
But honestly; 4″ is too small. The 4.7″ model feels just right. If Apple can somehow trim the bezels or place the home button on the back you would have a smaller phone to hold. Going 4″ is going backwards.
I agree about trimming the bezels, but until my thumb grows longer, a 4″ phone is still the best size for me. I’ve used the 6 (6 months) and am using the 6s (since launch), and I would say it never felt just right – for me.
I had the 4, and it was just too small because I wear glasses. I got the 6 and after a few months, it wasn’t a big enough screen, so I debated for a couple of months and decided to make the switch to the 6+, and quite honestly, if they could increase the screen size without increasing the case size, I’d be fine with that. I have piss poor eye sight and the larger screen is much easier on my eyes.
I think one has to live with the device for a couple of months to really understand if they like it or not.
Here’s an interesting market research that was done about a year ago. Obviously with Apple, the chart doesn’t split out 4, 4.7, 5.5 inch models, but I’m sure future market share numbers will, or at least should.
The majority of the handsets sold, as of a year ago, were 3.5 to 4.9 inch screen sizes (so that number lumps both 4inch and the 4.7 screens that Apple makes). They need to redo the screen sizes a little to reflect what Apple’s selling so we can really see the numbers by screen size.
http://marketingland.com/size-matters-phablets-reach-20-percent-penetration-of-smartphone-market-127193
I personally like the + size, but that’s just me. Some people, actually prefer the 4inch model. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because they just don’t like a large product in their hands. I have found women to fall into this category because they typically have much smaller hands.
Either way, the market has enough demand for the 4inch model and we’ll just see how big that demand really is since they’ll have essentially the same guts inside. Plus, it’s a way for Apple to also begin to market into countries like India where they are more price sensitive. Time will tell.
I’m wondering what’s going to happen when the 6/6+ gets even cheaper next refresh since Apple has typically had products on the market for 3 years and each year the price gets lower. At the next refresh of 4.7 and 5.5, the 6/6+ will be in the $450 MSRP range for the 6’s. So, it’s going to get pretty weird in terms of what the market is going to do. I would think Apple could sell a piss load of 6’s in countries that are price sensitive if they were $450 MSRP.
I saw a photo of an Apple prototype on another site and the prototype they had had no fingerprint sensor/home button, it was just a full screen, no button of any kind. If they have this type of screen in the next gen iPhone’s (7/7+) it’ll be interesting if they can do that with the 6SE’s. I hope they can figure out how to get rid of the fingerprint button altogether, especially since they have the 3D touch and that has different functions depending on how hard to press down on the screen, I think that could be leveraged to actually replace the button at the bottom. Time will tell what reality is.
If A9 = Always on Siri, then Yes, Please!!
I would however, prefer 3D Touch. Even on a 6s, I use it all the time. I’m sure Apple would’ve balanced the inclusion or otherwise, but surely broadening the number of devices would cement 3D Touch as a must-have feature? And while the older but still current 6/6 Plus doesn’t have it, if this SE is meant to stick around for 2 years, it’ll 2.5 years after the 6s it gets it!
I’ll be downgrading from the 6 Plus to the SE. I’d really like to have the 128GB capacity of my Plus, but can live with only 64GB in the SE.
The thing is, when Apple releases their top end flagship models 4.7 and 5.5, they have a HUGE demand and it typically takes them a few months to roll out in all of their markets and to reach stability between supply and demand. That initial surge happens over the course of 6 months, which is why Apple has that See Saw effect in iPhone sales. Now, what can Apple do to increase smartphone sales? Come out with another model that doesn’t necessarily infringe on their other yearly announced products. Hence the 4inch screen version. Obviously, Apple knows what the sales are of every device they make, but we don’t. We just know the total number of iPhones sold. So instead of increasing daily capacity of how many iPhones they can spit out per day, they need to release models in a Flip Flop manner and this actually makes the most sense. That way the yearly iPhone sales should continue to increase at a decent rate and they aren’t relying solely on what they release in Sept to carry them for a year. Samsung does it, they just have more models they release over the course of the year as they are more desperate for sales.
On another note. What’s funny/sad is, no matter how great the new Samsung S7/Edge is, they are ALREADY discounting them and giving away 2 for the price of 1 and they just started shipping. They typically don’t do those kind of sale discounts until the product has been on the market for a few months and they need to drive sales. For some reason, I think Samsung is dead in the premium smartphone market.
I noticed that about the S7 too. Looks like a great phone, and much improved over last year. But the fact that Samsung is acting like its a fire sale shows that maybe they are a little desperate to get phones out into the wild. 2 for 1 is nuts, I think I remember them doing that for the S5 right when it came out. And I’m only just now starting to see $0 down on iPhone 6s with a plan.
I’m looking to move from my iPhone 5 to a newer phone. Depending on price contrasted with storage and overall specs I may upgrade to this, or even switch to a Nexus. I like smaller phones, so right off the bat the SE has that in its favor. If it’s an A8 with 2GB RAM, that would be acceptable, A9 even better. Less than 2GB of RAM=Forget it. It’s 2016, 2GB is barely respectable and honestly it’s kind of sad that it took Apple until 2015 to put that much in a phone. 6 camera, acceptable, ideally they’d fit the 12MP camera from the 6S. Price is a big deal. Nexus 6p is $449 on sale right now. With 32GB of storage. The SE needs to be within $100 of that price and ideally packing 32GB of storage. If the iPad Pro can have 32GB as its base, why can’t this? SE needs to be under $500 for >16GB of storage. If 16GB starts at $500, they can forget it.
Hope SE with A9 has the LTE advance and two way wifi MIMO same as 6s.
The only thing it really needs is the ability to be able to upgrade, well into the future