First look: Apple offers premium power at budget pricing with new iPhone SE
Rather than letting the 4-inch iPhone form factor die a slow death, Apple gave it a shot in the arm on Monday with the debut of the new iPhone SE. AppleInsider was there for the product's unveiling, and offers a closer look at the newly refreshed lineup.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Monday's announcement was the starting price of the iPhone SE --?at just $399 for 16 gigabytes, it's Apple's most affordable new iPhone model ever.
Despite the low entry price, the handset still has Apple's latest-generation A9 processor and 12-megapixel camera, capable of recording 4K video. Really, compared to an iPhone 6s, the only thing missing from the iPhone SE (aside from a larger display) is pressure sensing 3D Touch.
The iPhone SE will likely expand the "advanced hardware" status of the iPhone install base. Previously, Apple made it clear that older models were slower and had poorer cameras, for example. Now, that's not necessarily the case anymore.
The absence of 3D Touch is somewhat disappointing, but it's likely a technical issue that Apple isn't able to pull off. And the handset maxes out at 64 gigabytes, so those with a large library of photos, videos and apps will need to go for a larger form factor to get 128 gigabytes.
The design is basic -- it's not a small iPhone 6s, and it purposefully looks like the iPhone 5 series. Apple simply didn't give the device a generation number in the branding, as calling it a "5" would make it sound outdated, and it most certainly is not.
The design of the handset itself is also distinct, helping to separate it from the higher end models. In particular, the iPhone SE's matte metal makes it look different and also entry-level, much like the aluminum casing on the Apple Watch Sport doesn't have the same level of quality as the stainless steel Apple Watch.
Preorders for the iPhone SE will begin this Thursday, and the device officially launches next week, on March 31.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in Monday's announcement was the starting price of the iPhone SE --?at just $399 for 16 gigabytes, it's Apple's most affordable new iPhone model ever.
Despite the low entry price, the handset still has Apple's latest-generation A9 processor and 12-megapixel camera, capable of recording 4K video. Really, compared to an iPhone 6s, the only thing missing from the iPhone SE (aside from a larger display) is pressure sensing 3D Touch.
The iPhone SE will likely expand the "advanced hardware" status of the iPhone install base. Previously, Apple made it clear that older models were slower and had poorer cameras, for example. Now, that's not necessarily the case anymore.
The absence of 3D Touch is somewhat disappointing, but it's likely a technical issue that Apple isn't able to pull off. And the handset maxes out at 64 gigabytes, so those with a large library of photos, videos and apps will need to go for a larger form factor to get 128 gigabytes.
The design is basic -- it's not a small iPhone 6s, and it purposefully looks like the iPhone 5 series. Apple simply didn't give the device a generation number in the branding, as calling it a "5" would make it sound outdated, and it most certainly is not.
The design of the handset itself is also distinct, helping to separate it from the higher end models. In particular, the iPhone SE's matte metal makes it look different and also entry-level, much like the aluminum casing on the Apple Watch Sport doesn't have the same level of quality as the stainless steel Apple Watch.
Preorders for the iPhone SE will begin this Thursday, and the device officially launches next week, on March 31.
Comments
The price increments for memory has been crazy for years. We're starting to see a shift in the mobile industry, but I don't see Apple making that change anytime soon.
1) A tremendous swath of users don't know or care how much storage their device has.
2) Today it is actually more possible to live with a 16 GB device than it ever was before. Not the other way around. Two of the biggest culprits of storage space: iMessages, and Photo library have had recent innovations that prevent them from taking up all of your storage. iMessage can now auto-delete old messages, and iCloud Photo Library + Optimize iPhone Storage allows you to take as much Photo and Video as you like, while constantly reducing the amount of actual local storage.
So, the argument that it "made sense" back in 2010 when none of these features existed is completely wrong.
16GB is the same size as the iPod Classic's first three generations (2001-2004) and since then music compression has improved, and power consumption has improved.
But a 16GB iPod still costs 250$ and the 7th generation Nano is still available and only in 16GB size. So Apple clearly makes a lot of money of the 16GB size because they likely have a very good deal on 16GB NAND chips.
Just can't accept that millions of people have completely different use cases than you. My daughter is upgrading from an 8GB iPhone 4, so 16GB will be more than fine. Somebody else spoke about business users not needing more than 16GB. Not everybody keeps every pic ever taken without transferring them to iCloud or a computer. People stream netflix and Amazon and don't need to store videos. Just because you need more storage does not mean everybody does.
This is a nice phone though, very well specified for an entry level iPhone. But they've kept the 6 and 6 Plus in the range, which cost more and have larger screens of course, but are of lower overall specification...this might cause some confusion with customers.
While the 5c was a nice marketing gimmick (primarily for resellers), this phone is for Apple to go back to being Apple and making all the money on the phone (less room on discounts and promotions for resellers). I guessing this pricing will put the 'umbrella' really low on the current Android phone products, and like 5cent Coke, will put pricing pressures on the resellers (If apple is taking a margin haircut, the resellers will get cut off around the shoulders...)
I'll be curious of ATT or Verizon are consistently 'out of stock' on 6SE phones and try to steer people to an $199 Android phone where they make more net retail profit. ('it's just as good, and look... no waiting!")
But man, this is a pretty sweet piece of tech. It's essentially the 6S in a 4" body. I think Apple is going to sell a ton of these.
Pretty sure I know what one cardinal feature will be in next year's SE+.....
PS: the continuing 16/64 GB shuffle really makes me think less of the company. Such a naked tactic that leaves most budget buyers with a sub-par owning experience, or simply pads Apple's margins for those that bump up. Not a customer-centric way of doing biz.
I am using 3GB of storage.
I have 3 photos on/in it.
Large hands and small memory works for me.
P.S. Is not price/cost as we paid $900+ USD for my wife's iPhone.