Trivial Trade-offs with the iPhone SE(2) →

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This time, the new SE’s trade-offs seem trivial. No face scanner, shooting photos in the dark or humongous screen? Those are minor inconveniences when you are paying 40 percent less than for an iPhone 11.

Who doesn’t want to save 40% on a new iPhone that uses the fastest and more current mobile processor as well as having an excellent camera? The biggest point that agree with Brian X. Chen on his iPhone SE (2) assessment is exactly this. He goes on to mention that he is more inclined to spend the $999 on an iPhone, as am I, but on day 2, why spend any more money?

“The new iPhone SE’s lack of compromise is what makes it remarkable. Apple took all the best parts from its expensive iPhones — including a fast computing processor and an excellent camera — and squeezed them into the shell of an older iPhone with a home button and smaller screen. At the same time, it managed to include useful features that were previously exclusive to fancy new phones, like water resistance, wireless charging and so-called portrait photos.”

Can the iPhone SE (2) Make You Reconsider $1000 Phones? →

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Is all of that worth the cost? Sure, for a lot of people. Is any of it necessary? Other than low-light photography, there’s virtually nothing that I do on those $1,000 phones that I can’t do equally well on the iPhone SE. It is fast, capable, reliable, and familiar. I’d miss those advanced features and more expansive displays, but not as much as you might think.

If I were buying the iPhone SE, I’d seriously consider spending the extra $50 to upgrade the storage to 128GB, just in case I’d want it three or five years down the road. That timespan is the reason the iPhone SE is a big deal. No other phone that costs less than $500 can claim to be this good, nor last that long.

The iPhone SE is not just a good deal. It’s also a really good smartphone.

I'm really liking the videos that The Verges' Dieter Bohn has been putting out and the fact that I concur 100% with this write-up gives me even more confidence that I'll be "fine" for the next 6-8 months. Heck, it'll most likely make me even reconsider purchasing the iPhone 12 for $1149, maybe.1 I mean seriously, I spoke about this upgrade cycle at length a while back (6 years ago) but I'll break it down again.

The iPhone X 256GB Silver cost me $1149 + tax = $1250 - $320 for trade-in = $930 divided by 30 months = 913 days of constant and daily use is about $1 a day for a TOOL that we are accessing day in and day out. Whether that's a good thing or bad, at least we get to track it now and step back. But hell, I just even bought a new 16" MacBook Pro and am producing again! Priceless.

  • The fact that a $1000 straight out of pocket for a device is definitely absurd hence the reasoning why I was trying to make my iPhone X 256GB Silver last for 36 months!↩

    • Ordered My iPhone SE (2)

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    I broke down just less than a week after the initial online orders were made available and consequently, I’ll have to wait until May 8th - May 15th. Apple offered the highest value for my iPhone X 256GB Silver at $3201 and I ended up having to push for the iPhone SE 256GB White which should be around $229 out of pocket before taxes. Love the white back and the all-black front too! I tried to go with the 128GB version but I looked and I had only 88GB left on my 256GB meaning I was using more than 128GB! Oh well, Being that this phone was around $549 + tax, I’m wondering how much I’ll be able to get for it in 6-8 months when the iPhone 12 comes out? Since it will cost around $300 out of pocket, I’m actually okay with it trading in for that much. Dang, I just looked it up too and my iPhone X 256GB Silver was $1,149 + tax!!! And yes I bought Apple Care back then!

  • 27.8% residual after 32 months… try finding an Android phone that can do that!

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    And if you didn't catch my hovering "bigfoot" footnote, it reads: 27.8% residual after 32 months… try finding an Android phone that can do that!

    Apple's Newest 2019 iPhone SE →

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    Starting at $399 for a 64GB phone that posses the fastest mobile chip on the market in both iOS and Android ecosystems, this is a steal giving this device either the best value for performance and size or overall best phone for the 2019 year! I know that’s pretty conclusive of an idea but where are you going to get this kind of performance for this kind of price? I would opt to pay an additional $50 for the 128GB model in white.

    For someone who has a 2.5-year-old iPhone X, if I go through Apple’s trade-in program, I get $320 credit, to which I can pay $79 to upgrade to the latest device and even have some features that the iPhone 11 (non-Pro) has in terms of camera quality! I’m thinking about this every day but at the same time, I’m deciding on whether to just wait for the iPhone 12 which is looking more and more like it’s going to be delayed due to the current global crisis.

    Introduced with iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, A13 Bionic is the fastest chip ever in a smartphone and provides unparalleled performance for every task iPhone SE handles. Perfect for photography, gaming and augmented reality experiences, A13 Bionic makes every action feel fluid.

    I’ve always been about having the “latest and greatest” especially for something that you are constantly using everyday and this pricing is key! If you want a great comparison head over to 9to5mac for their iPhone SE vs iPhone XR write-up.

    Apple iPhone 7 Benchmarks vs Android

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    This iPhone 7 Single Core Geekbench testings shows an amazing lead compared to rest. Even dating back to the previous model at one year old, the Apple's Single Core optimization beats the rest. But when it comes to Multi-Core, Samsung does indeed come very close. 

    Device                    Single Core           Multi-Core
iPhone 7 / 7 Plus         3285 / 3211           5285 / 5191
iPhone SE                    2409                 4051
iPhone 6s / 6s Plus       2375 / 2400           3991 / 4027
Samsung Galaxy S7            1806                 5228
Samsung Galaxy Note 7        1786                 5213
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge       1744                 5203
Huawei P9                    1729                 4735
OnePlus 3                    1698                 4015
LG G5                        1658                 3745
iPhone 6 / 6 Plus            1463 / 1471        2457 / 2470

    One VERY interesting feat is the fact that today's iPhone 7 / 7 Plus beats out the MacBook Pro 15" (Late 2011) and even the Mac Pro (Late 2013) in single core benchmarks. Intel better be watching. As The Verge clearly put it,

    Now, before you accuse me of being high on my own metaphorical supply, I’m not saying that Intel will be crippled or surpassed anytime soon. But I am arguing that the chip giant is under a substantial threat, the likes of which it hasn’t faced for a long time, maybe ever. A quick look at the Geekbench scores attained by the iPhone 7 quantifies a staggering achievement: the single-core performance of Apple’s latest generation of smartphone processors has basically caught up with Intel’s laptops CPUs. The A10 chip inside the iPhone 7 comfortably outpaces its predecessors and Android rivals, and even outdoes a wide catalog of relatively recent Mac computers (including the not-so-recent Mac Pro). The iPhone’s notoriously hard to benchmark against anything else and this is just one metric, but it’s illustrative of Apple’s accelerating momentum and mobile focus.Now, before you accuse me of being high on my own metaphorical supply, I’m not saying that Intel will be crippled or surpassed anytime soon. But I am arguing that the chip giant is under a substantial threat, the likes of which it hasn’t faced for a long time, maybe ever. A quick look at the Geekbench scores attained by the iPhone 7 quantifies a staggering achievement: the single-core performance of Apple’s latest generation of smartphone processors has basically caught up with Intel’s laptops CPUs. The A10 chip inside the iPhone 7 comfortably outpaces its predecessors and Android rivals, and even outdoes a wide catalog of relatively recent Mac computers (including the not-so-recent Mac Pro). The iPhone’s notoriously hard to benchmark against anything else and this is just one metric, but it’s illustrative of Apple’s accelerating momentum and mobile focus.

    This is one POWERFUL A10 Fusion chip and Apple I'm sure is proud. Congrats on the optimizations!