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iPhone SE (2022) SE review after years of using larger iPhones: A Big Plus
- Thread starter CE3
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Well, you summed it up yourself with your "other than cost" reasoning.
In the UK, where I am based right now, a 256GB SE3 is around £550 (over US$700). Not something to be batted away lightly.
The comparison is against a phone that was released nearly 5 years ago. If I had a 2017 car, I'd expect the 2022 version of the same thing to be greatly improved on many fronts, especially in terms of electronics and capability.
Assuming that’s Australian dollars that’s still ~680$ USD, which is worse than me with $789 CAD (~630$ USD) but much better than @vfxdog with what looks like the equivalent of 750$ USD at the current exchange rate (569 GBP).
For comparison, the price for 256 GB is only 580 USD on the US Apple store, so we’re all getting an export market price hike at different levels of painfulness... still though, how/why is it that much more expensive in the UK than in Australia, where the shipping costs are presumably much higher?
UK includes 20% VAT?
Do note US pricing doesn’t include any taxes. That $580 is more like $640 with 10.25% sales tax for me. If you add 20% tax, it’s around $700.
Ah right! Forgot they did that there. I honestly prefer it that way since things get marketed at their actual cost, though for a place like Canada it would be tricky since different provinces have different sales tax rates. In my corner of the country, sales tax would bring the price up to ~725 USD, so only 25$ off from UK prices.
Same in the US. Sales tax is all over the place. Lol, in California, different cities have different sales tax rates.
Fortunately (at least in this specific instance) I’m currently living in Wisconsin with 5% sales tax 😏
I guess the issue is that smartphones have been "good enough" for most people for a while now, so despite 3 generations of improvements in CPU and GPU since the 8 (which, to be clear, have been extremely impressive), you're usually not going to notice a huge benefit in day-to-day life. The days where smartphones were evolving so fast that 3 years was an eternity are over. That's why phone manufacturers have been going in so hard on having 3-5 cameras on their phones now: since performance bumps aren't going to be that noticeable anymore, they're trying to give people a different reason to drop 700-1000$ USD on a new device.
I'm still using an original 2016 iPhone SE (two generations behind your iPhone 8's chip), and apart from the camera and an aging battery it's still fast and fluid on most websites and apps.
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It’s probably because everyone uses a case on a phone but not an iPad on second thought…
I just checked and the 256 GB SE3 is actually £569, so for £60 more one could buy an Iphone 13 Mini 128 GB from Amazon for £629, which would be considered the better phone... however, if one prefers Touch ID, is sensitive to OLED PWM or just likes the classic form factor more, then its irrelevant.
More drama than desperate housewives, when it comes to the SE.
Ripping deal on the mini. 🤔
“So what do you think of Switzerland?”
“I’m not sure, but the flag is a big plus!”
“I’m not sure, but the flag is a big plus!”
Of course, unlike the iPad mini 6 or Air 5, the SE has a 128GB option for £469 or just £50 more than base.
That said, to me the price difference between the SE3 and 13 mini is negligible. I would've switched to the mini already if it didn't have OLED PWM.
Well, I'd also assume a photographer is probably often carrying a real camera. For a lot of people their iPhone is their only camera so they might want more than the SE3 is capable of.
If you have any iPhone 8 accessories you like, I believe (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) that you can actually still use them on the SE3 because the form factor is the same.
As much as I prefer TouchID, I would've switched to the iPhone mini already if it didn't have OLED. The Night Mode camera has been useful quite a few times (e.g. taking pictures of wall outlets behind furniture).
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Nice, balanced rundown, under 10 minutes:
EDIT: Interestingly, it appears that at least to Jaesun here the camera stands out among the new SE’s selling points due to A15 post-processing magic which brings it considerably, sometimes uncannily close to its iPhone 13 brethren. May be something to consider @majkom
EDIT: Interestingly, it appears that at least to Jaesun here the camera stands out among the new SE’s selling points due to A15 post-processing magic which brings it considerably, sometimes uncannily close to its iPhone 13 brethren. May be something to consider @majkom
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I could never go back to a larger phone. My 13 Pro always felt like a brick.
My new SE 3 is much lighter and smaller. In my world, it’s the sweet spot for a cell phone. Touch ID beats Face ID all day, every day, at everything, including speed and practicality.
Also, LCD > OLED because my headaches are gone.
win, win
My new SE 3 is much lighter and smaller. In my world, it’s the sweet spot for a cell phone. Touch ID beats Face ID all day, every day, at everything, including speed and practicality.
Also, LCD > OLED because my headaches are gone.
win, win
Super easy and convenient. It’s the perfect amount of distance for my thumb to travel without straining my wrist, which was an issue I had on every modern iPhone design. Reachability is rarely if ever required—from memory I’m not sure I’ve used it once on this phone, although I wouldn’t give much thought to it if I had.
After experiencing multiple iPhone sizes over the past few generations I wholeheartedly feel that this is the standard size a phone should be. Give me a miniature phone with a high pixel density. iPhone 13 feels like the same phone but larger because duh, but the display is noticeably less sharp and I prefer iPhone 13 Mini. It’s an incredible little device which unfortunately still suffers from a flickering but beautiful display.
No accessories, use my 8 naked
Interesting, if that's the case and now that FaceID works with masks, the Mini is now even more enticing. Not sure how my eyes and mind handle OLED displays but I'm still gonna wait and see until the next iPhone event before pulling the trigger.
Like mentioned before, my iPhone 8 (in gorgeous product red, the right shade of red just like the SE3, 13 Mini) runs very well and I have no major complaints about it aside from the deteriorated battery life.
For me, it's pretty difficult. Have to do finger acrobatics to open the Control Center. Granted, I'm 5'2" with short stubby fingers.