By now a rough outline of the next-generation iPhone SE is coming into focus, giving us some idea of what to expect from Apple’s next budget-friendlier mobile offering. It seems it may be in either an iPhone XR or iPhone 11 chassis—probably the former to help cut down on cost—with a single lens camera and standard Face ID setup. It will hopefully include an LCD display for us tinfoil contact lens-wearers who suffer from the unrelenting strobes of Apple’s OLED pulse-width modulation.
But what about MagSafe? It seems a huge missed opportunity to delay bringing MagSafe to the bottom-of-the-line iPhone past this next generation—especially since the SE goes more than a year between generations—or, God forbid, to simply never include the feature at all. I mean, just think about the MagSafe-accessory-sales floodgates that would open as a result of more people than ever carrying around this magnetic wonder-technology in their pockets. Even if many or even most opted for cheaper knockoff MagSafe-like accessories, there would still be a significant new market of people willing to shell out for the full walled-garden, first-party MagSafe experience.
Perhaps its potentially-impending absence has to due with the logistics of the SE design, like the basic logic of minimizing both cost and the changing of existing production methods. Or maximizing space within the body of the device itself, especially when LCD displays already take up more space than OLED (and, again, Apple: You better keep using LCD
).
Whatever the case may end up being, it would be a real shame to see the next SE go without a rather significant (but mundane, once one is accustomed to it) feature like MagSafe. Not because it’s really that important or anything, but because what I am going to do with all these accessories (especially the handy Battery Pack) I spent my money on while trying to use iPhones with OLED displays over the past two years?
Ah, well. Here’s to good things from SE fourth-gen. Or we can always keep dreaming toward the fifth and beyond.
But what about MagSafe? It seems a huge missed opportunity to delay bringing MagSafe to the bottom-of-the-line iPhone past this next generation—especially since the SE goes more than a year between generations—or, God forbid, to simply never include the feature at all. I mean, just think about the MagSafe-accessory-sales floodgates that would open as a result of more people than ever carrying around this magnetic wonder-technology in their pockets. Even if many or even most opted for cheaper knockoff MagSafe-like accessories, there would still be a significant new market of people willing to shell out for the full walled-garden, first-party MagSafe experience.
Perhaps its potentially-impending absence has to due with the logistics of the SE design, like the basic logic of minimizing both cost and the changing of existing production methods. Or maximizing space within the body of the device itself, especially when LCD displays already take up more space than OLED (and, again, Apple: You better keep using LCD
).Whatever the case may end up being, it would be a real shame to see the next SE go without a rather significant (but mundane, once one is accustomed to it) feature like MagSafe. Not because it’s really that important or anything, but because what I am going to do with all these accessories (especially the handy Battery Pack) I spent my money on while trying to use iPhones with OLED displays over the past two years?
Ah, well. Here’s to good things from SE fourth-gen. Or we can always keep dreaming toward the fifth and beyond.
