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iPhone SE (2016) Upgrade to SE from 6?

stinkhorn9

stinkhorn9

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 29, 2020
298
206
Hi everyone. I’m still not convinced about moving up from my recently-acquired 6 to the SE. It has a relatively new battery and I guess I’m quite a basic user (no gaming or streaming music - quite a lot of surfing though). I’m constantly weighing it up though - shopping for new apple stuff is exciting! - I just also need to justify spending £469 to replace something that basically works well enough already. Any thoughts? In my many years using apple stuff, I’ve never needed to contact them for help, and the lack of ‘support’ for stuff that still works properly anyway doesn’t seem like a disadvantage... thank you.
 
I agree wholeheartedly, I'm upgrading to an SE from an iPhone 7 and there will be some significant improvements but much more so with an iPhone 6. As mentioned you cannot run iOS 13 (which I still can on the 7) and when iOS 14 is released you will be two operating systems behind. This means probable incompatibility with new apps and updates to the old ones you already have. I would definitely update and sell your 6 while it still has value.
 
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Thanks both. I’m still enjoying the difference between the 5 I was using a couple of months ago and the 6 I have now! 😅 I’ve done the comparison on the apple site - I find that statistics only go so far compared with actual experience...
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Sprague.rod - ah yes - I didn’t think of possible app incompatibility on updates - hmmm...
 
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I think it does depend on what you’re using it for.

I’m going from the original SE to the new SE and my reason for upgrading is primarily down to ensuring I get updates for the foreseeable future (I’m guessing the original SE isn’t going to be getting many more updates).

At the moment, I’m carrying both SEs with me - I have two belt pouches, one for each phone.

My usage is quite low - browsing web pages, updating MFP, shopping at Amazon and eBay, and using banking apps. So I’m not a power user.

For my usage, I don’t find myself feeling that the new SE is massively faster than the old SE, despite the chip being four generations removed (from A9 to A13) and the RAM increasing by 1GB. Yes, there have been a couple of occasions when I’ve thought “that felt smoother” and “that opened quickly”. But, generally speaking, if I’ve inadvertently left my new SE on the wireless charger at my desk, I don’t resent taking out the old SE and using that instead.

I will reach for the new SE if I’m going to be taking photos but, even there, the old SE doesn’t take bad photos at all.

I’ve never used a 6 and I get that it’s a generation further back than my old SE but, if it’s anything like my old SE, it’s not a bad phone at all, although I imagine it’s on limited life due to no more iOS updates.

Ultimately, it’ll come down to whether you’re ready to spend the price of the new SE or not. The one thing I think we can be pretty certain of is that the new SE is going to be around for a good few years. Whether you upgrade from your 6 to an SE this year, next year, or the year after, it’s probably going to be the same SE. Buying it now means you get extra years of a better phone. Buying it later may mean you’ll be saying “why didn’t I upgrade sooner?”.
 
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Much like you I am not a power user and don't need the latest greatest technology. I just go by iOS support. I had an iPhone 6 for five years. Sold it in August 2019 when I knew it would not be supported in iOS 13 and bought a 6s net spend $80 knowing it would get me to October / November 2020.

In 5 or 6 months when iOS 14 arrives I will have a decision to make 7, 8 or SE. That is the form factor I want, size and home button. So maybe you could consider a 7 or an 8 and not spend a huge amount on a new SE?
 
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Has there been an incident since you ditched your 6 (because of lack of support for iOS 12) where you were grateful you had support for your iOS 13? This is the bit I’m having trouble getting my head around: how often do you need to rely on this ‘support’?
 
stinkhorn9 said:
Has there been an incident since you ditched your 6 (because of lack of support for iOS 12) where you were grateful you had support for your iOS 13? This is the bit I’m having trouble getting my head around: how often do you need to rely on this ‘support’?
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In a couple years from now most Apps in the App Store will demand atleast iOS 13, otherwise you can't install them anymore. iOS 12 is still supported by 95% of all Apps, but who knows for how long? Usually it's 2 years after the launch of the new version.
 
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Agreed, I think its just better to run the latest OS and not find out what the problems might be. Given how long Apple supports hardware its not an expensive philosophy.
 
Fair enough... and - iOS 13 has already been around for (how long?)
 
I came from a 6 to the SE. The SE is better in every way, performance-wise. If you use CarPlay you’ll see a tremendous difference.

I can see hesitation to upgrade from an 8 or newer phone but switching from a 6 is a no-brainer.
 
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JSRinUK said:
I’ve never used a 6 and I get that it’s a generation further back than my old SE but, if it’s anything like my old SE, it’s not a bad phone at all, although I imagine it’s on limited life due to no more iOS updates.
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We did own the 6 and 6 Plus with Apple A8 chipset and 1GB RAM. For us, going to Apple A9 and 2GB RAM or newer was a significant improvement. Even now, both 6s and SE feel very fast. Battery's crap on the 6s but it's still fast.
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steve1960 said:
Cant recall exactly but November ish 2019
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Should be September coinciding with new iPhone release.
 
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Apologies, yes September I am just not an early adopter given how buggy new releases can be I installed it in November. Can still be said of iOS 13 today I guess!
 
ssledoux said:
And then there are those of us who go "backwards." ;-p
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Are you alluding to the demon child birthed by Sundar Pichai at Google known as 'Android'?

Jobs still goes thermonuclear exhumed from the grave, when people convert.
 
rui no onna said:
We did own the 6 and 6 Plus with Apple A8 chipset and 1GB RAM. For us, going to Apple A9 and 2GB RAM or newer was a significant improvement. Even now, both 6s and SE feel very fast. Battery's crap on the 6s but it's still fast.
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Should be September coinciding with new iPhone release.
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Exactly. The 6 needed one more gig of RAM. Because of that, it felt like it was underpowered.
 
In a similar situation my friend is still running an iPhone 4 which he just got to replace a 3. I don’t know where he’s getting these but the 3 he was using since 2007. He said he can’t really surf the internet anymore and he can’t watch any videos anymore. This includes short YouTube videos. He said all he can do is use the camera, call and text.
 
remington79 said:
In a similar situation my friend is still running an iPhone 4 which he just got to replace a 3. I don’t know where he’s getting these but the 3 he was using since 2007. He said he can’t really surf the internet anymore and he can’t watch any videos anymore. This includes short YouTube videos. He said all he can do is use the camera, call and text.
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2007 was release for the original iPhone. I misplaced mine but all I was using it for was alarm clock. Web browsing, even when it was new, you got these grey checkerboards while waiting a long time for pages to load.
 
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