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iPhoneSE2

On September 12, Apple introduced three new devices and killed the best, most affordable product that it previously manufactured. It did and then without fanfare or announcement as far as I tin tell. I'm non fifty-fifty sure it mentioned anything from the stage at its event. But at some during the announcement of the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max, the iPhone SE quietly slipped off Apple's pages. Attempting to follow notwithstanding-existing Google links claiming to allow you to buy one returns you to Apple's default iPhone page.

There are some real, practical implications to this shift. Beginning, the minimum price to enter the Apple ecosystem simply jumped by 1.28x, to $449. That buys you lot an iPhone 7 — a two-twelvemonth-sometime production that doesn't fit the hand every bit well every bit the iPhone SE, lacks a headphone jack, and has weaker battery life. If you footstep up to the iPhone 8, you trade even more than battery life relative to the excellent iPhone SE but pay another $150 for the privilege. Truthful, there are some photographic camera improvements, like the improver of optical image stabilization (OIS) — only whether that feature is worth the compromises is an open question.

iPhoneSEFeature

Still the best iPhone. Fight me.

I've been an Apple customer since I bought my starting time smartphone in 2009. I'm non interested in Android thanks to Google's spying practices, and with Windows Phone dead, well, you're an Apple customer or a Google client. I've got no bone to pick with people who love Android or Android devices, simply most Android manufacturers stopped building pocket-sized phones years agone. With Apple tree leaving the space, there's nobody edifice devices for people who don't want giant phones, despite the fact that millions of Americans, including most women, have hands that fall towards the smaller side of the spectrum.

In my case, my hands are, then far as I'g aware, boilerplate-sized. But if I'one thousand being honest, I'k a bit clumsy. Part of personal responsibility is using a device like a protective example, which I do. But part of it is buying a device you know you lot're more likely to be able to hold on to in the beginning place, and 1 critical reason I don't drop my phone even more than than I do already is because I also bought a device I could securely cradle while typing on it with the same hand. With the iPhone SE, my beginning finger braces the back of the device while my index and little finger fingers use lateral pressure to keep information technology firmly pressed into the palm of my hand. I tin grip the device deeply while simultaneously typing. If I need to clench my hand around the phone I can practice so instantly, without involving my other hand.

Of class, everybody has different-sized hands and different ways of thinking about this issue. But when you lot combine loss of the headphone jack in other models, the lower battery life, (the SE was amend than any other non-Plus iPhone and rivaled the iPhone X), the price, and the size, this was Apple's best phone. I'one thousand far from the only person who thinks so or the merely one to mourn its loss.

Thankfully, I upgraded to an SE earlier this twelvemonth, which means I should exist fine until 2022 or so as far every bit upgrades are concerned. But this is a disappointing consequence for anyone who didn't want a phone with a screen you could eat dinner on. And if Apple thinks its long-term future revolves entirely around consumers who desire six.1-inch phones, then information technology may be time to go back to feature phones birthday. I'd rather not carry a smartphone at all than drop one-half the cost of a high-terminate laptop on a production I'm probable to shatter within six weeks.

Now Read: Apple Announces iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, Two Years Later Apple Killed the Headphone Jack, USB-C is a Disaster, and Apple tree Reportedly Plans Lower Price MacBook, Mac Mini Pro