Like so many people, the iPhone SE peaked a number of years in the past.
The excessive level got here in 2020, when its second-gen mannequin secured the uncommon distinction, right here and right here, of being given gushing 4.5-star critiques by two separate Macworld editors. It was a easy and compelling deal: compromise on an older design, and in return, you get excellent efficiency at a cut price worth. With its mildly retro seems the 2020 SE wasn’t for everybody, however for these on a price range, it was properly value a advice. “Not Apple’s greatest iPhone,” wrote my colleague Jason Cross, “however its greatest worth by a mile.”
As is usually the case with later entries in standard sequence, the issue is that the maker forgot what made it standard. Clients preferred the mixture of up-to-date elements with a low worth and have been glad to simply accept a two-year-old design because the payoff. Final yr’s uneven and disappointing Third-gen SE, against this, examined consumers’ persistence by providing up a 4-year-old design with the identical single digicam that also doesn’t have night time mode, and added insult to damage by mountaineering the worth by $30. Apple additionally didn’t do sufficient to deal with the earlier mannequin’s greatest failing, its mediocre battery life. The iPhone SE had dropped the ball and missed the mark.
Nonetheless, there’s at all times subsequent time, proper? Yeah, about that.
The iPhone SE 4 would possibly put proper what as soon as went improper, however the omens recommend Apple will as an alternative go too far in the wrong way. Intriguingly, sources recommend the following SE might be primarily based on the present iPhone 14, which is able to nonetheless be pretty new. Except Apple overhauls its iPhone technique, the iPhone 14 will promote for $699 and the iPhone 13 will value $599 subsequent yr. And if Apple retains the iPhone 13 mini round, it’ll slide in at $499.
That doesn’t go away a lot area for the iPhone SE, which is able to virtually actually incur a giant worth hike. OLED screens don’t come low cost, and Apple costs are trending upward anyway, notably outdoors the U.S. The aged design will likely be gone, however so will any remaining worth. Perhaps Apple can preserve the brand new mannequin below $500, but it surely feels extra like a $549 cellphone at the very least. And just like the Tenth-gen iPad, that’s the improper worth level for a cellphone that’s certain to have compromises.
Nothing particular
It’s tempting at this level to marvel why Apple would trouble to maintain making the iPhone SE when there doesn’t appear to be an apparent approach of bringing collectively worth and energy in the best way it achieved in 2020. A mixture of energy with the then-top-of-the-line A13 processor, retro appeal, and worth made a unbelievable cellphone that really felt like a particular version.
However that was through the small window when the iPhone SE made sense—after Apple had switched to all-screen cellphone designs, however earlier than the earlier design turned insultingly old school. For some time, the corporate might re-use its pre-iPhone X chassis to enchantment to these with a small price range and a hankering for a Dwelling button, however that point has handed. The transition was cemented way back, and curiosity in house buttons has dwindled simply as demand for all-screen designs has exploded.
Foundry
After all, the circumstances for the SE to thrive might come up once more sooner or later. If we finally get a folding iPhone, as an illustration, it’s doable {that a} non-folding design will come to be marketed and offered as an iPhone SE 7, say. (I’m pessimistic in regards to the timescale.) Then once more, that case feels muddier. Non-folding telephones received’t be merely a distinct segment providing for eccentric Luddites, however will co-exist alongside folding gadgets till we’re all certain they’re not going to snap in half. A big market will nonetheless wish to purchase a flagship iPhone within the conventional fashion and be prepared to pay prime greenback for the privilege.
Perhaps an easier instance could be the Dynamic Island, the shortage of which can be used to distinguish the following SE mannequin (though my very own experiences with the iPhone 14 Professional recommend the Dynamic Island has some technique to go earlier than it turns into wherever close to as vital an improve because the swap from the Dwelling button to the Dwelling indicator in 2017). Or the iPhone mini kind issue, which might simply be resurrected in 2024 as an iPhone SE. The iPhone 13 mini, for instance, has the identical A13 chip as the present SE, a bigger display screen, twice the storage, a twin digicam, an OLED show, and Face ID for $599. Apple might drop it by $100 subsequent yr and slap SE branding on it, and it might most likely be simply pretty much as good, if not higher than the SE 4 Apple is allegedly engaged on.
For now, the SE merely doesn’t make sense. If somebody is searching for a lower-priced iPhone, the best choice is sort of at all times to purchase a mannequin from a few years in the past, slightly than a quasi-new Frankenstein cellphone with a 2020 processor, 2018 digicam, and 2015 design. Apple silicon has a great shelf life, and your day-to-day expertise is much extra prone to be marred by an previous digicam or a small display screen than by an older processor.
In any case, one doesn’t get the sense that Apple is particularly within the price range marketplace for which the SE was initially designed. Don’t drive it, Apple. Hand over the SE, and concentrate on the flagship telephones you actually imagine in.
