Live data from Hacker News

The 2020 iPhone SE

daringfireball.net

61–70 of 317 posts

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#61
post #55
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the gesture that replaced it is significantly more likely to cause repetitive stress injuries

Citation? This is bullshit.

It puts more strain on the tendon which is what ends up getting injured first. If you have both types of phones go do each one 1000 times in 20 minutes each on separate days. See how your hand feels after each one.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#62
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how comparable Geekbench actually is across different CPU architectures and operating systems though? Linus Torvalds is quoted here: https://www.realworldtech.com/forum/?threadid=185109&curpost... as saying that Geekbench 4.0 shouldn't be treated as a valid comparison between desktops/laptops and phones. (However this review used Geekbench 5.0 - not sure what differences there are).

Specint benchmarks conducted by Anandtech show the A13 going toe-to-toe with the 9900K [0], although x86 still has a decent lead for floating point. [0] https://www.anandtech.com/show/14892/the-apple-iphone-11-pro... (scroll down to the 2nd last plot, look at the right half)

Do mobile chips focus less on floating point for some reason? Could that explain the seemingly massive difference in perf/watt?

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#63
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've upgraded my iPhone five times, just recently to the SE, and each time it's been exclusively for the camera. Literally exclusively, since in many other respects the functionality is going in reverse (loss of home button, touch ID, headphone port, etc.) I swallow it all for a better camera.

You know you can get cameras now without a phone bundled with them.

The best camera is the one you have with you at all times, at the exact moment you need it.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#64
post #49
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It still has a home button. Why is this a benefit? The removal of the home button might have been the best thing since the home button itself. The gesture that replaced is an order of magnitude better.

There's no disputing preferences. I still feel weird about face ID, and would rather have buttons.

Sure, nothing is stopping you from preferring inferior options. The button is objectively worse. It is more complicated mechanically, it is slower for all of its functions, and it wastes almost an inch of screen space to nothing. The redeeming aspect of it is Touch ID if the pros outweigh the cons for your preferred use case vs. Face ID.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#65

> So, yes, a $400 iPhone SE bests a $3,000 top-of-the-line MacBook Pro in single-core CPU performance. This is baffling.

Beating the laptop is impressive, but the top of the line part was unnecessary and counter productive. More expensive CPUs often have more cores running at a slower speed. For example, the bottom end 16" MacBook Pro comes with a 2.6 GHz CPU and the top end one comes with a 2.4 GHz CPU. Yes, there is Turbo Boost which can in some cases turn off cores in exchange for higher clock frequencies, but good luck getting much…

The 16” MacBook Pro definitely has enough headroom to sustain the top turbo speed for at least most of a Geekbench run. Its not a very large benchmark.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#66
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something has got to be screwy. The iPhone has a TDP of 6W and a clock speed of 2.5GHz. The MBP has boost clocks of 5GHz and a 45W TDP.

Synthetic benchmarks are extremely unreliable.

I imagine even more so than usual when the two things being tested have different operating systems and CPU architectures. Although these benchmark results would still have to be wrong by a lot to stop being impressive.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#67
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've upgraded my iPhone five times, just recently to the SE, and each time it's been exclusively for the camera. Literally exclusively, since in many other respects the functionality is going in reverse (loss of home button, touch ID, headphone port, etc.) I swallow it all for a better camera.

You know you can get cameras now without a phone bundled with them.

[deleted]

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#68
I use both styles of iPhones, an XS as my phone and a 6S as my at-work iPod and device for random moments of RSS-type surfing. I am not a heavy or advanced user. My preference is unquestionably toward the 6S style of size and operation. FaceID on the XS is great when wet fingers are an issue (often for me at work) and for in-app password authentications.

All told, I prefer the one-handed usability of the smaller 6S and that includes losing the newer-design interactions, particularly control center on the XS necessitating two hands to invoke it. In fact, I'm the reverse of Gruber—I'm apt to use old-UI gestures on my XS (not that it happens often, I tend to switch seamlessly).

Fine. Whatever. That's just me. What I find more disturbing is all the words spilled by reviewers about all these devices. At this point, not much is significantly changing in what's offered with new devices, so the simple lists of Pros and Cons capture most everything. Using Gruber's review as an example, I don't find a need for multi-paragraph expositions on the UI changes that took place years ago, and I suspect most of his readers are informed enough that they don't either.

For the average person, battery life is similar among models, all the cameras are impressive, the screens and speed great. The tradeoffs between models are generally minimal but distinct—just list them.

Overall, smartphone innovation has plateaued and so too have the reviews.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#69

> So, yes, a $400 iPhone SE bests a $3,000 top-of-the-line MacBook Pro in single-core CPU performance. This is baffling.

Beating the laptop is impressive, but the top of the line part was unnecessary and counter productive. More expensive CPUs often have more cores running at a slower speed. For example, the bottom end 16" MacBook Pro comes with a 2.6 GHz CPU and the top end one comes with a 2.4 GHz CPU. Yes, there is Turbo Boost which can in some cases turn off cores in exchange for higher clock frequencies, but good luck getting much…

I don’t think Apple is considering the A13 unnecessarily on the SE2. The A13 will allow for it to be “fast” for like 5 more years. Corporations/governments/non-us lower income counties are going to love this phone especially BRICs imo. This was the absolute best choice Apple could make for a ‘generic’ phone to eat google & androids lunch.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#70
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: iPhone's buttons are not mechanical buttons starting with iPhone 7. The click you feel when you press it is just the taptic engine. If you have an iPhone 7 or 8, try turning it off and try to press the button.

I knew this was true, as you can't click it when battery is off, but I still don't get it: how does it work, and why?

How: haptic feedback using a weighted linear actuator.

Why: I suspect because it debuted with the iPhone 7, the first officially water resistant iPhone, that it was a waterproofing move to get rid of possible ingress points.

Post reply on HN