The 2020 iPhone SE • Hacker News Board

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#221

Post by ianai » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

iso1631 wrote: post #207

swiley wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My iPhone SE got destroyed and I got a 7 to replace it since they wouldn’t give me another SE. The larger screen isn’t nicer and just makes the phone harder to hold. I actually feel like I have a harder time touching things accurately as well, I think the 7 detects touches at a different place on your finger. And of course I can’t use headphones, I ordered a dongle from newegg and waited weeks and now it hasn’t come.…

I've had smart phones for over a decade, and a mobile phone for 2, I can't think of any point when I've needed water resistance. I have however had a smashed screen once, and the bigger a phone is, the harder it is to hold, the more likely the screen will smash The old macbooks were great with the maglock power lead not pulling them off the desk. I believe new ones have downgraded the connector?

New ones just charge over usb-c.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#222

Post by zeusk » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:07 PM UTC

captaincrowbar wrote: post #177

There's a good reason why Apple aren't making the small form factor phone lots of you are asking for: logistics. The new SE requires very little new manufacturing capacity. The case and probably battery are from the iPhone 8; the CPU/GPU/SOC and most of the rest of the electronics are from the iPhone 11; the camera still seems to be a slightly unknown quantity but the specs suggest it has a lot in common with the iPh…

I'm not sure you understand what you're saying. The chips are quite a lot more efficient than they were in iPhone 5/8. You might have to scale back slightly on frequency for both power and thermal design but it won't be close to the water through sieve metaphor you put in.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#223

Post by bproven » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

captaincrowbar wrote: post #177

There's a good reason why Apple aren't making the small form factor phone lots of you are asking for: logistics. The new SE requires very little new manufacturing capacity. The case and probably battery are from the iPhone 8; the CPU/GPU/SOC and most of the rest of the electronics are from the iPhone 11; the camera still seems to be a slightly unknown quantity but the specs suggest it has a lot in common with the iPh…

I agree, but with Apple's obsession with making laptops smaller, more powerful - can we have that in a model of phone too? Ya know like innovation for this ..? I do think there is a market here for a small, powerful phone in old SE form factor.

But I know the reason here is tackle low cost and leveraging what you stated is what gets it there. So I do get it ...

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#224

Post by Dylan16807 » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

ip26 wrote: post #198

wtallis wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crypto doesn't do floating point. Media transcoding does SIMD, but not usually not floating point.

Fair enough wrt media. However SIMD e.g. MMX is done in the floating point unit ( https://softpixel.com/~cwright/programming/simd/mmx.php ) I thought bitcoin mining was floating point, and that was why GPUs were so adept.

MMX is obsolete.

SSE/AVX has its own set of registers. It can do floating point and integer operations. It would not be correct to refer to it as a floating point unit.

GPUs are good at mining because they can do so many calculations in parallel. They're just as capable of integer operations as the SIMD units on a CPU.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#225

Post by veselin » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:22 PM UTC

captaincrowbar wrote: post #177

There's a good reason why Apple aren't making the small form factor phone lots of you are asking for: logistics. The new SE requires very little new manufacturing capacity. The case and probably battery are from the iPhone 8; the CPU/GPU/SOC and most of the rest of the electronics are from the iPhone 11; the camera still seems to be a slightly unknown quantity but the specs suggest it has a lot in common with the iPh…

All you say is that it does not serve very well the Apple shareholders to build such a device, because it will have lower profit margins. Not that it will not serve its users.

Of course, judging by most of the comments, the users are completely happy with this. Some are throwing money on their monitors despite saying it is a compromise. So you are right that a different device is/was quite unlikely.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#226

Post by pmontra » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:28 PM UTC

iso1631 wrote: post #207

swiley wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My iPhone SE got destroyed and I got a 7 to replace it since they wouldn’t give me another SE. The larger screen isn’t nicer and just makes the phone harder to hold. I actually feel like I have a harder time touching things accurately as well, I think the 7 detects touches at a different place on your finger. And of course I can’t use headphones, I ordered a dongle from newegg and waited weeks and now it hasn’t come.…

I've had smart phones for over a decade, and a mobile phone for 2, I can't think of any point when I've needed water resistance. I have however had a smashed screen once, and the bigger a phone is, the harder it is to hold, the more likely the screen will smash The old macbooks were great with the maglock power lead not pulling them off the desk. I believe new ones have downgraded the connector?

> I can't think of any point when I've needed water resistance.

I couldn't too, then I fell into a channel. No harms to me and my bicycle but I had to turn off the phone and let it dry for a day before I could use it again.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#227

Post by pmontra » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:33 PM UTC

coldpie wrote: post #188

captaincrowbar wrote: post #177

There's a good reason why Apple aren't making the small form factor phone lots of you are asking for: logistics. The new SE requires very little new manufacturing capacity. The case and probably battery are from the iPhone 8; the CPU/GPU/SOC and most of the rest of the electronics are from the iPhone 11; the camera still seems to be a slightly unknown quantity but the specs suggest it has a lot in common with the iPh…

All that makes sense, but forget Apple, one of the Android manufacturers should serve this market. I feel like there's a sizeable niche that could fund one small, high quality Android phone. It's really never been done; all the small phones that have come out have been compromised in some way. Sony's Xperia Compact line came the closest, but it doesn't use stock Android, which is a huge point against it. I feel like…

The size of X Compact was perfect. Too bad it was so thick. Doing it nowadays with a no bezel screen would give me a screen of the size I'd like to have. I mean: my current phone as a larger no bezel screen, but I'd chop away at least 2 cm of it to get a smaller phone the size of the Compact.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#228

Post by rsynnott » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:33 PM UTC

gofreddygo wrote: post #117

Yeah whatever. One thing all the iPhone SE reviews from the pundits I've read miss is how Apple, mighty Apple, with all it's brand loyalty and design excellence was forced by the market to take a stable version of the design and release it for a third of the cost of its flagship. Reasons? * iPhone sales have been dropping consistently. * No new gimmick to drive flagship price higher. * Economy is heading to the dumps…

Like the first SE (and the far less successful iPhone 5C) this is an attempt to sell to a more price-sensitive market that wouldn't consider their flagships in the first place. It's also not exactly unique; Samsung has everything from 100 euro units to those folding phones that cost twice as much as an 11 Pro, say.

The original SE didn't noticeably cannibalise the flagships, and it was in some ways a more appealing device than this (it filled the "smaller" niche, whereas it's hard to see how this one is in any way better than an 11 Pro).

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#229

Post by ssully » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:35 PM UTC

WildGreenLeave wrote: post #144

millstone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do miss the home button for authentication. FaceID requires "full attention", while TouchID works even while distracted, and (crucially) in landscape. But for multitasking, I really do prefer the swipe-up gesture. I don't find it painful at all, it feels very natural: touch from the bottom, slide up, and then horizontally to select what you want.

Oh don't get me started about how many times I have do a weird 90 degrees head turn to unlock my XS when it is in landscape mode. I don't get why it is so hard to compare a 90 degree rotated FaceID match. Everyone that owns a iPhone with FaceID knows the trouble, for everyone else it looks like I am trying to read something without turning my phone.

I don't think you actually have to do that. At least with my iPad pro, when it is in landscape, I don't have to do anything different with my head. The only issue I have is if I am holding it in landscape with my hands I have to move my hand off of the camera so it can see me.

Re: The 2020 iPhone SE

#230

Post by sbruno » Thu, Apr 23, 2020, 2:39 PM UTC

m12k wrote: post #126

Compared to my first gen SE, I'd like the faster processor, better camera and better battery life. But I'm not sure I'm willing to go up in size and weight, and get the rounded edges that make it even harder to grip one-handed. For me, a bigger screen isn't a plus - after years of following the trend and being on my phone more and more, I managed to kick the habit and I'm very happy that my phone has now found its ri…

I hear you. I was like you for the longest time. I had an SE for 3~ years and I absolutely loved it. I researched and researched to find another phone with the exact same dimensions. Couldnt find anything. The thought of moving up to a bigger phone pained me.

I eventually bought the iphone 8 about 6 months ago. And my god, it is just as good if not better. The size that scared me so much? Turns out I like it even more. The speed has been great, and I never knew how much I'd appreciate the larger screen. Point is, I know where you're coming from. But trust me, the iphone 8 size still feels relatively easy to hold (I can still comfortably hold it with one hand 100% of the time), and I have 0 regrets whatsoever about the upgrade.