Guess who's back, back again. SE's back, tell a friend: 2020 reboot looks like an iPhone 8 and even shares components
- Reference: 1587994330
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/27/iphone_se_2020_ifixit_teardown/
- Source link:
The cameras, SIM tray and Taptic Engine (essentially Apple's version of a vibration motor, used for haptic feedback) all share the same format as do the display, microphone and proximity sensor.
Some components, however, differ. The most surprising is the battery. Disappointingly, you can't just chuck in a cell from an old iPhone 8 if the one on your shiny iPhone SE 2020 dies because the logic board uses an entirely different connector format.
iFixit also noted the home button – which includes the Fingerprint reader – is not interchangeable with older devices. If that breaks, as often happens with mechanical components, you'll have to get Apple to fix it or purchase an aftermarket replacement.
If you do the latter, remember that TouchID – used to unlock the phone, as well as for Apple Pay – will no longer work. That's not a "bug" with the iPhone SE 2020, but rather a "feature" introduced by Apple ostensibly for security reasons.
Curiously, the connector is the same as that found on the recent iPhone 11. However, in iFixit's testing, it was unable to actually power the iPhone SE 2020 using a battery fished from an iPhone 11. And that's a touch worrying as batteries are one component you can guarantee will fail with age.
Why does this matter? Well, it demonstrates that the iPhone SE 2020 will be fairly easy to service and repair, since many common components are readily available. And as iFixit points out, this is fairly surprising as backwards compatibility isn't really in Apple's playbook.
This commonality has helped Apple sell the iPhone SE 2020 in the same neighbourhood as rival vendors, like Oppo and Xiaomi, which have captured huge swaths of market share by aggressively touting well-specced phones within the £300-£500 price point. There's very little "new" in the latest iPhone SE, save for the optics and battery. And since Apple hasn't reinvented the wheel, it's been able to reuse the same parts found in earlier models, while saving further cash on R&D costs. ®
Sponsored: [2]Legacy Modernization: Finding Your Way With Low-Code
[1] https://www.ifixit.com/News/41123/here-are-the-parts-you-can-swap-between-the-new-iphone-se-and-iphone-8
[2] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
Re: It's still the fastest Apple iPhone at the lowest Apple price
It's not a particularly small phone, just a small screen with large bezels.
Re: It's still the fastest Apple iPhone at the lowest Apple price
It measures 138 by 67 mm. I'll grant you that we've seen plenty of smaller devices. Unfortunately for those like me who like smaller devices, we haven't seen them recently. I did a search on a phone database for devices released in the last two years smaller than those dimensions, and 73 results came up. Then I adjusted the list to remove watches and feature phones. Only [1]seven results came up .
It would seem that there's at least some competition, but then I checked out each of the others. Each is an Android Go edition device, which is a reduced feature-set version of Android for devices with limited specifications, and they really mean it with the "limited specifications". The most specced phone in the list has 16 GB of flash and 1 GB of memory. Several only have 8 GB of flash. One only has 512 MB of memory! Not a single one supports 5 GHz WiFi. Most are on Android 8.1. I think we all know even those running 9.0 go edition aren't getting any updates. Not to mention that I'm doubting you can even buy many of these in your country of residence--though I could see one or two making it there, these mostly seem aimed at developing regions.
So if you want a smartphone, you want it to be new, and you want to have one smaller or equal in size to the iPhone 8, the newest iPhone may be your only reasonable option.
[1] https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2019&nWidthMax=68&nHeightMax=139&sOSes=2,3
"There's very little "new" in the latest iPhone SE, save for the optics and battery."
Um, its the same capacity battery and its the same camera with a different lens crystal
I would make a pedantic point about the home button not being mechanical at all, but no one cares.
The only real difference between the 7/8 & the SE is the cpu as as been obvious to all at launch that looked at the spec on apple.com
but how is it selling?
While I appreciate the snark at El Reg as much as the next commentard, sacrificing news and fact for snark is a waste of talent. This reads like someone shouted, "Quick, three or four hundred words on that new Apple thing!"
More interesting would be how it's selling. There's been a trend towards mobiles getting larger and larger as people use them for content consumption instead of communication, how does the market react to a comparably tiny mobile?
If you can't say something interesting, or at least funny, say nothing at all. Points off for quoting this last back to me.
"There's been a trend towards mobiles getting larger and larger"
Sure, especially in the consumer market - but there's still demand for *smaller* phones by those who use them as a pure communication device and don't watch movies nor play with them, and find the smaller form factor easier to keep in a pocket.
Re: but how is it selling?
Agreed.
If it is selling, it's to folk with an old SE who have finally realised there will never be a replacement and they have to accept this faster iPhone 8 (that they are calling an SE), instead.
There very little reason for anyone who owns a working 7 or 8 to bother with it.
Re: but how is it selling?
There very little reason for anyone who owns a working 7 or 8 to bother with it.
Yes. _working_ being the important part. That said - sure, spot on, not many will likely buy it. If it were not an i-Thing I might be tempted though (tried the interface, didn't like it, still miss the Windows phone 8.something that I had). Small screens are a niche, so of course I do not expect miracles regarding sales. As this is an iPhone 8 (essentially), and development costs were probably pretty low for Apple, low sales numbers won't matter. (except to snark, but hey, nothing wrong with that).
Re: but how is it selling?
> If it is selling, it's to folk with an old SE who have finally realised there will never be a replacement and they have to accept this faster iPhone 8 (that they are calling an SE), instead.
That's me you're describing and your body punches have landed.
The reason I went with the original SE was that the 8 was too big. Now that phablets are the new norm and Audi Q7's are larger and heavier than 1980's Ford Transit vans, what was previously a large phone is no longer so. Or, put another way, as phones have doubled in size, so have my standards. ;-)
Re: but how is it selling?
"how does the market react to a comparably tiny mobile"
I'm probably the odd-one-out here, but I want my phone to be a phone and send SMS messages, so the smaller, less complicated, and longer the battery life, the better - I'm still using a 10 year old Nokia "dumb phone" (which is probably part of the reason why Nokia had financial troubles). Whilst I appreciate the utility of smart phones, I'm almost never very far away from a laptop or PC, which is generally a superior option (due at least to a larger screen making reading things easier) unless you're outdoors.
all they got to do now is....
.... put a 3.5mm jack on it, and it will be almost the perfect phone.
It's still the fastest Apple iPhone at the lowest Apple price
It's still the fastest Apple iPhone at the lowest Apple price, perfect for my son who likes the smaller phones.