For the last few weeks, there’ve been rumors of an upcoming iPhone SE 2. The follow-up to Apple’s iPhone SE, which was unceremoniously cancelled last year without any indication of a future for the diminutive phone, would be based on the iPhone 8 body rather than the older iPhone 5s design. Now, a noted Apple analyst and reputable leaker, Ming-Chi Kuo, has released additional details on the device.
The new iPhone SE 2 will supposedly lack features like 3D Touch, but the phone will use the same SoC that powers the current iPhone 11. We can expect the core to be clocked lower, due to the significantly smaller form factor. With that said, the original SE continues to perform quite well. I own one, and while I’m sure a modern A13 would be faster than the 2016 A9 that powers it, it’s holding up remarkably well for a 3.5-year-old phone — certainly much better than my iPhone 5c was by the same point in its life cycle.
Other features will include 3GB of LPDDR4, 64GB and 128GB storage options, with Space Gray, Silver, and Red for colors, according to the report. One concern from some users is the expanded device size. Moving to the iPhone 8 will make the phone larger, but not by as much as it might sound. While the screen moves from a 4.0-inch to 4.7-inch diagonal, the actual screen area increases from 44cm2 to 60.9cm2. The iPhone 8 display is 1.38x larger than the iPhone SE’s measured in screen area, and it has a higher screen-to-body ratio, though both are quite low compared with modern phones. The iPhone SE’s screen-to-body ratio is 60.8 percent, while the iPhone 8’s is 65.4 percent.
Fortunately, the iPhone 8 is only slightly wider than the SE. The iPhone 8 is roughly 1.15x wider, at 67.3mm compared with 58.6mm. It’s slightly thinner as well, though I don’t consider thinness to be a very good trade for narrowness where hand fit is considered. I actually considered an iPhone 8 when I was looking at the SE and went to the trouble to go to an Apple store to physically hold both phones. The iPhone 8 is small enough to fit in the palm of one’s hand, even if the added width is noticeable. I ended up going with the SE for reasons of price, though I’ll admit I still preferred the smaller hand feel as well. The iPhone 8 is, however, a vastly superior option for a small iPhone compared with no small device at all. As someone who has missed the SE since Apple killed it, I’m hoping the SE 2 is a real product that proves a worthy successor.
Supposedly Apple believes it will sell 2-4M iPhone SE 2’s per month, with 2020 shipments in the 30 million range. Price is supposed to start at $399, with the goal of incentivizing iPhone 6s and 6s Plus members to upgrade, according to 9to5Mac. That last is an interesting idea, because we wouldn’t expect 6s Plus owners to be interested in upgrading to devices with smaller screens.
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