Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2018/09/12/apple-focuses-on-x-appeal-with-the-iphone-xr-xs-and-xs-max/
Apple has announced its 2018 iPhone lineup: the less expensive iPhone XR, the updated iPhone XS, and the big-screen iPhone XS Max. All three take their core design cue from last year’s iPhone X, dropping the Home button and Touch ID in favor of Face ID.
They did it. They really did it. The SE is gone. The smallest form factor is now the 4.7".
I’m quite unsure what to do. I don’t want to keep my 6 because it’s just too big (I never got over the 4->6 transition). I think I can still get an SE right now (in store? it’s not online). But pay Apple top $ for a phone with three-year old internals and essentially rewarding them for telling users like me to suck on it? Doesn’t feel right either. I might be able to get an SE later through some third party or Apple might introduce a 4" successor next spring, but the latter seems rather unlikely (as Josh points out) and the former isn’t a very probable (or reliable) scenario either. I guess I have 9 days to smarten up. 
I’m sorry, all these phones are huge 
There are people with small hands and pockets (literally pockets to put the phone in)
How can you call such a monstrosity XS? XS is extra small!
Diane
1 Like
Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave over what could be among the most pathetic, dumbest product names of all time. In addition to being terrible and easy to ridicule, it’s plain old bad strategy to draw attention to Xtemely Xcessive overpricing. Samsung, LG, etc. can have a field day with ads about this. Probably Saturday Night Live, etc. too.
But I do love the new phones and wish I could justify the upgrade.
2 Likes
September 13They did it. They really did it. The SE is gone. The smallest form factor is now the 4.7".
I’m quite unsure what to do. I don’t want to keep my 6 because it’s just too big (I never got over the 4->6 transition). I think I can still get an SE right now (in store? it’s not online).
AT&T and Consumer Cellular are selling them new, but only with a 6 month prepaid plan. Best Buy is selling AT&T prepaid SEs too. You might find other resellers, but beware of any but the bigger, respected names. I’ve known people who got stuck with overly long contracts and badly refurbished phones that were sold as new from less than reputable places.
1 Like
Good coverage. Thanks. Why did you end with question about Touch Bar?
Yeah, I’d be getting a SIM-free version and paying for it up front. Buying locked to a carrier and/or on installments is like getting involved the mob. ;) There’s of course tons of offers on Amazon, but after reading just some of those you feel like you’d need to take a shower. I’d really like to get it from Apple, but at this point it’s not clear to me how that would work.
IIUC, the least expensive iPhone is now $450 plus tax (a 7 with 32 GB, ugh) whereas before that was $350. I recall a lot of articles pointed out the price hike when the X was introduced, but I get the impression not so much has now been said about Apple declaring that from here on all things iPhone happen north of $500. To think that $500 was once considered an outrageous price for Apple to charge for “a phone”. 
Because, like Face ID last year, it seemed like it might be a technology that would make sense to extend throughout the line. Unfortunately, Apple has done nothing more with it, which means that it doesn’t get broad support in apps and users can’t assume a single experience with it across multiple Macs.
Somewhat similar to 3D Touch I guess. Unless it’s deployed across the platform, devs can’t rely on its availability, that slows adoption, etc. I wonder if seeing it now gone on the R means it’s done once the X series sees a more significant hardware update.
Precisely! I’ll be curious to see what the iPhone XR’s haptic feedback is like, but user interface things like 3D Touch need to be ubiquitous if they’re to survive and thrive.
And haven’t even released a version of the bluetooth keyboard with it in place…
Was able to buy and use the prepaid AT&T SE from Best Buy on my postpaid AT&T account, with the same phone number, about 8 months ago. They go on sale from time to time. (I paid $149, including taxes/fees/on sale). Was not on a contract and my previous iPhone 5 phone was completely paid off.
Don’t know about the future availability. If interested, I would say “get it while you can.”
I have also heard you can do something similar with the Verizon prepaid SE from BestBuy.
Used the tips in the user reviews for this prepaid phone on Best Buy site and from the SlickDeals site on how to set the phone for postpaid with AT&T. A friend who did the same thing got great help at the Best Buy to transfer his account to the phone, but I just followed the tips I found online.
Supposedly, AT&T will unlock after six months of postpaid continuous use, but I haven’t tried to unlock mine. Phone was in great condition , suspect it was new.
No major setup problems by following directions from user reviews. But, I did have to go through AT&T online chat to get wi-fi calling working, and had to turn off “Enable LTE” on the cellular settings on the SE to keep from missing text messages sent to me when the phone turned was off.
AT&T also next day FedExed to me a new SIM card (with the same phone number), but not sure this was needed. Also had to remember to deregister the old phone from my Apple account.
Steve Jobs must be turning in his grave over what could be among the most pathetic, dumbest product names of all time
Steve Jobs sold iPod Socks and a product named ROKR. I’m pretty sure he’s quiet at the moment.
They did it. They really did it. The SE is gone. The smallest form factor is now the 4.7"
We could spend a lot of time complaining, or we could look at the interesting thing, which is that Tim Cook’s Apple, which is quite heavily demand driven, sees no future for a smaller than ~6 inch phone.
(And no, it’s not just Apple. Is there a major phone company selling one that’s substantially smaller? It’s the consumers.)
I do find this general lack of small phones interesting, since I hear a LOT of demand for them, but as you point out, there’s very little supply. (In fact, I know a number of people who eschew smartphones entirely in part for this reason.) It surprises me that we’ve never gotten a public statement about this lack of demand, or real stats on it.
I wonder if the lack of demand might be because the iPhone SE was old technology when it shipped. If it hadn’t been a compromise between size and capabilities, it might have been more popular. It could also then be more expensive, which Apple definitely wants.
Finally, Apple (Jony Ive) usually has a bit of a fetish for making things as small as possible, even when it’s not helpful, such as making the iMac really thin. But perhaps that’s all going into the Apple Watch these days.
Last night after saying I would go elsewhere, I took a look and sadly the SE was about the smallest thing out there. I still want to find a nice comprehensive chart instead of the “each phone on a page thing” .
Because I use mine for music and GPS I’d hate to go back to a non-smart phone (also rare) but sheesh these sizes are nuts.
Since I came from the 4s, I found the SE to be a wonderful upgrade and 3 years later I’m still more than happy with it.
Diane
ps - about the Watch - yes it’s nice and small but I do not wear anything on my fingers or wrists because I tend to catch them on things in day to day activities. I’m sure I’m not the only out there in this predicament.
Diane
Ever since the AW came out, I’ve been wondering how long it will take for Apple to come out with a cellular version completely independent of any other device, a “wrist iPhone”. I don’t think I’d want one, but it would certainly solve the size problem. They could even reverse the current situation and sell iPod Touch like devices with iPhone size screens that use the watch as the communications hub for those that wanted larger screens.
I think, though, that if the demand was there, there would be some company building small smart phones, and I don’t think there are.
Yeah but once phones got small (i.e. flip phones) whoever thought they’d be huge again a-la 1990s
Diane