Rubenerd

This post was written back in April, during a week when I messed up my post-update hooks again. I’ll be slowly posting these vanished posts over the next couple of weeks to reduce spammage.

I haven’t been this keen for an Apple phone announcement in years. The 2020 iPhone SE looks good, in large part for all the thing it doesn’t have:

• It doesn’t have an OLED screen, which is important to a minority like me for whom they cause eyestrain and headaches.

• To paraphrase Johnny Ive discussing the lampshade iMacs design affordances, its screen is still allowed to be a screen, with plain corners and no inclusions.

• It’s not intentionally-hobbled with a cheaper CPU; it uses the same silicon as the latest iPhone 11. In other words, the best mobile CPU in the industry.

• It still uses TouchID in lieu of FaceID, so you can unlock the phone while pulling it out of your pocket, and wearing a hat that casts a shadow on your face.

• It didn’t adopt the larger, heavier form factor of the iPhone X line. I would have preferred something closer in size and design to the gold standard iPhone 5, or the original SE, but I’m self-aware enough to understand that ship has long sailed.

• It doesn’t have an absurd price… by Apple standards.

Those of us who’ve stuck with an iPhone 8 have a clear upgrade path now, if and when we finally decide to move on.