I understand what you are saying but the problem is that Apple doesn't have a good record when it comes to making cheaper phones. Because it's an old design, they don't have to do anything to differentiate it. They can keep the materials and everything. It's not even the smallest phone, the mini is smaller with a larger display and cell. If they were to design an SE from scratch, they would have to differentiate it and there is a real risk that they would screw up. We will see how well it sells. They can still bring out a Plus version with a bigger display and bigger cell. The next design in line is the iPhone X. But that shell was said to be relatively expensive (stainless steel). It also used OLED. Perhaps the Xr then? In a couple of years.

For me, the advantage is longer support and potentially better endurance, although you might have to avoid 5G. Personally, I don't mind LTE and I would rather take lower energy consumption over higher speed. This isn't the phone you buy if you're constantly playing games or watching movies.

Some people like the home button and don't care as much about the cameras, but to recycle the 8 year old design with no real changes, alongside another rerun, the ipad air, alongside an uninspired Mac Studio was certainly disappointing as a keynote. And the monitor doesn't have HDR.

It wasn't the most disappointing keynote ever, but it was close. And Apple has lost imagination across the lineup. The new chips are great, but the new devices are uninspiring at best. The Studio didn't even have the clever power/network cable combo of the Imac.

Thanks for sharing your impressions and hunches.

Ultimately you lucked out and your general gist is relatively on point. This revision is indeed boring and doesn't offer anything truly interesting besides 5G and that isn't panning out to be so fascinating - most people don't even have home internet as fast as the gigabit LTE capabilities present in SE 2020.

Here are my notes:

Battery life improvement should be appreciable.

The improved performance / ISP in A15 permits Smart HDR 4, Deep Fusion, Slo-mo video recording 1080p at 120fps and more responsive video and photo capture.

Added support for GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou.

Future features will likely require A15 capabilities / performance not present in A13. However there is currently lack of exciting features in current iOS 15 that require the newer chip unlike with an upgrade from iPhone 8 to iPhone SE 2022.

It's a little bit lighter than SE 2.

Now, how about some legit gripes?

- Lack of 5G mmWave (but who cares for today at least - you probably don't live in small footprint where this is deployed)

- lack of ultra wideband chip for spatial awareness; an actual huge bummer and is definitely the tie breaker for me - I'll be staying with the SE 2022 for now.

With such a high price and so less improvement, I have to believe that this can only be a strategy to convince buyers to shell out a few more dollars and buy an iPhone 12. Some psychology at play.

I was looking for a new phone and with rumors of a 340 dollar phone, I was considering it. Now its 430 dollars. The company has already captured my attention and then disappointed me. The brain being ever so eager definitely wants an iPhone. I look at the iPhone 12 mini and am tempted by it. If I did have that much money I would have been manipulated to buy it.

This was just a psychological game to convince people to buy their costlier models.

I've been quite happy with my 1st generation iPhone SE as I am a light user and it is a little gem of a device. I've used it 4 years and I just might get another SE someday.  :)

Good article, although you did not harp on battery enough. 3 hours of screen on time is pathetic and outright kills the phone altogether for most/many modern users... leaving super-light users/elderly. The SE3 is the same deal, it's actually less about the ugly/outdated design that should push people away from the phone, it's the battery. 1800 mah is unusable.. it kills the device, understand not only is battery horrible, but it will also AGE horribly, unlike a larger cell, a double whammy. My mom's SE2 gets like 2.5hr SOT 1.5 years later..