Monday, June 10, 2019

Supporting the iPhone SE Resolution

Kuba Suder:

So, you’d like to drop support for iPhone SE because the screen is “tiny”? Apparently there are still as many active iPhones SE out there as iPhones X + XS + XS Max combined… 😲

iOS 13 drops support for iPhone 6, but it still supports iPhone SE. And iPhone 6s, 7, and 8 use the iPhone SE resolution when Display Zoom is enabled. Even if Apple introduces no new phones at these sizes, which I doubt, it will be a while before no one is using this resolution.

Update (2019-06-11): Joe Groff:

Also, the iPod Touch was just refreshed mere weeks ago, with the same resolution!

Meek Geek:

Apple is still manufacturing new iPhone 6s in India for the local market. The SE resolution isn’t going away.

Update (2019-06-13): Kuba Suder:

FYI, these stats seem to change a lot from week to week, when I posted this iPhone SE had ~7%, and now it’s ~17%… It’s probably not 17% on average, but I think it’s safe to assume it’s enough to make sure your app works on it.

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iOS 13 drops support for devices without at least 2GB of RAM. That is the real cutoff here.

And they just released the A10 iPod touch of course, though I know Apple don’t always worry too much about the number of updates those things get.

Still clinging on to my SE, but it’s dying.

I wish just one company would make a new premium phone this size. Or even IPhone 4 size with an edge to edge display.

Before my SE died, I noticed apps like Maps and WhatsApp were like using MS Word on Windows 3.11 with all toolbars enabled on a 12" monitor. You get a tiny space where you would see the map/where you can read your message...

Are there any stats on how many people have Display Zoom enabled?

> I wish just one company would make a new premium phone this size

I guess the Google Pixel 3 is the closest to that right now.

I take that back, the Pixel 3 has a 5.5" screen. For some reason, I thought it was 4.5". I guess there are no premium phones with small screens right now.

iPhone 5S was released in 2013 and it was the last premium smartphone with a small screen, so the entire industry, including Apple is absolutely sure that people do now want small size phones. They treat it as axiom now, and it's understandable why leading companies would not bother.
But some of the smartphone makes are struggling, and market is ripe for them to try. But they are ignoring this niche.

I'm with Adrian: I'd love an iPhone 4-sized device with good performance and decent front/back cameras.

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