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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Cwadda on September 28, 2016, 05:30:49 PM

Title: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on September 28, 2016, 05:30:49 PM
Soooo...new iPhone 7 is out which means - price drops for the earlier models! I currently have an iPhone 5 that I've used for 2.5 years. The battery isn't good and Apple wants $80 to replace it. It also doesn't run very smoothly even after wiping it and re-downloading everything.

New iPhones 6 or better run $600+ (and even $800 for the iPhone 7, isn't that disgusting?) I'm considering buying a new unlocked iPhone SE for $400 to avoid any contracts and outrageous phone bills. I would sell my current phone on Amazon for around $130. I use Airvoice at $30/month. Therefore my total phone bill would be $42/month including the phone if I use the new phone for 2 years minimum.

Does this make sense or am I just making excuses to be another fancypants phone user?
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Daley on September 28, 2016, 06:07:00 PM
You can probably replace the battery in your existing phone yourself for far less than what Apple wants to charge (a good quality replacement battery can be had for around $25-30). Head over to iFixit (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+5+Battery+Replacement/10587) and give it a gander.

There's also ways to improve responsiveness on your existing iPhone, as it sounds like the problem may be the data and history and not the phone itself. Give this a read (https://snapguide.com/guides/fix-a-slow-iphone/) and try a few of the tips to see if it helps... and search around a bit for any iOS version specific settings issues on your phone.

Beyond that, if you genuinely find yourself needing to replace the phone down the line, consider just opting out of the Apple hamster wheel. There's better, easier to repair smartphones for much less.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on September 28, 2016, 06:21:22 PM
You can probably replace the battery in your existing phone yourself for far less than what Apple wants to charge (a good quality replacement battery can be had for around $25-30). Head over to iFixit (https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+5+Battery+Replacement/10587) and give it a gander.

There's also ways to improve responsiveness on your existing iPhone, as it sounds like the problem may be the data and history and not the phone itself. Give this a read (https://snapguide.com/guides/fix-a-slow-iphone/) and try a few of the tips to see if it helps... and search around a bit for any iOS version specific settings issues on your phone.

Beyond that, if you genuinely find yourself needing to replace the phone down the line, consider just opting out of the Apple hamster wheel. There's better, easier to repair smartphones for much less.

Hi IP Daley,

If I were to buy a new unlocked phone would I be able to send MMS to non-iphone users and have visual voicemail?

Thanks for the tips.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Daley on September 28, 2016, 07:23:03 PM
If I were to buy a new unlocked phone would I be able to send MMS to non-iphone users and have visual voicemail?

Visual voicemail? Only the major carriers offer that as part of the core service, it's one of the ways services are differentiated between postpaid and prepaid/wholesale.

MMS? This is a far larger issue, and it's Apple/AT&T specific. Apple likes to dictate who you can use your phone with (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039), and what services can be used by them. The worst is with AT&T. Most AT&T MVNOs (unless they're blessed by Apple) have MMS broken by default and access to MMS settings disabled. Just another hint at the fact that you don't actually own an iPhone.

If you switch to a T-Mobile MVNO, you'll get MMS settings back, and the ability to use MMS with other contacts outside of inside-the-Apple-ecosystem-iMessage-people. If you need AT&T coverage and want to use an iPhone, you're drastically restricted to who you can use if you don't want core features like MMS broken. The only AT&T MVNO that is officially blessed by Apple from my guide is Consumer Cellular. There's only two others, and one is owned by Carlos Slim and has terrible customer service and terms of service contracts, and the other is owned by AT&T and has even worse customer support and terms of service contracts, along with poor taxes for customer service issues that no other MVNO has and an unfair pricing advantage over data rates due to the wholesale MVNO market being unregulated and AT&T wanting to eliminate competition (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/communications-tech-discussion-thread-1/msg1245566/#msg1245566).

But it depends. If you want to buy another phone and stay with Airvoice, literally ANY carrier unlocked non Apple phone will 100% work normally. If you want to stick with Apple and need AT&T coverage, you're stuck with a lot of bad and/or expensive choices.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on September 28, 2016, 08:49:54 PM
If I were to buy a new unlocked phone would I be able to send MMS to non-iphone users and have visual voicemail?

Visual voicemail? Only the major carriers offer that as part of the core service, it's one of the ways services are differentiated between postpaid and prepaid/wholesale.

MMS? This is a far larger issue, and it's Apple/AT&T specific. Apple likes to dictate who you can use your phone with (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204039), and what services can be used by them. The worst is with AT&T. Most AT&T MVNOs (unless they're blessed by Apple) have MMS broken by default and access to MMS settings disabled. Just another hint at the fact that you don't actually own an iPhone.

If you switch to a T-Mobile MVNO, you'll get MMS settings back, and the ability to use MMS with other contacts outside of inside-the-Apple-ecosystem-iMessage-people. If you need AT&T coverage and want to use an iPhone, you're drastically restricted to who you can use if you don't want core features like MMS broken. The only AT&T MVNO that is officially blessed by Apple from my guide is Consumer Cellular. There's only two others, and one is owned by Carlos Slim and has terrible customer service and terms of service contracts, and the other is owned by AT&T and has even worse customer support and terms of service contracts, along with poor taxes for customer service issues that no other MVNO has and an unfair pricing advantage over data rates due to the wholesale MVNO market being unregulated and AT&T wanting to eliminate competition (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/communications-tech-discussion-thread-1/msg1245566/#msg1245566).

But it depends. If you want to buy another phone and stay with Airvoice, literally ANY carrier unlocked non Apple phone will 100% work normally. If you want to stick with Apple and need AT&T coverage, you're stuck with a lot of bad and/or expensive choices.

Ok, thanks!

It's time to ditch the iphone5 for something newer.  That model is now 4 years old and if you've kept up with the updates (IOS 10), your phone is probably lacking in performance on top of the battery issue.

So you can put money into fixing it up or move to a newer phone.  If you want to stick with Apple - the SE is a good budget choice that should work well for the next 3 years.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cypher on September 29, 2016, 11:53:20 AM
If it is mainly a battery issue you might consider getting a Mophie battery case.  I just got a Juice Pack Air for my Iphone 5 and it doubled my battery life.  It's a good looking case that I was able to get cheap because it is an older generation phone.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: misshershey on September 29, 2016, 10:19:41 PM
I received an SE a few weeks ago as a birthday gift, and I really like it. It replaced a 4 that was starting to wear out. So far, its processing speed is nice & fast, and the battery lasts *a lot* longer than the 4--I only have to recharge every 3-4 days, instead of every night.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: dang1 on September 29, 2016, 11:45:05 PM
$400 for a phone! thats just nuts!
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Tiger Stache on September 30, 2016, 11:31:21 PM
The used SEs are running low $300s on swappa right now. Good luck.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Choices on October 01, 2016, 03:12:34 PM
Another vote for Samsung here. Love the galaxy s5. It's < $200 on eBay including a case and SD card if you find a good auction. Plus, it's waterproof and you can massively increase the memory as needed with an sd card. What's not to love? You can also trade out batteries quickly and easily if needed.

I was an apple fan for years, but they locked us out of MMS when we switched to Pure TalkUSA and we liked Pure Talk better than we liked our iPhones. So glad we switched to android.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on October 02, 2016, 11:50:26 AM
My plan is to stick with my current phone until at least Black Friday and see if there are any discounts. If I do buy a new phone it'll be with my Amex card to get a free 1 year warranty instead of paying Apple major dollars.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on October 19, 2016, 03:04:33 PM
Well I'm getting a replacement battery. Having a local person do it for $30!

I'm going to keep using this phone because I can deal with everything besides having it dying at 50% power. Hopefully get another year out of it.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on November 28, 2016, 09:36:34 AM
Yup, good as new! So glad I didn't appeal to my consumeristic side and saved energy/materials too!
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Larsg on December 17, 2016, 01:40:07 AM
I used to be on the track to upgrade my iPhone every couple of years and after several years of stupidity I realize how silly that all is. Unless you are truly, truly a travel road warrior where you MUST be available right now then what we spend on these gadgets is really unnecessary and a luxury that burns money for sure. If your work requires you to be on every second, then the work plans usually pay for it. Now that we have come around - my wife and I and realized the error of our ways for many years, we have come to realize the following about phones in general:

No longer need a land line at all - have not had one since 2000 and have never missed it. As for cell phones, the actual usage we have had has declined over time as we came to realize there were very few instance when we truly needed to use them. My work provides a cell phone for work. They pay for all the service and the phone costs 200. That was five years ago, I cannot even remember which version I'm on and the phone is still like new. Never replaced the battery as I am always near an outlet at some point even when traveling and able to recharge. We have chargers in our car and care the lap top connectors so there is really little excuse other than habit of running out of juice.

We also singed up for Google Talk and it's FREE. You can call anywhere in the US for FREE. On another post I recommended getting the Skype headphones from microsoft on amazon and that makes the sound crystal clear. That said, we pay nothing for phone service - I mean 0 and have not missed it. When our kids come of age where they WANT a cell phone, we will have to determine how to manage that wherever we land, they will have to earn and pay for anything other than bare bones safety.

Tech gadgets are super fashionable when your young. When your my age, you wish you had invested all that money you wasted on being fashionable ;).
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: FrugalKube on December 18, 2016, 11:50:47 PM
OP glad you were able to get the battery replaced! As others have said if you have to go with Apple try to stick a model behind helps keep the cost down
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: snacky on December 19, 2016, 12:46:32 AM
I've been buying older model IPhones. This is my second one, a 5. It's also my last. When Android phones update the OS they become better. When Apple phones update they always end up slower and less useful. This tends to be a lot worse right after a new version is released. I love how user friendly iPhones are, but I can't keep supporting the amped up planned obsolescence. At least be subtle about it when you screw me over, corporate overlords!
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: dodojojo on August 25, 2017, 10:54:06 AM
Quick question on MMS and Airvoice.  I have a Samsung G3...it's plodding along alright.  If switch to Airvoice, will I able be to receive MMS texts?  I have friends who are on iPhones and whenever we text, it's in MMS.  I wish they would/could change their settings so the texts were in SMS instead.  But that's out of my control.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Daley on August 25, 2017, 11:03:12 AM
Quick question on MMS and Airvoice.  I have a Samsung G3...it's plodding along alright.  If switch to Airvoice, will I able be to receive MMS texts?  I have friends who are on iPhones and whenever we text, it's in MMS.  I wish they would/could change their settings so the texts were in SMS instead.  But that's out of my control.

Yes, because Android lets you configure/change your MMS APN settings so long as the handset is carrier unlocked.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: Cwadda on August 25, 2017, 12:45:47 PM
As a follow up in case anyone was wondering. I did end up getting an iPhone SE. There was a private seller on Facebook that was selling her's used at an excellent price ($150). It's also unlocked and allows me to continue using Airvoice. So I purchased it and will be selling and donating the proceeds from my iPhone 5.

I used my iPhone 5 with the new battery for around 7 months, which gave the phone a total usage of about 3.5 years.
Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: farmecologist on August 25, 2017, 01:25:13 PM
In my opinion, a GSM unlocked iPhone SE is the best deal out there for an apple phone.  However, many 'screen snobs' can't get past the small screen. 

Title: Re: Should I buy an iPhone SE?
Post by: ooeei on August 25, 2017, 02:03:00 PM
In my opinion, a GSM unlocked iPhone SE is the best deal out there for an apple phone.  However, many 'screen snobs' can't get past the small screen.

Yup, I've had mine a little over a year and really like it. Best phone I've ever had. Great battery life, snappy interface, not so big I need to install new pockets on my pants.