iphone SE 2 now?

July 16, 2022 6:42 AM

Or is it already too old? Also ipad.

Hi, Mefites,

My iphone 7 is nearing EOL with apples coming software update and I'm thinking of replacing it with a refurbished iphone SE 2.
Do I have any chance that this model will be updateable for a few years or would it be wiser to go for a more recent model?

Also, what would be a feasible replacement for my ipad air 2? Not interested in bigger or faster, just something able to be updated for a few years.

posted by Thug to Technology (10 answers total)

The SE (2020) will be good-to-go for the next few years. It was only discontinued this year, and shares much of the same guts as the iPhone 11 including the A13.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:44 AM on July 16, 2022

I have the SE2 and it’s great. Only complaint is that some mobile tools (apps, web) seem to default to a larger screen nowadays 🙄so occasionally I have to zoom out or shrink the text size to 85% to get everything on my screen.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 7:01 AM on July 16, 2022

Best answer: You might even want to wait a bit still. The 7 won't get the next OS release but Apple generally puts out a year of security patches for the old release, and with iOS 12 (the last release that obsoleted a lot of phones) it was two years. Running the old release will get steadily more annoying as apps start requiring new releases, but if you're happy with your devices and don't believe yourself to be at elevated risk, it probably isn't pressing to upgrade.
posted by wotsac at 7:14 AM on July 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

The SE 2 was discontinued in March this year, Apple generally support phones for a minimum of 5 years, so it should be good until March 2027.
If you were to buy the new SE 3, that will probably stay in production for 2 years and get 5 years support after that, so March 2029.

If you divide the price of the phone by the expected number of years support, that will give you the cost per year to compare.
posted by Lanark at 7:20 AM on July 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks guys :-)
I'll wait a bit.
posted by Thug at 8:15 AM on July 16, 2022

The iPhone 7 was only discontinued in Sept 2019 so it does seem they are cutting off support much sooner than they have for other phones.
posted by Lanark at 8:33 AM on July 16, 2022

wait a month and a half before making any decisions - the new one always comes out in september, so that changes the market
posted by oceanjesse at 9:21 AM on July 16, 2022

I bought an SE2 on Swappa a month ago to replace my end-of-battery-life 6S and am perfectly satisfied. I chose it because it's the same (small) size.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:36 AM on July 16, 2022

I bought an SE2 to replace an iPhone 6S and it did just the trick - same size, but better camera, still has fingerprint recognition (I *hate* face recognition). I really recommend it. It is a little smaller than your iPhone 7, though.

I plan to keep my SE2 til I can't anymore. I will say that now that I'm 2 years in I am noticing some of the drop-off in battery life that plagued earlier models, though not as severe.

My SE2 needed a battery replacement after two years (it was still under Apple Care!), but since I had it replaced it has been great.

You could wait but why do that when you can use and enjoy it now? It will certainly be an upgrade over your 7.
posted by urbanlenny at 10:58 AM on July 16, 2022

I have an iPhone SE (not the SE 2022, the last one) and it's a totally fine phone for 2022. Still runs the latest iOS and gets security updates, apps run fine, lots of accessories for it, etc. etc.

I'd assume the SE 2022 would be even better and would probably give you at least 5 years, no problems at all. If I were buying an iOS phone today (and not like a month before the 2022 model came out) that's probably what I'd be looking hard at.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:41 PM on July 16, 2022