[sampleinajar]

As a single anecdotal datapoint, I haven't bought a new phone since my iPhone SE, and I got that on an installation plan. I also have not upgraded my OS for quite a while either. Ultimately, I can't afford to just buy a new phone in cash without thinking ahead, and I am loathe to add another $30+ a month to my expenses for little perceived benefit. I don't care about the camera. I don't like the bigger phones, and I do not like how each new OS update from apple slowly "breaks" the older phones. I'm pretty much going to hold out until either all my apps no longer work or the phone actually has a hardware failure. I still get a great battery life. I'm pretty sure I'm just an old man yelling at a cloud though.

[tfandango]

I think there is a big market for the SE. Aside from people like yourself who like the form factor, I want buy them for my kids. A) They are cheap, B) with an otterbox they are pretty much indestructible, C) I can use the apple ecosystem to do a bunch of stuff like backups, tracking, remote wipe, reuse apple music subscriptions and purchased music, etc. D) if it breaks or gets lost, I only get 50% mad.

My son has had one for 3 years, it's still great. I stupidly bought my daughter an iphone 8 because they didn't have the SE in stock anymore, and she dropped it 100 times (with case) and then finally dropped it in the toilet. I have $250 left on the installment plan, so she's sans phone until I buy her the cheapest Android imaginable as that's my only choice these days.

[checkyoursudo]

I like my SE so much that I bought a spare last time they were in the online store to use when this one is kaput. I have a spare one for my wife, too, when her current one is done.

If Apple introduces another phone in that size range before I have to break out the backups, especially if it's in the $400 price range, then I'll buy the new phone and give the backup ones to my kids.

For what I need from a phone, the SE is as good as I have been able to find.

[yardie]

The iPhone 7 and 8 are water resistant. Dropping it in the toilet (beyond the yuck factor) should not have done anything to it. Did she flush it as well?

[xtiansimon]

Haha. This is me—5s with an Otterbox and a _lanyard_! You know how gun slingers notch their Colt with how many men they’ve gunned down? My Otterbox has seven notches from how many fatal falls it took. Big love for the 5s

[snazz]

How did it not survive the toilet? Unless the screen was badly cracked or something, it shouldn’t admit any water for a very long time at that depth.

[tfandango]

She previously dropped it so many times that the glass was cracked and chipped off in places, so water just rushed in I'm sure. Not blaming the phone at all, it was amazing it lasted long enough to take a swim in the toilet.