So it looks like March 15 will be the event in which Apple unveils the next round of stuff: new Watch information (and possibly new bands), an iPad Air 3 with some sort of compatibility with the Pro’s accessories and special features, and of course the much-debated iPhone 5SE, so-called, which the Great Mentioner now thinks will be running the chipset of the iPhone 6S alongside the camera of the 6 and the form factor, more or less, of the 5S (or perhaps the current iPod Touch). The logic behind giving it the 6S chipset is that Apple doesn’t want to produce a new phone which will be two generations behind current come September, so we will presumably get to Columbus Day with all Apple phone offerings running either the A9 or the notional A10 in the notional iPhone 7.
And the rumors are flying about that – now in addition to the absence of a traditional headphone jack, we are asked to believe that wireless charging (at some distance, no less) are part of the package for the 7. It’s starting to sound like Jony Ive is serious about creating the Movie Phone – complete slick and modern and no wires ever and is never plugged in and magically juices up. It’s a nice thought. I’m not sure it’s what I want to gamble on just yet. Having the wireless tethering to the watch and Bluetooth headphones has already proven harsh on the battery without having to stand within a foot of the magic pad to get some charge back in the damn thing.
In a lineup like that, too, the 5SE moniker makes even less sense. If the phone is a smaller version of the 6S without TouchID (and a 8 MP camera rather than 12), why not just say 6C and make it “compact” rather than “cheap”, have the 6S and 6S Plus, and then the 7? Why stick to the 5 numbering at all? I’m trusting that this will all get cleaned up sometime in the next five weeks.
But the big thing is this: I have to hold off on buying any of this nonsense. I have batteries lying around everywhere (I think I may own at least three lipstick chargers plus the external case) and my iPhone 6 through work is unlocked, so there is no percentage in buying this notional new iPhone until proven by experiment and math that the newer chipset and smaller screen actually work out to superior battery life. Otherwise, there are much better things I can burn this $650 of walking-around money on, mostly in London…
EDITED TO ADD: So at lunchtime today I finally had the opportunity to handle the much-debated Apple Smart Battery Case with an actual iPhone 6S in it. For as much abuse as Apple’s taken over this product, it’s been all in the wrong direction; everyone went mental about the “hump” in back. Well, spoiler alert: the hump means that the edges are just the same as they would be normally, and the hump fits in (but doesn’t fill in my case) the hollow in your hand while holding the phone. No other battery case I’ve ever used on any iPhone was able to accomplish that (although the Moto X did it internally, with a terrace-stepped battery in the rounded body of the phone itself). And the practical upshot is that with the Apple case, it’ll draw all its power from the case first and leave the phone fully charged, rather than having to use the case to charge the phone at diverse times.
The biggest shame on this case is its necessity, not its implementation. The implementation is surprisingly good. It’s only because I’ve already spent that $100 on all the above-mentioned external batteries than I don’t spend it on this.