iPhone SE2 experience

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My new iPhone SE2 arrived about 3pm on Thursday. It looked like it was almost fully charged so I restored the latest backup from my earlier Phone and just got on with using it. It’s now about 3pm on Saturday…. so about 48 hours later.

The new phone has been switched on all the time (although I only switch Bluetooth on when I’m in the car), I’ve made several phone calls and sent even more iMessages and SMS texts plus used it continuously for 15 minutes as a timer… and it still has a 57% charge.

My previous iPhone would have had to have been charged twice in the same time… so I’m *very* pleased and impressed so far with the SE2’s battery life. I’m going to use it until it dies just to see how long its ‘out of the box’ battery charge lasts.

I also like that I now have an additional 4G bar showing… so cell reception is a definite improvement over my iPhone 6S.

I’ve quickly become used to the haptic feedback of the pseudo-Home button which, at first, was a little strange… the front of the phone is just an unbroken slab of glass.

The only issue so far is that the phone is so smooth and slippery that I’ve already dropped it once after it just slid out of my grip. I used my bare foot to break its fall and realised that, small though it is, it’s surprisingly solid and heavy… it hurt!

The slightly different placing of the rear camera means the soft-gel case from my old, identical-size iPhone doesn’t fit. Well, it does fit – perfectly, in fact… but covers half the camera lens and flash. So, it’s either take a scalpel to it or get a new case.

Actually, I lied. There IS another issue. I ordered a white iPhone… and only the back of it is white. The front is a super-reflective black. (But then again, the front of my ‘Rose Gold’ iPhone 6S is white.)

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“the front of the phone is just an unbroken slab of glass”

That’s not accurate. I should have written that it’s hard to differentiate the shiny black Home button from its shiny black surrounding. My previous phone’s white Home button had a chrome bezel to make it stand out from its white surrounding and the button itself was inset lower down than this new one. As a result the Home button was easier to distinguish on the old phone.

As I’ve already mentioned in another post, the new phone is LOUD, although I’m beginning to suspect that my old phone has an audio fault.

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That’s a good initial rundown on the new SE. Would like to hear more about how the phone is working for you through some of the apps on it and overall function, of course battery life is always a concern but it sounds like it’s working up to snuff so far. Time will tell. A solid case with an easy grip might help to avoid fumbling around for a tumble to the foot. 😉

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Great news!!! I LOVE my current SE. I will jump to the SE2 after I actually can handle one when the stores reopen. I have to admit I am a bit apprehensive about the tactile aspects of the round edges and it being slippery. The square edges of the SE was a big attraction to me along with the reasonable size.

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Nathan Parker

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Bill C. wrote:

I have to admit I am a bit apprehensive about the tactile aspects of the round edges and it being slippery.

I bought my iPhone 6S brand-new and SIM-free (i.e. not tied to a mobile network contract) many years ago and it’s lived in a soft gel case since day one. I had completely forgotten what slippery little devices they are naked… so the new one threw me completely.

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Hmm… I use Siri to turn Bluetooth off and on. I just find it quicker than navigating through Settings.

To check whether the latest iOS (13.4.1) added the familiar Bluetooth symbol to the front screen I said “Siri… Bluetooth on”. Siri immediately yelled back “Bluetooth is already on”.

(Yes, the SE2 default volume is LOUD. It just seems like it wants to advertise ‘we have stereo over here…’).

What the heck? I distinctly remember turning Bluetooth OFF after the initial auto-transfer from my old phone failed. Bluetooth is a bit of a battery hog and I never have it enabled unless a) I’m in the car and need hands-free or b) I want to use AirDrop or AirPlay.

So now I have *definitely* turned Bluetooth back off again and will be checking to see if it becomes enabled again without me asking.

I note that battery charge is now down to 31% (after a solid 2 hours of messaging with screenshots to/from my brother trying to sort a technical issue out with his iPad and Android phone) but have no idea how much this has been affected by Bluetooth being miraculously enabled at some unknown point.

(And, no, there’s no Bluetooth symbol on the front screen as a visual cue. I’m fairly certain that there used to be… many moons ago. It was probably too helpful and Jony Ive didn’t like the clutter.)

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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Rick Corbett wrote:

I distinctly remember turning Bluetooth OFF after the initial auto-transfer from my old phone failed. Bluetooth is a bit of a battery hog and I never have it enabled unless a) I’m in the car and need hands-free or b) I want to use AirDrop or AirPlay.

So now I have *definitely* turned Bluetooth back off again and will be checking to see if it becomes enabled again without me asking.

When I swipe up from the bottom of my iPhone 8 Plus there’s a quick access menu that lets me turn Wifi and/or Bluetooth on/off until the next time I power the phone off then back on again. If I manually go to Settings to turn Bluetooth off it stays off until I want it active again. I’m also one to use Bluetooth for a couple things and it stays off until I need it. Maybe this will shed some light on why your phone had it set to off then mysteriously came on again without you at the controls. Or it could just be since this is a new phone, transferring your backup from iCloud to the new device set Bluetooth to the default, that being “On” until you manually go to your Settngs to shut it off again.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Myst wrote:

Would like to hear more about how the phone is working for you through some of the apps on it and overall function

It’s early days yet but it’s *very* responsive. I’ve used the phone, mail and messaging apps extensively already and they are all very noticeably faster or smoother to use than on my old 6S.

For example, on the first day of each month I take a photo of my electricity meter’s display and use my utility provider’s app to send my meter reading in (‘cos I will not have a dumb ‘smart’ meter fitted). It’s not a particularly efficient app and the photo send is always v e r y   s l o w. Due to variable 4G reception I have always had to stand in my front porch to send the photo from the app on my old phone. Not so with new phone. I have an additional bar of cell phone reception now and the meter reading photo was just sent without any problems from within the house. Yay!

I notice that the default screen blank period is *much* more agressive, i.e. far quicker to turn off, no doubt to boost battery life as much as possible. It’s a little too quick to blank so I’ll no doubt adjust that soon.

I’ve also noticed what looks like agressive power saving on wifi. If I pick the phone up or turn the screen on using the Home button then I see 3 full wifi reception bars… but if I do nothing then within a second or two the wifi reception bars turn down to just two or even one. The screen usually blanks at this point but if I use the Home button to re-enable the screen I’ve noticed the wifi reception bars revert to full power for a second or two before dropping back again. If I happen to be doing something that actually uses wifi then the wifi reception indicator stays showing full power.

I suppose it’s just me getting used to the new haptic Home button but I’ve also noticed a couple of apps appear in the background when I haven’t consciously started them. For example, I went to check the iOS version in ‘Settings’ a few minutes ago and noticed that the ‘Notes’ app was running. What? So I’ve closed ‘Notes’ and made a mental note to check for whether any other apps start just running in the background.

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Rick Corbett wrote:

I went to check the iOS version in ‘Settings’ a few minutes ago and noticed that the ‘Notes’ app was running. What? So I’ve closed ‘Notes’ and made a mental note to check for whether any other apps start just running in the background.

When you transferred your data from the old phone it’s possible that Notes is still in downloading mode. Another possibility is having your apps set to do a Background Refresh, running in the background to check for updates.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Myst wrote:

When I swipe up from the bottom of my iPhone 8 Plus there’s a quick access menu that lets me turn Wifi and/or Bluetooth on/off until the next time I power the phone off then back on again.

One of the issues with my old 6S was the sluggish and/or ‘hit or miss’ screen response to swiping… so I became used to using the more reliable Siri method to turn Bluetooth on and off.

I’ve just tried a swipe on new phone and it’s super responsive… so I’ll probably have to retrain myself to using swipes again.

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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It took me some time to realize that just taking action by swiping up to shut Bluetooth off was temporary, powering the phone back on again set it to On. Going through Settings to manually set it to Off means it stays that way until you go back and turn it on. I had to laugh at myself because it took a few times until I finally figured it out. Thought my phone was possessed. I know I am, but don’t want the device to take on a mind of its own.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Myst wrote:

When you transferred your data from the old phone it’s possible that Notes is still in downloading mode.

Thank you. I’m fairly sure that this must have been the case. I’ve just noticed that the ‘Reminders’, ‘Calculator’, ‘Books’, ‘Files’ and other apps were still showing iCloud symbols.

I had assumed that all the default built-in apps would just download themselves automatically within the first half-hour of the restore from iTunes (provided wifi was available)… but apparently that’s not the case.

When I touched the icons they showed ‘Loading’ then ‘Installing’ at an impossibly fast speed – almost instantaneous –  so they must have already have been downloaded but just not ‘activated’. Third-party apps like banking, shopping, Fing, smart TVs, etc. show ‘Loading’ at a more normal speed so they are quite obviously being downloaded over wifi in real-time (but *very* much faster than on old phone). I’ve just gone through them all so there’s no more surprises.

(After all the downloading, playing around and 2 solid hours of incessant messaging with screenshots yesterday evening, battery life is now down to 28% since I first powered it on ~3pm Thursday. This is amazing. My old phone would have needed 3, possibly 4 full charges, in the same time period.)

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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Myst wrote:

Going through Settings to manually set it to Off means it stays that way until you go back and turn it on.

You reminded me. THAT’s the main reason why I use Siri, not swiping. Using Siri, Bluetooth stays OFF.

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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Makes sense. What happens of you ask Siri to use the swipe up menu? Haha. That might be on the agenda for one of Apple’s developers. 🤓

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Myst wrote:

That might be on the agenda for one of Apple’s developers.

I would be happy if ‘form followed function’ and they just put the Bluetooth ‘active’ symbol back on the front screen now Jony Ive has gone. 🙂

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Nathan Parker

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Jony Ive must be quite good if he’s now Chancellor of the Royal College of Art there in London. I think Apple will keep up the momentum in design, this new SE 2nd gen has taken on a good deal of power and all for a very low price.

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Microfix, Nathan Parker

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Once you have a handle on battery life, turn BT on for a few days.

cheers, Paul

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Nathan Parker

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The only way to fully turn off Bluetooth is manually toggling it inside the Settings app. Any other method only temporarily disables it until after 24 hours, you reboot your phone, etc., and even then, Bluetooth can still be active in the background for some tasks.

Apple changed that with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Only way to fully shut them off is inside the Settings app itself. Any other toggles aren’t full disables.

Nathan Parker

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Just picked up the SE2 for a friend, it’s beautiful and fast. Responds quickly to any action for apps, but the one point you’ve made about not being the best when it comes to a secure grip by design, so true. Slippery little devil. Went flying across the floor out of my hand when I grabbed it off the table. Not a scratch though. Solid and sleek, and deserving of a good full body case for the owner. He’s on the move and needs a secure outer shell for protection. Very happy with the phone. And for the price here in the states at $399, that’s a good deal.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Myst wrote:

Went flying across the floor out of my hand when I grabbed it off the table. Not a scratch though.

Yep… mine slipped out of my hand twice before a soft-gel case arrived. Luckily the SE2 seems fairly robust so no marks or dents. Phew!

I’ve now been using mine for almost 3 months and I’m regularly surprised how long before recharges. I’m averaging 4-5 days between them with phone on 24/7 and about an hour of talk time per day plus multiple iMessages/SMS, often with embedded photos. So impressed. 🙂

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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My friend has to charge his just about every eve. I took off background refresh for most of his apps and it has made a little difference in battery life. The reason for his high battery usage seems to be the 70 percent Safari takes on within a 24 hr period and his call time is over the top in a day’s time. For what he does with the phone, it is probably performing up to snuff battery wise. He’s really happy with the device. And YES it is loud! I almost flew out of my chair when the ringer kicked in the other night haha. We bought a good full body case and he’s impressed with the grip on it and it also has a removable holster clip.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Has anyone compared the dbm singnal strength at the same location between the SE and another phone?

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Nathan Parker

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Will look at that later to see if there’s a difference in the signal strength between the SE2 and my 8plus. I’ll get back in awhile to let you know what I find.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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I put the 8plus and SE2 side by side same distance from the router/modem and was getting a lower connectivity level by one bar on the SE2. My 8plus held fairly steady at 2-3 bars. Did a speed test on an upload/download with two identical photos of the same size and the 8plus beat the SE2 by a couple seconds.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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I’m having a problem with mine and hoping for advice.  On the camera setting when I push the white photo button instead of a photo it’s taking videos.  If I put it on the Portrait setting it does take a photo and not a video.  I tried putting “live off” but this did not help.  Also, if I open the photos app and push the “open camera” this sometimes is a work around.  This is my first smart phone so I am very ignorant — I much prefer my IMAC!  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

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There’s a slider menu above the button. Slide the menu left or right to choose the desired mode, it sounds like you did that when setting it to Portrait. Go to Settings for the camera app and choose to keep the last setting used in place, or set it to revert back to Photo.

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Nathan Parker

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Thanks Myst for the speedy reply!  The problem is when  I do have the slider on Photo and I push the white button it usually is taking a video.  If I then put the slider on Portrait it will take a photo.  I also went to settings and have camera mode turned on which preserves the last setting but does not seem to work.  In addition, on the Live Photo in settings (Preserve the Live Photo setting, rather than automatically reset to Live Photo turned on) I have it turned off.  Please advise if this is some settings problem or whatever?

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Nathan Parker

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anonymous wrote:

I also went to settings and have camera mode turned on which preserves the last setting but does not seem to work. 

In addition, on the Live Photo in settings (Preserve the Live Photo setting, rather than automatically reset to Live Photo turned on) I have it turned off.

It takes a couple or so minutes for the camera settings to reset itself. So if you have your Camera Mode in settings Off, this will take the mode back to Photo. If it’s on Square when taking a photo, after you exit the app and give it a bit of time it should revert to Photo. If the Camera is set to Preserve the last mode then it will stay at Square.

I don’t use Live Photo much so I have it On in the actual camera app settings to preserve the off mode to keep it from automatically going back to On mode when using the camera.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Hi Myst — I have been watching videos and reading your responses.  Something is wrong but I can’t yet fix it.  It’s almost as though the PHOTO button does not respond with photo but with video.  However the PORTRAIT button takes photos.  Sometimes when I press the PHOTO button I get lucky and here the click and it does take a photo, but most times it does not give me the click and it takes a video.  I guess I should be happy to take photos on the PORTRAIT button.  They do not seem to blur the background — maybe because the ones I am taking do not have a person in them?

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Nathan Parker

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Hold the Presses:  Being new to the IPhone I think I was not pressing the PHOTO button correctly.  When I am more forceful on it (rather than just “touching it lightly” it does take a photo!  I think that was my problem!

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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Check what I’ve said here and go from there. Hope you’ve got this now, let me know if you have anymore problems.

If you have the setting on Live Photo it will appear to run as a short video when using Photo mode. There isn’t much of an action taken in tapping the Photo button. If Mute is on it’s hard to tell sometimes when the initial tap takes place. Check your Photos to make sure when you’re using the app you actually initiated the shot. And if you don’t want the photo to appear “Live” (moving), tap the Live icon at the top of the app to turn it off, then make sure you have the Preserve Live Photo ON in the Camera Mode settings.To turn Live Photo back on just tap the icon before taking the shot. But if you have it set as noted above, it will revert to inactive for the next time you snap a photo.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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First I can’t thank you enough for sticking with me through all of this!  I have the settings on that you suggest:  turning off the live photo and turning on the Preserve Live photo.  I read that you can also take photos using the side volume buttons and this works much better for me.  For whatever reason the button for Portrait and the side volume buttons work every time for me and the PHOTO button is a little more tricky.  When I use the PORTRAIT  or the side volume button it never triggers a video.  Do you think these are good work-arounds?

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Myst, Nathan Parker

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Sounds to me like you might be using too much force and sometimes this could lead to the selection menu just above the home button to switch over. Not sure. I’ve never used anything but home to tap for a photo or video, etc. and whatever mode I choose that’s what I get. Do what works for you. More than happy to help. Good luck

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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@ Myst:  I don’t want to take up any more of your time with this — you have been most generous with your speedy and thoughtful replies.  I think it’s just a matter of my becoming more comfortable with the IPhone.  I came to it very late in life and the only reason I gave up my flip phone (while kicking and screaming!) was because I needed once in while to text and it’s much easier on the IPhone.  I have the IPhone stripped down as much as possible to be a dumb phone and do not use it for email, apps, searches, etc.  I much prefer my IMAC.

Once again, thanks for all of your help.  It is very appreciated.

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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I’m glad you’re getting to know the new iPhone you have. As you become more comfortable with apps of interest, don’t hesitate to write in with questions and/or concerns. The folks here are willing to help. We’re all learning the ins/outs of new devices. Let us know with an update on how the SE2 is working out for you. ☺️

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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[Alex5723]

You can download Apple’s iPhone user guide to give you more insight into iPhone hardware and iOS OS. :

https://support.apple.com/manuals/iphone

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Alex5723.

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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anonymous wrote:

I have the IPhone stripped down as much as possible to be a dumb phone and do not use it for email, apps, searches, etc.

Whilst I understand your sentiment, I have fat fingers and am always making mistakes typing on the tiny keyboard.

I love being able to say “Siri, send message to <name in my Contacts list>”. Siri replies with “What do you want to say?” and I dictate my message. Siri shows me the message and asks me if the content is OK. I can amend the content or just say ‘Send’.

Siri confirms when the message is sent… and I never touched the keyboard at all.

So, so simple… and invaluable in the car when I’m driving. (Think “Hey, traffic’s awful. I’m going to be about 30 minutes late.”) The speech recognition is excellent!

I now use Siri to set appointments, set reminders, turn Bluetooth on and off. So, so easy (and handed off to my MacBook and iPad as well… where I now use Siri as well)!

Darn you Apple, you turned me into a fanboi by making ‘stuff’ just so easy… 🙂

(Even though the downside is a growing dependency on this ‘ease of use’…)

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Bill C., Nathan Parker, Myst

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Rick Corbett: MAny thanks for this long running post on the SE2.

Do you find Siri being more accurate on the SE2 to be a function of the new device or software. I have a “Legacy” SE that I find Siri just massacres any technical words or place names. Very frustrating…

I use dictation for texting mainly, as fat fingers and older eyes are not ideal for a phone-sized keyboard (still miss the Blackberry physical keys, but nothing else). Additionally, the ‘feature’ of editing does not let you add or change a letter within a word without redoing the entire word, and Siri will not correct by dictation a prior mispelling of her own.

I have decided to make an appointment at the Apple store to handle a new SE2 and if it feels secure in my hand I will jump, if I can also find a grippy tactile case. Case selection is still showing a lot of out of stock on Amazon.

Otherwise, I am still please with my original SE, especially on 14.0.1, as it seem peppier on the apps I use.

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Bill C. wrote:

Do you find Siri being more accurate on the SE2 to be a function of the new device or software.

I don’t actually know. The better accuracy could be down to the updated OS but could also be the result of improved hardware (microphone, audio processor) before handing voice data over to backend Siri servers for recognition processing… or just a combination of both.

However,  I’ve never really used Siri for anything technical so it may be more accurate to say the *speed* of recognition is much improved whilst its recognition *accuracy* also shows improvement.

This improved speed of response from Siri is probably also the result of the SE2’s faster CPU. Siri just responds quicker overall using the SE2… but, then again, so does every other function.

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Myst, Nathan Parker

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Siri did get some major improvements in terms of its backend “smarts” in iOS 14. It will likely even be faster and more responsive on the SE2 due to the new hardware (especially the processor improvements from the SE to the SE2), but SE users can try updating to iOS 14 to see how well the new “smarts” perform.

Ironically, Alexa has been acting increasingly “dumb” for me lately, to the point I’m using Siri more than Alexa lately and looking to replace the Amazon Echo in my home office with a HomePod.

Nathan Parker

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Myst

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Nathan Parker wrote:

ronically, Alexa has been acting increasingly “dumb” for me lately, to the point I’m using Siri more than Alexa lately and looking to replace the Amazon Echo in my home office with a HomePod.

That’s surprising. I read an article on ZDNet a couple of days ago that rated Siri behind Alexa and both of them well behind Google Assistant in ‘smarts’ (and it looks like all three are being investigated here in Europe).

Hope this helps…

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Nathan Parker

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I’m not sure what’s up with my Alexa devices. I keep asking them regular requests lately and getting either the wrong answer or it has issues accessing my skills.

Nathan Parker

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I have a very disturbing problem with my Iphone SE2020.  I have been receiving texts from gmail addresses that have very explicit adult content.  I have no apps on the phone and have it set up as much as possible as a dumb phone.  It’s not connected to wifi, siri, etc.  I only texted two people — my son and my best friend.  As a fictional example:  fowudldovghjew56[at]gmail.com is how they look.  Can anyone shed light as to how this can happen?  My carrier is Verizon and yesterday I changed by phone number in hopes that this would end this nightmare.  I barely use the phone so I can’t imagine how I became a target.  There is nothing on the phone for a hacker to find — no banking, no purchases, etc. Thanks for any enlightenment you can supply!

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Nathan Parker

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Spammers/Scammers can find a way to text you. There are a few ways to block these:

1. There’s a way to block them on the iPhone itself
2. There’s a way to report these messages to Apple
3. There’s a way to report these messages to Verizon
4. There’s a way to block scam messages at the network level using My Verizon, but I think it’s for phone numbers only
5. Verizon has a free Call Filter blocking service, but I don’t know if it works with messages or just calls. I use their Call Filter Premium service
6. There are a handful of apps that offer message blocking capabilities: RoboKiller is a major one

I can post additional details if you need it on how some of these work.

Nathan Parker

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Myst

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Thank you Nathan Parker for your help.  I appreciate your offer to advise me on how to report this to Apple and to Verizon — I tried to Google this but did not get very far.  I would also appreciate hearing from you and others as to the message blockers that you have found the best.

All of this said, can anyone help me to understand how this happens?  I am a person who is so security minded that I have never (fingers crossed) even had a spam message on my desktop emails.  What I am trying to decide is was this a random thing based on my phone number?  Or does this happen if I texted someone who was themselves hacked and then they got my phone number from their hacked phone?  Do you belive that changing my phone number will help?  How widespread do you think is this spamming from email addresses?

Please excuse so many questions — any help you can provide will help me to deal with this and calm down.  I am considering ditching this IPhone for a dumb flip phone. 🙂

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Nathan Parker

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I have received spam through text messages and for what it’s worth, just block the sender. It doesn’t happen very often in my text messaging app, and I’ve had my same number for over 20 years. Changing your phone number won’t guarantee elimination of spam. Like Nathan said, spammers will find a way to annoy and try to tap into one thing or another on a device, and he posted other options as you’ve already seen. Best to block them in my opinion and don’t tap on any link of course.

Be careful about giving your number to various websites. I give mine to one or two alert notification set ups for emergency situations and have found that to be safe from spam. But nothing is 100 percent locked in. My carrier AT&T has a spam blocker that seems to operate quite well.

Try not to stress over it. It happens to most everyone at one time or another. I don’t use any app to block other than the blocking that’s available in Settings on my iPhone 8plus.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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I have gotten spam messages and and have blocked them on the phone, or via my carrier. I do not believe changing the number will be a durable solution as these messages are usually sent using a random number generator.

I have also received spam from ‘health supplements’ and other medical stuff that resulted from contact having his private email (NOT the iPhone account) compromised. He would faithfully hit ‘unsubscribe’ even as we told him he was just confirming it was a valid address. That is why I never set up or populate contact lists on any webmail platforms, nor do I leave messages on the webmail.

Finally, reverting to a flip phone will probably not be something you will enjoy. Flips offered now by the carriers are a cheap, unreliable shadows of the older models. Most now have bad sound and bad construction. As they are the bottom of the lineup they are cheap in price, but too often also lacking in quality and durability. My old LG flip phone was great for 12 years and only replaced by an iPhone when it could no longer be used in Canada.

A friend who refuses to get a smartphone because “I don’t do apps, it is for calls and emergency’, is constantly having to replace the lousy carrier offered flips due to dropped calls and bad audio. He has gone through at least 4 while I have had my SE. So for his criteria, I vote “Fail” as they have not been reliable for his intended uses either.

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[Biiljoy]

I never had spam until I changed numbers and the guy who had the number before me has e-hookers texting it and boner pill ads.  I just think it’s funny and block them through contacts.

And OP glad the SE2 is working so well.  Seems like from what you say your 6s has something wrong with it.  I have one and it’s very responsive.  The battery does suck though if you talk on it or do FaceTime.  I use mine for emulator gamess and listening to music and that doesn’t use battery like nav and voice and video do.

 
I had android for years probably never going back, I just keep one for my google account it’s just easier.  As far as not having a case, mine has a small crack in the off the screen area where I dropped it so I never bothered getting a case, and I try not to drop it but it happens.  Careful near gravel or water.  I love the small form factor I hope it lasts a while.  Battery health still says 100% we’ll see.  I’ve never used siri though I have it turned off.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Biiljoy.

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anonymous wrote:

can anyone help me to understand how this happens?

All they need to do is guess a phone number, so trying all possibilities is the easiest. No need to give your number to anyone.

cheers, Paul

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Nathan Parker

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Thanks everyone for the comments — misery loves company!  I changed my phone number yesterday and gave it out to no one.  I just got another email spam text!

Using the block sender feature (which I do) upsets me because then I see all the texts in the block sender folder.  I would rather delete them entirely but then they will continue to haunt me.

I only need texting for those rare cases when I need it to validate something important which is why I purchased the Iphone.  I do not want to text people to “chat” etc.  I see that I can uncheck imessage and sms/mms and mms messaging directly on the phone.  Will this enable me to stop receiving any texts?  Then for those rare occasions when I need to use texting I can recheck them.

In addition, I could also delete my Apple ID account which would eliminate imessages entirely.  I never wanted an Apple ID as I never used any apps, itunes, icloud, etc. and only signed up for it when i got the IPhone.

I know I sound like a complete luddite.  I am retired and am basically a homebody (especially now) and enjoy my IMac and my home landline.  I do not need a phone that is a computer.  Please advise if my plan of turning off texting on the IPhone will work (rather than having Verizon block texting and then having to call them to reinstate it on those rare times when I need it.

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Nathan Parker

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Spam texts aren’t “haunting you” it’s a minor inconvenience.  Block the sender, delete all texts every so often, sounds easy.  Everyone gets them I also get the robo calls where if you pic up India tells you about your car warranty (that you don’t have haha).  It shouldn’t upset you so much it’s really no big deal like brushing your teeth its a task to clean.

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Nathan Parker

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Thanks Billjoy.  I understand what you are saying.  If they were regular Spam I would not be upset.  They are very explicit adult content.  I am very used to the robo calls on my landline but this type of language disturbs me.  Since I only got the phone for those few times I had to text to get a code I figured why not turn off texting. I never had wifi turned on and never had email established on the phone.

The combination of turning off Cellular Data, Wifi, SMS/MMS, iMessage and MMS messaging seemed to do the trick.

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Don’t forget your Apple ID (an email address) is also tied to iMessage, so scammers can find a way to hit you through it as well.

I write a weekly Apple column for AskWoody. This Saturday I’ll write one on the various ways to block scam messages.

Nathan Parker

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Bill C.

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Thanks so much Nathan!  Yesterday I deleted my Apple ID account.  It was on it’s own GMail address (nothing else on it) and after the 7 day waiting period when the Apple ID deletion is final I will delete the GMail account.  I basically will keep the IPhone turned off unless I need it to use texting just to get a code.  We will use my husband’s flip phone when we are out and about which is maybe once a week now.

It’s my understanding that with the deletion of my Apple ID the IMessage is not useable.  I have turned off SMS/MMS and cellular data for Messages which I am hoping will completely block receiving texts.  Is this correct?  I do have cellular data turned on for the phone.  The WiFi is off as well as Bluetooth.

I realize this seems extreme to people who love their smartphones but I much prefer my IMac (used only for email and websites and searches) and landline. When I googled how to turn off texting on the IPhone people said it had to be done by contacting Verizon and having them turn it off.  I prefer to do it directly on the phone since I will be able to reverse it at will.  Do you think that deleting the Apple ID and unchecking SMS/MMS and MMS Messaging and cellular data will stop texts from coming through?

I do look forward to your article on Saturday on how to block Spam messages in case more of these emails come through.  I was shocked that one day after I changed my phone number I got another one of these texts.

Thank you Nathan for all that you do to educate and support us Apple users.  I always follow your advice.  I thanks also to Myst and Billjoy for your help as well.

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Nathan Parker

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You can try that, but there could “possibly” be a way for SMS messages to come through. Verizon can add an SMS block at the network level to completely block them. I think this can be linked to your My Verizon account so you could add/remove the block on your own without calling in. You’d simply have to wait an hour or two and reboot the phone for any feature changes to take effect.

Nathan Parker

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Thanks Nathan for your reply.  You were right that my machinations did not work.  I can still receive and send texts even with those features turned off.  And I see that Verizon has a Block section where I can turn off texting on their website from my IMac and then turn it back on myself without having to call Verizon to do it.  This is good to know.

Also, is it possible that the one inappropriate text that I received the day after I changed my phone number could have been “in the pipeline” or that the phone number change had not taken effect yet for texting — because so far I have not received any SPAM.

Thanks once again for your help!

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Nathan Parker

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That’s possible on the phone number. I’m not 100% sure, but there might be a way to see on your usage history on my Verizon what number that text was sent to.

Nathan Parker

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Hi Nathan-  That was a great idea to look at the Verizon log.  It was a little difficult because they did not have my previous phone number texts only the new phone number.  There was only one number listed on 8/20 and I don’t believe it was the SPAM because it had only four numbers listed (for example #4567) and they were not on the SPAM message.

I deleted the SPAM addresses that were in my blocked messages on the iphone however I copied the addresses on a piece of paper.  At any rate — it’s so far so good.  If going forward I don’t get any of this type of SPAM I will assume that nothing of this sort will come to my new phone number.  And I will then not go to the drastic step of turning off texting on the Verizon website.

Thanks again for your continued help.  It means a lot in helping me to sort this out and calm down!

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Hello everybody. Like two weeks ago, I got my hands on SE II and after 14 days testing, I see only two things, that bother me.
First was transferring my account to the new telephone. It was unpleasantly painful. Both tephones were connected to Wifi, but my modem somehow lost internet access (which I didnt notice) and with this fact, it was stuck in loops.
I picked transfer from another phone, it started and always ended in the same place without giving me one error message. After I finally figured out what is happening, versions of the iOS were different or waht, it didnt work no matter I was trying.

So I created backup with iTunes. Plugged new telephone to PC and.. Backup could not be transfered, cause my new iPhone does not have actual iOS. So I upgraded telephone, loaded backup and it all works now, very nicely to be honest.
So I would ask, why the iPhone cannot tell me waht is wrong when setupping new device? Seems unprobable since Apple is doing the same for 20 years, but it still happened. Is it so hard to tell user, that it failed, cause there is no internet access?
Even my Apple-lover-colleague was lost and he could not say why this was happening.

Second complain is about absence of audio jack. Im little bit old fashioned and I dont want to think about not forgetting charging my earphones.

But in the end, it looks promising, battery is large and no technical problems so far!

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 20H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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Nathan Parker, Myst

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doriel wrote:

audio jack

After Apple removed the audio jack the majority of smartphones removed it as well.
You have 3 options: BT headphones, lightning headphones, AirPlay streaming. I have both : BT connected Solo 3 for casual listening and Lightning connected Audeze headphones for audiophile listening.

Regarding switching to new iPhone.
I have never had a problem switching since iPhone 4 to current iPhone XS Max.
There are 2 ways. Restoring from iCloud backup which requires Internet connection,
Restoring with iTunes from a backup (encrypted) on the PC (no Internet connection needed).

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You have 3 options: BT headphones, lightning headphones, AirPlay streaming

Yes, there were lightning headphones in the package with the phone. Unfortunatelly I had no intention to change my earphones. I have Koss UR/40T and I love that, since I am audiophile. I agree that majority of vendors removed audiojack, so I am forced to buy some sort of reduction now. Maybe its time to switch to BT. But again, I have to think about charging them and thats another concern I was not asking for 🙂 Nevermind.

I have never had a problem switching since iPhone 4 to current iPhone XS Max.

I am beginner, this is my second iPhone, so I have not so much experience. New phone told me, that my data will be transfered, that I just have to put phones side by side, but nothing was happening. Thats what surprised me so much, no obvious error, just loop of pairing phones and failing with no announcement.

It does not matter so much. It seems like good phone to me. I am pretty sure I get used to it.

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 20H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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Nathan Parker

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doriel wrote:

I have Koss UR/40T and I love that, since I am audiophile. I agree that majority of vendors removed audiojack, so I am forced to buy some sort of reduction now.

I totally understand your heartache with the headphones. My iPad still takes the 3.5mm audio jack but my newer iPhone does not. The new headphones that connect to the lightening port are actually good sound. But I prefer over the ear wired headphones. Some retailers may offer an adapter for lightening to 3.5mm but even if the product description states it’s “Apple” certified, I wouldn’t trust it. Most likely if it doesn’t come direct from Apple it isn’t authentic. I’ve heard good things on Bluetooth headphones so it might be worth the trouble to set a reminder for charging them (ref: your comment about forgetting to charge Bluetooth headsets). 😉

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Myst wrote:

Some retailers may offer an adapter for lightening to 3.5mm but even if the product description states it’s “Apple” certified, I wouldn’t trust it.

iPhones come with lightening to 3.5mm adapter in the box.

You can buy it from Apple for $9
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMX62AM/A/lightning-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter

For the new iPad Pros there is a USB-C to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MU7E2AM/A/usb-c-to-35-mm-headphone-jack-adapter

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Nathan Parker

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Alex5723 wrote:

iPhones come with lightening to 3.5mm adapter in the box.

Our 2020 SE came with the ear buds on a lightning cable, no 3.5mm adapter was in the box. Same for my iPhone 8plus. I do know you can get the adapter separately through Apple.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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You are right. Apple stopped bundling the adapter with the XS, XR…

https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/12/17827970/no-more-free-iphone-dongles#:~:text=The%203.5mm%20dongle%20is,to%20include%20the%20free%20dongle.&text=Instead%2C%20Apple%20will%20still%20sell%20you%20the%20dongle%20separately%20for%20%249.

With the new iPhone 12 there won’t be EarPods, wall charger in the box (rumor).

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Nathan Parker

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Alex5723 wrote:

Apple stopped bundling the adapter with the XS, XR…

Why would one need a 3.5mm adapter for a phone that doesn’t have that plug-in port? Unless of course they were thinking in the generous sense you might want to continue using the old wired headset. The 8plus came out before the XS, with its lightning cable earphones, no 3.5mm adapter was included in the box. At least not in the U.S.

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Myst wrote:

The 8plus came out before the XS, with its lightning cable earphones, no 3.5mm adapter was included in the box. At least not in the U.S.

Just did some checking around and found out my 8plus did come boxed with a 3.5mm dongle adapter slapped onto the back of the card holding the new earphone cables. Duh. I’ll check the box I’ve stashed away. 🙃

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Once upon a time Apple did include the dongle adapter for the headset boxed with the 8plus. But by the time I purchased the 8plus it had already been pulled. Everything works fine the way it is. Was curious so I looked in the box and did more reading online about it. From what I’ve read about the adapter it isn’t worth a hill of beans. 😉

MacOS, iOS, iPadOS, and SOS at times.

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Nathan Parker

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Myst wrote:

From what I’ve read about the adapter it isn’t worth a hill of beans.

It does if you want to use your $1000 audiophile with 3.5mm headphones with an iPhone.

My AUDEZE headphones came with both 3.5mm and Lightning cables. The cables contain DAC of their own.

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So, I’ve now had my iPhone SE2 since May 2nd last year, about 16 months ago.

I’m still very pleased with it. It’s small, unobtrusive, takes lovely photos and continues to be very responsive. I rarely feel the need to do a RAM clear to restore performance (unlike with my iPad Gen 6 which becomes sluggish if I use it continually).

I just checked its battery health… its charge capacity shows it as 96% good from original:

It’s on every day but with Bluetooth off unless I need it (i.e. hands-free in the car or for use with the NHS Covid app).

With Bluetooth on continuously the battery lasts almost 2 days unless there’s a lot of nearby Bluetooth devices. I was at a restaurant last week, had to use Bluetooth to sign in and by the end of the evening the newly-charged battery had dropped from full to 57%. I assume this is due to the NHS Covid app ‘pinging’ the dozens of other nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices.

With Bluetooth off the battery lasts for ~3-4 days depending on how often I use it. For example, an hour-long phone call can reduce the battery charge down to ~2 days.

Hope this helps…

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So… it’s now just over two years ago that I first purchased my iPhone SE2 at the beginning of May 2020 and almost a year ago since I posted a screenshot of its battery health.

Here’s the latest screenshot of my iPhone SE2‘s current battery health almost a year on:

Its ‘Battery health’ has apparently degraded by only 3% in the last year despite 24/7 usage and long after I gave up trying to take care of it by “fully discharging between usage”. That was just a pain which I gave up after only a couple of months.

I don’t think I have anything to worry about, ‘battery health’-wise.

I only use Bluetooth once a week when I’m out and about on a long car trip to Wales and want to be contactable via my car’s phone capability.

The rest of the time Bluetooth is always off (unless I’m transferring photos) … and I still tell Siri to ‘Turn Bluetooth ON or OFF” (works like a dream and much quicker than fumbling through the UI).

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