Time has come to retire my venerable iPhone SE.

I prefer small form factor phones though so I’m weighing up iPhone 12 Mini vs SE 2.

12 Mini appears to be slightly smaller and has a better camera, BUT it is glass-backed (so more fragile?) and uses FaceID rather than TouchId which I prefer.

Thoughts?

I got an XR just before Covid hit and was really pleased as FaceID means I don’t need to take my gloves off to use the phone. My wife went for a new SE with TouchID and now has a smug face when I want to unlock the phone in shops…

I retired my 1st Gen SE a few months ago. I went with a 2nd Gen SE.

Apart from being a lot bigger, although I only notice it when I pick up my wife’s old SE which feels tiny in comparison, there’s not a lot of difference. Better camera and that’s about it. I had to move away from a leather slip case, couldn’t find anything in stock, and go to an Otterbox case and screen protector. It meant even more adapters on my old 32pin alarm clock charging dock to be able to get inside the Otterbox case to the lightning port.

Have an 8 personal and have a small 12 for work, the 12 is light years better than my 8, got used to the size straight away. The 12 is in a bumper case with gorrila glass screen protector, and it gets abused at work, including a 9m drop on 2nd day of ownership, they are quite rugged.The face Id is really good(when not wearing a mask)

My next phone will be a 12

I went from SE to 7 (kinda like gen 2 SE) to 12 mini. 12 mini is awesome, mobile phone size (unlike the brick 11 I have for work) but with all the good stuff of the new phones

Thanks all.

Just pushed the button on a 12 Mini.

John Lewis has them with £75 off and a year of Apple TV+ which sweetened the deal over the cheaper SE.

12 mini here and great, size wise is what sold me as phones are generally getting bigger, where the 12 mini is ideal

How’s the battery life on the 12 mini? I’ve had a succession of Sony compacts, but might be persuaded to go Apple next time…

If you could get a phone with the same hardware as a 12 Mini but with Android I’d be getting one in a shot. Perfect size, great camera, waterproof (up to a point)… ideal. Just the wrong OS (for me, this is clearly IMO!)

So get the Mini.

It meant even more adapters on my old 32pin alarm clock charging dock to be able to get inside the Otterbox case to the lightning port.

One of the reasons I love my SE2 is the wireless charging, no more damaged charging ports

Make sure you watch Ted Lasso on Apple TV. It’s brilliant, first episode is so-so but it’s a proper heart warming event. Casting is sublime.

If you could get a phone with the same hardware as a 12 Mini but with Android I’d be getting one in a shot. Perfect size, great camera, waterproof (up to a point)… ideal. Just the wrong OS

@mogrim – you’re describing an S10e.

My wife has a SE2, I’ve S10e. There’s not a lot in it really, just we prefer different OS’s.

12 mini here, came from an X that I accidentally killed while running (I wanted to get 5 solid years out of it – and it would’ve been completely fine – alas only got 3)

it’s great. significantly smaller and very noticeably lighter than the X, but much more powerful, very strong cameras, same screen real estate, and still all day (usually 1.5 days for me) battery life

The display by default has a comically large ‘base’ size (like all macbooks). You can increase the resolution in settings which means you get more real estate if your eyesight is good enough. Maybe do it one step at a time, is my advice.

Check out ‘For all Mankind’ on ATV