the SE 2 is also a pretty good price, it's only a generation behind in the processor department (7nm A13), has touch ID (no mask moving for face ID) and is $400 (449 for 128gb). Apple's margins for this device can't be large given the iP8 it's modeled after costed $700 at launch.

I've had an SE 2 since May, it works flawlessly. I was worried I'd miss the headphone jack but wireless headphones fill the gap well.

It looks fantastic. The only downside for me is that it lacks a headphone jack.

How easy is it to port contacts and texts over from the Google ecosystem?

Extremely. Moving from Android to iOS was totally painless for me.

Just get Lightning to mobile jack adapter?

You can get a mobile Bluetooth transmitter/receiver so you can still use your cabled headphones.

I never understood what Apple tax is. They deliver according to their price. It's just people don't realize the value.

I don’t disagree but their markups on storage and memory for example are way above normal market rates.

No, you get that idea wrong...

It's great Apple pretty much delivers identical devices on a same product line except on the disk space. It's more than the disks for laptops but this means everyone pretty much gets the same experience even if you get the cheapest version and you don't have to go through the technical spec sheet that most people don't understand to figure what you're missing from the more expensive versions or you're physically missing on some features.

You'd rather get the same stuff at cheaper price if you don't care about disk space. It's not the disk space is more expensive than market price...

He's not wrong. The RAM is definitely more expensive to buy from Apple, to the point that I buy the iMac with the base 8GB and then replace with aftermarket RAM and save hundreds of dollars (approximately 15-20% of the price of the entire system).

Fortunately, servicing the iMac RAM is easy in present generations.

You still have to pay the Apple tax on all IAPs.

I don't have any IAP. All the services I use that I pay for I signed up via the web.

Google takes a similar cut on IAPs too, doesn't it? It just allows to integrate other payment methods in apps. It always felt fishy to enter CC number in an app. I still prefer to pay from the web sites where I can see the URL.

If you look at countries that have a tax on new cars, second hand cars in those countries are also expensive. Less expensive than new cars, but the tax is still there.

You could argue that the tax incorporated in the price comes down with depreciation though.