I still have my first-gen SE and it's my primary phone, the battery have started to show its age. I am also experiencing the problems you mention with the home-button being worn out, in humid conditions it will press without me pressing it, I've sort-of solved it by using the on-screen home-button (I haven't found a way to tell iOS to ignore the hardware button).
It's the perfect size of a phone, I've considered seeing if someone can replace the battery and the home-button.
It's quite easy to replace the battery yourself. You can buy a kit with a battery and all tools, follow the included instructions, watch a video tutorial if you need.
Re:New iPhone SE
by vanilla_nut on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @08:04PM
(#30609734)
I've done this twice. My OG SE's battery is at 98% health right now and easily lasts me a day and a half except for days where I navigate with GPS.
It's a huge advantage for bike touring: I can charge this thing with a dynamo in a couple of hours because the battery is only 1600mah. That's less than a third the size of the battery in the current Pixel 6/6 Pro.
Isn't it also possible to just pay Apple like 30 bucks to do it? I thought battery replacements fell into a special category
$49 in the US for iPhone SE (1st and 2nd gen), 6s, 7, 8; $69 for iPhone X and later:
https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service/battery-powe...
$30? I thought it was $85
It's $50, but was $30 for a while during the "batterygate" stuff.
I have tried to switch my high use items (daily chargeables) to use magnetic cables/plugs that mimic the function of the original magnetic power cables on Macbooks (these are on EBay under various names). If you keep items for the long run, it seems like one runs the risk of wearing out the contacts on the port inside the device. This also serves to prevent dust/lint from getting inside the port. No data function available this way unfortunately.
Re:New iPhone SE
by aaaaaaaaata on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @02:36PM
(#30618993)
Sounds like a Pro.
I've swapped the case on my iPhone 8 - the Lightning port is on a separate board and I don't believe there's any active logic in it that would prevent replacement. It's quite a long process though that involves taking most of the phone apart - plan around 3 hours if you don't have previous experience.
Unfortunately the Gen 2 is also mostly "non-repairable"; I had to get a total phone replacement for something as simple as a dying Thunderbolt port. According to the person at the Genius Bar, the 12 Mini is much more repairable, more like the first-gen SE in terms of its internals.
This SE Gen 3 still has the rounded/slim iPhone 6 body style, so I would expect it to be equally non-repairable. So all things equal, I would still go for the 12 Mini over the SE Gen 2 if I could make the choice over again.