iPhone SE 2020 review 3: A list of bad things

Submitted by twovests in just_post

So, let's get right into it:

Bad Things: You Can't Just Download an MP3

I don't like most popular music. Spotify and other services are of minimal interest to me.

Most of the things I listen to are MP3 files I get linked to on Discord or Telegram or internet forums. On Android, this is easy (you just download the MP3 from the URL.) You can then manage the album and play the song right from the built in music app, which does not seem to be possible on iOS.

Bad Things: Advertisements

Apple Music. Podcasts. News+. TV+. AppleCare+.

Ya like advertisements? Wanna entrench yourself deeper into Apple's walled garden closed ecosystem?

I've seen so many Apple advertisements inside this device. I heard of this happening with Samsung phones and with select Android phones in certain markets (apparently this is common for certain Androids in India?) but, of all the areas I expected Apple to shine, this would be it.

"Music" should be an app for playing Music, not an app for streaming and advertising! This feels like Windows 10!

Bad Things: More apps I miss.

I have a NextCloud instance, and it turns out there are no good Notes apps for NextCloud (whereas the one on Android kicks ass.)

There is no Zotero app for iOS, but there is one in the works.

There is no KDE Connect app for iOS.

There are no system-wide adblockers for iOS (something you can get with root on Android.)

There seem to be no good VNC clients for iOS, but I've not tried them out.

There are no VNC servers or utilities like "scrcpy" for iOS.

Bad Things: No Default Choices

In iOS 14, you should be able to choose a default Browser and Mail app, but just those two. In iOS 13, it's real bad. I want to use Firefox permanently, but Safari is still an unfortunate part of my life.

Hopefully in iOS 15, we have even more extensive default app options.

Bad Things: Low RAM is an issue.

Did you know that a single int takes 28 bytes in Python? That's a lot of overhead, and it might lead you to be like me, believing that 3GB of RAM is good enough.

So, Apple fans had me convinced that iPhones were super well optimized, and that the measly 3GB of RAM on the iPhone SE 2020 is plenty for the next four years.

That is bullshit. I've been playing some games like Pokemon Go. If you tab out of the game and into a browser, your phone might have to close the app and re-load it when you come back. This isn't a big issue on most apps, but it sucks when you're playing a game with a lengthy load screen (like Pokemon Go).

On my Android with 6GB of RAM, I could tab out from Pogo, search something in the browser, and come back. These 6GB of RAM are still a lot, and modern Androids have 8GB or 12GB of RAM.

Bad Things: Safari home buttons?

Remember the NextCloud Notes app that iOS lacks? The browser experience is a compromise, but I'd like to add the URL to my homescreen.

With Safari, it seems impossible to add a full URL to the homescreen. E.g. I can't add https://www.jstpst.net/all/new, I can only add https://www.jstpst.net/. This means I can't add the Notes to my homescreen, and even worse, only Safari can add these home screen apps.

I think I might be wrong on this, but right now it seems impossible in iOS 13.

Bad Things: I miss the three-tiered mute switch

My old Oneplus phone has a three-tiered mute button. Silent Mode On, Silent Mode Off, and Do Not Disturb. I hope iPhones get a third tier to their otherwise great two-tiered Silent Mode switch.

UI Thing: Correct During Send

I'm helping a friend with their code.

oh weird, what is the dtype

On my Android, corrections won't surprise you. If you hit "send", your device will send what you see.

On iOS, when you hit send, it might do some corrections that you don't see. That sucks. So, I've done something like this several times:

oh weird, what is the style

*style

*style

fuck

d t y p e ! ! !

It's something I need to get used to, and I personally think it's a bad idea to modify the contents of a text field during send.

Good things: Customer support

I've spent about $100 on accessories. Anker lightning cables ($20, the Apple ones supposedly break easily), 3.5mm-to-lightning adapter ($7 from Apple), screen protector ($10), case ($50), wireless charger ($10). These are $100 that I'd be out if I were to return this device.

I'm thinking a lot about returning this phone and installing GraphenOS on a pixel. I have confidence in Apple's customer support if I had to return, given people seem to have universally good experiences with them. Still, I'd be out about $90 worth of accessories (only the $12 wireless charger could be useful to me in the future.)

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Comments

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devtesla wrote

I removed apple music from my phone a while back, and I use nPlayer to play downloaded mp3s. Not being able to add downloaded files to Apple Music does suck tho.

3

voxpoplar wrote (edited )

Thank you for re-affirming my belief that I could never go back to using an iPhone. God. I much prefer just having access to a normal file system and computer features for dealing with things. I have a rolling todo list but I don't use any kind of todo list app for it. It's just a text file that's synced between my phone and desktop using Syncthing that I edit using Simple File Manager that lets me pin a shortcut directly to the file on my home screen. If I want to put new music on my phone I just plug it into my PC and mount it as a file system to transfer stuff over.

Sorry this wasn't meant to turn into bragging about my phone being better. Just reading this made me feel frustrated and made me appreciate my phone more :P

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twovests OP wrote

Nonono your phone is better. If I wasn't some horrible privacy nut, I'd be using an Android through and through, and would never have even considered an iPhone.

I'm at the place of, "I'd use GrapheneOS but I also occasionally rely on apps like Lyft because I have no car and don't live in a city, so I'd rather use Apple than rely on Google Play Services."

I hope we can have a future where compromise is not necessary. I really am considering carrying two phones (one with GrapheneOS) because even that would be more convenient than staying on iOS.

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voxpoplar wrote

The correct during send thing seems absurd. Is that just because it's the last word in the text? If you hit space before sending would it do the autocorrect first and then let you fix it before hitting send?

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twovests OP wrote

I think so. So, I should really learn the pattern of

  1. type type type
  2. space
  3. backspace
  4. type type type
  5. send

Rather than

  1. type type type
  2. send

It is absurd.

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ellynu wrote

if you go to settings -> general -> keyboard you can turn off auto correction. i remember having an ipod touch years ago and i jailbroke it so i could do that and then like a year later they added that ability.

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twovests OP wrote (edited )

Extended list:

  1. Who thought it was a good idea to have lowercase l and uppercase I look exactly the same

  2. Calculator app is very weak, and there are no good free calculators. Please fund my $2000 kickstarter to build an iOS calculator.

ugh

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ellynu wrote

im on the ios 14 beta and i noticed that drop down menus were switched to work like you expected them to in your first post. just thought i'd share.

2

ellynu wrote

you should also see the return policy on those accessories if you are thinking about returning the phone, i guess the screen protector would be impossible to really return if you used it but hopefully the rest is

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twovests OP wrote

Oooh this is one good news. Thank u Mr Tim Apple

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