Apple Had a Better Idea:

[PJMcK]

30. Okay, you don't like Apple's decisions about their products

Perhaps there are reasons for their decisions that you haven't considered.

For example, the headphone jack presents a recurring problem in that moisture can get inside the device through that jack. This happened to my first iPhone and it shorted out the WiFi transceiver. My new iPhone 12 Mini is waterproof because it doesn't have any openings.

Another point about the headphone jack is that most of the world is migrating to wireless connectivity, including with headphones and headsets. Should a user want to plug headphones into the new iPhones, there's a small adapter that connects to the Lightning jack. Its cost was negligible. (With the explosion of wireless devices, I just wish we had a better protocol than Bluetooth!) Get your wife some wireless earbuds for her new phone; she'll wonder how she ever lived with the cord!

Your comparison of the battery life between your wife's two phones is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. First, all batteries deteriorate with age and multiple rechargings. The battery on the SE is older and has been used far more than on the brand new A51. Additionally, the A51 probably has a larger battery complement than the SE.

As for the A51 "doing so much more," I have no idea what she meant. Are there apps for the Android that aren't available for the iPhone? Are her phone calls clearer? I'm on my 4th iPhone and have never had a problem and I've found far more software than I could ever use.

There's a final point I'd ask you to consider regarding the costs of our various devices, from computers to tablets to phones and onwards. When you buy a new device, it's expensive no matter what machine or version you get. Personally, I prefer to pay up front for my technology but others pay over time. Then we use the devices. And use them. And use them some more. Like all the time every day!

My point is simple: If you amortize the cost of the device against the time you use it, you'll discover that it costs pennies a day for these fantastic technologies. My older Mac laptop cost $2,500 and gave me 8 years of flawless service. That's roughly 2,900 days so it cost me less than a dollar a day! And it still works great as a second computer. Basically, our devices don't cost that much but the services that we need-- cellphone carrier, internet provider, content providers, etc-- cost a lot.