Issue with iPhone SE (1st generation)

powerstarprince

In the zone
Hi, the issue with my phone is quite weird and I can never tell whether it's a hardware fault or not but it seems so. Let me explain the phone worked in a great condition but soon I observed strange issues. I had a Vodafone SIM in my previous iPhone 6 and my data plan worked well while I was commuting outside but not inside house. When I switched to iPhone SE then I used the same network and was also Jail-broken for some months have always thought Vodafone signals were bad in my area. After an year I moved to Jio and purchased a SIM and I got better signal at home but the data never worked well outside and the signals always fluctuated and reset and went to no network found and then sometimes reset for a few minutes and so. Just the vice-versa from the previous network. During this time I had no issue with phone calls, no heating during calls and no battery drain.

Then I moved to abroad, I uninstalled Jailbreak in iOS 12 so I had stopped using Jailbreak on my phone. It was about the time iOS 13 released and I had clean installed it after I went abroad. I waited for a new SIM to arrive and moved to giffgaff network. I was happy to see full signals at the location where I lived and enabled the default option of 4G under settings. Thought I would get seamless data connection now. Got a call that day and talked for about 4 minutes and strangely I felt the phone heating up in my hands then after I cut the call, then I checked my battery percentage and half of it drained. This heat and battery drain also happened when I used 4G data. I couldn't find ways to get rid of this problem even after trying out various troubleshooting related to software. An year passed, I waited for iOS 14 release thinking in mind that it's an issue with iOS 13 itself. After I went to iOS 14 it still didn't solve but I understand that signals were full and data worked seamlessly only on 3G and that's where the heat and battery drain came from. The 4G signals were too weak and when I used data over 4G there was no heat or battery drain but few seconds of internet and then a reset to no connection or back to 3G.

So, now I'm extremely tired of troubleshooting to solve this issue and even though I think the battery drain percentage is fake, the phone can still turn off on it's own when talking for more than 10-15 minutes when it reaches 0. I wouldn't even know when to charge the phone and the phone is really hot to hold in hand after 5 minutes of talking but doesn't show the critical temperature notification. I have swapped the giffgaff SIM to another Android phones and my phone still lost battery while theirs didn't. This kind of concludes it's a problem with my phone. I haven't known reasons what led to this whether it's being Jail-broken for a while or whether it's due to me spraying liquid cleaner directly on the phone's screen and cleaning it. In the latter case, it could be similar to sweat dropping on to the phone receiver sometimes while talking for long. The issue only happens on calling through the phone's SIM network and not through Wi-Fi or something. Everything else works just perfect.

Does it still conclude as a hardware failure that might have strangely happened due to either of these two reasons to Jailbreak or spray cleaner directly on phone screen or is there hope to rule that reason out? I'm not sure I hope the other way but the phone is I guess now more than 3 years old with 83% battery health and I could use it for another 1-2 years. What's the best thing I could do? Should I sell this phone or keep it and try to resolve this issue somehow? I really don't know if I had bought a faulty device right out of the box. I used to believe Vodafone signals were bad and for Jio I could confirm that something was wrong with my phone since my mother also used the same network and she was on a cheaper Android phone but a newer network hardware module for example my phone has Cat 4 and her's has Cat 7 and she had no problems at all with her data while at home or commuting outside.

I would really like to keep this iPhone SE cause I purchased it personally as a choice. Sorry for this long post. Just wanted to know what's the best thing I can do with this phone.
 

pkkumarcool

Game & anime Lover
You also had iphone 6 right how did you find it compared to SE Did small screen bothered you?
Btw you can get 2nd hand iphones at good prices from 2gud.com 6s 16gb usually hovers around 10k


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

RumbaMon19

Feel Pain.
You also had iphone 6 right how did you find it compared to SE Did small screen bothered you?
Btw you can get 2nd hand iphones at good prices from 2gud.com 6s 16gb usually hovers around 10k


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Is 2gud trustable? I am thinking of buying a phone, but not sure how much it will last. Also, warranty on that phone.

If it is going to last 1.5-2 yrs then it is good
 

thetechfreak

Legend Never Ends
I think it's time to move on and upgrade either to the SE 2020 or buy an Android or something. 83% battery you should try to find a cheap 3rd party replacement if you can, might help you for 6 months to a year.
 

pkkumarcool

Game & anime Lover
Is 2gud trustable? I am thinking of buying a phone, but not sure how much it will last. Also, warranty on that phone.

If it is going to last 1.5-2 yrs then it is good
I don't know about how much it will last as most known problem in second hand iphones is their battery.Warranty is close to none as existent.If you are planning to use as backup device then it's good.Otherwise you have to shell 4-5k after ~1.5 yrs Buying a new iphone is suggested.

Sent from my RMX2185 using Tapatalk
 
OP
powerstarprince

powerstarprince

In the zone
Oh yeah I haven't used a phone Android or iOS that had more than 5 inch screen size. My previous phones being iPhone 6, Google Nexus 5 and HTC Wildfire S. I'm pretty good with small phones and I found the SE to be a lot more easier to carry and hold than the iPhone 6. The difference in screen size was a little odd during the initial months but I have been adjusted to it. Now, I do feel I would need bigger screens cause most apps look better on a higher resolution. I would have kept this SE for another year, but yeah not being able to use the phone calls normally is a big problem though I don't get too many phone calls I mostly talk over Wi-Fi or WhatsApp.

I'm returning to India next month from the U.K. and here I was thinking about to purchase a new phone if possible a refurbished iPhone XR or iPhone XS in a good condition. Not sure if this is a good choice for the long run but iPhone XS refurbished only costs 300-350 pounds while the XR costs 250-300 pounds. Pretty much decided to buy the XR but I also have doubts that a brand new XR would be a better choice as its refurbished models are not priced too low.

Definitely I won't be going for the iPhone SE (2nd generation) as it has terrible battery life. What do you think of the price of refurbished phones here? Should I buy them in pounds. If not I can just wait to buy something cheap in India between 15,000-30,000 Rupees. I would prefer Google Pixel 4a since the iPhones are too expensive in India. My 1st generation SE was a steal though. Bought it for 22,500 but at the time the lowest I could pay on Flipkart or Amazon was 9,500 through debit card discounts and exchange of the used iPhone 6. I don't have any specific choices in Android other than Pixel 4a but if there's one below 20,000 that has a good screen and battery I would prefer that anyways.
 
Last edited:
OP
powerstarprince

powerstarprince

In the zone
I would also to know if the iPhone SE could be repaired for a small fee from a third-party repair shop cause the issue is likely with the network band or antenna and it's power supply connection with the PCB. That's the reason it gets hot and the battery percentage drains a lot whenever the network is in use.
 
OP
powerstarprince

powerstarprince

In the zone
The iPhone 6s 64GB from 2gud.com doesn't seem a bad choice. Even the iPhone 7 32GB is pretty good. For a price of around 12k these phones are good. Didn't they mention that the condition is superb. It means the phone has no visible scratches on screen or body and battery health close to 100% isn't it? Oh yeah if I can sell or exchange this current iPhone SE 32GB then I would get a lower price quote offered for the refurbished phone.
 
OP
powerstarprince

powerstarprince

In the zone
I have a guess for solution to my problem. What if I replace the battery with a new one from apple? Some people said for iPhone 5c 5s SE when battery health reaches 90-93% there could be problems with irregular shutdowns or misreporting battery percentages and thus, show signs of degradation. I started seeing the misreporting battery percentages and slow heating of the device during calls when battery health was around 91% so, do you guys think replacing the battery would bring back normal life to the phone? Did anybody else notice this issue on their iPhones that are loaded with a small battery.
 
Top Bottom