The New iPhone SE Is Perfectly Boring
Apple’s new iPhone SE is a lot like the old iPhone 8, and that’s probably a good thing
Last Wednesday, as millions of Americans awaited $1,200 stimulus checks to gird themselves for an uncertain future under the coronavirus pandemic, Apple announced it was releasing a new iPhone SE. It starts at $399, and it launches this Friday.
Millions of these gadgets will be manufactured — presumably for millions of people to use and eventually discard, one way or another. It’s been said many times before, but it bears repeating with the rollout of every new device: There is a significant human and environmental cost to all of this, and the production of new technology is not endlessly sustainable without a “closed loop” or zero-waste supply chain. In its latest environmental responsibility report, Apple says it’s making some progress in closing the loop on key materials used to produce its electronics — namely aluminum and cobalt — but there’s a lot of work to be done.
