The T-Mobile/Sprint merger has been a bit of a pain, and it's not finished.
In 2021, they seemed to be taking LTE towers from Sprint and turning them into T-Mobile 5G towers. My service slowed dramatically. It went from being the fastest in this town to being average.
That all improved in May 2022 when I was able to trade my 2020 iPhone SE for a 2022 iPhone SE for just US$1.25 per month. Two things changed: the system on a chip jumped two generations and the LTE modem was replaced with one that included 5G (but no mmWave) capabilities.
I used the 2.5 GHz band with WiMAX back around 2012. Now, it's much more useful supporting 5G communications. A lot of the work Sprint did has been helping T-Mobile with 5G service. It seems that there isn't a downside to the T-Mobile network now. It isn't as good in rural locations as it should be, but it's much better than T-Mobile could ever claim. During the Voicestream days, they barely had a network that wasn't tied to the freeways.
I'm glad that my information has still been limited to Sprint servers. T-Mobile has had multiple data breaches and their security just isn't what it should be. Maybe, they're using an old version of Windows Server from the 1990s.
The 2022 iPhone SE has been good. It's roughly the same exterior that arrived with the iPhone 7. I was using a case from the iPhone 7 on the 2020 model.
It's powerful but at this point, is there a need for more? Android top-of-the-line phones aren't as powerful. I also have a OnePlus 8T, which was a flagship phone from a couple of years ago. The Snapdragon 865 with 12 GB of RAM is generally very powerful but it becomes very hot at times. Both phones have communication moments when the connection seems to lag. They're still faster on T-Mobile/Mint Mobile 5G than on Xfinity WiFi.
I've been mentioning to a few people about the 3G network shutdowns. Are you getting another phone, so you'll still have service? The sooner that old equipment is out of the way, the better for everyone.
The gentleman who owns the house was having trouble with his iPhone 6S and switched to an iPhone 12. He's having trouble with the gestures, but he's doing better than I might. I notice occasionally that I cause something to happen on the OnePlus phone because there is apparently a gesture for it and I don't know the modern Android way to get things done. Then again, each vendor was quite unique in their interpretations.
Update 2024.03.23: It's been almost two years since I got the phone. The battery capacity is at 88% and I charge every day. I generally don't go into the power saver zone, but it has happened.
I don't usually keep a phone more than two years now, especially since AppleCare+ was a two year warranty. I've been paying for it monthly since the previous phone.
The real trouble is that Apple is under pressure to get rid of the last vestige of a phone prior to iPhone X. I like my Home Button. They could add an underscreen fingerprint reader, but apparently, they don't want to do that, and I don't want to have or use FaceID. Now, it is rumored that the follow-up phone will be launched in 2025.
