Apple is known for making some of the best phones on the market, and a lot of them come with an incredibly high price, which leaves Apple fans who have a more moderate budget out in the cold. Luckily, Apple has created a more budget-friendly entry in its lineup in the form of the iPhone SE, and when the original one came out it was quite a big deal. Since then there have been three iterations, and while they have been steadily getting more expensive, they’re still well-priced and are packed with features.
Luckily, there is an early Memorial Day deal that will let you get the latest iPhone SE 3 from Walmart for just $149, although that’s tied to Straight Talk. The $149 price tag is significantly cheaper than it would be if you bought it at MSRP, which is a whopping $429, so you’re getting well over half off.
The iPhone SE 3 has slowly progressed from being a budget-oriented phone to being Apple’s small-screen offering, but either way, it’s an excellent device. It comes with a 4.7-inch Retina display that is gorgeous to look at, as well as a more modest 1334 x 750 resolution, which is actually perfectly fine for the smaller screen size. Interestingly, its performance is more powerful than you might think since it comes with an A15 Bionic chip, which is the same chip you’d find on the iPhone 14, and that’s only one generation behind, so the iPhone SE 3 punches well above its weight class.
That said, the storage is on the lower end at 64GB, and that’s an endemic problem with Apple devices, which tend to upcharge you for larger storage. Luckily, RAM isn’t too bad at 4GB and should be perfectly fine for most folks, although the bigger issue is that the battery life is pretty bad and likely won’t last you a full day with moderately heavy use, which is a shame. As for the Straight Talk subscription, that’s pretty good, with prices being as low as $15/month, so you’re still saving a bit of money in the long run.
All in all, the iPhone SE 3 is an excellent small Apple phone, and while it’s not as price-sensitive as it was originally created to be, the discount from Walmart that brings it down to $149 recaptures some of that original ethos. Even so, if this deal doesn’t quite tickle your fancy, there are a few other great iPhone deals you could consider.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.