iPhone 12 mini

Some research has surfaced two deals worth considering.  Buying from Apple with a trade on the SE yields a credit of $210. Buy from Apple and requesting T-Mo activation during the sale yields an additional credit from T-Mo of $150, for a total of $360 or 50% of the cost of the new phone, $729+/- all in.

Pre-orders are scheduled for 11/6/20, I am giving this serious consideration now.

That's a really good deal. The extra 1/2-inch of screen real estate will come in handy in everyday use. Not bad for a phone that's physically smaller than the SE 2020.

Exactly my thoughts. I'm going to pre-order on Friday, delivery is looking like a week later.

This morning I was able to order the 12 mini from the Apple site, which BTW was 10 minutes late in opening.  But the credits and and trade in values were all still there.  T-Mo $150 credit takes the form of a virtual (?) gift card and Apple says they will send a pre-paid credit card when the SE lands in Calif.
Apple provides a prepaid mailing box for the return.  The Mini, in blue, is scheduled for delivery next Friday, 11/13 and I have a week to mail the SE back.
Including SC tax, total was $754.92
Needless to say, my expectations are high, better than buying a new gun. I am hoping the Spigen case will add enough mass so the little phone is not hard to handle.

Awesome. I hope it all works out for you as planned. No doubt the larger screen will be a big bonus, along with the better hardware.

As for 5G vs LTE (4G), there may be some advantages regarding coverage. There's a spot on I-25 in which I often lose the signal, but I noticed that the Pixel 5 not only maintained the signal, but also provided one of the fastest downloads I've ever seen on a smartphone (153 MB). Next time I'm in the area I'll have to try it with LTE, as maybe the signal was improved while I wasn't looking.

Several youtube reviewers mentioned better LTE performance on 5G phones, no explanation except better hardware.  5G here, for me, is really chasing an unneeded solution to fix a non-existant problem.  My LTE experience is great, no lost or missed calls and seems to be coverage almost everywhere.  There are parts of SC that are so rural there is just no signal, I don't care, it doesn't effect me.
I'm happy with the way things are now.
Once the Mini is in service, I'm done, I hope.

I've heard that as well, but I have no real practical experience as of yet. I know T-Mo is using LTE frequencies (Band 71, 600 MHz) for its 5G rollout, so I don't see how 5G reception will be any stronger than 4G in a given LTE area. After all, both are using the very same signal. But in some cases T-Mobile has been allocating more of the LTE frequencies for 5G as opposed to 4G, so it stands to reason that that can make a difference.

I think that overall 5G reception and performance will be better once T-Mo's standalone 5G is built out, but the phone must be able to take advantage of Band n41 (2500 MHz). The phone will also have to be programmed for standalone, and have a current SIM card that supports the same. The Pixel 5 is standalone 5G capable, but has not been programmed as such yet. Regardless, to the best of my knowledge there is no standalone 5G in Colorado at this time.

Next time I'm in the dead zone on I-25 that I referred to, I'll have to see what my LTE performance is on the 4a.

The Mini has shipped, now in UPS processing for delivery on Friday, which coincidentally is the Mini release date dictated by Apple.

Very nice. If you can tolerate iOS, then I'm sure you'll be pleased overall. No doubt the hardware will be first-rate. Does your new phone ship with a SIM card? If not, make sure you pick up the newest SIM card that supports standalone 5G. You can get them free of charge from your local T-Mo store.

It must, it arrives with T-Mo activation.

4G LTE speed (using my Pixel 4a) on I-25 in the previous dead zone I mentioned was 130 MB down earlier today. Obviously, it's no longer a dead zone.

Would you believe I missed the delivery.  I was napping but the doorbell didn't ring and a reasonable knock on the door would have gotten my attention.  Next scheduled for Monday between 8 am and 9 pm.

Crap.

My sentiments exactly!

UPS showed 2 hours early, glad I anticipated that. 
First thing I did was plug in the charger and it's slow.  But setting up the Mini was almost completely automated and went quickly. It downloaded an iOS upgrade, I entered a bit of info, it transferred my data including wallpapers and various other settings and it was done.  I was impressed.
I will give a day or so before reaching a conclusion. But so far, so good.

Thing I forgot to mention, the Home button is gone, replaced with an upward swipe to get to the home screen.

Glad that worked out... at least so far. How does the phone look/feel compared to the SE?

I heard about no chargers being included with the latest iPhones. It sucks that they want you to fork out more money for the newest chargers. I know they are using the environment for their reasoning, but I think "cheap, corporate bastards" is more likely. They have a whole section dedicated to MagSafe charging accessories.

Before I ask T-mo, I'm having a picture transfer problem.   Using android and the SE I have been able to attach a picture to an email to get on my computer.  The 12 mini formats everything I snap as an .mov. Got to be a setting somewhere.  But as a result I cannot send viewable pictures anywhere, the attachments arrive but won't open with anything except VLC.
I think I have found the answer within Camera Settings.