/ The 2022 iPhone SE. Samuel Axon
The iPhone SE is the classic iPhone, the OG iPhone, the Mazda Miata of smartphones. It performs effectively, and its style is iconic and familiar—even comforting—despite getting dated and devoid of contemporary frills and comforts. But the SE is nevertheless one particular of Apple’s ideal solutions.
While the flagship iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro go all in on screen genuine estate and excellent, battery life, and monster cameras, the iPhone SE focuses on simplicity, comfort in your hand, and yes, maintaining expenses down.
Most men and women do not want the iPhone 13’s great OLED screen, although you could argue that far more would at least want its enhanced cameras. But for some customers, the smartphone is an as-necessary workhorse and absolutely nothing far more. They want one thing inexpensive and reliable—something that will final them various years, so they do not have to assume about the smartphone rat race at all.
The iPhone SE is perfect for these customers, even if its classic style is acquiring noticeably extended in the tooth. Because for longevity, the inside is what matters.
Specs
The style, screen, dimensions, camera hardware, and storage capacity choices have not changed right here. That suggests the 2022 SE nevertheless basically has the iPhone eight chassis, and it nevertheless has a four.7-inch LCD screen and house button. You can get the new SE in 64GB ($429), 128GB ($479), or 256GB ($579) configurations.
The iPhone SE’s program-on-a-chip jumped ahead two generations with this update, from the A13 to the A15.
/ The Lightning port returns. Samuel Axon
The A15 is the very same chip located in the iPhone 13 lineup, so you happen to be acquiring cutting-edge functionality in a low cost telephone. This is one particular of the most outstanding points about the iPhone SE: No other phones at this price tag point present something close to this type of functionality. (We’ll get into benchmarks a bit additional down.)
Apple claims slightly unique battery life figures for the 2022 iPhone SE compared to the 2020 model. Namely, the 2022 claims 15 hours of offline video playback to 2020’s 13, ten hours of streaming video playback to 2020’s eight, and 50 hours of audio playback to 2020’s 40. This is probably due to the improved efficiency of the A15 more than A13.
The other big new function right here is 5G assistance. 5G can make a noticeable distinction in download speeds and latency if you reside in a location with wonderful coverage. But most areas about the globe do not have the coverage but, so make certain you verify to see what your carrier presents exactly where you happen to be at prior to springing for this telephone on that basis alone.
Cameras
The 2022 SE has a 12MP rear camera and a 7MP front camera, and it can record 4K video at 60 fps—just like its predecessor. But thanks to the A15, it supports some new computational photography attributes.
/ The camera on the iPhone SE. Samuel Axon
The new telephone presents Deep Fusion and Photographic Styles. With the Deep Fusion function, the iPhone SE requires various pictures in fast succession, then composites the ideal components of every image to enhance the all round outcome in a single image. We’ve written about it at length in previous iPhone testimonials, and it does its job effectively.
- Compared to far more high priced phones, the iPhone SE nevertheless struggles with low-light photography. Here’s a low-light photo taken with the 2022 iPhone SE. Samuel Axon
- Here’s the very same shot with the 2020 iPhone SE. Samuel Axon
- Finally, this is with the significantly far more high priced iPhone 13 Pro working with the Night Mode function, which is not readily available on the iPhone SE. Samuel Axon
Photographic Styles are computational photography presets that outcome in heightened pictures related to what some of the iPhone’s competitors present (assume of the Samsung Galaxy, with its unrealistically vivid but consideration-grabbing images).
Some men and women will like Styles, and some will not. Fortunately, you can opt for which mode suits you ideal. Just know that, as opposed to some other computational photography attributes on the iPhone, you cannot transform the Photographic Style preset for an person photo soon after the photo has been taken—only prior to.
Design
With rumors swirling that Apple might discontinue the iPhone mini when the iPhone 14 hits later this year, the 2022 SE could be the final iPhone appropriate for one particular-handed use. So if that is your best priority, this could be the only iPhone for you unless you nab an iPhone 13 mini prior to this fall.
Of course, a lot of men and women want big telephone screens. If you happen to be hunting to immerse oneself in motion pictures or video games, ideal appear to the iPhone 13 alternatively.
- The front of the 2022 iPhone SE. Samuel Axon
- The 2022 and 2020 iPhone SE side-by-side. Can you inform the distinction? (We cannot.) Samuel Axon
This telephone nevertheless has Touch ID even although the rest of the contemporary iPhones use Face ID. But Touch ID nevertheless performs wonderful most of the time. Seeing an iPhone with such big bezels in 2022 is strange, but that will bother some men and women far more than other individuals. You most likely know just by hunting at the images regardless of whether bezel-size truly matters to you.
Apple says the 2022 iPhone SE utilizes a sturdier glass for its front and back than the 2020 model did. In truth, the SE utilizes the very same glass as the back of the iPhone 13. We did not topic our SE to any durability tests to confirm this, although.
Keyword: 2022 iPhone SE evaluation: Revving up a classic hot rod