- The iPhone SE.
(audience applauds)
- When the first iPhone SE
was unveiled six years ago, I was mad.
Because I just bought an iPhone Six a few months prior.
And the phone I really wanted was this.
Ugh.
It was such a surprise
because it provided the latest power in camera
in the last package for the least price.
Which at 399 was really good.
This new third generation iPhone SE
appears to adhere to the original's philosophy.
But a lot has changed since then.
And that's affected the why of this phone's existence,
the where of its place in the smartphone landscape
and the who of who it's for.
And I'd argue that these changes have made the iPhone SE
less desirable than ever.
They upgraded the wrong things.
(soft music)
If you put this iPhone SE next to its predecessor
or the iPhone Eight for that matter,
you would not be able to tell the difference between them.
The list of updates for this new,
for this new iPhone SE is quite small.
You get a slightly bigger battery,
slightly tougher glass
and A15 processor with one extra gigabyte of RAM and 5G.
Oh, and for the first time ever, a price increase of $30.
5G is notably unnotable.
It's a big driver for this price increase
and yet I cannot tell when it's been useful.
Here in humble Canada,
I'm getting maybe double download speeds if I'm lucky.
I'm not getting 5G here.
Let me just turn it on to 5G
always.
Any luck?
No.
Okay.
But so 105 down and 28.6 up,
that's not bad for LTE.
Why do I need 5G?
So if you're streaming video on this 720P iPhone screen,
you're using 10 megabits per second, tops.
That's a lot of overhead for little utility.
The A15 chip on the SE needs a disclaimer too.
In Geekbench, it matches closely with the iPhone 13 Pro
in graphics performance even though that phone's A15 chip
has five GPU cores instead of four in the SE.
But when I exported RAWS to JPEG,
this phone couldn't keep up with any of the iPhone 13s
or the A14 powered iPhone 12 Mini for that matter.
So it's a fine performer, but perhaps not the best.
And then there's what's not been updated.
The camera remains the same
and it still doesn't have night mode.
There's also no MagSafe and that's really annoying.
It also doesn't bode well for MagSafe's future
considering that the first SE didn't get 3D Touch.
And look what happened to that feature.
And then what else?
Nothing.
And that puts the SE in a peculiar spot.
(soft music) (plane engine roaring)
The market for this $430 phone is increasingly small.
The only people that I could conceivably recommend this to
would be people who have an iPhone Seven or older.
So my parents.
People who are getting a smartphone for the first time,
teenagers,
and people who do not wanna leave touch ID.
Also my parents.
Which considering the pandemic we've been going through
and the uselessness of face ID during it,
now makes sense.
(soft music)
Altogether, it's not a large group
of what I imagine are mostly boomers.
Everyone else has moved on to something more modern.
So I'm not surprised that already a month after release,
reports have emerged that Apple
is cutting production of the device by around 20%
due to the less than anticipated demand.
The group that's left for this iPhone
will love the familiarity this unchanged design brings.
But I can't help but worry about the impact on usability
this cramp screen imposes on those with aging eyes
who need to make text bigger.
(soft music)
This is the smallest screen on any mainstream smartphone.
So what if you want a bigger screen?
Well, I'll tell you
but first lemme tell you about this video sponsor, Anker.
Since the iPhone SE no longer comes with a charger anymore,
you should check out Anker's Nano Pro 21 Charger.
In its small and colorful package,
you get Anker's active shield technology
as well as a power tuner chip
to get the fastest and safest charge.
And if you need to charge even more,
they also have a 40-watt dual charger available as well.
Check 'em out at the link in the description below.
Now, if you want a big screen phone,
you're gonna have to venture out of the Apple garden
because there are a lot of compelling looking, big screened
Android phones.
At the same price as this iPhone SE,
you can get the highly regarded Google Pixel 5A
or the brand new Samsung Galaxy A53.
Both have significantly more features than the SE.
Multiple cameras, larger screen and double the storage.
The pixels still got a headphone jack.
And the Samsung has facial recognition,
an under screen fingerprint reader
and a high refresh rate display.
(soft music) (whooshing sound)
Yes, I switched to Android and it is quite revealing.
You might think that this Samsung would trounce the iPhone.
And you know, yes, this high refresh rate screen is nice
right up until you reach a hiccup on an animation.
Then it's really annoying.
Stutters become even more obvious and they happen a lot.
The Pixel 5A has less pretense and bloatware.
So it performs better.
In Geekbench, these compare more closely
against the original iPhone SE
rather than the current one.
And exporting RAWS, they take forever.
I'm frankly staggered
at the stark difference in performance.
5G wise, the Samsung is significantly better
for some weird reason.
This is an American Verizon phone
on a Canadian Tellus network.
And it only displays that it's connected
to an LTE network yet blasts through uploads and downloads.
If you do care about the camera on your phone though,
the SE is not really for you.
Its improvements only come from the A15 chip's processing
but with no night mode.
So you're only gonna notice an improvement
if you compare it to a multi-year old iPhone.
Against the Androids, it comes down to subjective opinion.
And whether you value an ultra wide camera
over good video recording.
The Samsung looks awful.
I'm still surprised at how slow the Samsung Galaxy A53 is.
It means that at this price point
you have a choice between a phone that is basic,
has no new features, a tiny screen,
but with incredible performance
that'll easily last you six years
or you can get a phone full of all the latest features,
the most camera and OLET screen,
but will be slow and only get slower.
If you have to go Android,
the pixel 5A is the one I'd go with.
Though that's not available here in Canada unfortunately.
But even though the iPhone SE is much faster
than any Android phone in its price range,
I still think you can get a better deal on an iPhone.
(soft music)
Remember my rant in the iPhone 13 review
about how complicated it is to buy a phone these days?
The whole Excel spreadsheet thing?
Well, it applies here too.
If you want an iPhone SE,
here in Canada a few discount carriers
are getting rid of second generation models
for less than $200 over two years.
If you can snag that, that's a great deal.
But what if you wanna have your cake and eat it too?
Recently, a friend of mine
asked me to help her buy a new phone.
And I was able to help her find an iPhone 12 Mini
with 128 gigabytes of storage for $385.
That's a complete no brainer.
Prices have climbed a bit now
but they still match the current SE.
For my American viewers,
the 12 Mini is also currently on sale as well.
You can get one with AT&T for $315
or free with Verizon.
Though those are all with a burdensome three-year contract.
(soft music)
What was amazing about the original SE was that
for the lowest price, you got a device that was better
than the iPhone Six Apple sold at the time for more money.
It really was a good deal
and perfect for small phone lovers like me.
In fact, I even bought one.
This is so tough because despite touch ID's merits,
I think that in 2022, this form factor just looks ancient.
If Apple were to maintain the true spirit of the SE
with this release, they would've given us an A15 powered
maybe MagSafe compatible, 5G capable phone in an iPhone 11
or 10R body.
For 429, that would've been amazing, but they didn't.
It leaves an awkward gap
which I guess is still filled with the iPhone 11
which has the old SE's A13 chip.
But it also has night mode in an ultra wide camera
for $70 more.
Well, that means that
if you need an inexpensive iPhone this will do,
but I do still think it's worth the effort
to go and find a better deal because they're out there.
Thanks for upgrading the least amount of this Mac address.
Now I'm curious.
If you agree with me that
this should have been in an iPhone 11 body,
give this video alike.
And if you're still gonna use your existing iPhone
ever longer, great idea.
Might as well subscribe.
Now in the comments I'm curious
how many of you still like this touch ID
iPhone Six form factor.
Are you gonna get one
'cause this is probably the last there're.