Here we have a brand new 2020 iPhone SE. It's a little guy in iPhone's current line up - and
not just in size. The price is also a surprisingly justifiable $399. 'Reasonably priced' and
'Apple' don't usually go in the same sentence together, but here we are...I just said it.
Inside the box we get the new red iPhone SE, along with the corded proprietary lightning
headphones, power cord, and the little 5 watt charger. It would be faster to plug your phone
into a hamster, but for this price point I'll try not to complain too much.
It's time to see how durable Apple's new iPhone really is.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
So you might be like, 'Yo, Jerry, that looks like an iPhone 8.' And you're correct. Old
body, new internals. It keeps the manufacturing price down and I'm all for it. The vast majority
of people will never utilize the high-end specs of a $1,000 flagship, and this little
guy is exactly the thing a lot of people are looking for.
Let's start with the scratch test. My Mohs mineral picks can tell the difference between
optical plastic, which scratches at a level 3, glass, which scratches at a level 5 or
6. And sapphire, which scratches at a level 8 or 9. A lot of people don't know that the
original iPhone that Steve Jobs first held up on stage for that first ever iPhone launch
had a plastic screen. Right after that launch event he changed his mind about plastic and
said all phones needed to ship with glass. And within a few months, Apple got it figured
out and every phone since then has been shipped with glass, including this one, which scratches
at a level 6 with deeper grooves at a level 7. This means that the screen is resistant
to scratches.
The camera up here is a 7 megapixel little guy. It's sitting right next to the earpiece
grill...which is made from metal and ever so slightly recessed below the glass surface.
It won't be falling out on its own. The phone does have a Home button...well, a Home circle.
It doesn't actually click or anything. This just doubles as a fingerprint scanner and
is undamaged by my razor blade. Thumbs up for that.
The screen does still have it's plastic buffer layer between the glass and the metal, which
is good news for durability and easier screen replacements. And the body of the phone is
still made from aluminum. The SIM card tray is also metal. There is no expandable memory
in the iPhone SE, but it does have a black rubber ring around the SIM card tray to help
keep the ip67 water-resistance. Water damage is of course not covered under the warranty,
but it is still nice to have the extra protection.
The top of the phone has nothing except more metal. And the left side of the phone has
it's two volume buttons as well as the mute slider – all made from metal. The bottom
of the phone has it's normal lightning port and loudspeaker, but no headphone jack, and
strangely enough, silver screws. Apple has used black screws on phones in the past and
I personally think black screws would look a little better than silver. What do you think?
Let me know down in the comments. I'm just glad that Apple went with a black screen this
time around. I made a video a few years ago about how to swap the black and white screens
on the Product Red iPhone 7, which has been watched over 7 million times. I'm not like
saying Apple followed my tutorial or anything...but there's also no way to prove they didn't.
Apple is using Product Red this year to help donate to the global fund Covid-19 response,
and any donation is a good donation. I've been scratching stuff for a while now, and
Apple and I have always disagreed when it comes to the definition of sapphire. Sapphire
should start scratching at level 8 or 9, but Apple's sapphire camera lenses for some reason
always start to damage at level 6. I've done some pretty in-depth videos about this if
you're curious. I just think that at some point they should stop calling it sapphire.
It's just crazy...not drinking bleach might cure corona levels of crazy, but still pretty
crazy. Either way, the 12 megapixel camera lens starts getting damaged at a level 6.
If it's not pure sapphire, we shouldn't be calling it sapphire. Even though the phone
itself only costs $399, a broken glass panel of the iPhone SE would cost $269 to replace.
The screen is a bit more reasonable at $129 replacement, but thanks to our channel sponsor
dbrand and the Grip Case, repair costs won't ever be something to worry about. Especially
with the gradual raised lip along the top and bottom to help keep the screen socially
distant from things that might damage it. I'll put a link down in the description for
the Grip Case.
The 2020 iPhone SE has a 4.7 inch 750p 8-bit display, which is capable of showing over
16 million colors. There are 10 bit screens now on the market, like the OnePlus 8 Pro
that displays 1 billion colors...if your eyes are into that kind of thing. The iPhone SE
lasted about 16 seconds under the heat from my lighter before the pixels went black and
turned off. Apple is using an LCD screen for the iPhone SE, but the pixels do come back
after the heat is removed, and also fully recover...minus the evaporated oleophobic
coating. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with this little guy, and I think Apple's pretty
smart for releasing a super inexpensive iPhone. It's kind of like a gateway phone to sneak
you into their ecosystem. One minute you're buying a cheap iPhone, and the next thing
you know you're paying $5,000 for a portless laptop that can iMessage.
Everyone can appreciate a well-built phone, and the bend test of the iPhone SE shows that
even with the price cut, there is no skimp on structural integrity. Whether bent from
from the front or the back, the phone is intact and not permanently damaged or kinked.
The iPhone SE is still very much alive and survives my durability test. Nice work Tim
Apple.
Would you ever buy a $1,000 iPhone now that this SE exists? Let me know down in the comments.
I'll leave the link for dbrand's case down in the description. Plop a Teardown Skin on
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Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.