Hello everyone it's SpawnPoiint and this is the iPhone SE, Apple's 2022 budget iPhone.
Now this is marketed as the cheapest and most affordable phone to buy right now,
but is it actually any good? Well let me show you if this little phone is worth buying including the
performance that it's packing and the features that it's still missing. I'll even compare it to
the iPhone 13 mini and the iPhone 11 to give you an idea of its capability and whether it's worth
spending a little bit more for something else. So the iPhone se is actually based on a 2017
iphone 8 design it's got the rounded edges and the chunky bars at the top and bottom of the
screen now when the screen is off you cannot really tell but as soon as you switch it on it
instantly looks like an old iphone that we've all seen before there's the home button or the touch
id now this is something that we've not seen for about five years or so on the non se models and
considering how much we've gotten used to face id i actually quite like having this button back
it's fast it's responsive and there's definitely something satisfying about pressing this button
instead of swiping up to unlock or return to the home screen but one of the biggest selling points
of the iphone se other than the price is the size this phone is tiny it's about the same size as an
iphone 13 mini now phones are getting bigger every year it's what a lot of us want being able to
watch movies taking edit photos or just checking your social media but it's not what everyone wants
from a phone and that's what makes this iphone so appealing it will easily fit into your pocket
and you can use it one-handed plus other than the borders on the front it's got a pretty nice rear
so i've got the midnight color here which looks really nice although i think the red is probably
the better choice but like with every phone i'd always use it with a case now i can imagine the
rear of this phone getting scratched very easily as i do remember my old iphones back in the day
did as well right okay so let's take a look at the screen so it's packing a 4.7 inch retina hd
lcd display so it's not full hd unfortunately the ppi of three to six is okay so everything
looks sharp i'm pretty clear for a screen of the size now looking at it in almost every lighting
condition shows that it's very easily viewable i mean it's no oled but the colors look vibrant
the brightness does max out at 600 nits though so viewing it in direct sunlight isn't great but then
not many phones can handle that anyway it's got a 60hz screen which feels responsive obviously it's
lacking that 120hz screen but only the latest 13 pro models have that now one of the biggest issues
i have found with this screen though are the black bars i don't mean those at the top and the bottom
i got used to those pretty quickly but i'm talking about the sights so if you watch a movie that you
would normally expect to fill the entire screen you're going to see these black bars on the sides
as well now i thought i could pinch to zoom but it appears that you cannot do that either
now what that does mean is that 4.7 inch screen has suddenly gotten a lot smaller when watching
movies not a huge issue but something definitely worth mentioning and over the last week i've
used it for a handful of different apps including instagram twitter and youtube overall it's not a
bad experience of a screen of this size every app loads and looks good but you can definitely tell
that they are optimized for larger screens i feel that i'm having to scroll more to view the same
content that would expect to see on a different phone around the back you'll notice it's only
got one camera and that's a single 12 megapixel wide lens it's got an f 1.8 aperture optical
image stabilization and a five times digital zoom there's no optical zoom here the photos you're
able to take with this are a lot better than i expected you get the normal modes like portrait
and panoramic but it's also got the new picture mode or the photography style mode that we saw in
2021. viewing the photos you've taken on the phone look okay but viewing the same photos on another
display or here and now is where you really see how good the full image quality is again for a
camera this size and the pixel count i'm really impressed with it the clarity won't be as good as
the latest pro models obviously but for its price range it's decent and with the right lighting
conditions it performs really well even in low light it looks good however it does not have night
mode so taking photos in the dark will not get the results you'd hope for but here are a few photos
i've taken with the iphone se and i've edited them in lightroom to show you what it can do
now as i've mentioned multiple times before all of the videos on this channel are filmed with an
iphone so i was interested to see what the video capability was like on the sc now it does support
up to 4k video recording and up to 240 frames per second depending on the mode that you're using
the mode that i shoot in is 4k 30 and here's some of the footage that i've taken over the
last week with this phone and what do you think i think this looks really good for 4k quality
and especially coming out of this tiny little camera now it doesn't have the latest cinematic
mode or hdr video recording but the full 4k image quality is good i mean i've said this before for
years if you want to start a channel on youtube just use the phone that you've got in your pocket
and you could definitely use this iphone se to make content with in terms of the performance
of this while you'll be pleased and maybe even surprised to hear that it's specced with the
latest a15 bionic chip and that's the same chip as found in the iphone 13 which is absolutely crazy
now that might not sound like a big deal but it really is forget about the screen and forget about
the camera that means this is packing a chip that will future proof this phone for at least another
three to four years it'll keep getting the latest ios updates apps will run faster and it shouldn't
lag or slow down and that's one of the biggest issues with going for a cheaper phone is it'll
tend to slow down and become almost unusable whereas this chip will overcome that issue and
that's what makes this on a performance level a better buy than say an iphone 11 or iphone 12
because those phones will pack more features but overall the performance will be lower the fact
that it's got the a15 chip means it feels like a wolf in sheep's clothing it looks old but it's as
fast as the latest iphone 13. it's also rocking 5g which is very impressive for a budget phone
another huge talking point about these phones are the batteries you kind of want or even need a
phone that will last you from morning to night you don't really want to be worrying about charging at
midday so over the last week i have been using this to see how long it would last me under
normal conditions nothing too heavy but here are the results so i've averaged around six to seven
hours of daily use that's included checking emails social media and using the camera to record some
of these videos i'm happy with that for such a small phone now apple actually suggests around
10 to 15 hours of video playback which i reckon i would struggle with but if you wanted to use it
for more demanding tasks like gaming or watching content i would imagine the battery would drain
very very quickly but when it comes to charging it it's got a lightning port at the bottom and it
does support wireless charging not magsafe though i have tried this and it will simply just slide
off looking at the available storage options and prices well it comes in a 64 128 and 256 gigabytes
the prices are on screen too the budget buy is definitely the 64 gigabytes but if you were plan
on using it for storing games movies and music on this will fill up pretty quickly so upping it to
the one two eight or the two five six would make more sense but with that comes an increased cost
but if you just need a phone to make calls or send messages and check your social media the base
model is absolutely fine so how does the iphone se compare to some of the other cheaper iphones such
as the iphone 11 or the 13 mini well the iphone 11 starts at 489 and that's for the 64 gigabyte
storage that's already 70 pounds more than the se but it has got a bigger screen the ultra wide lens
larger battery face id and the newer and more modern phone design it also has a larger and
better liquid retina display but it is missing two things over the iphone se and that's 5g and
the latest a15 chip as it's still got the 2019 a13 chip and then there's the iphone 13 mini now this
is technically smaller than the iphone se but it's got a larger oled screen better lenses the same
a15 chip better battery and magsafe capability but with those extra features is going to cost you 679
pounds now this is for the 128 gigabyte version which means like for like is about 210 pounds more
than the se so if you want the cheapest iphone that lets you get into the apple ecosystem take
video check your social media listen to music or message your friends the iphone se is great but if
you want a small phone that's packing everything you could possibly need including the oled screen
multiple cameras the same a15 chip and 5g the 13 mini is probably the better choice it will cost
you more but overall it is better ultimately it comes down to your budget and what you need from
a phone and if you were wondering what we get inside the box well it comes with the phone the
usb c to lightning cable a sim card remover and the apple stickers just like with previous iphones
there's no power brick or plug you'll need to buy one of those separately if you don't have one
so yeah i think the iphone se is a great budget phone it's the cheapest 2022 iphone that you can
buy right now and it's packing that same a15 chip as found in the 13. that means it's a powerful
phone at an affordable price the only thing that really lets this phone down in my opinion
is the front the black bars on that 2017 design if they'd gone for a 10r design that would make
the perfect budget phone that looks nice and it's rapid if you're upgrading from an older iphone
such as an iphone 8 or older again this will feel like a huge step up in terms of performance it
could make the perfect phone for children as well whether larger and more expensive iphones might
not be suitable plus not everyone needs the extra features such as multiple cameras oled magsafe
and hdr and some do actually want that physical home button which you'll only get from this phone
but what about you would you recommend the iphone se to someone looking for the cheapest phone to
buy or would you go for an older model such as the iphone 11 or something completely different
so that was my review of the 2020 iphone se thank you for watching and if you drop
a nice budget phone in the comments i know you're still here right at the end
if you did enjoy today's video check out my six month review of the iphone 13 pro max and in that
video i talk about my ownership so far and why is the best phone i've ever used if you haven't
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