I’ve been using the iPhone SE 2 since it launched and it’s honestly surprised me
in multiple ways. We knew its was going to be a good value phone and that Apple will
sell a ton of them, but I found multiple things I didn’t expect which i’ll share in this
video, and its actually going to change my future iPhone habits.
There's also 2 reasons why I’m going back to my 11 Pro, but these might not matter to
you.
Let's start out with the first thing I loved, the size. Man this thing feels good in the
hand. Now I know this is just an iPhone 8 and its not new, but I’ve been using large
phones for a long time. I had the 6s Plus, 7 plus, and so on until the iPhone 11 Pro
Max.
I’ve always heard from the crowd that they hate large phones and they resisted upgrading
until they got a new small iPhone, and to be honest I thought they were being a bit
too dramatic. The XR and 11 isn’t that much bigger than the 8 or SE right? Well, once
your used to a small phone the difference is fairly noticeable.
Going from the Pro Max to the 8 is crazy, and even though I missed the big screen the
phone was so comfortable in the hand it almost made the small screen worth it. Unfortunately
even though so much of this phone is from the iPhone 8, Apple dropped 3D touch which
I loved.
Now I expected to be disappointed with this phone since I’m used to flagships but overall
that feeling never really hit me. You would think the massive chin and forehead would
be annoying but it wasn’t.
I expected to be dissapointed with Touch ID after using Face ID for so many years, but
man was it quick and in times like these when I’m wearing a mask it actually worked better.
I also found it faster to raise the phone and swipe left to open the camera app then
to use the new long press on the camera icon.
Pulling up for the control panel was so much easier than pulling from the top on my Max.
not having tap to wake sucked at first but then I just pressed the button if I wanted
to see notifications.
The one thing that I definitely really missed was the super fast app switching by sliding
my fingers across the bottom bar.
The speakers are better than I expected, getting really close to the much larger iPhone 11
but just like the iPhone 8 and X the earpiece speaker is quieter then the new phones so
when watching videos the sound isn’t as balanced. I
definitely thin Apple could have made a few small upgrades to improve the experience but
I understand they wanted to reach this $399 price point.
Another thing that wasn’t upgraded were the cameras. Now everyone expected the SE
to have the cameras from the iPhone XS and XR since the megapixels matched up BUT thats
not actually true.
We first found this out in our comparison where the selfie camera could only record
1080P at 30 fps where the XR can do 1080 60 and the 11 can do 4K at 60fps. This was really
odd and the only explanation is Apple kept the same front facing iPhone 8 camera.
A few days later ifixit published their teardown and I was very surprised that the rear camera
is also from the iPhone 8, meaning its really old in terms of camera tech, since the last
2 years have brought major improvements with larger faster sensors.
Now what surprised me even more is how good the photos looked. There was a big difference
in quality from the iPhone 8 and X cameras to the XS and XR when we tested them but the
old sensors in the SE are now taking noticeably better photos than the XS and XR.
The dynamic range is better, detail is better, and even noise is lower. This just shows how
much software and processing matters for photos and Apple definitely knew that when they put
the same a13 bionic processor in this $400 phone that's in my $1100 Pro Max.
Because of it the SE has the new Smart HDR tech and in good lighting the images look
as good as the iPhone 11 Pro which is crazy. In lower lighting the 11 looks better due
to deep fusion tech which isn’t possible due to the slower sensor, and the same thing
goes with the night mode which is a bummer.
With that said in pretty much every case the SE photos beat out iPhone XS and XR which
logically it shouldn’t but it does. I’ll setup a blind comparison for Vadim to do,
so if you want to see how the SE stacks up to the other iPhones and if Vadim can tell
a difference make sure your subscribed and have notifications enabled.
After testing it out, my view of the SE is much better than it was before. I think most
people with older iPhones will be extremely happy with it. At $399 for a 64GB model I
can see so many people who are hanging on to dying iPhones finally upgrading.
I can also see a lot of people moving from budget android phones, but old and new, and
getting this new iPhone because of the low price which will end up making Apple money
on services.
My two biggest complaints were lack of ultra wide and telephoto cameras which love battery
life. I use my phone a lot which is why I love the
11 Pro’s that have much bigger batteries, but thankfully from what I’ve seen online,
the new SE has up to an hour more of screen on time than the 8 due to the new processor.
And of course you can use a faster charger, Apples cost a lot but I’ll link a certified
charger and cable for only $17 down in the video description.
Ultimately, I’m going back to my Pro Max but you can count on me finally breaking my
multi- year huge size iPhone trend and finally enjoying a smaller iPhone next around all
thanks to giving the iPhone SE a shot.