In mid-April, Apple presented the new edition of its iPhone SE, the cheapest version of its famous smartphones and with which the company trusts to attract new customers and increase sales. In the last month, the new iPhone SE has received extremely positive reviews from the main technology sites and US newspapers, with appreciation for the quality of the product in relation to an overall low price for an iPhone: 499 euros, with the possibility of arriving up to 359 euros if you exchange your old smartphone.
Price and design
About New York Times, Brian X. Chen wrote that the new iPhone SE is a “superb” smartphone at a “modest” price, when compared to the other iPhones currently on sale, with prices reaching around 1,200 euros for the iPhone Pro 11. the top models. Chen writes that: “Apple has taken all the best parts of its more expensive iPhones – including a very fast processor and excellent camera – and squeezed them into the shell of an older iPhone with the 'Home' button and a smaller screen. “.
The iPhone SEs have a design very similar to that of the iPhone 8 and the previous iPhone 7: they are unlocked using the key with the fingerprint reader and not with facial recognition, as happens on the other models. The screen has the classic 4.7-inch format, therefore smaller than other iPhones, but with the advantage of being more manageable and practical to keep in your pocket.
Dieter Bohn of The Verge has written that the smaller screen is noticeable, especially for the presence of the two classic black bands above and below the display, where the “Home” button and the selfie camera are located. The quality of the materials used is instead very good, as is the color rendering on the LCD screen. Apple has also made the new model water resistant and added a wireless charging system, inserting a layer of glass in the back of the phone in place of the classic aluminum casing.
Camera
Most reviews agree that the camera is very good in almost all lighting conditions, except in low-light scenes.
The new iPhone SE has a 12 megapixel camera on the back and a 7 megapixel camera on the front. Bohn wrote that for such a smartphone: “The cameras are absolutely fantastic, and any complaints should be dismissed for the price.” In some contexts, such as scenes in bright light, it is difficult to notice the differences between a photo taken with an iPhone SE and one with a more expensive iPhone 11 Pro.
The images are processed by the processor of the phone, which corrects most of the parameters to offer the best result. It's something other smartphones have been doing for some time, but sometimes making the images too saturated and unrealistic, which is not the case on the iPhone SE.
Lauren Goode of Wired wrote that she was impressed by the quality of photographs, even in low light (in relation to the type of smartphone and the optics available). Overall, he noted that he took photographs with better rendering and definition than can be achieved with an iPhone 8 Plus, which was on sale until recently and before the new iPhone SE was introduced.
Joanna Stern in the Wall Street Journal confirmed that in some shooting modes, such as those for taking portraits with professional effects with a blurred background, it is difficult to distinguish a photograph taken with an iPhone SE from one taken with a more expensive iPhone. 11 Pro. The lack of a night mode, to avoid producing too grainy images, is felt only in some circumstances, as reported by other reviews.
Power
All reviews praised Apple for choosing to insert its latest and most powerful processor (A13) on the new iPhone SE, thus giving it computational capabilities comparable to those of the most popular models. expensive. As Bohn points out, more power doesn't just mean the ability to quickly switch from one application to another or take photos faster, but also to have a device “destined to last for years”. The iPhone SEs will be able to handle several new editions of iOS, the operating system that runs iPhones and that Apple updates every year.
Battery
Battery life is sufficient to cover a day, although some reviews have been a bit more critical on this aspect.
The iPhone SE's format is such that do not allow the use of a very large battery, as occurs on larger iPhones, on the other hand the A13 processor has several tricks to consume as little as possible, extending the battery life. For most users, the autonomy should be more than sufficient and is still comparable to that of the best-selling smartphones in the same category.
Samuel Gibbs wrote in the Guardian that from his tests an iPhone SE lasted up to 27 hours on a single charge: “Enough time to get to bed before you need to recharge it.”
With the charger that came with the smartphone, the charging times are quite long: almost three hours to get to 100 percent of the charge, starting from scratch. The iPhone 11 Pro recharge much faster, but this mainly depends on the charger with which they are sold, more powerful than the one for the iPhone SE.
Who is it for
The owners of the old version of the iPhone SE had always reported being satisfied with their smartphone, both for the small size and for the relationship between the price and the quality of the product. The new edition is a little bulkier than the previous one, but still maintains smaller dimensions than an iPhone Pro 11.
Almost all reviews agree that the new iPhone SE is ideal for most part of the people who expect practicality and reliability from a smartphone, but who are not necessarily looking for the latest and most futuristic features. IPhone SEs have only one camera and can't connect to 5G networks, but it's not about making big sacrifices: the photographs are great and 5G is just starting to spread to some urban centers and it will take years before it is available in large portions of the territory.
Bohn in his review does not have many doubts about what to recommend to the undecided:
Apart from the low light photographs, there is practically no nothing that can be done on a thousand dollar smartphone that I still cannot do on an iPhone SE. It is fast, up to the task, reliable and familiar. I might be missing some of those advanced features and more expensive displays, but not as much as you might think. No other phone that costs less than $ 500 can claim to be this good or have such a long life. The iPhone SE isn't just a good deal. It is also a very good smartphone.
Gibbs writes that the new iPhone SE is not perfect, but that the small flaws are largely outweighed by the convenience of the price, such as to tear up all the main competitors in the same category . Stern agrees and writes that the new smartphone will make many ask why they spend more than double on other iPhone models, when you can get all the strictly necessary things already with the iPhone SEs.
