iPhone SE and new iPad Pro reviewed: in-depth verdict
Small is back in style, but with some new tricks
$399 (from free on contract) Manufacturer Apple, apple.com Features A9 processor, 12MP camera, 16GB/64GB storage, four-inch Retina display
The iPhone SE is a callback to a previous generation of iPhones – but one that many people still love. The phone world moved on to bigger screens, but lots of us want nothing more than four inches. Has Apple looked at the way people are using phones and realised there’s a massive market for a certain form factor – one that’s not being served by either the current iPhone range, or competitors’ phones? Of course, it’s also one that fills the role of a cheaper member of the iPhone family.
As you might have guessed from the photos, the iPhone SE’s chassis is just the same as the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s, and beyond coming in rose gold, doesn’t offer any new design tricks at all. But then, so many people are looking at the iPhone’s evolution to the 4.7-inch display of the 6s and scrunching their noses up a bit, not wanting to make the leap to the larger size of screen (and that’s before we even get to the Plus). However, internally things are genuinely supercharged, a world away from the innards stuffed into the handset from a few years back. The camera has received one of the biggest overhauls, now coming with the 12-megapixel iSight sensor found in the current flagship phones, and offering the same array of tricks, such as Focus Pixels to offer clearer and faster autofocus, the improved two-tone flash, and Live Photos, where a small amount of video is captured with every photo taken. 4K video recording and ultra-slo-mo movie modes are present and ready, too.
The power of the iPhone SE is something to behold as well – it’s as capable as the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus thanks to having the new A9 chip, the M9 co-processor and 2GB of RAM. This is flagship-level performance – but actually comes with an improvement in battery life over the iPhone 5s, despite there being no extra space in the body. This is a really impressive feat, and addresses one of the biggest frustrations with the 5s. We still found that some days we needed to switch on Low Power Mode early at 35% to make sure we made it through the day with the SE, but it’s fair to say these are the higherusage days, with things like tethering an iPad and a couple of hours of video watching at full brightness in the mix. As we said, though, this was in heavy usage. Most of the time, just using it as normal on a day-to-day basis, it’s generally been capable of lasting more than long enough to satisfy our needs. If you’re upgrading to this phone from the iPhone 5 or 5s, you’ll be in dream land with the battery life.
Part of that impressive battery life comes down to having a smaller screen to power than in the iPhone 6s or Plus. Like the chassis, the four-inch screen is ripped straight from the iPhone 5s. While you could just think that it’s just a smaller version of what’s on the current iPhone duo, in truth it’s a little behind in terms of specs: it has a lower contrast ratio and less impressive colors. It’s still a Retina display, so it’s sharp and very pleasant to use. There’s no 3D Touch, which isn’t the end of the world. We’ve come to really like using 3D Touch for link peeking in particular, but the SE doesn’t feel compromised by its omission. You can still view Live Photos in the gallery app, just with a long press instead of a hard one.
Of course, the iPhone SE’s screen isn’t just about the pixels: it’s about the size. Yes, it’s much, much easier to reach every part of the display onehanded on the SE. There’s no doubt about its convenience, though if you have used larger phones, it can actually feel kind of cramped – especially in terms of the keyboard. If you’re coming from a 5 or 5s, it’ll be just fine, but coming from a larger phone, typing can feel quite awkward. Of course, you can switch to a third-party keyboard such as Swiftkey if your find that easier. This is all far from a problem, but there’s definitely two sides of the coin when going for a smaller screen. pint-sized power As we mentioned, one area the small size definitely hasn’t affected is the speed and capability of the iPhone SE. There are a number of factors at work here, from the fact it shares an A9 chipset with the latest iPhones to the doubling of the RAM seen in the iPhone 5s – everything is super fast. Apps open rapidly, navigating is really smooth, tasks take very little time. It’s a pocket rocket.
The graphical upgrade is probably the most marked improvement: it’s a six-core chip that dwarfs the power of the iPhone 5s and even the iPhone 6, so can easily taking on any title that needed a bit of raw strength to run smoothly. Real Racing 3 still looks great - and is a great benchmark to test whether a lot of fast action can be handled on screen at once: it absolutely can. Other demanding games, such as the fastpaced Vainglory, ran totally smoothly even with lots going on throughout the screen. It’s almost weird to get such processing and gaming power in such a thing, like a Mustang engine shoved into a Chevy Bolt, but that somehow purrs along perfectly.
Put simply: the performance of the iPhone SE is astounding given the size and what Apple’s had to fit in the smaller chassis.
Put simply: the performance of the iPhone SE is astounding
Sadly, the internals offer a disappointment when it comes to storage. Once again the base model is 16GB, with only 64GB available if you want to upgrade. With 12MP camera images, 4K video, large apps, and everything else we store on our phones now, 16GB just isn’t enough space. You’ll have to manage your storage over time, and that’s the kind of hassle Apple is supposed to be good at removing. Awesome upgrades One of the best little additions to the SE is surely Apple Pay support – you can now pay contactlessly with the smaller phone and Touch ID (which isn’t the new faster Touch ID 2 sensor from the 6s/Plus, sadly, but is still fast enough). It works great, and it actually feels slightly easier to know you’re getting the right spot on the scanner in the smaller size.
For all this good stuff, though, probably the star of the show in the SE is the camera. The 12MP sensor is a huge upgrade from that in the 5 or 5s in a number of ways, not just the boost in megapixels – it’s got Focus Pixels for rapid autofocusing, various photo and video modes, astonishing image processing speed, great low-light performance, and vibrant colors. Picture quality is pretty much identical to the iPhone 6s and Plus, and that means it’s fantastic.
the bottom line. We’ve written a lot of this review with upgraders from the 5 or 5s in mind, since that’s clearly who Apple is targeting. The powerful internals, Apple Pay and killer camera make it a huge step up over the handsets its replacing. It’s a shame to have the same design again and no improvement in the screen technology, but otherwise, Apple’s given people a great choice here for a solid price. The iPhone SE is a brilliant phone for those who want something smaller in their pocket and don’t care about the older design – and we suspect there will be quite a few of those buyers among you. Gareth Beavis