REVIEW: IPHONE SE IS A STRONG PHONE WITH A GOOD PRICE

Apple’s recently introduced $399 iPhone SE marks a turning point in consumer technology. It’s a smartphone that delivers all the tech that we care about, without making us pay through the nose for it.

Many of us have been waiting for this moment. Long ago, the technologies driving TVs and personal computers became so commonplace that good television sets and PCs became affordable for the masses. The ubiquitous smartphone, we presumed, would follow.

Instead, as the smartphone matured over the past decade and a bit, the opposite happened. The price tag for the iPhone, the most popular handset in the world, reached heights that were previously unimaginable. Last year’s new iPhones peaked at $1,449, compared with $599 in 2007. Yet budget phones ranging from $200 to $400 had major shortcomings such as lousy cameras and slow chips.

The new iPhone SE’s lack of compromise is what makes it remarkable. Apple took all the best parts from its expensive iPhones — including a fast computing processor and an excellent camera — and squeezed them into the shell of an older iPhone with a home button and smaller screen. At the same time, it managed to include useful features that were previously exclusive to fancy new phones, such as water resistance, wireless charging and so-called portrait photos.

That means state-of-the-art smartphone technology has finally come down to a modest price. It’s about time.

After testing the new SE for a few weeks, I can confidently say that this device is ideal for many people — especially for those who think about buying tech only when they they have to.

Justin Adler, 33, is one of them. He owned the first SE, which debuted in 2016, for years, subjecting himself to mockery from his techie colleagues in San Francisco who had much nicer phones. He recently bought the latest SE.

“I just never wanted to shell out $1,000 to replace something that was working perfectly fine,” he said. “I was the exact core audience of, if you haven’t upgraded your phone we’re going to give you the cheapest bait as possible.”

This new iPhone may suit you as well. Here’s what you need to know.

Zooming in on the camera:

With the SE, Apple took the computing processor of the $699

iPhone 11 — the fastest on the market — and stuck it in a body that is practically the same as the iPhone 8. The company also made significant improvements to the SE’s camera, which has a single lens but now relies on software and artificial intelligence to make photos look much better.

Apple has applied an AI-assisted approach to the SE’s portrait mode. In my tests, portrait shots looked excellent.

Screen: The other feature that makes the SE cheaper is the screen.

At 4.7 inches, the SE suited to one-hand use. Also important, the phone’s smaller body fits more comfortably in a pocket.

The SE’s second big cost saver is the use of a home button for unlocking the device, rather than the face scanners seen on modern smartphones. The iPhone fingerprint scanners have always worked quickly and reliably, and so does this one.

Putting value in perspective: To fully understand the SE’s value, it’s important to note that this isn’t Apple’s first rodeo with a cheaper iPhone. Those past models were not as compelling when compared with their pricier counterparts. To wit:

• The $549 iPhone 5C, introduced in 2013, came in colorful plastic and felt cheaper and slower than the iPhone 5S, the model with a sleek aluminum body that cost $100 more.

• The $399 iPhone SE from 2016 had the design of older iPhones, with the same computing power as newer ones at the time. Yet that SE had a notably inferior camera and dimmer screen than its $649, bigger-screen counterpart at the time, the iPhone 6S.

This time, the new SE’s trade-offs seem trivial. No face scanner, shooting photos in the dark or humongous screen? Those are minor inconveniences when you are paying 40% less than for an iPhone 11.

I will note one big downside: The SE has significantly shorter battery life than the iPhone 11.

After a day of shooting photos and juggling work tasks, the SE battery needed to be replenished by dinnertime. With the more expensive phone, I had more than 25% battery by bedtime. So people who work long hours and rely on their phones would probably be happier with a high-end one.