WHAT IS THE IPHONE SE?
The iPhone SE is a strange proposal, but it makes complete sense. With phones getting bigger and bigger, it’s becoming rare to see a device which is comfortably usable in one hand. The
Samsung Galaxy S7,
HTC 10 and
iPhone 6S Plus are all great but for many they’re simply too large.
With the iPhone SE, Apple has given these people a choice. Its 4-inch screen and compact body are rare these days, but it’s still one powerful device. There’s the same internals as the
iPhone 6S, a snazzy pink (sorry, Rose Gold) hue and support for
Apple Pay. Normally small phones are hamstrung, but this isn’t.
It has an impressive camera, a battery that can last, an iconic (if recycled) design and the latest version of iOS. It’s also the most affordable iPhone yet, starting from £359/$399.
IPHONE SE – DESIGN, SCREEN AND AUDIO
A surprising amount of people I speak to say they want a small phone that packs all the features of a full-fat flagship. Sony is the only manufacturer to have previously attempted anything like this, but even its
Xperia Z5 Compact has a not-so-tiny 4.6-inch screen and it's quite thick. The iPhone SE is much smaller and much easier to handle.
Anyone who's used an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S will feel at ease with the iPhone SE – it looks and feels almost identical, except now you can get it in a fetching rose-gold colour and its cut edges are matte rather than shiny chrome.
Those phones have an iconic design and I have no problem with Apple reusing it, especially if it means they can keep costs down and pass the savings on. The best thing about the design of the iPhone SE is that it still feels quality. The brushed aluminium back is both hard and cool to touch, the buttons are solid, and it’s easily small enough to use one-handed, regardless of the size of your hands.
Coming from using the giant
iPhone 6S Plus and
Huawei Mate 8 I also found it a relief to be able to bend my leg again when I put a phone in my front pocket.
In other ways it’s taken me time to adjust to the smaller screen. It’s not just that I have to move it closer to my face to read text, like my granddad reading the morning paper, I also struggle with the small keyboard. Ironically I often have to use both my hands and thumbs on the phone to minimise the potential for embarrassing autocorrect fails. I've gotten more used to it, but I still don't find it comfortable after a few weeks of using the phone non-stop. The small screen also means watching video is a little cramped and, while the iPhone SE is more than powerful enough to play all the best games, trying to maneuver precisely requires daintier digits than mine.
While the iPhone SE still looks good there are a couple of aspects of the design that aren’t perfect, and others that feel dated. For starters, if you don’t use a case with the iPhone SE you might find the edges a little harsh, particularly if you’re more used to the rounded metal sides on contemporary phone designs. The screen bezel is also rather wide – especially at the top and bottom – and that means you don’t get a lot of screen for the size of the phone.
That’s not the only problem with the screen.
It packs the exact same display as the 5S. While the 1136 x 640 resolution provides a perfectly sharp 326 pixels per inch the screen lacks punch and has a reddish tinge that is exacerbated when it’s tilted at some angles. Compare it to Samsung’s colour-packed Super AMOLED screens or even the newer LCD technology on a phone like the
HTC 10 and it really starts looking its age.
Still, it's quite acceptable – bright enough to be used outdoors and sharp enough to read websites on the go without noticing any fuzzy edges to letters.
The speaker located at the bottom of the phone is decent rather than outstanding. Top-level volume isn’t as high as some other phones, but the quality of the audio output is surprisingly good from such a small package – sound is balanced, if a little thin, and there’s no distortion at the highest volume.
Call quality is also strong. The ear speaker is clear and loud and the noise-cancelling mic does a good job of clearing up any distracting external noises when you're on a call. There are louder call speakers out there but I didn't have any problems hearing or making myself heard even on windy days with lots of traffic noise around me.
Neither the design, screen or sound quality excites the blood much – so far the iPhone SE isn't very different at all when compared to its predecessors.
It’s not just the quality of the pictures the iPhone SE delivers that makes it a corker; it’s also dead easy to use. This is thanks to the simple and robust camera app, which also enables the shooting of Live Photos – pictures that can also be viewed as short videos.
The iPhone SE’s camera produces results that belie its specs.
However the iPhone SE doesn’t seem to suffer by comparison. The lens is plenty fast and the “Focus Pixel” (otherwise known as phase detection) technology it uses means speedy focusing too.
Shots look more natural and lifelike when compared to some of its high-end competitors, and noise is kept to a minimum.
It’s in low light that the iPhone SE suffers. Wider apertures and optical image stabilisation (OIS) help competing phones deliver more detailed, contrasty shots in dark environments.
Of course, there is a flash on the back of the SE and this is of the True Tone variety we first saw on the iPhone 5S. Two LED lights adapt to produce a varied flash depending on the ambient light. The aim is to reproduce a realistic colour tone, where a normal flash tends to produce a “ghost face” effect. It’s not just a gimmick, either – True Tone does work.
Since the SE has the same camera and processor as the 6S, it also shares 4K video recording at 30 frames per second. Not only that but it comes with the excellent slo-mo video recording that lets you shoot at a whopping 240fps for 720p and 120fps at 1080p resolution.
The rear camera on the iPhone SE is outstanding, particularly considering how much less this phone costs than the iPhone 6S.
The front camera is less impressive. Instead of the 5-megapixel sensor on the iPhone 6S it's a disappointing 1.2-megapixel one. Megapixels aren’t everything, but with a difference this large you can expect poorer shots.
It seems strange that Apple's decided to opt for a weak front camera. I see the iPhone SE being popular with kids whose parents don't want to fork out for the iPhone 6S, but it's exactly these young people who tend to make the most out of a selfie cam.
The one plus side is that Retina Flash makes an appearance. Retina Flash allows the iPhone SE's screen to light up three times more brightly than normal, so you get some light when taking a selfie in the dark. It works well enough but the smaller screen size means it's not quite as effective as on the iPhone 6S.
There's more to a phone than its cameras and the iPhone SE manages to squeeze incredible performance into a small shell.
