Adam Kos It must be said that there was a glimmer of hope until the last moment. However, there was no surprise, and Apple presented the 3rd generation iPhone SE at the Peek Performance event with the well-known design to which only the company provided significant performance tuning. But it certainly doesn't have to be legally wrong.
You may think I'm naive, but I really hoped that the 3rd generation iPhone SE would be more of a beaten-down iPhone XR, which also at one time filled the position of a cheaper model for a more equipped series. Apple introduced it in 2018 alongside a pair of models in the form of the iPhone XS and XS Max. At the same time, the design of the new iPhone SE comes from 2017, so annual "rejuvenation" may not have been completely out of the question. However, in the end, Apple was not surprised.
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So he was actually surprised, because it depends quite a bit from which point of view you actually look at the matter. It takes a certain amount of courage to introduce a device with a 2022-year-old design in 5. In 2017, Apple introduced the iPhone 8, from which the iPhone SE 2nd generation (2020) is directly based, and thus also the novelty of the iPhone SE 3rd generation. At the same time, there are really few changes. This is because it is supposed to be a budget iPhone that should ideally balance the hardware with the price of the device.
However, Apple could easily remove a few small things in the product's packaging and thereby reduce its price. The number of brochures and the presence of stickers is a thing of the past nowadays. Attaching a tool for removing the SIM card is also quite unnecessary, in addition, a more environmentally friendly toothpick would be enough. What is interesting here is the fact that Apple made the tool much lighter compared to the one supplied with the iPhone 13 Pro. The presence of the charging cable itself, which is USB-C to Lightning, is considered. I would definitely survive without him.
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Iconic design
There is no need to argue, because even if the iPhone SE 3rd generation looks outdated with regard to, for example, the iPhone 13 series, the reference to the icon in the form of the first iPhone cannot be denied. Its dimensions are 138,4 mm in height, 67,3 mm in width, the depth is 7,3 mm and the weight is 144 g. Compared to the iPhone 8 and SE 2nd generation, the novelty has lost 4 grams in weight, the other dimensions are identical. Nothing has changed in terms of resistance to spills, water and dust, and the device still complies with the IP67 specification. So it can handle up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter.
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The novelty can be found in dark ink, star white and (PRODUCT)RED red. The previous generation was black, white and (PRODUCT)RED red, but in a different shade. The original iPhone 8 was sold in silver, space gray, gold, and for a limited time also in (PRODUCT)RED red. If you pay attention, you can distinguish the individual generations from each other by the colors and, where appropriate, their pictograms on the back or side.
The star-white color variant is simply pleasant. I really like the transition of the black front surface to the matte rounded aluminum frame. Some may be bothered by the too white antenna shielding elements, but Apple does not try to hide them in other models either, and takes them as a clear part of the design. I switched to a frameless design for iPhones with the XS generation. Now I own an iPhone 13 Pro Max, and when I pick up the iPhone SE 3rd generation, I can just feel that whiff of fond nostalgia.
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There is no doubt that the design is outdated and limited in many ways, but you can't deny the fact that even today it is simply pleasing. Those who only own Max models will be blown away by the small dimensions and hummingbird weight. It is true, however, that the mini models are even smaller and lighter (e.g. the iPhone 13 mini has dimensions of 131,5 x 64,2 x 7,65 mm and weighs only 140 g). Of course, this does not mean that the SE model is intended for owners of iPhones with the nickname Pro or Max or a combination of both. You wouldn't help yourself by transitioning.
The display is simply the biggest problem
The design of the device also makes sense of its operation. Underneath the 4,7-inch Retina HD display with a resolution of 750 × 1334 pixels and 326 ppi, there is also a button on the surface with Touch ID for biometric verification of fingerprints. Because of this and the large space above the display that houses the speaker, front-facing camera and other sensors, the screen-to-body ratio is 65,4%. iPhone 13 Pro Max has 87,4%, iPhone 13 has 86% and iPhone 13 mini with its 5,4" display has 85,1% of its ratio to the body of the device.
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If you're new to bezel-less designs and own an iPhone SE 2nd generation, iPhone 8, or even older devices, you pretty much know what to expect here. For example, a contrast ratio of 1400:1, a wide color range (P3), or True Tone technology. Just be aware that iPhone 8 and earlier had 3D Touch, here it's just Haptic Touch. For example, the iPhone 7 lacked a True Tone display, the 6S model only had the full range of the sRGB standard and a brightness of only 500 nits.
The novelty has a maximum brightness (typical) of 625 nits, but it is not a glory, because it adopts this value from previous models. E.g. the 13 Pro model has a maximum brightness of (typically) 1000 nits, and the maximum brightness in HDR is 1200 nits, and it is very noticeable. For example, a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra will offer up to 1750 nits. You just can't see much on the iPhone SE 3rd generation in direct sunlight. That's a fact you have to accept and there's not much you can do about it.
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Technologically, the displays are already a light year away. Already with iPhone 12, Apple deployed OLED displays in the entire newly introduced series. At the same time, the difference is glaring. Again, it doesn't matter if you don't have a comparison. If you own a previous generation or model 8 or older, it will be clear to you how the content will appear on the display. But if you've smelled frameless displays and OLED, you won't want to go back. If you then know how the adaptive refresh rate on the 13 Pro models behaves, you will wonder how you ever existed with such a device.
Performance at the top
A15 Bionic beats in the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro, and Apple also installed it in its lightweight SE version. This is the variant from the iPhone 13 models. There is a 6-core CPU with 2 high-performance and 4 energy-saving cores, a 4-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. The 13 Pro models differ in that they have a 5-core GPU. In terms of performance, there is not the slightest problem here, because it is the top in the field of chips contained in mobile phones. The question is whether the device itself can use its potential.
Accustomed to the largest possible iPhone display, I tried F1 Mobile, Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire or Genshin Impact on the SE. It can be played, yes, but do you want to play it? It is poverty with need. I know we used to play Real Racing 3 and Infinity Blade on these screens, but nowadays we don't have to, we can play on big 6,7" displays. Therefore, the SE model is clearly not for gamers, even if you will still play Cut The Rope or Alto's Adventure relatively comfortably.
The important thing about the iPhone SE 3rd generation having the A15 Bionic chip is that it has full software support for many years to come. Owners will thus receive the latest updates on the device for a good number of years, so it can be said that for undemanding users who just want a phone with the Apple ecosystem, this is actually an ideal choice out of reason. Since this chip also contains 5G, it is an added value for the future. If you don't see the potential in 5G yet, that may change in the coming years. And with the years to come, your iPhone SE 3rd generation will keep up with you.
The chip itself should also have an effect on battery life, or at least that's how Apple presented it. It handles everything faster and is more economical, which is why Apple claims a two-hour increase in video viewing compared to the previous version. So she jumped from 13:15 and XNUMX:XNUMX. But in reality she also jumped battery size. It is larger by 10,8% when its capacity increased from 1821 mAh to 2018 mAh. You can fully charge it in an hour and 25 minutes, but after a quarter of an hour you are already at 25%, we reached 70% after only 35 minutes of charging with a 60W adapter.
Charging progress
One camera and only one major limitation
The fact that the base model has only one camera is not a problem in terms of zoom. If the SE model is designed for undemanding users, it is unnecessary to give it an ultra-wide-angle or telephoto lens. I'm pretty good with that 12MPx and f/1,8 aperture. Optical image stabilization or True Tone flash with slow synchronization is also present. Thanks to the A15 Bionic chip, compared to the 2nd generation SE model, more photographic styles have been added, and the new model has the Deep Fusion and Smart HDR 4 Pro photo functions, even with regard to the front camera. Compared to the previous model, it is also capable of slow-motion video in 1080p resolution at 120 fps, although it is still a 7MPx FaceTime HD camera sf/2,2.
Depth of sharpness
Improvements are therefore mainly in the field of software, which has recently become as important as hardware. The iPhone SE 3rd generation also has the portraits that came to the SE model with the previous generation. You will also find all six lighting effects here, which applies to both the front and rear cameras. But if you don't mind the absence of a second camera in terms of zooming in/out, it does bother you that in portrait mode, in which you can only take pictures of human faces. If the smart algorithms do not find one in the scene, they will not activate the portrait. This is of course a problem for all those who want to take effective photos of their pets. To do this, they have to reach for an alternative from the App Store, and that is no longer so convenient. However, the iPhone XR also had one camera, which approached portraits in exactly the same way, so this does not depend on the design of the device, but on the limitation of the hardware itself.
Sample photos
In the case of the 5-year-old one, not even the current chip can get more out of it. This is also why the night mode is missing. If you want to take night photos, it is more convenient to use some application with manual determination of values, where you can define everything and try to get the most out of the minimum. But if it takes pictures in ideal lighting conditions, you will see really great results that are not distinguishable at a glance from higher specification cameras, e.g. in the case of the flagship model 13 Pro. In ideal lighting conditions, the iPhone SE 3rd generation gives surprisingly great results. Sample photos are scaled down for website use. They fulfill their size and quality You can find here.
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Where is the problem?
If you're interested in the 3rd generation iPhone SE, then you've played Apple's game of recycling the old design, which you don't mind. You are content with the fact that you will get the current performance in the old body, and maybe even prefer this option because of Touch ID and in general the easier use of the device thanks to the presence of the desktop button, instead of the gesture controls that need to get used to.
In that case, neither the appearance nor the capabilities of the device is a problem for you, but the price may be. Yes, it's the cheapest new iPhone, but that price isn't as low as it could be. 12GB of storage will cost you 490 CZK, 64 CZK for 13 GB and 990 CZK for 128 GB. I could certainly imagine when Apple would withdraw its margin, which must be literally incredible for this phone, and go to at least a psychological 16 CZK, as is the case with, for example, the basic iPad.
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Samsung Magazine There is a lot of competition in this price category, which is also often simply better, it just doesn't have the bitten apple logo on it. We are talking about the new Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, which will cost you CZK 11 in its 490GB version, while you also get Galaxy Buds Live headphones worth CZK 128 for free. The iPhone 4, which already offers a frameless display, Face ID and a dual main camera, but does not have 490G and has "only" an A11 Bionic chip, then costs 5 thousand more than the new SE.
If the SE were cheaper, this gap would be much larger and thus irrelevant to consider at all. But this is exactly how it seduces, so the new SE paradoxically has the biggest competition in its own stable. Of course, this also takes into account that there are already numerous price promotions on the iPhone 11, so you can get even lower with the starting price. By all accounts, it's fair to say that the iPhone SE 3rd generation is a fine phone that builds on the successful design of its predecessors and elevates it with a new chip and capabilities. It's the same thing over and over again, but it will certainly find its interested parties, whether among younger, older or less experienced users.
For example, you can buy the new iPhone SE 3rd generation here
If someone defines himself by a phone, he won't buy the SE 2022.
SE 2016 still works and is smaller :)
Do you think that in the future, Apple will put touch ID back under the display, for example? I have and I don't want to enter FC id, so the iPhone 15 will have it back for you
Face ID ... in a few days you will forget any fingerprint for God's sake. Why go back to prehistoric times…?!