the iPhone SE possibly the least
exciting product that Apple has launched since like some random iPod Touch
refresh but I spent a couple of weeks
with it knowing full well that I wouldn't be switching to it as a daily
driver because in addition to giving my
Impressions on the iPhone SE this felt like a good opportunity to discuss
Apple's Direction in general right now so let's get crackle lacking
Intel skull Canyon Nook features a sixth generation core i7 processor and
Thunderbolt 3 learn more at the link in the video
description the iPhone SE packs truly Flagship specifications into an
unapologetically small 4in screen form
factor for little girls and men who happen to have little girl sized hands
it boasts Apple's latest A9 processor the same one found in the 6s and the 6s
plus 2 gigs of RAM the same 12 megapixel
camera sensor found in the 6s AC Wireless LTE Advanced NFC for Apple pay
a 1624 milliamp non- removable battery
and an IPS 640x 1136 Retina Display and
there's a lot to like about that I mean honestly it's the kind of product whose
merits I've been arguing for since the f race started a handful of years ago
asking who needs 1440p or 4K phone
screens who can operate these things with one hand to which the answer was
always bigger is better and use two hands but there are of course some
compromises to be made here some of them are minor the storage speed has been
downgraded somewhat but not to the point where it's likely to bother anyone and
the same goes IMO for the slower Wi-Fi
and LTE Advanced I mean I haven't had
issue streaming YouTube videos team viewer desktops or music in years and I
actually can't figure out what people need these ever climbing data speeds for
but there are a few things that ground
my gears a bit more the inclusion of an NFC radio for Apple pay gets 4in device
users closer to feature parody with current generation devices than they
were before but Touch ID was already present on the iPhone 5S and it even
uses the same older slower and less
accurate first generation sensor though in practice this didn't end up bothering
me much and the other big thing missing is 3D touch having a right click is
always better than not having one always
apple and that's what 3D touch effectively is so ignoring the
distinctly last gen industrial design with only a pink color option and a
sandblasted versus polished Edge to distinguish it from the 5S the lack of a
push harder to do more stuff faster button is the most outdated feeling
thing about this device I mean of course
aside from the fact that apple is still equipping a
$400 smartphone with 16 gigs of onboard
storage and no SD card expansion making the cost of this device effectively $500
for anyone who intends to use the 12 megapixel Stills 4K video rear camera so
let's talk about that camera now then shall we it lacks Optical image
stabilization like the 6 and the 6s but it's characteristically really good it
opens and focuses quickly it's got a two-tone Flash and the full auto mode
gets it right the vast majority of the time the Zoe excuse me live photo mode
is great for capturing moving objects like children but the app just sucks I
actually used to prefer Apple's hands off the wheel approach to phone pictures
but that was back when a great phone camera shot and a decent phone camera
shot both kind of looked like trash and
when Android phone makers were baking all these weird Half Baked like put
dinosaurs and fish all over the scene functionalities in I mean these days a
Samsung device can take videos and photos with as much or as little control
as I want from the same screen with one tap when Apple still requires swiping
through modes one by one with their extremely limited first- party app or
opening an entirely separate in the case of Camera Plus $ app to enable manual
control just for Stills I mean that coupled with their lack of a screenoff
gesture to launch the camera made it noticeably slower for me to capture
unexpected moments with that said though that's about all I can criticize about
the SE from a performance perspective actually using the device is about like
using my old iPhone 4 if my iPhone 4 was
the equivalent of a Pontiac Firefly with an 8 cylinder engine in it and they did
this remarkably without hurting battery life which isn't to say I don't still
think there's room for improvement I mean can you imagine living on a planet
where you could buy a phone with iOS's idle power management and your typical
Android handsets 2500 to 3500 mAh
battery the SE on most days would
actually best the S6 and the Z5 compact
for me for percentage remaining at the end of the day
but then on heavy days I could run out of battery by dessert still impressive
though considering its size and raw horsepower with that said it's shocking
to me after all the moaning that I've done about smaller devices being better
for people with smaller hands how much less I personally found myself using
this phone due to its smaller screen it's frustrating how little real estate
is left for the actual conversation I'm having once you've got the keyboard on
there and during my veg time watching videos on curiosity stream or whatever I
actually found myself more than once running upstairs for a tablet something
I really haven't felt I needed to do in a long time which I guess leads us into
the conclusion it's strange to be saying this so soon after giving Apple my best
smartphone of 2015 award for the iPhone 6s only a few short months ago but it
seems like the accountants are running certain aspects of the company at this
point instead of the designers Apple's own words people wanted a smaller better
iPhone says it all the iPhone SE is a carefully engineered and carefully timed
response to this feedback one that
brings existing customers who were on the brink of a somewhat forced
obsolescence an all 64-bit app store is going to happen soon and iPhone 5 and
below users will be on the outside looking in and potential customers in
developing markets an obvious and lower
cost wage to stay in or enter the Apple
ecosystem it's a strong business move
but there's really no Artistry or innovation or pride in it it's just
cheaper they reused the older block here
design language because they want it to look and feel cheaper to drive customers
who can afford it to the much higher margin 6s and 6s plus I mean remember
those contain basically the same hardware and if you've ever bought a replacement screen on eBay that should
give you some idea what the cost of a 4 in versus a 4.7 in screen is they're
pretty much the same but this move delivers zero Innovation Apple's
customers are crying we want you to remake that thing we liked from before
but faster and they're doing it it's about the least Apple manner of Behaving
that I can possibly imagine I mean I don't always agree with Apple's choices
but I respect that they have the guts to make what they think is best and then
educate their customers about how that should enrich their lives and while the
objective likely one from the bean counters of build a lower cost skew to
maintain the install base and improve gross profit dollars at the cost of some
margin has pretty much been accomplished here I have some serious misgivings
about what this means for Apple's Direction as a company over the coming
years maybe the iPhone 7 will completely prove me wrong maybe I'll be able to
rearrange the icons on my home screen the way I want I guess we'll find out in
the fall okay so I know that there are some
of you who complain about our phone
reviews always having these debrand
skins on the phone saying that you find them ugly so I said to dbrand I was like
look you guys you got that great configurator on your site where you can
pick out exactly you know what type of skin you want on which part of the phone
you can you can preview it on the site and see what it's going to look like in
person so if you guys have got this great configurator why are you guys
always picking the color scheme and sending it to me and people are complaining why are we doing this let me
pick the color scheme this time so they did and I used DeBrands configurator to
cover the iPhone SE and what I think is the most beautiful vinyl skin that I
have ever seen in my life I mean look at this I have 1 two three four five
different colors if you count wood grain
as one color cuz it's got multiple colors to it it's like wood grain and
with this skin not only does my phone look great it is protected from
incidental scratches the kinds that come about during life so check it out get
your dbrand skin they ship worldwide and they're affordable at the link in the
video description let's see if you can put together something even sexier than
mine thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if
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