1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,840 When the first iPhone SE was unveiled six years ago, I was mad because I just bought 2 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:14,480 an iPhone 6 a few months prior and the phone I really wanted was this. 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:19,840 It was such a surprise because it provided the latest power and camera in the last package 4 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:25,560 for the least price. Which at $399 was really good. 5 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:31,200 This new third generation iPhone SE appears to adhere to the original's philosophy, but 6 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:36,000 a lot has changed since then, and that's affected the why of this phone's existence, 7 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,480 the where of its place in the smartphone landscape, and the who of who it's for. 8 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:47,240 And I'd argue that these changes have made the iPhone SE less desirable than ever. 9 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:57,000 They upgraded the wrong things. 10 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:02,360 If you put this iPhone SE next to its predecessor, or the iPhone 8 for that matter, you would 11 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:10,920 not be able to tell the difference between them. The list of updates for this new iPhone SE is quite small. 12 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:17,160 You get a slightly bigger battery, slightly tougher glass, an A15 processor with one extra 13 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,960 Gigabyte of RAM, and 5G. 14 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:24,800 And for the first time ever, a price increase of $30. 15 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:31,880 5G is notably unnotable. It's a big driver for this price increase, and yet I cannot tell when it's been useful. 16 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:35,840 Here in Humble Canada, I'm getting maybe double download speeds if I'm lucky. 17 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:44,000 I'm not getting 5G here. Let me just turn it on to 5G always. 18 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 Any luck? No. Okay. 19 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:55,960 But, so 105 down and 28.6 up, that's not bad for LTE, but why do I need 5G? 20 00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:02,360 So if you're streaming video on this 720p iPhone screen, you're using 10 megabits per 21 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:07,680 tech in tops, that's a lot of overhead for little utility. 22 00:02:07,680 --> 00:02:11,720 The A15 chip on the SE needs a disclaimer, too. 23 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:16,760 In Geekbench, it matches closely with the iPhone 13 Pro in graphics performance, even 24 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:23,240 though that phone's A15 chip has 5 GPU cores instead of 4 in the SE. 25 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:28,880 But when I exported RAWs to JPEG, this phone couldn't keep up with any of the iPhone 13s, 26 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,320 or the A14-powered iPhone 12 mini for that matter. 27 00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:35,920 So it's a fine performer, but perhaps not the best. 28 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:42,600 And then there's what's not been updated. The camera remains the same, and it still doesn't have night mode. 29 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:49,800 There's also no MagSafe, and that's really annoying. It also doesn't bode well for MagSafe's future, considering that the first SE didn't get 30 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:53,400 3D touch. And look what happened to that feature. And then what else? 31 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:59,000 There's nothing. And that puts the SE in a peculiar spot. 32 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:06,960 The market for this $430 phone is increasingly small. 33 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:11,480 The only people that I could conceivably recommend this to would be people who have an iPhone 34 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:18,600 7 or older, so my parents, people who are getting a smartphone for the first time, teenagers, 35 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:23,400 and people who do not want to leave Touch ID, also my parents. 36 00:03:23,400 --> 00:03:26,960 Which considering the pandemic we've been going through and the uselessness of Face 37 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:34,160 ID during it, that makes sense. 38 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:38,800 Altogether it's not a large group of what I imagine are mostly boomers. 39 00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:45,720 Everyone else has moved on to something more modern. So I'm not surprised that already a month after release, reports have emerged that Apple 40 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:51,840 is cutting production of the device by around 20% due to the less than anticipated demand. 41 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:56,120 The group that's left for this iPhone will love the familiarity this unchanged design 42 00:03:56,120 --> 00:04:01,200 brings. But I can't help but worry about the impact on usability this cramped screen imposes on 43 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:10,440 those with aging eyes who need to make text bigger. 44 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,880 This is the smallest screen of any mainstream smartphone. 45 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:18,480 So what if you want a bigger screen? Well you're going to have to venture out of the Apple Garden because there are a lot 46 00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:22,520 of compelling looking big screened Android phones. 47 00:04:22,520 --> 00:04:27,840 At the same price as this iPhone SE you can get the highly regarded Google Pixel 5a or 48 00:04:27,840 --> 00:04:35,840 the brand new Samsung Galaxy A53. Both have significantly more features than the SE, multiple cameras, larger screen and 49 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:39,400 double the storage. 50 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:43,720 And the Samsung has facial recognition, an under screen fingerprint reader and a high 51 00:04:43,720 --> 00:04:48,760 refresh rate display. 52 00:04:48,760 --> 00:05:09,960 Stutters become even more obvious and they happen a lot. 53 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:14,760 The Pixel 5a has less pretense and bloatware, so it performs better. 54 00:05:14,760 --> 00:05:21,080 In Geekbench, these compare more closely against the original iPhone SE rather than the current 55 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:24,600 one and exporting raws they take forever. 56 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,400 I'm frankly staggered at the stark difference in performance. 57 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:32,680 5G-wise the Samsung is significantly better for some weird reason. 58 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:37,200 This is an American Verizon phone on a Canadian TELUS network and it only displays that it's 59 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,560 connected to an LTE network, yet blasts through uploads and downloads. 60 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:47,240 If you do care about the camera on your phone though, the SE is not really for you. 61 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:53,160 Its improvements only come from the A15 chip's processing, but with no night mode. 62 00:05:53,160 --> 00:05:57,920 So you're only going to notice an improvement if you compare it to a multi-year old iPhone. 63 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:02,800 Against the androids, it comes down to subjective opinion and whether you value an ultra-wide 64 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:07,240 camera over good video recording. The Samsung looks awful. 65 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:11,280 I'm still surprised at how slow the Samsung Galaxy A53 is. 66 00:06:11,280 --> 00:06:14,720 It means that at this price point you have a choice between a phone that is basic, has 67 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:20,520 no new features, a tiny screen, but with incredible performance that'll easily last you six years, 68 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:26,600 or you can get a phone full of all the latest features, the most camera and OLED screen, 69 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,800 but will be slow and only get slower. 70 00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:34,880 If you have to go Android, the Pixel 5a is the one I'd go with, though that's not available 71 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:40,240 here in Canada unfortunately, but even though the iPhone SE is much faster than any Android 72 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:49,680 phone in its price range, I still think you can get a better deal on an iPhone. 73 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:54,480 Remember when I ran to the iPhone 13 review about how complicated it is to buy a phone 74 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,480 these days? The whole Excel spreadsheet thing? 75 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:04,360 Well, it applies here too. If you want an iPhone SE, here in Canada a few discount carriers are getting rid of second 76 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:08,360 generation models for less than 200 US dollars over two years. 77 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:15,120 If you can snag that, that's a great deal. But what if you want to have your cake and eat it too? 78 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:25,920 Recently a friend of mine asked me to help her buy a new phone and I was able to help her find an iPhone 12 mini with 128GB of storage for 385 dollars. 79 00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:32,560 That's a complete no-brainer. Prices have climbed a bit now, but they still match the current SE. 80 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:36,840 For my American viewers, the 12 mini is also currently on sale as well. 81 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:44,920 You can get one with AT&T for $315 or free with Verizon, though those are all with a burdensome 82 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,120 three-year contract. 83 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:59,160 What was amazing about the original SE was that for the lowest price you got a device 84 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:04,360 that was better than the iPhone 6 Apple sold at the time for more money. 85 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:09,280 It really was a good deal and perfect for small phone lovers like me. 86 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,480 In fact, I even bought one. 87 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:19,720 This is so tough because despite Touch ID's merits, I think that in 2022 this form factor 88 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:26,600 just looks ancient. If Apple were to maintain the true spirit of the SE with this release, they would have 89 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:34,200 given us an A15 powered, maybe MagSafe compatible 5G capable phone in an iPhone 11 or 10R 90 00:08:35,040 --> 00:08:40,240 For 429, that would have been amazing, but they didn't. 91 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:44,560 It leaves an awkward gap, which I guess is still filled with the iPhone 11, which has 92 00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:50,000 the old SE's A13 chip, but it also has night mode and an ultra-wide camera for $70 more. 93 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:55,400 Well, that means that if you need an inexpensive iPhone, this will do, but I do still think 94 00:08:55,400 --> 00:09:01,520 it's worth the effort to go and find a better deal because they're out there. 95 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:08,560 Thanks for upgrading the least amount of this Mac Address. Now, I'm curious, if you agree with me that this should have been an iPhone 11 body, give 96 00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:13,920 this video a like and if you're still going to use your existing iPhone ever longer, great 97 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:22,200 idea. You might as well subscribe. Now, in the comments, I'm curious how many of you still like this Touch ID iPhone 6 form 98 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,920 factor. Are you going to get one? Because this is probably the last hurrah.