WEBVTT 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 00:00:08.840 --> 00:00:14.480 an iPhone 6 a few months prior and the phone I really wanted was this. 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 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:25.560 for the least price. Which at $399 was really good. 00:00:25.560 --> 00:00:31.200 This new third generation iPhone SE appears to adhere to the original's philosophy, but 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, 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. 00:00:41.480 --> 00:00:47.240 And I'd argue that these changes have made the iPhone SE less desirable than ever. 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:57.000 They upgraded the wrong things. 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 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. 00:01:10.920 --> 00:01:17.160 You get a slightly bigger battery, slightly tougher glass, an A15 processor with one extra 00:01:17.160 --> 00:01:20.960 Gigabyte of RAM, and 5G. 00:01:20.960 --> 00:01:24.800 And for the first time ever, a price increase of $30. 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. 00:01:31.880 --> 00:01:35.840 Here in Humble Canada, I'm getting maybe double download speeds if I'm lucky. 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:44.000 I'm not getting 5G here. Let me just turn it on to 5G always. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.000 Any luck? No. Okay. 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? 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 00:02:02.360 --> 00:02:07.680 tech in tops, that's a lot of overhead for little utility. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:11.720 The A15 chip on the SE needs a disclaimer, too. 00:02:11.720 --> 00:02:16.760 In Geekbench, it matches closely with the iPhone 13 Pro in graphics performance, even 00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:23.240 though that phone's A15 chip has 5 GPU cores instead of 4 in the SE. 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, 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:32.320 or the A14-powered iPhone 12 mini for that matter. 00:02:32.320 --> 00:02:35.920 So it's a fine performer, but perhaps not the best. 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. 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 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:53.400 3D touch. And look what happened to that feature. And then what else? 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:59.000 There's nothing. And that puts the SE in a peculiar spot. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:06.960 The market for this $430 phone is increasingly small. 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 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, 00:03:18.600 --> 00:03:23.400 and people who do not want to leave Touch ID, also my parents. 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:26.960 Which considering the pandemic we've been going through and the uselessness of Face 00:03:26.960 --> 00:03:34.160 ID during it, that makes sense. 00:03:34.160 --> 00:03:38.800 Altogether it's not a large group of what I imagine are mostly boomers. 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 00:03:45.720 --> 00:03:51.840 is cutting production of the device by around 20% due to the less than anticipated demand. 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:56.120 The group that's left for this iPhone will love the familiarity this unchanged design 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 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:10.440 those with aging eyes who need to make text bigger. 00:04:10.440 --> 00:04:13.880 This is the smallest screen of any mainstream smartphone. 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 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:22.520 of compelling looking big screened Android phones. 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 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 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:39.400 double the storage. 00:04:39.400 --> 00:04:43.720 And the Samsung has facial recognition, an under screen fingerprint reader and a high 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:48.760 refresh rate display. 00:04:48.760 --> 00:05:09.960 Stutters become even more obvious and they happen a lot. 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:14.760 The Pixel 5a has less pretense and bloatware, so it performs better. 00:05:14.760 --> 00:05:21.080 In Geekbench, these compare more closely against the original iPhone SE rather than the current 00:05:21.080 --> 00:05:24.600 one and exporting raws they take forever. 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:28.400 I'm frankly staggered at the stark difference in performance. 00:05:28.400 --> 00:05:32.680 5G-wise the Samsung is significantly better for some weird reason. 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 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:41.560 connected to an LTE network, yet blasts through uploads and downloads. 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. 00:05:47.240 --> 00:05:53.160 Its improvements only come from the A15 chip's processing, but with no night mode. 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. 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:02.800 Against the androids, it comes down to subjective opinion and whether you value an ultra-wide 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:07.240 camera over good video recording. The Samsung looks awful. 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:11.280 I'm still surprised at how slow the Samsung Galaxy A53 is. 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 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, 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, 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:29.800 but will be slow and only get slower. 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 00:06:34.880 --> 00:06:40.240 here in Canada unfortunately, but even though the iPhone SE is much faster than any Android 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. 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 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:57.480 these days? The whole Excel spreadsheet thing? 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 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:08.360 generation models for less than 200 US dollars over two years. 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? 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. 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. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:36.840 For my American viewers, the 12 mini is also currently on sale as well. 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 00:07:44.920 --> 00:07:46.120 three-year contract. 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 00:07:59.160 --> 00:08:04.360 that was better than the iPhone 6 Apple sold at the time for more money. 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:09.280 It really was a good deal and perfect for small phone lovers like me. 00:08:09.280 --> 00:08:12.480 In fact, I even bought one. 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 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 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 00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:40.240 For 429, that would have been amazing, but they didn't. 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 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. 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 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. 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 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 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 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:25.920 factor. Are you going to get one? Because this is probably the last hurrah.