Hopefully Sandcastle will get to a point where we can install Android 11 on this and end up with a phone we can actually customise and install the software of our choice on vs the limited Apple ecosystem. And I'd love to see whether the Geekbench numbers hold up when running on Android, so we can see whether/how much Apple has been cheating on that benchmark ;-)
The last time I tried Android it was so bad I returned the phone.
But, iOS is seriously annoying in some ways — like how it spams you with random pop-ups telling you that you can turn on location tracking.
Well, if you choose "Ok" to dismiss the pop-up it turns on location tracking. The only other option you're given is "Open Settings". How many conventions does the pop-up violate?
1) Totally modal? Check. 2) No way to close the window without choosing from bad options? Check. 3) Comes up without any prompting/relevance? Check. 4) Behaves in a way that's user-hostile? Check 5) Behaves in multiple ways that are user-hostile? Check. 6) Violates expected UI conventions ("Ok" to dismiss)? Check.
Of course, one should expect that location tracking is still enabled even if it's "off".
One of the things I always find amusing is how my car always knows I have an iPhone because it's broadcasting Bluetooth even when Bluetooth is "turned off".
7) Gives you two laborious options instead of a simple/efficient option? Check. 8) Makes it seem like one option is laborious but the other is simple (deception)? Check.
"Last time you probably tried android was version 2.0. Now we're at version 10. Try it again."
I tried it before I purchased an iPhone 8.
(Given JCheng's comment, Apple may have changed the behavior of the pop-up between iOS 12 and the most recent, which I believe is 13. I am still using 12 for the moment, despite Apple's harassment over that which is another topic.)
Android 7? That's quite a while ago, missing a lot of newer things, I'm on 10 currently. Android 8 introduced: - Project Treble (updates are way faster now due to modularization, I get an update every month) - Adaptive icons (theming, circle, square, rounded, etc.) - Notification improvements (channels (grouping), badges, snooze, multi-colors) - System-wide autofill - Can limit app background activity and location checks - Color management for display - 8.1 onward: Neural networks API, sahred memory API, Bluetooth battery level for connected devices, auto light and dark themes
Android 9: - Screenshot option to lock menu - Lockdown mode - Notifications are "rich", can include images, smart replies, etc. - Volume slider change (the two bars, that can also pop out to be all media controls without having to go to all the settings) - Pill gesture system (I kind of still prefer this to the Android 10 gestures, a bit torn) - "Shush", mute standard notifications if phone is face down - Adaptive battery (way better hibernation, my phone lasts me two days easy with 7/8 hours screen on) - Auto brightness based on habits (I think I adjust brightness maybe once a month or so, usually if watching a super dark video)
Android 10: - New permissions system for once off only, only if shown, etc - Background apps can't jump to foreground - AV1 codec support (Netflix uses way less data and space.) - System-wide dark theme - New gesture navigation - Project Mainline: Core OS components updated via google play store, no more restart for those updates or reliant on manufacturer and carrier to approve.
I'm still wondering what Android 11 will bring, since Android 10 is really well fleshed out now, the next couple of updates will be minor things, same for iOS. Only recently used iOS again since ~10, 13 is actually pretty nice, just a little annoyed by how difficult it is to easily connect to specific BT devices, Android still has better pop-up imho, though really happy iOS finally introduced it.
Best thing would have been if iOS left both old and new gestures in, with toggle options for which you want, ah well.
-Keyboard still lags when popping up, when it should be the fastest feature on the entire phone. It's about 5x slower than it should be (I measured against other UI movements) -App-switching is laggy on every phone. -App-switcher (Recents) is still UNORDERED EVERY SINGLE TIME, no options to configure this. Each iteration of Recent apps is worse. -Most of the software takes up way more memory/CPU than it should. -Most of the apps have very bad UI, lots of clicking through menus and going "back" with the wonky back button, it's truly an adventure. -Multi-window is useless. We've had widgets for 10+ years (also useless), but nobody thought to put widgets inside multi-window so you can do multiple things from the same screen. -Can't do basic things like switch between different multi-window panes that are already set up (app1+app2 to app3+app4). Think "multi desktop". -Can't do basic things like configure swiping left/right between different apps, i.e, I'm in Discord, I swipe left to go to WhatsApp. I swipe right to go to Skype. When I first heard about/saw Android, I saw the "swiping screens around" thing and I was blown away. Turns out, all you can do is swipe between your fucking multiple home screens. -The battery usage window has EVEN FEWER details, it's actually gotten worse over time, so I can't even really see where 8AM is in the graph. -Still no way to manually re-order/sticky your notifications in the list, therefore, you'll never develop muscle memory for the notification list.
Doing a simple task like finding an image online, downloading it, cropping it, uploading it to imgur, getting the link, and sharing it to a friend.. takes a full minute, when using Gyazo on a PC takes 6 seconds. I have timed it. On the Android phone, most of the time, you are waiting for lag.. apps to switch, features to load.. then clicking through awful UIs. Somehow, nobody ever thought to just make the software work properly? What happened? Everything worked fine on my Pentium 3. Even Atom can do multi-window, multi-tasking, with full windows apps (not crippled Android apps). Seriously, what happened? Did we all just forget how to write computer programs?
I am usually refuted by saying "Oh yeah, well MY device isn't bad.. MY device isn't slow..." That's because you are not using it properly. Try doing multiple things very quickly, and you will be slowed down by the bad UI/apps/OS, even on the latest flagship phones.
I know what the problem is. People are just content to use what they've got, instead of thinking carefully, and creating a vision of how an ideal phone OS "should" work. It's a form of collective brainwashing, and lack of initiative/creativity. It's really that simple. Fix all these problems first, and make the phones unbreakable/easily repairable, and finally THEN, maybe we can talk about paying $999 for a phone.
I think the world-class hardware design and unmatched network of stores providing on-site support are pretty big reasons too, tbh... especially given that Android is comparable or better in many UX regards these days.
Jeeze, every so often I read something like this. People don’t buy iPhones to put Android on them, though some have tried to put iOS on a crappy Android phone. I don’t know which idea is worse.
We know Apple doesn’t cheat on these tests. It’s just manufacturers with slower chips that feel they need to do that.
You get spyware with everything. Open source software may, in rare cases, be free of intentional spyware but the hardware will be compromised as well as the networks.
This makes most iphone phones look bad, because Android has a lot of very good midrange phones in this price segment. Take Xiaomi Redmi K30 pro. 450$. SD865. 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage. 5G. OLED display, bezel less. 64MP main camera. In display fingerprint sensor. This iphone is a joke compared to that. Still this iphone is starting to look like a decent proposition from apple compared to the rest of the lineup.
Dimensions 163.3 x 75.4 x 8.9 mm (6.43 x 2.97 x 0.35 in) Weight 218 g (7.69 oz)
Nothing more to say, some people want smaller phones. Got a friend of mine who is like that, he switched from HIGH END RECENT android and it's his first ios device, could not be happier with his decision to switch. Not just because ios and the superior apps + running smoother + more features + exclusives, size was a big factor. My point is - each one have it's personal taste and on the smaller phone segment there is no equal to that new iphone se, especially if one is after more premium experience.
Also the SE will be fully supported for 6 years with day one major/minor/beta as the most expensive current iphone. How about that Xiomi? I have a second hand iphone 6s from 2015 running rn ios 14 beta 3 - fast, smooth, can use it as daily without any complains. Also ios 14 added the few last missing things from android (app drawer, widgets on your home page, caller notification instead taking the whole screen, picture in picture for videos, to name a few).
Personally I'm impressed on how big the phone is in comparison to the screen size. It's almost as big as an iPhone XS! ...yet the screen is a whole inch smaller! The battery is also tiny and not up to par with phones from this day and age. I don't really see what you see that's so impressive, other than CPU performance. A very lacking phone for almost $400.
it's a long time trick to make screens longer and longer to inflate the specs, you need to look at the width of the screen which is fine, I don't care if it is technically 4.7 inches, you can build a 6 inch screen just as wide, but taller, and I wouldn't want that
Yeap for me personally I felt the screen on the original SE was too small, but the iPhone 8 screen size is fine, I just wanted an all screen front (fingerprint on the back). I'll take the SE 2020 though, the screen is wide, but the phone is lightweight.
It's not a trick, it's having a phone that is mostly the size of the screen. I have a Mi 9T and couldn't be happier that it doesn't even have a camera in sight. I can read a lot more text without scrolling, which IMPOV is great.
Also you might have missed it, but the battery life was about the same screen on time as the S20 at 120hz, or more battery life on standby than that phone. Not amazing, but not bad either.
Having iphone 6s as secondary phone - the screen size is fine tbh, tho I would not use anything smaller. Bezels are big, but you got a really good physical FP scanner (can't stress that enough, a top end recent android phones I have are with far inferior FP scanners to the 6s. Including those with physical like the note 9 I have) + in person it does look good and premium. Dunno, hard to explain. Friend of mine have iphone SE and the battery life is quite good actually for the size of the phone/battery. Easily 5-6 hours screen with heavy usage and no power saving features + mobile data a lot of the time, navigation, carplay, calls, music playing and so on... my point is that the battery is not bad at all for daily charging. Fun fact, exynos s20 ultra is not much better at 120Hz in the battery department with it's huge battery. :)
I totally agree on your last sentence tho, media calling 400$ phones as budget ones is baffling, but yet again - phones now chase the 1500$ mark... so maybe they have a point.
I wish I had the girlish/trump hand needed to use a device this small. But unfortunately I have big American Man Hands, and am used to handling large items.
You misspelled "reasonable, normal size for a smartphone in your opinion". Seriously, is it not common sense that some people have larger hands or are willing to sacrifice one-handed usability for more screen estate?
No, it is not common sense for effective and productive people. The people rocking the biggest phones in my world little girls and ignorant guys into Teslas.
You must be living in a delusional world, then. Different people have different priorities, and one-handed usage is not a significant consideration for many.
Unless you can tell me that one-handed usage significantly improves productivity and efficiency, enough to outweigh the benefits that a bigger screen brings. I'll wait.
productivity and efficiency, on a mobile Phone. :-D they are used to play games and watch YT/Netflix, what "productivity"! It is YOU who are living in a delusional world, mate.
Well, he did say "common sense for effective and productive people", implying that one-handed usage somehow makes people more "effective and productive". Doesn't make sense, right? I know. No need to thank me when all of you are going against your own argument. In fact I haven't seen a single good point as to why small screens should be the norm.
In fact, for "[playing] games and [watching] YT/Netflix", a bigger screen is desirable. So I'm not sure what point you are trying to make
IKR - I am in the minority that I only use my phone for phone calls and text. I have used the navigation in the past, but as a Man, I can easily scry my location with dead reckoning. I have played Mahjong on mobile, never watched movies/videos on YT or Netflix. I can honestly say I accomplish nothing productive with my phone.
I've never understood this raging debate. Why is it so hard to understand that some people want one-handed operation, and other people want larger screens? They make both, so what's the problem?
The people slamming phones with big screens have no basis for doing so IMO. Excluding hand sizes, some of us like large phones with giant high resolution screens. You won’t find me complaining about the 11 Pro Max, for example. I don’t have big hands, but I enjoy the phone.
That's exactly why. I used to own a Nexus 6, and loved it despite it being humongous. The extra screen estate compared to flagships at the time was such a joy to have.
But for some reason, these "one handed usage" whiners seems to think that only their opinion is correct and acceptable, and everyone else is somehow wrong despite it being a matter of personal preference
Bought one for my mom to upgrade her Lumia 635. She always complains about larger phones and doesn't understand why her Windows Phone doesn't "time face" with her grandkids. This should last her many, many years.
I don't see the excitement about this phone. For most who will buy this phone, the speed and GPU is meaningless. But you get a screen size and shape from years ago, a mediocre camera, mediocre battery life.
The excitement is that it's finally an iPhone at a price that represents decent value. At a time when the Android vendors seem to be going for thousand-dollar flagships, and the global economy is suffering its worst downturn in years, this phone is gonna sell like hotcakes.
best performance when you just look at benchmarks on an optimised benchmark OS
IOS made for dummies, where you cant change anything besides what has been defined by marketing nerds.
dont count the time that the device will be on charger (because of the fake real stats) everywhere in the world, most device i see on chargers in congress around the world…. IPHONE
DeLorean alike design with large beezels and stupid home button. Broken screens and beezels everywhere.
sure it will sell, perhaps now 20% off all the IPhone users running around with a broken screen that can't afford a fix can finally have the budget to buy a new one and want to stay with the fame of the Wannabee vendor.
my mom has older small iPhone, it is enough for her and she is used to the platform. I have an iPhone XR at home, got it for free. I tried, but I rather stay with my old Pixel XL Android 10, much easier to operate and customize.
Most people don't customize their phones though. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that most people don't even change their ringtone for God's sake. I can tell what carrier they have just from their ringtone.
A phone that gets douple to triple time os updates compared to Android... Yes sir, very impressive indeed. This will easily last useable 6 to 8 years! It is ingredible good for cell phone!
You and your dumbass updates. Every time I open AppStore, there’s always updates for the apps that already got updated a week before.
And iOS update. Give me a f**king break. I have iPhone 6s which I accidentally updated to iOS 11. You know Apple always nag and trick you unlocking iPhone with passcode and update with passcode. Give me back iOS 9 that I bought the phone with. Scam!
Really? What macbook? As my 2015 macbook air is receiving the next macos. There is the list for you:
MacBook: Early 2015 or newer MacBook Air: Mid 2013 or newer MacBook Pro: Late 2013 or newer Mac Mini: Late 2014 or newer iMac: Mid 2014 or newer iMac Pro Mac Pro: Late 2013 or newer Developer Transition Kit
So dunno, but even some 2013 models are supported (7 years old) + my 2015 model is already at 5+ years old and as it will receive all the big sur updates - that makes it atleast 6 years full support, so the statement is true. Dunno about tablets tho, but we are talking about iphones anyway.
My secondary iphone 6s is as fast and smoother on ios 14 beta 3 vs my exynos note 9. So I guess what happened with 4s will stay there and you all can stop using that argument without knowing nothing how things works nowdays. Same for ios "limiting" roflmao, there are literally tons of settings that you can change and tweak without jailbreak and jailbreak is insanely customizable with high quality stuff. Not to mention that the last few things missing are added in ios14 - app drawer, widgets on the screen, caller notification while you are using the phone, picture in picture for videos.
Apple not only FULLY supports for 6+ years with day one major/minor/beta the same way as their most expensive current iphone, but they also still release security updates for iphones as old as 4s from 2011. Now let's take a look at my note 9 - they wanted to abandon the phone at ONE YEAR AND A HALF MARK! Only backslash make them reconsider and release oneui 2.1 for that phone. What GREAT support by samsung for my 1k euro phone! Android manufacturers was quick to bump prices to apple's and beyond apple's level, but don't want to provide the same benefits. Noo, they provide 2 vs 6 years support that is "region based" and on top of that the biggest android representative - samsung - sells 2 years behind exynos cr*p in Europe and most of the world for profits! Enough is enough.
"best performance when you just look at benchmarks" Or, you know, actually running software which these benchmarks represent, year after year. "Optimised benchmark OS" is also pretty hilarious, considering what Apple's competitors have been proven to be guilty of, but not them for some reason...
You do realize that Apple has something like 45% market share here in the US, right? Calling half the target audience 'dummies' doesn't win you friends.
In any case, I don't see why you're so angry about a phone you won't use? It sounds like all this is irrelevant to you.
note that some had reasonable reasons to vote for him: - think he would become reasonable once in office and as long time republican bought into all the conspiracy nonsense about hilary - believed he was a successful business man, would not be corrupt as he didn't need money and might run the country differently from politicians (yes he was a bad business man and a con man just looking to earn but most ppl figured that out after the elections) - don't care for anyone else but themselves and betting he would lower taxes (he did so win for them)
That's about it but covers a lot of people in a country where collaborating and caring for others is discouraged (individualism ftw), where CEO's and the rich are worshipped, government feared and education is bad while fake news and election interference (mostly through making it harder to vote) is rampant.
- He was always a jackass - He was never successful in business - he amassed a small fortune by starting with a large one - Every president since Reagan has give me and my kind a massive tax cut after massive taxcut. I have never abd will never vote for a republican.
I am sure I am not worshipped by my over 1000 employees - 900 or so have been idled since 3rd week in March - and are and will continue to draw full pay (based on 40 hours, some were getting 50+ while working - pay 25% above national average for those positions at $22/hr) and don't need the federal bailout - since I am a Liberal, and actually understand what so many so called "job creators" don't - how to run a business, and understanding that having at least a year worth of full Opex in the bank. Also have spent $3-4M this year to make sure the kids who only got 1 meal a day - while they were in school are getting something to eat. Also funding various foodbanks in my area.
So don't lump us all together - I doubt you are doing 1% of what this 1%er is doing.
I don’t need dummies for friends. I’m using an iPhone too. Not because I want to but my wife likes to use FaceTime. It’s a 4 years old 6s and it would be the last iPhone I ever bought.
Don't need friends - and I could do without 55% of the population - starting with the people who live in the Red welfare states (ALL red states are welfare states)
1/3rd price of android flagships, so your market is limited to USA only, i see. Cause where i live, people with average hands can easily buy and use a flagship android for the price this SE2 sells here.
Well, yeah, AT is based on the USA, so of course they're more focused on that market. I wish we could buy Xiaomi or Huawei devices like my friends do in Europe: great phones for bargain prices. Then you look at the LTE bands they support, and bam, they don't work in the USA. So this SE is an incredible deal in a $400 territory where we don't have a lot of options.
To be fair, every other review (I've read 6 so far) had a much better experience with the camera. It's likely the sample AT received might have been camera-defective.
The people who will buy this phone probably don't see the excitement either. Just like people who buy Corollas or Civics don't see the excitement in their cars; they don't want an exciting car, they just want a reasonably good car.
So in that sense, it doesn't matter that this was a world class design years ago, it just matters that it promises 5 years of OS support, 3 years of reasonably battery life, 10 hours of battery use, $399 price point, and smaller size, as well as compatibility with their existing 5 year old phone.
My sister in law has a 5 year old iPhone. My daughter has a 4 year old iPhone. Both are likely candidates for this phone because it's cheap and good enough.
You can argue there are plenty of Android phones that are cheap and good enough, but those phones don't get 4 years of OS upgrades.
mmm 6s is already guaranteed 6 years with ios14 (it will be supported fully to atleast September 2021) + apple still releases security updates for iphones as old as 4s, so you are wrong - the support is even better than you present it + new battery is 50$ original.
So a summary of the review: great chipset, great screen with thick bezels, decent battery life, decent camera. In contrast to Android mid-rangers with great battery life, good screen with thin-ish bezels, decent camera, decent chipset.
This makes the iPhone SE really good value, compared to most Androids at the same price range, but not necessarily an instant buy especially for people who don't need the chipset prowess (social media/youtube etc)
One thing those android mid-rangers lack will be 5 years of software updates, that and a high end soc. Kudos to Apple, you're turn google... but who are we kidding.
5 years of updates that will make it 10% slower every year and remove 10% battery life every year.
I am so happy you are convinced that updates is all you need….
try lineageOS and see how many updates and android versions are available for ARM cpu . My oneplus one backup device is running lineageOS 17.1 that is android 10... a 2013 device and still as fast as day 1.... good look with your 5y speedy IOS updates.
When we get Android phone that get those updates without loaderfu... Then I would be impressed. Now it is two to three years and after that you have to do things that 99% of phone users don`t know how. Don`t get me wrong. LineageOS is food thing. It just should be automatic option without need the user to do a thing!
Once again you prove that your average tech enthusiast is out of touch with the average person on the street. Yes, you can say that you can load LineageOS but how many average Joe's are actually going to load it let alone know how to load it? Not many.
Your average person doesn't know how to do that so for those kinds of people this iPhone SE (2020 version) ticks every single box while being a low-priced device with guaranteed software updates for at least five years. This is a serious win for people who aren't geeks and nerds.
Exactly. And not just those who are not geeks/nerds. I'm tired of being one, tired of fighting Android, tired of inconsistency, tired of having to resort to flashing devices because they're not supported. 5 years on Android, and this SE is now the perfect moment to finally buy a good device that's reasonably priced and that I don't have to mess with for the next 4-5 years. Just for that, take my $399.
> tired of fighting Android, tired of inconsistency, tired of having to resort to flashing devices because they're not supported
That was me back when I switched back to the iPhone all the way back when the iPhone 6 Plus was new. Mind you, Android was even worse back then but seeing as how you're saying what you're saying now tells me that Android is still a mess.
We would never support this kind of bulls**t from Microsoft yet here we are accepting it on phones which usually end up being more expensive than a notebook PC. I see something wrong with this picture.
You nailed it. It's been 13 years and they still have not figured out how to update us properly. Project treble was supposed to be the great savior that at least would allow OEMs to give us more updates or allow users to install generic Android images on a new phone. The reality is that only a few of the funds released will allow you to do that, and there has been little to no improvement on the amount of updates users get (certainly not the amount of improvement you would expect for a company that has supposedly made OS upgrades such a priority for the past 3 years). I can tell you that my Moto Z2 play had an Android 9 update readied my Motorola and then they proceeded to not seed it to us users for the next 4 months. Fed up, I decided to force the update manually, for which I had to unlock the bootloader (which is allowed by both Google and Motorola) and somehow the OS lost trust on my device when I did that and so I lost the ability to do NFC payments. Are you kidding me? This is a circus. I refuse to be Google's beta tester anymore. I'm done.
The average person also most likely won't care about software updates, or will actively avoid updates because "why fix something when it isn't broken". Seriously, this 5 year software update thing had to be one of the biggest circlejerks in the tech community. Both mobile OSes are extremely polished and feature rich at this point, and it literally makes no difference whatsoever whether you're using the latest OS or an OS from 1/2 years ago.
Security updates also makes no difference whatsoever because your average person is never going to have data important enough for people to ever bother attempting these exploits, most of which require physical access to the device.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that software updates are bad; 5 years support is always better than 2 years. I'm just saying that it does not matter for the average person at all, because they will probably never make use of any of the new features. And this is reflected in the continued success of Android flagships (anywhere that is not the US, at least)
"Security updates also makes no difference whatsoever because your average person is never going to have data important enough for people to ever bother attempting these exploits, most of which require physical access to the device."
I would argue that even the average user nowdays is actively interested in operating system updates and security + got a tech heavy friend who can ask on the topic for more details + media/youtubers are bringing awareness. So you are wrong.
Also no important data? hahahahah today people keep ALL THEIR LIVES on their phones + on top of that credit cards/payments/bank accounts and whatnot! You have no idea what damage someone can do to you if he got access to those things! No matter if interested person who knowns you or total stranger over the internet with criminal intentions!
Also you are wrong that the operating systems are not evolving rofl, I can list a lot with both android and ios! And iphones are receiving atleast 6 years of full support, my secondary 6s from 2015 is on ios 14 beta - smooth as silk and fast too + all the features coming with ios 14 are on my phone! Will be supported fully to atleast September 2021 when ios 15 is releasing and that's 6 years! Security updates you say? Apple support with security updates iphones as old as the 4s from 2011!
Now check the pricing of top android phones and iphones, different picture vs what it was 5 years ago, right?! If they want to copy apple price wise and even surpass them (and that is what happens the last 2 years) - they better also copy what apple does right!
The amount of people who load aosp on their phones is about as much as the amount of people who rebuild an engine in their garage or build a house from scratch by themselves, meaning basically 0. Go tell your parents to install lineageOS on their phone...
LineageOS does not support many devices out there. I should know, they've never supported any of the Moto or Nokia phones I've bought and wanted to install it on. Also, please a) don't lie about downgrading performance, it's been proven time and again that this is not necessarily so, and b) do not compare voiding your phone's warranty and performing a somewhat complicated phone flashing process VS simply installing an OEM-seeded OTA update. Those are two very, very different things.
Oh, really? With zero security which means zero banking apps. I’d like to see you use your credit card with LineageOS. Also, is your one+ or whatever bargain bin crap of a phone you’re using with 100% battery health? Or just as speedy as day 1, right? Jesus, i despise rabid fans such as yourself. All you can do is muster up some useless excuses for how bad “X” is and how good and long-lasting “Y” is.
I signed up to TH just to respond to your ridiculous comment.
I've "used" credit cards on LineageOS for many years with one of the largest banks in this country with NO issues whatsoever. Even the official bank app works fine.
OnePlus One was never a "bargain bin crap of a phone". It was a high end device when released.
You need to be burned just once to understand his comment. Using a credit card in 3rd party ROM/kernel and rooted phone has it's risks as it's a lot easier for a rogue app to steal your details, log your passwords and so on. Also I should tell you that it's common practice for stoled cards to not be used right away, but stored in database for future use before they expire. There is also always the risk that dev or someone helping the dev to put something in the ROM/kernel from the start. I can give you a lot of examples where people feel safe because it's open source only to end up that something rogue was there for years rofl and noone checked it out or found it.
Why someone should even do with all those risks and time consuming things instead of buying iphone for less money than current samsung android phone? You get 6 years of day one full software support as their most expensive current iphone, you get better running apps with more features, hassle free and "it just works", a lot better screen mirroring that is so lag free and high quality that I use my 11 pro max as a console with my ps4 wireless controller, camera that takes the picture from the first try, video recording of insane quality with no rival at android front and whatnot + ios14 adds app drawer, widgets on your home screen, notification for incoming call instead of full screen when you use your phone, picture in picture so you can watch videos while doing something else or listen to audio while it's hidden... I mean, seriously. ios and android are not that different nowdays feature wise, but ios apps are just better with more features and better running, even google's own apps + you got 6 years of full support, better security, less spyware (say hi to google!) + my secondary 6s is great on the newest ios and totally ok for a daily driver phone. I also had 10 years of high end android phones history with my latest being exynos note 9 for 1k euro that is already not supported and still in me, I can tell you a totally different story how it was supported vs my iphone 11 pro max and ironically my iphone 6s that was literally supported the same great way as the 11 pro max, no discrimination at all.
My 4,5 year old iPhone 6s runs the latest iOS and it’s very zippy
That is just rubbish, my work iPhone 7 has slowed down significantly to the point where I often tap at it twice thinking I didn't touch it properly. And it battery life in use is down significantly too.
Then you either got a defective phone or bugged down the ios. You know, there is no operating system in the world that is user proof to be gentle. :) I also have secondary iphone 6s that ran half of ios12, ios 13 from the beta and till the last one and currently ios14 beta with all the new features like picture in picture, app drawer, widgets and it runs smooth as silk + fast. So your problem is with your unit, either because there is something wrong with it or because the operating system is broken by you/someone who used the phone before you and need a fresh reinstall.
I have second hand iphone 6s with changed battery, running ios 14 beta 3 and before that ios 13 with all it's subversions. It's as fast and smoother than my exynos note 9, so you are talking bs. :)
Also lol at lineage argument. It's always NOT like officially released base + firmware + rom. I know, I am on XDA from over 10 years + gave my fair share developing (mainly for HTC phones). Also there are things like note line, running lineage will do what? Exactly, remove 50% what makes that phone a note and manually returning some apps will not fix that. Porting is the next option, but that also got it's flaws. Not to mention that development is far far far from what it was back around 2010-2014 peak.
Ofc android is great and all, but don't take away points from apple and what they do right when android phone makers charge you the same or recently - MORE than what apple does, but they don't want to adopt apple's support policy. :)
P.S. I also have iphone 11 pro max from almost a year and the battery is at 98%, because I am not stupid to use fast charger. Same thing with my note 9 - fast charging turned off in settings day one and the battery is in great shape. Fast charging speed up battery degradation by a lot. So dunno about your 10% every year, maybe if someone use unoriginal faulty cheap power adapter and/or cable - sure, even more in some cases.
Another sheep thinking updates actually make the phone better. Are you mentally ill? Haven’t you noticed FOR THE LAST 10 years, every time an iDevice got updated, it slowed down?
I have a secondary iphone 6s that I ran on ios12, ios13 and currently ios14 beta - you clearly have no clue what you are talking about rofl. It's as fast and SMOOTHER than my exynos note 9!!! Also there are tons of changes and added important new features between ios 12, 13 and 14.
Why would Apple make changes to the camera ? Is it significant enough to make it cheaper ? Maybe an iPad Pro camera part ? Those have soft details too. Still looks like XR is better “Apple single camera” system. Unless those are problems with focusing software. But the rest of the image processing looks impressive.
Btw. I know iPhone 11 sensors are way faster than before, but is it confirmed they have RAM backed readout ? I don’t saw that anywhere.
Regarding battery life is there a plan for some heavy load test against iPhone8 like a GfX battery rundown ?
Regarding perf. A13 was only paired with 3000 mAh cells before. Now it is 1820. How the system can power such a beast without much effect on benchmarks...
And lastly could not be happier this was released. The 11’s feel brick like compared to this one. Just hope that some more small models are in making and not only from Apple.
Also, how would that number help? It is far faster than any method of getting data into or out of an iPhone, and Apple certainly has the chops to make sure that the speed selected maximises exactly the parameters of CPU requirements, power draw, app loading speed, and battery life.
Kind of reminds me of Rolls Royce - when asked how much horsepower their new car engine had, they merely said 'Adequate'.
I would have been sold if they did something about the battery life but they didn't and that's a dealbreaker for me. When they removed 3d touch, all the other phones got a boost in battery capacity but not here for some reason. I guess "designing" a new battery would have pushed the cost from $399 to $402 and we CANNOT have that!
I don't think it would have been that simple. It's still a very small device. I have 2 day battery life on my iPhone 7 still with the Apple smart battery case if that's something you would consider getting with the SE.
No need, friend of mine got one and easily finish the day with 30% battery left, that's with heavy use. In numbers he can reach 5-6 hours screen on with 24h on battery and also calls, music/carplay, etc (offscreen usage). Not the greatest, but totally doable for most people, I think.
Yes that is strange. teardown makes it look like the displays are so similar they are interchangeable. Has Apple gone so cheap they did not even bother to remove 3D touch layer ?
Still original SE had battery almost the size of an 6S. This is 60% of 11.
I couldn't get used to the limitation that is iOS so, back to Android, but that battery life is really good. Especially when comparing S9+ and Pixel 4XL with bigger batteries. That battery capacity on Android phones won't be fun at all.
The reason that battery life is good is that iOS kills background apps. I do day trading and on my iPhone it stops the prices updating in the background so when I switch to it quickly to check prices, it is totally wrong. I have to manually shut it and reopen it to get it to work. So I use Android for my main phone because you can customise app killing.
That is not really true. Go into settings/general/Background App Refresh and select if you want your stock app to keep refreshing in the background. By default it is usually enabled. So, yes, like Android, you can "customize" app killing.
The design, 2008 OG iPhone and 2020 SE same bezel width. Just perfect. IPS LCD 720P, I bet it costs them cents at this point. AL frame, recycled again massive profits. Probably their SoC R&D already had a massive break even and TSMC as well so again with that SoC, next level profits.
A13, the BAU case of AT's uber fast SPEC measurement means it's faster than a 9900K and SD865 is waste because it's sooo fast and Qualcomm is so behind as it takes many years to catch. But in real life UX, it's the same and sometimes even loses to the Android, wonder where did all that performance go.
But it's just $400+tax, so it's the best of the best smartphones on the planet because it's the best phone evaar. And ofc you do not get any 3.5mm jack as usual because space is not there I guess.
Apple is the most successful company because of their marketing edge, which is not possible to beat by any company, even the company which lives on Ad revenue itself failed so hard.
The utter shame is it runs on an OS which doesn't have a filesystem open to user for access but rather a ball and chain ecosystem utopian system.
Kudos tho. I hope this breaks the retarded mold of the Android phones esp Chinese ones and Samsung, Sony get their shit pricing corrected by selling $1000+tax phones planned obsolescence with sealed battery technology.
And yet if you ask the average person on the street, they couldn't give a rat's behind about having access to the file system. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that if you tried to explain what a file system is, you'd lose their interest in less than five seconds.
Outside of the tech enthusiast crowd, most people don't care about this kind of stuff. They just want it to work and that's what iOS does, and it doesn't brilliantly.
> Outside of the tech enthusiast crowd, most people don't care about this kind of stuff. They just want it to work and that's what iOS does, and it does it brilliantly.
I hate the fact that we don't have an edit button.
Thanks Andrei! Here an interesting teardown+rebuild that shows just how similar the iPhone SE and the 8 are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBNdm0XBIfA (in Chinese, but subtitles are available)
I was ready to buy the Pixel 4a, then this SE came out. There is no point paying the same money for a third of the performance, just to stay on Android. I've been very frustrated with the software update situation, stuck on Android 9 on my Moto Z2 Play, and that's after I had to manually force the update (because Moto was inexplicably not seeding it in the US, 4 months after it was ready) which broke the OS's trust in the phone and disabled my NFC payments. This is not serious, no longer acceptable. Google has had 13 years to figure out updating all Android users. I'm done. For $399, the same price of a Pixel Xa series, I deserve day 1 updates for the next 4 years. I'll be damned if I don't choose the phone that has triple the performance over a Snapdragon 6xx/7xx.
I was a Windows Phone user from 2010-2015. I've been an Android user from 2015-2020. I guess it's only fair I give Apple the same 5 years now.
I bought an iPhone for one reason, my 1 year old Android flagship phone stopped working properly with Android Auto, full of bugs (voice control in particular outright stopped working). The manufacturer and Google can't be bothered to keep software working for 12 months (worked perfectly on launch day)? No thanks.
Apple was vague on the optics used in this, first it was hoped to be the XR sensor, then was said to be identical to the 8 on the sensor and optics, but then this regression is weird. Hope that's just software, because a regression in optics from the 8 would be a letdown on an otherwise great value.
I think this will bring much-needed competition to the mid-range market, this probably means we will get features like wireless charging on cheaper phones. The only thing that seems odd it the meager improvement in battery life from the iPhone 8 even though the SE is using an SoC that's built on a much smaller node.
Right phone at the right price, combined with Apple's marketing, will ensure this is a hit. It's ideal for those with an older iPhone that is lagging, like the 6S and earlier. It also makes a good entry point for those on a budget who want to jump to iOS.
But, aside from the SoC, the SE is a downgrade in everything for someone with a good two year old flagship.
The biggest selling point of this phone is upgraded internals paired with TouchID. Face unlock is a huge detriment compared to fingerprint unlock and will be a selling point when my mom picks one up within the next year.
If they offered an 8+ version I’d be on it in a heartbeat as I love the home button - the camera is a little bit of a letdown but at $400ish something has gotta give
With inferior camera hardware, the only selling point over a second hand iPhone 8 is the A13, as it's fast and efficient enough. It seems reviewers are lavishing praise on the computational gimmicks, spending time testing out digital bokeh and HDR (and binning and night modes in other phones), which at the end of the day is just saccharine. Like the proliferation of mini boom boxes which claim to have a "great" sound, the one test is whether your ears get tired from the distortion.
In my experience, people who care for quality pocket sized photography is served by the largest sensor (pixel-size, not binning equivalent) coupled with smooth jitter free video and lack of any obvious flaws in the processing algorithms. The Galaxy S20's 12MP main camera is a good example, too bad the package is overpriced.
Perhaps this inspires a market for a thicker phone with Snapdragon 865 and a 22mm ultrawide (non-existant) 1/1.33" 20MP sensor?
"and lack of any obvious flaws in the processing algorithms. The Galaxy S20's 12MP main camera is a good example"
Not according to Anandtech's review and may others online as well.
"The main camera sensors on the other hand I feel fall short of the high expectations. Yes, they are better than what we see on the S10 series, however Samsung here is still falling short of proving the same quality that Apple achieves on the iPhone 11 – and it’s also optically inferior to Huawei’s newest devices."
Sure you’ll get the best performance compared to other phones at the same price point ON PAPER, not real life experience. For $400, There are many battery phones - Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, Oneplus, Vivo... to choose from. Unless you want to be on iOS which can be good also bad.
Any example of which phone *performs* better, zippier and faster without lag? Any example of which phone gets updates for the next 4 years, including security updates? Any example of which phone is as secure and provacy-focused? ...Thought as much.
Most android phones at the $400 price point perform just as smoothly. We aren't talking about the $100 bargain basement phones here. The last two points are your own personal priorities, and people with different priorities e.g. battery life, high refresh rate etc will not necessarily see the iPhone SE as a clear winner.
You sound like a close-minded person who never likes to read. There’s a thing called internet, you know. Get on gsmarena, you’ll find many 2019-2020 flagship phones for under $600. Here’s a couple of midrange phones came to mind - Xiaomi Mi 9T $270, Vivo V15 Pro $300. They have full displays Super AMOLED, 6-8GB RAM, 128GB internal storage among many other things that I’d prefer them over this garbage.
You’re one of those Apple sheeps who would believe everything Apple says. Watch the OLD Apple keynotes again and check those old iPhones which Apple touted about - “the fastest iPhone yet” LMAO. You don’t even know that iOS is a closed system, optimized to run on iPhones. Zipper, faster without lags my ass. Play Plants vs Zombies at high level on an iPhone, see how many fps it’ll give you. Operating system update? Haven’t you noticed every time an iDevice got updated to a new version of iOS, it got slower? Many people including me don’t want system updates for our iPhones but Apple always harass you if you don’t, right? They even trick you to enter password to update AFTER you CANCEL update. Security updates you say? Who gives a fk except for idiots. There’s many service online that bypass iCloud activation on stolen iPhones. Jailbreaks are out all the way to iOS 13. Security updates Apple push to your iPhones are for themselves, mostly patching the jailbreak exploits and install some more spywares. There’s not a phone that is secured. If you don’t know that iPhones and Android phones are the worst with spywares, you should not use any.
I said this somewhere but I’ll tell the readers here again about my experience with these so called smartphones. My wife FaceTimed me while I was away from home, showing my 2 years old boy taking his first step. I told her please record everything about our baby. Fast forward to about one year later, she called me and told me that our then 3 years old boy singing in the shower and he’s taking the shower by himself and she’s recording it to send to me after. I stopped everything I was doing and told her not to do that because those MFs at Apple may think that you’re trafficking child porn or something. She said that’s our baby and that’s what I asked her to do, why tell her to delete this precious recording now. We had a argument over that until I explained clearly and showed her the iCloud storage of the message app later that night. I know that every keystroke I make or any file I have on the phone will go to the server and it will stay there forever, until someone dig it up. Luckily I stopped her in time or I would have been living in fear until now. Welcome to the police State where you have Apple and Google always there with you. Only sheeple like you would live in peace.
You have thought as much? Still too fking little to me. Think some more. You have a long way to go.
I have heard of this thing called the Internet - I hear they have that on computers now - apparently 25% porn, 25% cat videos, 25% propaganda, and 25% long winded messages that are tl;dr
Xiaomi and Vivo? Really? I wouldn't let those damn devices with all of the Chinese backdoors into my house at all. Bad enough Google spies on you with Android as it is but to add China to the mix makes it even more of a toxic hellstew of spyware.
Received mine yesterday. I was upgrading from a 2016 SE, which I liked very much, but I was using a 32 GB version for the last year and always needed more space. It will take some time before I get used to the new size. My hands are fairly large, but operating the phone with just one hand is a bit more difficult, especially if I have to hit something in the top left corner. I also preferred the old home button, this new one feels awkward, I never know "when" it will register the "press".
Why are you commenting on an article about iPhones and patronizing users for their choice of operating system? Go iSheep yourself somewhere else. Its annoying to be on a tech site with a lot of very thoughtful commenters and then you come trolling along. You post all over the place repeatedly with nary an original thought to share.
and a rabid intel fan as well. they guy cant get his own personal facts straight, let alone anything else. reply to him with sources that refute his claims, and he either runs away, and doesnt reply, or he just resorts to name calliing and insults.
To the people here commenting that they like the size: I bought my mother-in-law the Galaxy A40 on sale for 150€ back in January. She likes that phone a lot. It has a nice 1080p Samsung screen, good-enough SoC, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, good battery life, headphone jack. It is 6mm taller and 2mm wider than the iPhone SE (2020). Is it that much of a difference to you? Or is it just that you actually want a cheaper and smaller iOS device? It really felt tiny to me, coming from 5.7" 16:9 and 6.5" 19:9 phones. And another thing: the iPhone SE (2020) is ca. 138x67 mm² and the LG G2 was ca. 138x70 mm², but had a 5.2" 1080p display. In 2013. I liked that phone a lot.
This phone is LAME. Other than the chipset, everything is just 2016 at best... Screen is pathetic. My 100$ chinese phone has better resolution. Also it is oled. The battery is just laughable. My Sony erricson from 2011 has a 1700mah battery lol. It is just amazing how little iphone users are willing to get for their money.
Who uses a phone for 5 years? You are suggesting someone will still be using this retro phone in 2026. No way they will have cracked the screen way before 5 years go by. Updates are not that important unless they lock out features. I have old devices sitting in drawers and they aren't getting hacked.
Phones last longer now as CPU progress has slowed. I went 4S -> 5S -> 6S and only plan on upgrading my 6S when the next generation comes out, so that'll be 5 years on a 6S.
I had an iPhone 7 Plus for three years and it was still fast as the day I bought it. Those of us who don't have bottomless money pit hang onto our phones longer.
"In JetStream, the phone even gets a boost here, which might be due to the newer iOS version."
Not "might be", *is* a result of newer iOS. Apple's constantly improving Safari performance. Some of the tech behind the most recent improvements is detailed here:
With this article my suspicion of you guys being either paid my Apple or Apple fanboys has been confirmed. There are a ton of interesting, cheap Android devices in THE SAME price category as this old junk, but you never get the time to cover them. Some of them even have SD865 and the lot at close to same price as this phone, but neah, don't bother to write about them. No, you instead waste your time and our time to write a long article, to repeat basically all that was valid for iPhone 6 in 2015. Sure, you are free to do it, you are the writer. Sorry to be so harsh, but I feel like this site is going into a wrong direction.
The fact is that Apple is more popular. They are going to get more hits on an article for a new iPhone. Just because a design is old doesn't make it junk. It's a proven design that many people still prefer to the swiping gesture based controls of the newer full screen iPhones. Most people don't look into these off brand budget phones you speak of for the same price. I personally wouldn't risk spending $400 on a brand with no service center in my country, Apple is everywhere, and you can walk into a store and get service the same day on your device.
Honestly my untrained eyes can't see much if any difference between the iPhone 8 and SE 2020 video. I do see a slight but noticeable difference vs the iPhone 11 Pro video though.
There is at least one side by side speed comparison with the SE and 8 out there now. Basically, normal stuff it's a toss up. But in more demanding applications, longer loading apps and so on, there's a pretty large difference.
My take on all this is that the SE 2020 is essentially a more future proof variant of the 8, but the 8 is still a very capable and fast phone to the point where the differences are undetectable except under the most demanding of apps (there is a significant difference in the comparison when the phones are pushed, but how many people push their phones SoC to the limit with any frequency?). This shouldn't be too surprising, any competing phone running less than a Snapdragon 845 is going to get thumped hard on performance by the iPhone 8 - which is to say anything short of a 2019+ flagship android.
So, as an 8+ owner who disdains facial recognition, I'm not seeing this as much of an upgrade path. I don't want to go back to the smaller screen, my camera is already better than an normal 8 and probably better than this 2020 SE, and I'm not interested in losing my home button on the new iPhones.
I don't understand about bezels, phones with thicker bezels have higher chace to survive after accidental drops, I lost cout of how many thin bezel phones that has latest version of protective screen, been smashed/cracked just because of 30 cms drop. For practical purposes, thicker bezels is like the only choice, unless you add good quality material like higher quality quartz/sapphire glass to entire front. Untill then, I will prefer thicker bezels on my phones.
$532 belgium $610 bosnia $575 croatia $513 czech $539 denmark $521 germany $531 spain $531 france $542 ireland $542 italy $513 luxembourg $521 nederlands $512 norway $521 austria $527 poland $542 poland $542 portugal $464 switzerland $542 finland $608 serbia $517 uk __________________ EU Average Price = $536 usd
// ASIA PACIFIC (in usd) aus $473 hkd $439 kor $446 myr $459 nzd $477 php $523 sgd $455 twd $482 thb $461 mop $439 __________________ AP Average Price = $466 usd
$399 is only the promotional price used in the US (not including tax), the actual price globally is higher. Europe gets hit the hardest with the average price about $536, Asia Pacific is about $466 average and no pricing data yet for Latin America. This brings the current world average price to +/- $500 usd.
Wow I can't believe the love this phone is getting.
Such an outdated design, CPU and GPU performance matter so little to the consumer now. They've been more than powerful enough for years.
To put out such a lazy rehashed design just shows how complacent Apple are and the fact it's getting such praise shows just why they have gotten so complacent.
This simply wouldn't be acceptable in the Android world.
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ingwe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Very impressed overall. Glad Apple finally released something at this price range again. Time to upgrade from my SE.haukionkannel - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I agree, very impressive indeed! This makes most other middle range phones look really bad in comparison!linuxgeex - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Hopefully Sandcastle will get to a point where we can install Android 11 on this and end up with a phone we can actually customise and install the software of our choice on vs the limited Apple ecosystem. And I'd love to see whether the Geekbench numbers hold up when running on Android, so we can see whether/how much Apple has been cheating on that benchmark ;-)mrochester - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Why would you want to ruin an iPhone by putting android on it? The whole reason the iPhone is so popular is because it’s NOT android!Oxford Guy - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
The last time I tried Android it was so bad I returned the phone.But, iOS is seriously annoying in some ways — like how it spams you with random pop-ups telling you that you can turn on location tracking.
Well, if you choose "Ok" to dismiss the pop-up it turns on location tracking. The only other option you're given is "Open Settings". How many conventions does the pop-up violate?
1) Totally modal? Check.
2) No way to close the window without choosing from bad options? Check.
3) Comes up without any prompting/relevance? Check.
4) Behaves in a way that's user-hostile? Check
5) Behaves in multiple ways that are user-hostile? Check.
6) Violates expected UI conventions ("Ok" to dismiss)? Check.
Of course, one should expect that location tracking is still enabled even if it's "off".
One of the things I always find amusing is how my car always knows I have an iPhone because it's broadcasting Bluetooth even when Bluetooth is "turned off".
Oxford Guy - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
7) Gives you two laborious options instead of a simple/efficient option? Check.8) Makes it seem like one option is laborious but the other is simple (deception)? Check.
yeeeeman - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Last time you probably tried android was version 2.0. Now we're at version 10. Try it again.Oxford Guy - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
"Last time you probably tried android was version 2.0. Now we're at version 10. Try it again."I tried it before I purchased an iPhone 8.
(Given JCheng's comment, Apple may have changed the behavior of the pop-up between iOS 12 and the most recent, which I believe is 13. I am still using 12 for the moment, despite Apple's harassment over that which is another topic.)
RSAUser - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Android 7? That's quite a while ago, missing a lot of newer things, I'm on 10 currently.Android 8 introduced:
- Project Treble (updates are way faster now due to modularization, I get an update every month)
- Adaptive icons (theming, circle, square, rounded, etc.)
- Notification improvements (channels (grouping), badges, snooze, multi-colors)
- System-wide autofill
- Can limit app background activity and location checks
- Color management for display
- 8.1 onward: Neural networks API, sahred memory API, Bluetooth battery level for connected devices, auto light and dark themes
Android 9:
- Screenshot option to lock menu
- Lockdown mode
- Notifications are "rich", can include images, smart replies, etc.
- Volume slider change (the two bars, that can also pop out to be all media controls without having to go to all the settings)
- Pill gesture system (I kind of still prefer this to the Android 10 gestures, a bit torn)
- "Shush", mute standard notifications if phone is face down
- Adaptive battery (way better hibernation, my phone lasts me two days easy with 7/8 hours screen on)
- Auto brightness based on habits (I think I adjust brightness maybe once a month or so, usually if watching a super dark video)
Android 10:
- New permissions system for once off only, only if shown, etc
- Background apps can't jump to foreground
- AV1 codec support (Netflix uses way less data and space.)
- System-wide dark theme
- New gesture navigation
- Project Mainline: Core OS components updated via google play store, no more restart for those updates or reliant on manufacturer and carrier to approve.
I'm still wondering what Android 11 will bring, since Android 10 is really well fleshed out now, the next couple of updates will be minor things, same for iOS. Only recently used iOS again since ~10, 13 is actually pretty nice, just a little annoyed by how difficult it is to easily connect to specific BT devices, Android still has better pop-up imho, though really happy iOS finally introduced it.
Best thing would have been if iOS left both old and new gestures in, with toggle options for which you want, ah well.
flyingpants265 - Friday, May 8, 2020 - link
I mean.. almost everything in that list is crap.-Keyboard still lags when popping up, when it should be the fastest feature on the entire phone. It's about 5x slower than it should be (I measured against other UI movements)
-App-switching is laggy on every phone.
-App-switcher (Recents) is still UNORDERED EVERY SINGLE TIME, no options to configure this. Each iteration of Recent apps is worse.
-Most of the software takes up way more memory/CPU than it should.
-Most of the apps have very bad UI, lots of clicking through menus and going "back" with the wonky back button, it's truly an adventure.
-Multi-window is useless. We've had widgets for 10+ years (also useless), but nobody thought to put widgets inside multi-window so you can do multiple things from the same screen.
-Can't do basic things like switch between different multi-window panes that are already set up (app1+app2 to app3+app4). Think "multi desktop".
-Can't do basic things like configure swiping left/right between different apps, i.e, I'm in Discord, I swipe left to go to WhatsApp. I swipe right to go to Skype. When I first heard about/saw Android, I saw the "swiping screens around" thing and I was blown away. Turns out, all you can do is swipe between your fucking multiple home screens.
-The battery usage window has EVEN FEWER details, it's actually gotten worse over time, so I can't even really see where 8AM is in the graph.
-Still no way to manually re-order/sticky your notifications in the list, therefore, you'll never develop muscle memory for the notification list.
Doing a simple task like finding an image online, downloading it, cropping it, uploading it to imgur, getting the link, and sharing it to a friend.. takes a full minute, when using Gyazo on a PC takes 6 seconds. I have timed it. On the Android phone, most of the time, you are waiting for lag.. apps to switch, features to load.. then clicking through awful UIs. Somehow, nobody ever thought to just make the software work properly? What happened? Everything worked fine on my Pentium 3. Even Atom can do multi-window, multi-tasking, with full windows apps (not crippled Android apps). Seriously, what happened? Did we all just forget how to write computer programs?
I am usually refuted by saying "Oh yeah, well MY device isn't bad.. MY device isn't slow..." That's because you are not using it properly. Try doing multiple things very quickly, and you will be slowed down by the bad UI/apps/OS, even on the latest flagship phones.
I know what the problem is. People are just content to use what they've got, instead of thinking carefully, and creating a vision of how an ideal phone OS "should" work. It's a form of collective brainwashing, and lack of initiative/creativity. It's really that simple. Fix all these problems first, and make the phones unbreakable/easily repairable, and finally THEN, maybe we can talk about paying $999 for a phone.
iOS is even worse.
JCheng - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
I just tried it and the two options I get are Settings and Cancel, and Cancel does not enable it.Oxford Guy - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
You just tried the random pop-up? How does one go about summoning it?Apple must have changed the behavior if that's the case.
cha0z_ - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
Learn how to use and configure your phone before you go on some articles comment section to type bs. ;)sprockkets - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Wow, totally deep there.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Not true - the whole reason for the iPhone is the undying slobbering subservience of the iSheep.star-affinity - Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - link
I thought it was the many superior audio apps available, such as the stuff from Moog and Reason Studios. At least that makes it for me. :)The Moog Model 15 app is just wow in my opinion:
https://www.moogmusic.com/products/model-15-modula...
Spunjji - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
I think the world-class hardware design and unmatched network of stores providing on-site support are pretty big reasons too, tbh... especially given that Android is comparable or better in many UX regards these days.melgross - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
Jeeze, every so often I read something like this. People don’t buy iPhones to put Android on them, though some have tried to put iOS on a crappy Android phone. I don’t know which idea is worse.We know Apple doesn’t cheat on these tests. It’s just manufacturers with slower chips that feel they need to do that.
sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
What to be impressed about? It’s just a freaking phone with outdated design combined with a spy OS.Oxford Guy - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
You get the spyware feature no matter what device you choose.Both in hardware and in software.
137ben - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
You don't get spyware with a Purism Librem 5 phone. Although, there are other drawbacks compared to iOS or Android.Oxford Guy - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
You get spyware with everything. Open source software may, in rare cases, be free of intentional spyware but the hardware will be compromised as well as the networks.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
but those drawbacks are it's a steaming pile of ...808Hilo - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Correct and its from Apple.yeeeeman - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
This makes most iphone phones look bad, because Android has a lot of very good midrange phones in this price segment.Take Xiaomi Redmi K30 pro. 450$. SD865. 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage. 5G. OLED display, bezel less. 64MP main camera. In display fingerprint sensor. This iphone is a joke compared to that. Still this iphone is starting to look like a decent proposition from apple compared to the rest of the lineup.
Fulljack - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
that's no mid-range, that's budget flagship.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
not with that peasant resolutionflyingpants265 - Sunday, May 10, 2020 - link
That's what makes it budget..cha0z_ - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
Dimensions 163.3 x 75.4 x 8.9 mm (6.43 x 2.97 x 0.35 in)Weight 218 g (7.69 oz)
Nothing more to say, some people want smaller phones. Got a friend of mine who is like that, he switched from HIGH END RECENT android and it's his first ios device, could not be happier with his decision to switch. Not just because ios and the superior apps + running smoother + more features + exclusives, size was a big factor. My point is - each one have it's personal taste and on the smaller phone segment there is no equal to that new iphone se, especially if one is after more premium experience.
Also the SE will be fully supported for 6 years with day one major/minor/beta as the most expensive current iphone. How about that Xiomi? I have a second hand iphone 6s from 2015 running rn ios 14 beta 3 - fast, smooth, can use it as daily without any complains. Also ios 14 added the few last missing things from android (app drawer, widgets on your home page, caller notification instead taking the whole screen, picture in picture for videos, to name a few).
heffeque - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Personally I'm impressed on how big the phone is in comparison to the screen size. It's almost as big as an iPhone XS! ...yet the screen is a whole inch smaller!The battery is also tiny and not up to par with phones from this day and age.
I don't really see what you see that's so impressive, other than CPU performance.
A very lacking phone for almost $400.
Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
it's a long time trick to make screens longer and longer to inflate the specs, you need to look at the width of the screen which is fine, I don't care if it is technically 4.7 inches, you can build a 6 inch screen just as wide, but taller, and I wouldn't want thatweevilone - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I really felt this moving from the 6+ to the 11. The loss of screen width really meant that the display size was a net downgrade regardless of specs.Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Yeap for me personally I felt the screen on the original SE was too small, but the iPhone 8 screen size is fine, I just wanted an all screen front (fingerprint on the back). I'll take the SE 2020 though, the screen is wide, but the phone is lightweight.heffeque - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
It's not a trick, it's having a phone that is mostly the size of the screen. I have a Mi 9T and couldn't be happier that it doesn't even have a camera in sight. I can read a lot more text without scrolling, which IMPOV is great.Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Also you might have missed it, but the battery life was about the same screen on time as the S20 at 120hz, or more battery life on standby than that phone. Not amazing, but not bad either.sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
4 hours of general usage for a fully charged battery in 2020 is LAME.cha0z_ - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
Having iphone 6s as secondary phone - the screen size is fine tbh, tho I would not use anything smaller. Bezels are big, but you got a really good physical FP scanner (can't stress that enough, a top end recent android phones I have are with far inferior FP scanners to the 6s. Including those with physical like the note 9 I have) + in person it does look good and premium. Dunno, hard to explain. Friend of mine have iphone SE and the battery life is quite good actually for the size of the phone/battery. Easily 5-6 hours screen with heavy usage and no power saving features + mobile data a lot of the time, navigation, carplay, calls, music playing and so on... my point is that the battery is not bad at all for daily charging. Fun fact, exynos s20 ultra is not much better at 120Hz in the battery department with it's huge battery. :)I totally agree on your last sentence tho, media calling 400$ phones as budget ones is baffling, but yet again - phones now chase the 1500$ mark... so maybe they have a point.
Alexvrb - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I know a couple of other holdouts that are probably going to make this their next upgrade. :PGood specs and decent price too.
YB1064 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
I'm still rocking the old 4inch SE as well. One of the best phones ever made. Phones these days are tablets, that require a backpack to carry.yetanotherhuman - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
"outright diminutive stature."You spelled "reasonable, normal size for a smartphone" in a weird manner.
boozed - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
This. Why do phones have to be so large you need two hands to operate them?Peskarik - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
because they are primarily game devices and mini-TVs for the tech-savvy (that's the nice way to write addicted) youngsters.Maxpower2727 - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Because lots and lots of people love larger phones and would never use something as small as this.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I wish I had the girlish/trump hand needed to use a device this small. But unfortunately I have big American Man Hands, and am used to handling large items.Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
You misspelled "reasonable, normal size for a smartphone in your opinion". Seriously, is it not common sense that some people have larger hands or are willing to sacrifice one-handed usability for more screen estate?NA1NSXR - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
No, it is not common sense for effective and productive people. The people rocking the biggest phones in my world little girls and ignorant guys into Teslas.Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
You must be living in a delusional world, then. Different people have different priorities, and one-handed usage is not a significant consideration for many.Unless you can tell me that one-handed usage significantly improves productivity and efficiency, enough to outweigh the benefits that a bigger screen brings. I'll wait.
Peskarik - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
productivity and efficiency, on a mobile Phone. :-Dthey are used to play games and watch YT/Netflix, what "productivity"!
It is YOU who are living in a delusional world, mate.
Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Well, he did say "common sense for effective and productive people", implying that one-handed usage somehow makes people more "effective and productive". Doesn't make sense, right? I know. No need to thank me when all of you are going against your own argument. In fact I haven't seen a single good point as to why small screens should be the norm.In fact, for "[playing] games and [watching] YT/Netflix", a bigger screen is desirable. So I'm not sure what point you are trying to make
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
IKR - I am in the minority that I only use my phone for phone calls and text. I have used the navigation in the past, but as a Man, I can easily scry my location with dead reckoning. I have played Mahjong on mobile, never watched movies/videos on YT or Netflix. I can honestly say I accomplish nothing productive with my phone.eek2121 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I am using my 11 pro max with one hand right now.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I bet you are, I bet you are... just clean up the area when you are done, and close down Pornhub.Maltz - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I've never understood this raging debate. Why is it so hard to understand that some people want one-handed operation, and other people want larger screens? They make both, so what's the problem?eek2121 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The people slamming phones with big screens have no basis for doing so IMO. Excluding hand sizes, some of us like large phones with giant high resolution screens. You won’t find me complaining about the 11 Pro Max, for example. I don’t have big hands, but I enjoy the phone.Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
That's exactly why. I used to own a Nexus 6, and loved it despite it being humongous. The extra screen estate compared to flagships at the time was such a joy to have.But for some reason, these "one handed usage" whiners seems to think that only their opinion is correct and acceptable, and everyone else is somehow wrong despite it being a matter of personal preference
boozed - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
You can't get high end components without having to also get a gigantic screen. There's the rub.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Well when I buy a gigantic screen I EXPECT high end componentsnathanddrews - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Bought one for my mom to upgrade her Lumia 635. She always complains about larger phones and doesn't understand why her Windows Phone doesn't "time face" with her grandkids. This should last her many, many years.Speedfriend - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I don't see the excitement about this phone. For most who will buy this phone, the speed and GPU is meaningless. But you get a screen size and shape from years ago, a mediocre camera, mediocre battery life.The_Assimilator - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The excitement is that it's finally an iPhone at a price that represents decent value. At a time when the Android vendors seem to be going for thousand-dollar flagships, and the global economy is suffering its worst downturn in years, this phone is gonna sell like hotcakes.crimson117 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
More than decent, this is stellar value.Best performance on the market, perfectly good camera (though not mind blowing), for like 1/3 the price of high end iPhones and Android flagships.
And a smaller screen, which is preferred by many, though not all.
duploxxx - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
best performance when you just look at benchmarks on an optimised benchmark OSIOS made for dummies, where you cant change anything besides what has been defined by marketing nerds.
dont count the time that the device will be on charger (because of the fake real stats) everywhere in the world, most device i see on chargers in congress around the world…. IPHONE
DeLorean alike design with large beezels and stupid home button. Broken screens and beezels everywhere.
sure it will sell, perhaps now 20% off all the IPhone users running around with a broken screen that can't afford a fix can finally have the budget to buy a new one and want to stay with the fame of the Wannabee vendor.
Peskarik - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
my mom has older small iPhone, it is enough for her and she is used to the platform. I have an iPhone XR at home, got it for free. I tried, but I rather stay with my old Pixel XL Android 10, much easier to operate and customize.trparky - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Most people don't customize their phones though. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that most people don't even change their ringtone for God's sake. I can tell what carrier they have just from their ringtone.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Wait, you can change the ringtone?haukionkannel - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
A phone that gets douple to triple time os updates compared to Android... Yes sir, very impressive indeed. This will easily last useable 6 to 8 years! It is ingredible good for cell phone!sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
You and your dumbass updates. Every time I open AppStore, there’s always updates for the apps that already got updated a week before.And iOS update. Give me a f**king break. I have iPhone 6s which I accidentally updated to iOS 11. You know Apple always nag and trick you unlocking iPhone with passcode and update with passcode. Give me back iOS 9 that I bought the phone with. Scam!
justareader - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Updates for 6 to 8 years? I have 2 ipads and a macbook that say you are wrong.cha0z_ - Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - link
Really? What macbook? As my 2015 macbook air is receiving the next macos. There is the list for you:MacBook: Early 2015 or newer
MacBook Air: Mid 2013 or newer
MacBook Pro: Late 2013 or newer
Mac Mini: Late 2014 or newer
iMac: Mid 2014 or newer
iMac Pro
Mac Pro: Late 2013 or newer
Developer Transition Kit
So dunno, but even some 2013 models are supported (7 years old) + my 2015 model is already at 5+ years old and as it will receive all the big sur updates - that makes it atleast 6 years full support, so the statement is true. Dunno about tablets tho, but we are talking about iphones anyway.
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
and invariable one of those updates sets the date it will die.cha0z_ - Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - link
My secondary iphone 6s is as fast and smoother on ios 14 beta 3 vs my exynos note 9. So I guess what happened with 4s will stay there and you all can stop using that argument without knowing nothing how things works nowdays. Same for ios "limiting" roflmao, there are literally tons of settings that you can change and tweak without jailbreak and jailbreak is insanely customizable with high quality stuff. Not to mention that the last few things missing are added in ios14 - app drawer, widgets on the screen, caller notification while you are using the phone, picture in picture for videos.Apple not only FULLY supports for 6+ years with day one major/minor/beta the same way as their most expensive current iphone, but they also still release security updates for iphones as old as 4s from 2011. Now let's take a look at my note 9 - they wanted to abandon the phone at ONE YEAR AND A HALF MARK! Only backslash make them reconsider and release oneui 2.1 for that phone. What GREAT support by samsung for my 1k euro phone! Android manufacturers was quick to bump prices to apple's and beyond apple's level, but don't want to provide the same benefits. Noo, they provide 2 vs 6 years support that is "region based" and on top of that the biggest android representative - samsung - sells 2 years behind exynos cr*p in Europe and most of the world for profits! Enough is enough.
blackcrayon - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
"best performance when you just look at benchmarks"Or, you know, actually running software which these benchmarks represent, year after year. "Optimised benchmark OS" is also pretty hilarious, considering what Apple's competitors have been proven to be guilty of, but not them for some reason...
michael2k - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
You do realize that Apple has something like 45% market share here in the US, right? Calling half the target audience 'dummies' doesn't win you friends.In any case, I don't see why you're so angry about a phone you won't use? It sounds like all this is irrelevant to you.
Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
To be fair, about 46% of people voted for Trump in 2016, so I'd wager there are at least 46% of the US population who are idiotsjospoortvliet - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
note that some had reasonable reasons to vote for him:- think he would become reasonable once in office and as long time republican bought into all the conspiracy nonsense about hilary
- believed he was a successful business man, would not be corrupt as he didn't need money and might run the country differently from politicians (yes he was a bad business man and a con man just looking to earn but most ppl figured that out after the elections)
- don't care for anyone else but themselves and betting he would lower taxes (he did so win for them)
That's about it but covers a lot of people in a country where collaborating
and caring for others is discouraged (individualism ftw), where CEO's and the rich are worshipped, government feared and education is bad while fake news and election interference (mostly through making it harder to vote) is rampant.
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
- He was always a jackass- He was never successful in business - he amassed a small fortune by starting with a large one
- Every president since Reagan has give me and my kind a massive tax cut after massive taxcut. I have never abd will never vote for a republican.
I am sure I am not worshipped by my over 1000 employees - 900 or so have been idled since 3rd week in March - and are and will continue to draw full pay (based on 40 hours, some were getting 50+ while working - pay 25% above national average for those positions at $22/hr) and don't need the federal bailout - since I am a Liberal, and actually understand what so many so called "job creators" don't - how to run a business, and understanding that having at least a year worth of full Opex in the bank. Also have spent $3-4M this year to make sure the kids who only got 1 meal a day - while they were in school are getting something to eat. Also funding various foodbanks in my area.
So don't lump us all together - I doubt you are doing 1% of what this 1%er is doing.
sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
I don’t need dummies for friends. I’m using an iPhone too. Not because I want to but my wife likes to use FaceTime. It’s a 4 years old 6s and it would be the last iPhone I ever bought.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Don't need friends - and I could do without 55% of the population - starting with the people who live in the Red welfare states (ALL red states are welfare states)Sharma_Ji - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
1/3rd price of android flagships, so your market is limited to USA only, i see.Cause where i live, people with average hands can easily buy and use a flagship android for the price this SE2 sells here.
euskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Well, yeah, AT is based on the USA, so of course they're more focused on that market. I wish we could buy Xiaomi or Huawei devices like my friends do in Europe: great phones for bargain prices. Then you look at the LTE bands they support, and bam, they don't work in the USA. So this SE is an incredible deal in a $400 territory where we don't have a lot of options.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Meh I guess poor people need phone too. Too bad they have to get Appleeuskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
To be fair, every other review (I've read 6 so far) had a much better experience with the camera. It's likely the sample AT received might have been camera-defective.michael2k - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The people who will buy this phone probably don't see the excitement either. Just like people who buy Corollas or Civics don't see the excitement in their cars; they don't want an exciting car, they just want a reasonably good car.So in that sense, it doesn't matter that this was a world class design years ago, it just matters that it promises 5 years of OS support, 3 years of reasonably battery life, 10 hours of battery use, $399 price point, and smaller size, as well as compatibility with their existing 5 year old phone.
My sister in law has a 5 year old iPhone. My daughter has a 4 year old iPhone. Both are likely candidates for this phone because it's cheap and good enough.
You can argue there are plenty of Android phones that are cheap and good enough, but those phones don't get 4 years of OS upgrades.
cha0z_ - Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - link
mmm 6s is already guaranteed 6 years with ios14 (it will be supported fully to atleast September 2021) + apple still releases security updates for iphones as old as 4s, so you are wrong - the support is even better than you present it + new battery is 50$ original.Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
So a summary of the review: great chipset, great screen with thick bezels, decent battery life, decent camera. In contrast to Android mid-rangers with great battery life, good screen with thin-ish bezels, decent camera, decent chipset.This makes the iPhone SE really good value, compared to most Androids at the same price range, but not necessarily an instant buy especially for people who don't need the chipset prowess (social media/youtube etc)
shabby - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
One thing those android mid-rangers lack will be 5 years of software updates, that and a high end soc.Kudos to Apple, you're turn google... but who are we kidding.
crimson117 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
That's a great point, 5 years updates and a chipset that should keep up with those updates.duploxxx - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
5 years of updates that will make it 10% slower every year and remove 10% battery life every year.I am so happy you are convinced that updates is all you need….
try lineageOS and see how many updates and android versions are available for ARM cpu . My oneplus one backup device is running lineageOS 17.1 that is android 10... a 2013 device and still as fast as day 1.... good look with your 5y speedy IOS updates.
haukionkannel - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
When we get Android phone that get those updates without loaderfu... Then I would be impressed. Now it is two to three years and after that you have to do things that 99% of phone users don`t know how. Don`t get me wrong. LineageOS is food thing. It just should be automatic option without need the user to do a thing!trparky - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Once again you prove that your average tech enthusiast is out of touch with the average person on the street. Yes, you can say that you can load LineageOS but how many average Joe's are actually going to load it let alone know how to load it? Not many.Your average person doesn't know how to do that so for those kinds of people this iPhone SE (2020 version) ticks every single box while being a low-priced device with guaranteed software updates for at least five years. This is a serious win for people who aren't geeks and nerds.
euskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Exactly. And not just those who are not geeks/nerds. I'm tired of being one, tired of fighting Android, tired of inconsistency, tired of having to resort to flashing devices because they're not supported. 5 years on Android, and this SE is now the perfect moment to finally buy a good device that's reasonably priced and that I don't have to mess with for the next 4-5 years. Just for that, take my $399.trparky - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
> tired of fighting Android, tired of inconsistency, tired of having to resort to flashing devices because they're not supportedThat was me back when I switched back to the iPhone all the way back when the iPhone 6 Plus was new. Mind you, Android was even worse back then but seeing as how you're saying what you're saying now tells me that Android is still a mess.
We would never support this kind of bulls**t from Microsoft yet here we are accepting it on phones which usually end up being more expensive than a notebook PC. I see something wrong with this picture.
euskalzabe - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
You nailed it. It's been 13 years and they still have not figured out how to update us properly. Project treble was supposed to be the great savior that at least would allow OEMs to give us more updates or allow users to install generic Android images on a new phone. The reality is that only a few of the funds released will allow you to do that, and there has been little to no improvement on the amount of updates users get (certainly not the amount of improvement you would expect for a company that has supposedly made OS upgrades such a priority for the past 3 years). I can tell you that my Moto Z2 play had an Android 9 update readied my Motorola and then they proceeded to not seed it to us users for the next 4 months. Fed up, I decided to force the update manually, for which I had to unlock the bootloader (which is allowed by both Google and Motorola) and somehow the OS lost trust on my device when I did that and so I lost the ability to do NFC payments. Are you kidding me? This is a circus. I refuse to be Google's beta tester anymore. I'm done.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Stop buying crappy 3rd world phone, and get a modern Android device.Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The average person also most likely won't care about software updates, or will actively avoid updates because "why fix something when it isn't broken". Seriously, this 5 year software update thing had to be one of the biggest circlejerks in the tech community. Both mobile OSes are extremely polished and feature rich at this point, and it literally makes no difference whatsoever whether you're using the latest OS or an OS from 1/2 years ago.Security updates also makes no difference whatsoever because your average person is never going to have data important enough for people to ever bother attempting these exploits, most of which require physical access to the device.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that software updates are bad; 5 years support is always better than 2 years. I'm just saying that it does not matter for the average person at all, because they will probably never make use of any of the new features. And this is reflected in the continued success of Android flagships (anywhere that is not the US, at least)
Oxford Guy - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
"Security updates also makes no difference whatsoever because your average person is never going to have data important enough for people to ever bother attempting these exploits, most of which require physical access to the device."Not everyone is "the average person".
Retycint - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
We are talking about the average person, are we not? Stop trying to shift the goalposts.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Yeah, the not everyone is "the average person" is kinda implied.....cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
I would argue that even the average user nowdays is actively interested in operating system updates and security + got a tech heavy friend who can ask on the topic for more details + media/youtubers are bringing awareness. So you are wrong.Also no important data? hahahahah today people keep ALL THEIR LIVES on their phones + on top of that credit cards/payments/bank accounts and whatnot! You have no idea what damage someone can do to you if he got access to those things! No matter if interested person who knowns you or total stranger over the internet with criminal intentions!
Also you are wrong that the operating systems are not evolving rofl, I can list a lot with both android and ios! And iphones are receiving atleast 6 years of full support, my secondary 6s from 2015 is on ios 14 beta - smooth as silk and fast too + all the features coming with ios 14 are on my phone! Will be supported fully to atleast September 2021 when ios 15 is releasing and that's 6 years! Security updates you say? Apple support with security updates iphones as old as the 4s from 2011!
Now check the pricing of top android phones and iphones, different picture vs what it was 5 years ago, right?! If they want to copy apple price wise and even surpass them (and that is what happens the last 2 years) - they better also copy what apple does right!
shabby - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The amount of people who load aosp on their phones is about as much as the amount of people who rebuild an engine in their garage or build a house from scratch by themselves, meaning basically 0.Go tell your parents to install lineageOS on their phone...
euskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
LineageOS does not support many devices out there. I should know, they've never supported any of the Moto or Nokia phones I've bought and wanted to install it on. Also, please a) don't lie about downgrading performance, it's been proven time and again that this is not necessarily so, and b) do not compare voiding your phone's warranty and performing a somewhat complicated phone flashing process VS simply installing an OEM-seeded OTA update. Those are two very, very different things.liquid_c - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Oh, really? With zero security which means zero banking apps. I’d like to see you use your credit card with LineageOS. Also, is your one+ or whatever bargain bin crap of a phone you’re using with 100% battery health? Or just as speedy as day 1, right?Jesus, i despise rabid fans such as yourself. All you can do is muster up some useless excuses for how bad “X” is and how good and long-lasting “Y” is.
SMOKEU - Sunday, May 10, 2020 - link
I signed up to TH just to respond to your ridiculous comment.I've "used" credit cards on LineageOS for many years with one of the largest banks in this country with NO issues whatsoever. Even the official bank app works fine.
OnePlus One was never a "bargain bin crap of a phone". It was a high end device when released.
cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
You need to be burned just once to understand his comment. Using a credit card in 3rd party ROM/kernel and rooted phone has it's risks as it's a lot easier for a rogue app to steal your details, log your passwords and so on. Also I should tell you that it's common practice for stoled cards to not be used right away, but stored in database for future use before they expire. There is also always the risk that dev or someone helping the dev to put something in the ROM/kernel from the start. I can give you a lot of examples where people feel safe because it's open source only to end up that something rogue was there for years rofl and noone checked it out or found it.Why someone should even do with all those risks and time consuming things instead of buying iphone for less money than current samsung android phone? You get 6 years of day one full software support as their most expensive current iphone, you get better running apps with more features, hassle free and "it just works", a lot better screen mirroring that is so lag free and high quality that I use my 11 pro max as a console with my ps4 wireless controller, camera that takes the picture from the first try, video recording of insane quality with no rival at android front and whatnot + ios14 adds app drawer, widgets on your home screen, notification for incoming call instead of full screen when you use your phone, picture in picture so you can watch videos while doing something else or listen to audio while it's hidden... I mean, seriously. ios and android are not that different nowdays feature wise, but ios apps are just better with more features and better running, even google's own apps + you got 6 years of full support, better security, less spyware (say hi to google!) + my secondary 6s is great on the newest ios and totally ok for a daily driver phone. I also had 10 years of high end android phones history with my latest being exynos note 9 for 1k euro that is already not supported and still in me, I can tell you a totally different story how it was supported vs my iphone 11 pro max and ironically my iphone 6s that was literally supported the same great way as the 11 pro max, no discrimination at all.
Zerrohero - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
“ 5 years of updates that will make it 10% slower every year and remove 10% battery life every year.”My 4,5 year old iPhone 6s runs the latest iOS and it’s very zippy. No performance issues whatsoever.
Battery replacement for SE is $49 or something like that, parts and labour, authorized service.
So, everything you wrote is rubbish. But *of course* you know it perfectly well.
Speedfriend - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
My 4,5 year old iPhone 6s runs the latest iOS and it’s very zippyThat is just rubbish, my work iPhone 7 has slowed down significantly to the point where I often tap at it twice thinking I didn't touch it properly. And it battery life in use is down significantly too.
hlovatt - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
My original, 4 year old, iPhone SE runs great on latest OS. So no, no slowing with OS updates. I did get the battery replaced about a year ago though.cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
Then you either got a defective phone or bugged down the ios. You know, there is no operating system in the world that is user proof to be gentle. :)I also have secondary iphone 6s that ran half of ios12, ios 13 from the beta and till the last one and currently ios14 beta with all the new features like picture in picture, app drawer, widgets and it runs smooth as silk + fast. So your problem is with your unit, either because there is something wrong with it or because the operating system is broken by you/someone who used the phone before you and need a fresh reinstall.
cha0z_ - Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - link
I have second hand iphone 6s with changed battery, running ios 14 beta 3 and before that ios 13 with all it's subversions. It's as fast and smoother than my exynos note 9, so you are talking bs. :)Also lol at lineage argument. It's always NOT like officially released base + firmware + rom. I know, I am on XDA from over 10 years + gave my fair share developing (mainly for HTC phones). Also there are things like note line, running lineage will do what? Exactly, remove 50% what makes that phone a note and manually returning some apps will not fix that. Porting is the next option, but that also got it's flaws. Not to mention that development is far far far from what it was back around 2010-2014 peak.
Ofc android is great and all, but don't take away points from apple and what they do right when android phone makers charge you the same or recently - MORE than what apple does, but they don't want to adopt apple's support policy. :)
P.S. I also have iphone 11 pro max from almost a year and the battery is at 98%, because I am not stupid to use fast charger. Same thing with my note 9 - fast charging turned off in settings day one and the battery is in great shape. Fast charging speed up battery degradation by a lot. So dunno about your 10% every year, maybe if someone use unoriginal faulty cheap power adapter and/or cable - sure, even more in some cases.
sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Another sheep thinking updates actually make the phone better. Are you mentally ill? Haven’t you noticed FOR THE LAST 10 years, every time an iDevice got updated, it slowed down?Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Don't make the iSheep think - they will end up drinking bleach and shooting up Lysol.cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
I have a secondary iphone 6s that I ran on ios12, ios13 and currently ios14 beta - you clearly have no clue what you are talking about rofl. It's as fast and SMOOTHER than my exynos note 9!!! Also there are tons of changes and added important new features between ios 12, 13 and 14.GC2:CS - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Why would Apple make changes to the camera ? Is it significant enough to make it cheaper ?Maybe an iPad Pro camera part ? Those have soft details too.
Still looks like XR is better “Apple single camera” system. Unless those are problems with focusing software. But the rest of the image processing looks impressive.
Btw. I know iPhone 11 sensors are way faster than before, but is it confirmed they have RAM backed readout ? I don’t saw that anywhere.
Regarding battery life is there a plan for some heavy load test against iPhone8 like a GfX battery rundown ?
Regarding perf. A13 was only paired with 3000 mAh cells before. Now it is 1820. How the system can power such a beast without much effect on benchmarks...
And lastly could not be happier this was released. The 11’s feel brick like compared to this one. Just hope that some more small models are in making and not only from Apple.
Phantasma - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Can you guys benchmark the memory speed of the flash storage ? pleaseTomatotech - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I'm not sure if that's possible on iOS.Also, how would that number help? It is far faster than any method of getting data into or out of an iPhone, and Apple certainly has the chops to make sure that the speed selected maximises exactly the parameters of CPU requirements, power draw, app loading speed, and battery life.
Kind of reminds me of Rolls Royce - when asked how much horsepower their new car engine had, they merely said 'Adequate'.
isthisavailable - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I would have been sold if they did something about the battery life but they didn't and that's a dealbreaker for me. When they removed 3d touch, all the other phones got a boost in battery capacity but not here for some reason. I guess "designing" a new battery would have pushed the cost from $399 to $402 and we CANNOT have that!Peskarik - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
broaden the product palette at virtually no cost, that is what Apple smartly done here, imho.What "designing"? I see zero "designing" in this phone.
Speedfriend - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Actually further destroy the resale value of your iPhone.toyeboy89 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I don't think it would have been that simple. It's still a very small device. I have 2 day battery life on my iPhone 7 still with the Apple smart battery case if that's something you would consider getting with the SE.cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
No need, friend of mine got one and easily finish the day with 30% battery left, that's with heavy use. In numbers he can reach 5-6 hours screen on with 24h on battery and also calls, music/carplay, etc (offscreen usage). Not the greatest, but totally doable for most people, I think.hechacker1 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Buy an Apple or third-party battery case to solve your issue? The phone is cheap enough to afford a case to double the battery life.GC2:CS - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Yes that is strange. teardown makes it look like the displays are so similar they are interchangeable. Has Apple gone so cheap they did not even bother to remove 3D touch layer ?Still original SE had battery almost the size of an 6S. This is 60% of 11.
Teckk - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I couldn't get used to the limitation that is iOS so, back to Android, but that battery life is really good. Especially when comparing S9+ and Pixel 4XL with bigger batteries.That battery capacity on Android phones won't be fun at all.
Speedfriend - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
The reason that battery life is good is that iOS kills background apps. I do day trading and on my iPhone it stops the prices updating in the background so when I switch to it quickly to check prices, it is totally wrong. I have to manually shut it and reopen it to get it to work. So I use Android for my main phone because you can customise app killing.Featherinmycap - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
That is not really true. Go into settings/general/Background App Refresh and select if you want your stock app to keep refreshing in the background. By default it is usually enabled. So, yes, like Android, you can "customize" app killing.cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
You can customise a lot on ios, but people love to bring that argument without really having any clue what they are talking about. :)cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link
That's your trading app issue, not ios.sorten - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Wow, double the GPU performance of the iPhone 8, which is faster than my 7. Not sure what I'd use it for though since I don't bother with phone games.This is a brilliant phone in terms of value and perf., but only an iPhone SE sized device would have caused me to upgrade early.
Quantumz0d - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Only company which can make anyone fool - Apple.The design, 2008 OG iPhone and 2020 SE same bezel width. Just perfect.
IPS LCD 720P, I bet it costs them cents at this point.
AL frame, recycled again massive profits.
Probably their SoC R&D already had a massive break even and TSMC as well so again with that SoC, next level profits.
A13, the BAU case of AT's uber fast SPEC measurement means it's faster than a 9900K and SD865 is waste because it's sooo fast and Qualcomm is so behind as it takes many years to catch. But in real life UX, it's the same and sometimes even loses to the Android, wonder where did all that performance go.
But it's just $400+tax, so it's the best of the best smartphones on the planet because it's the best phone evaar. And ofc you do not get any 3.5mm jack as usual because space is not there I guess.
Apple is the most successful company because of their marketing edge, which is not possible to beat by any company, even the company which lives on Ad revenue itself failed so hard.
The utter shame is it runs on an OS which doesn't have a filesystem open to user for access but rather a ball and chain ecosystem utopian system.
Kudos tho. I hope this breaks the retarded mold of the Android phones esp Chinese ones and Samsung, Sony get their shit pricing corrected by selling $1000+tax phones planned obsolescence with sealed battery technology.
hlovatt - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
You are probably trolling, but in case anyone else is reading your Comments the file system app omen to the user that is part of iOS is called Files.trparky - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
And yet if you ask the average person on the street, they couldn't give a rat's behind about having access to the file system. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that if you tried to explain what a file system is, you'd lose their interest in less than five seconds.Outside of the tech enthusiast crowd, most people don't care about this kind of stuff. They just want it to work and that's what iOS does, and it doesn't brilliantly.
trparky - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
> Outside of the tech enthusiast crowd, most people don't care about this kind of stuff. They just want it to work and that's what iOS does, and it does it brilliantly.I hate the fact that we don't have an edit button.
eastcoast_pete - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Thanks Andrei! Here an interesting teardown+rebuild that shows just how similar the iPhone SE and the 8 are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBNdm0XBIfA(in Chinese, but subtitles are available)
euskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I was ready to buy the Pixel 4a, then this SE came out. There is no point paying the same money for a third of the performance, just to stay on Android. I've been very frustrated with the software update situation, stuck on Android 9 on my Moto Z2 Play, and that's after I had to manually force the update (because Moto was inexplicably not seeding it in the US, 4 months after it was ready) which broke the OS's trust in the phone and disabled my NFC payments. This is not serious, no longer acceptable. Google has had 13 years to figure out updating all Android users. I'm done. For $399, the same price of a Pixel Xa series, I deserve day 1 updates for the next 4 years. I'll be damned if I don't choose the phone that has triple the performance over a Snapdragon 6xx/7xx.I was a Windows Phone user from 2010-2015. I've been an Android user from 2015-2020. I guess it's only fair I give Apple the same 5 years now.
Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I bought an iPhone for one reason, my 1 year old Android flagship phone stopped working properly with Android Auto, full of bugs (voice control in particular outright stopped working). The manufacturer and Google can't be bothered to keep software working for 12 months (worked perfectly on launch day)? No thanks.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
That is a short between the ground and the device.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Sure you were, sure you were.tipoo - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Apple was vague on the optics used in this, first it was hoped to be the XR sensor, then was said to be identical to the 8 on the sensor and optics, but then this regression is weird. Hope that's just software, because a regression in optics from the 8 would be a letdown on an otherwise great value.NICOXIS - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I think this will bring much-needed competition to the mid-range market, this probably means we will get features like wireless charging on cheaper phones. The only thing that seems odd it the meager improvement in battery life from the iPhone 8 even though the SE is using an SoC that's built on a much smaller node.Altema22 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Right phone at the right price, combined with Apple's marketing, will ensure this is a hit.It's ideal for those with an older iPhone that is lagging, like the 6S and earlier.
It also makes a good entry point for those on a budget who want to jump to iOS.
But, aside from the SoC, the SE is a downgrade in everything for someone with a good two year old flagship.
Che - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I am happy to see Apple have a phone at the $399 price, and great performance. But my goodness, it is ugly in my opinion.Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I personally loved the "white front" design from before, wish they kept that as an option, but it looks good in person.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I bet all black phones looks the same to youIrish910 - Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - link
Did you see “stupid” written on the ceiling??lmcd - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The biggest selling point of this phone is upgraded internals paired with TouchID. Face unlock is a huge detriment compared to fingerprint unlock and will be a selling point when my mom picks one up within the next year.Icehawk - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
If they offered an 8+ version I’d be on it in a heartbeat as I love the home button - the camera is a little bit of a letdown but at $400ish something has gotta givefmcjw - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
With inferior camera hardware, the only selling point over a second hand iPhone 8 is the A13, as it's fast and efficient enough. It seems reviewers are lavishing praise on the computational gimmicks, spending time testing out digital bokeh and HDR (and binning and night modes in other phones), which at the end of the day is just saccharine. Like the proliferation of mini boom boxes which claim to have a "great" sound, the one test is whether your ears get tired from the distortion.In my experience, people who care for quality pocket sized photography is served by the largest sensor (pixel-size, not binning equivalent) coupled with smooth jitter free video and lack of any obvious flaws in the processing algorithms. The Galaxy S20's 12MP main camera is a good example, too bad the package is overpriced.
Perhaps this inspires a market for a thicker phone with Snapdragon 865 and a 22mm ultrawide (non-existant) 1/1.33" 20MP sensor?
hoodlum90 - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
"and lack of any obvious flaws in the processing algorithms. The Galaxy S20's 12MP main camera is a good example"Not according to Anandtech's review and may others online as well.
"The main camera sensors on the other hand I feel fall short of the high expectations. Yes, they are better than what we see on the S10 series, however Samsung here is still falling short of proving the same quality that Apple achieves on the iPhone 11 – and it’s also optically inferior to Huawei’s newest devices."
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Depends on who the reviewer wasDeicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Large parts are probably already 2nd handsonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Sure you’ll get the best performance compared to other phones at the same price point ON PAPER, not real life experience. For $400, There are many battery phones - Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, Oneplus, Vivo... to choose from. Unless you want to be on iOS which can be good also bad.sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
***many better phonesmandirabl - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Any example of which phone *performs* better, zippier and faster without lag?Any example of which phone gets updates for the next 4 years, including security updates?
Any example of which phone is as secure and provacy-focused?
...Thought as much.
Retycint - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Most android phones at the $400 price point perform just as smoothly. We aren't talking about the $100 bargain basement phones here. The last two points are your own personal priorities, and people with different priorities e.g. battery life, high refresh rate etc will not necessarily see the iPhone SE as a clear winner.sonny73n - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
You sound like a close-minded person who never likes to read. There’s a thing called internet, you know. Get on gsmarena, you’ll find many 2019-2020 flagship phones for under $600. Here’s a couple of midrange phones came to mind - Xiaomi Mi 9T $270, Vivo V15 Pro $300. They have full displays Super AMOLED, 6-8GB RAM, 128GB internal storage among many other things that I’d prefer them over this garbage.You’re one of those Apple sheeps who would believe everything Apple says. Watch the OLD Apple keynotes again and check those old iPhones which Apple touted about - “the fastest iPhone yet” LMAO. You don’t even know that iOS is a closed system, optimized to run on iPhones. Zipper, faster without lags my ass. Play Plants vs Zombies at high level on an iPhone, see how many fps it’ll give you. Operating system update? Haven’t you noticed every time an iDevice got updated to a new version of iOS, it got slower? Many people including me don’t want system updates for our iPhones but Apple always harass you if you don’t, right? They even trick you to enter password to update AFTER you CANCEL update. Security updates you say? Who gives a fk except for idiots. There’s many service online that bypass iCloud activation on stolen iPhones. Jailbreaks are out all the way to iOS 13. Security updates Apple push to your iPhones are for themselves, mostly patching the jailbreak exploits and install some more spywares. There’s not a phone that is secured. If you don’t know that iPhones and Android phones are the worst with spywares, you should not use any.
I said this somewhere but I’ll tell the readers here again about my experience with these so called smartphones. My wife FaceTimed me while I was away from home, showing my 2 years old boy taking his first step. I told her please record everything about our baby. Fast forward to about one year later, she called me and told me that our then 3 years old boy singing in the shower and he’s taking the shower by himself and she’s recording it to send to me after. I stopped everything I was doing and told her not to do that because those MFs at Apple may think that you’re trafficking child porn or something. She said that’s our baby and that’s what I asked her to do, why tell her to delete this precious recording now. We had a argument over that until I explained clearly and showed her the iCloud storage of the message app later that night. I know that every keystroke I make or any file I have on the phone will go to the server and it will stay there forever, until someone dig it up. Luckily I stopped her in time or I would have been living in fear until now. Welcome to the police State where you have Apple and Google always there with you. Only sheeple like you would live in peace.
You have thought as much? Still too fking little to me. Think some more. You have a long way to go.
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I have heard of this thing called the Internet - I hear they have that on computers now - apparently 25% porn, 25% cat videos, 25% propaganda, and 25% long winded messages that are tl;drmandirabl - Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - link
That moment when Android Police agrees... https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/04/28/iphone-se...trparky - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Xiaomi and Vivo? Really? I wouldn't let those damn devices with all of the Chinese backdoors into my house at all. Bad enough Google spies on you with Android as it is but to add China to the mix makes it even more of a toxic hellstew of spyware.Irish910 - Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - link
Wow. Salty much?? Did Apple shit in your Cheerios?Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I replace my laptop/convertible every 2 years, replace my desktop every 2 years, why on earth would I keep a phone for 4 years - more like a year MAXWhat is provacy?
mandirabl - Tuesday, April 28, 2020 - link
Privacy, but you did know that, didn't you? Well: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/04/28/iphone-se...Pitape - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
I would be interested about audio and stereo speaker quality.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
for what? a McIntosh audio system? Certainly not on a cell phone.Here's the verdict - McIntosh great - cell phone HORRIBLE
GL1zdA - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Received mine yesterday. I was upgrading from a 2016 SE, which I liked very much, but I was using a 32 GB version for the last year and always needed more space. It will take some time before I get used to the new size. My hands are fairly large, but operating the phone with just one hand is a bit more difficult, especially if I have to hit something in the top left corner. I also preferred the old home button, this new one feels awkward, I never know "when" it will register the "press".Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
<pats the good little iSheep on the head>Featherinmycap - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
Why are you commenting on an article about iPhones and patronizing users for their choice of operating system? Go iSheep yourself somewhere else. Its annoying to be on a tech site with a lot of very thoughtful commenters and then you come trolling along. You post all over the place repeatedly with nary an original thought to share.trparky - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
He's a rabid android fan, he can't help himself.Korguz - Sunday, May 3, 2020 - link
and a rabid intel fan as well.they guy cant get his own personal facts straight, let alone anything else. reply to him with sources that refute his claims, and he either runs away, and doesnt reply, or he just resorts to name calliing and insults.
trparky - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Go away.Death666Angel - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
To the people here commenting that they like the size: I bought my mother-in-law the Galaxy A40 on sale for 150€ back in January. She likes that phone a lot. It has a nice 1080p Samsung screen, good-enough SoC, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, good battery life, headphone jack. It is 6mm taller and 2mm wider than the iPhone SE (2020). Is it that much of a difference to you? Or is it just that you actually want a cheaper and smaller iOS device? It really felt tiny to me, coming from 5.7" 16:9 and 6.5" 19:9 phones.And another thing: the iPhone SE (2020) is ca. 138x67 mm² and the LG G2 was ca. 138x70 mm², but had a 5.2" 1080p display. In 2013. I liked that phone a lot.
yeeeeman - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
This phone is LAME. Other than the chipset, everything is just 2016 at best...Screen is pathetic. My 100$ chinese phone has better resolution. Also it is oled.
The battery is just laughable. My Sony erricson from 2011 has a 1700mah battery lol.
It is just amazing how little iphone users are willing to get for their money.
toyeboy89 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I think 5 years of updates and excellent performance more than make up for some of it's shortcomings.justareader - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Who uses a phone for 5 years? You are suggesting someone will still be using this retro phone in 2026. No way they will have cracked the screen way before 5 years go by. Updates are not that important unless they lock out features. I have old devices sitting in drawers and they aren't getting hacked.Tilmitt - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
Phones last longer now as CPU progress has slowed. I went 4S -> 5S -> 6S and only plan on upgrading my 6S when the next generation comes out, so that'll be 5 years on a 6S.FakThisShttyGame - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
Dude I literally used my 6S for 5 years and iPad Air 2 for 6 years...You hurt my feelings :(toyeboy89 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
Yes, someone could very well use this phone until 2026 with a couple of battery replacements along the way (like any phone)Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
who the hell keeps a phone for 5 years? 1 year and it's in the junk drawertrparky - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
I had an iPhone 7 Plus for three years and it was still fast as the day I bought it. Those of us who don't have bottomless money pit hang onto our phones longer.ThreeDee912 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
Every time somebody brings up resolution and OLED, I bring up this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcFXEXJicgc
The old iPhone XR uses LCD and is only 828p but everyone prefers it over the 1080p budget OLED.
trparky - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
Chinese phone? How do you like the fact that everything that you have on your phone is being transmitted back to China?Not only is Android spying on you but when you add China to the mix it becomes even more of a toxic hellstew of spying.
name99 - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
"In JetStream, the phone even gets a boost here, which might be due to the newer iOS version."Not "might be", *is* a result of newer iOS. Apple's constantly improving Safari performance.
Some of the tech behind the most recent improvements is detailed here:
https://webkit.org/blog/10298/inline-caching-delet...
LeftSide - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
Could the oddly close battery life numbers be related to the oddly close name of a particular apple employee and the name of this site?yeeeeman - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
With this article my suspicion of you guys being either paid my Apple or Apple fanboys has been confirmed.There are a ton of interesting, cheap Android devices in THE SAME price category as this old junk, but you never get the time to cover them. Some of them even have SD865 and the lot at close to same price as this phone, but neah, don't bother to write about them.
No, you instead waste your time and our time to write a long article, to repeat basically all that was valid for iPhone 6 in 2015. Sure, you are free to do it, you are the writer.
Sorry to be so harsh, but I feel like this site is going into a wrong direction.
toyeboy89 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
The fact is that Apple is more popular. They are going to get more hits on an article for a new iPhone. Just because a design is old doesn't make it junk. It's a proven design that many people still prefer to the swiping gesture based controls of the newer full screen iPhones. Most people don't look into these off brand budget phones you speak of for the same price. I personally wouldn't risk spending $400 on a brand with no service center in my country, Apple is everywhere, and you can walk into a store and get service the same day on your device.trparky - Friday, May 1, 2020 - link
A lot of those cheap Android phones are from China. That's a hard NOPE in my mind.shady28 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Honestly my untrained eyes can't see much if any difference between the iPhone 8 and SE 2020 video. I do see a slight but noticeable difference vs the iPhone 11 Pro video though.There is at least one side by side speed comparison with the SE and 8 out there now. Basically, normal stuff it's a toss up. But in more demanding applications, longer loading apps and so on, there's a pretty large difference.
My take on all this is that the SE 2020 is essentially a more future proof variant of the 8, but the 8 is still a very capable and fast phone to the point where the differences are undetectable except under the most demanding of apps (there is a significant difference in the comparison when the phones are pushed, but how many people push their phones SoC to the limit with any frequency?). This shouldn't be too surprising, any competing phone running less than a Snapdragon 845 is going to get thumped hard on performance by the iPhone 8 - which is to say anything short of a 2019+ flagship android.
So, as an 8+ owner who disdains facial recognition, I'm not seeing this as much of an upgrade path. I don't want to go back to the smaller screen, my camera is already better than an normal 8 and probably better than this 2020 SE, and I'm not interested in losing my home button on the new iPhones.
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Yeah I remember when my Atari 800XL with disk drive was future proof.toyeboy89 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
To be fair CPU and GPU in phones have plateaued in recent years so shady28 does have a good point.Drakkon801z - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
I don't understand about bezels, phones with thicker bezels have higher chace to survive after accidental drops, I lost cout of how many thin bezel phones that has latest version of protective screen, been smashed/cracked just because of 30 cms drop. For practical purposes, thicker bezels is like the only choice, unless you add good quality material like higher quality quartz/sapphire glass to entire front. Untill then, I will prefer thicker bezels on my phones.pav1 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
As usual, Anandtech reviews dote on CPU, giving us an A13 review which we already know is fast and largely wasted on such a device.star-affinity - Wednesday, May 13, 2020 - link
Why is it wasted? Should make it last many years, as long as the 3 GB RAM doesn't limit it, that is…nfineon - Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - link
// EUROPE PRICES (in usd)$532 belgium
$610 bosnia
$575 croatia
$513 czech
$539 denmark
$521 germany
$531 spain
$531 france
$542 ireland
$542 italy
$513 luxembourg
$521 nederlands
$512 norway
$521 austria
$527 poland
$542 poland
$542 portugal
$464 switzerland
$542 finland
$608 serbia
$517 uk
__________________
EU Average Price = $536 usd
// ASIA PACIFIC (in usd)
aus $473
hkd $439
kor $446
myr $459
nzd $477
php $523
sgd $455
twd $482
thb $461
mop $439
__________________
AP Average Price = $466 usd
$399 is only the promotional price used in the US (not including tax), the actual price globally is higher. Europe gets hit the hardest with the average price about $536, Asia Pacific is about $466 average and no pricing data yet for Latin America. This brings the current world average price to +/- $500 usd.
(SOURCES)
https://www.apple.com/choose-country-region/
https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/
zeeBomb - Saturday, May 16, 2020 - link
The best review. My goodness.sdfdsf - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
mntechjam - Tuesday, June 9, 2020 - link
Wow I can't believe the love this phone is getting.Such an outdated design, CPU and GPU performance matter so little to the consumer now. They've been more than powerful enough for years.
To put out such a lazy rehashed design just shows how complacent Apple are and the fact it's getting such praise shows just why they have gotten so complacent.
This simply wouldn't be acceptable in the Android world.
nd_marshall - Sunday, June 21, 2020 - link
It's like putting a Ferrari engine in a Lada.