Excellent point. It's curious that with taller phones, Apple moved the control center pull to the top, further away from your thumb. I guess they have no choice since swiping up was remapped to going home. But imo there should be a redesign if the UX with these taller phones.
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iPhone SE (2022) SE review after years of using larger iPhones: A Big Plus
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FWIW iPhone 13 Mini is also the perfect one-handed phone.
The only reason I’m trying iPhone SE is since the PWM on the OLED display continues to give me headaches.
The only reason I’m trying iPhone SE is since the PWM on the OLED display continues to give me headaches.
This is a feature I appreciate greatly, and one of my top reasons for staying with the SE line!
Effortless, even one-handed.
I’ve been holding onto my precious SE1 for a lot of the same reasons, OP. I love that it offers pretty much all the same functions as newer phones, yet stays as unobtrusive in my life as possible. When I’m out, I like to physically interact with the world as much as possible so I want my phone to be only as big as it absolutely has to be, so very small. But when I get home, I like to consume so I switch to a bigger screen like my iPad mini or TV.
I’m still torn on my eventual next phone. There are no ideal options for me, but the two least evils are the new SE and the iPhone mini as they are the smallest. I like that the SE has a shorter screen (easier for thumb reaching), at least one thick bezel (easier for general handling but especially for one-handed landscape use like camera), and most of all that it has Touch ID. But I like that the mini body is less wide and has better internals and camera. It’ll be a hard decision when it comes time. Maybe something better for me will come along by then, but doubtful.
I’m still torn on my eventual next phone. There are no ideal options for me, but the two least evils are the new SE and the iPhone mini as they are the smallest. I like that the SE has a shorter screen (easier for thumb reaching), at least one thick bezel (easier for general handling but especially for one-handed landscape use like camera), and most of all that it has Touch ID. But I like that the mini body is less wide and has better internals and camera. It’ll be a hard decision when it comes time. Maybe something better for me will come along by then, but doubtful.
It might be the best one-handed phone on the mainstream market today, but I think the perfect one-handed phones were the original iPhone through iPhone 4S. Those 3.5” 3:2 iPhones were purely designed to be used one-handed. 4” iPhone 5 and 5S pushed it to the extreme, and starting with iPhone 6, Apple gave up on true one-handed phones (minus the SE1), and gave in to big screen demand. Now to be used one-handed, phones have to be balanced on the hand/fingers, or you have to shimmy your grip up and down the phone quite a bit, or use some third party accessory which increases bulk.
There’s no convincing me that the SE3 is anything more than an “iPhone 8S”
-Yes, A15 is faster and more efficient than any SoC or there.
But a smartphone is far more than just a chip or getting updates for 5+ years.
Like, what do you need all this A15 power for with a single camera, a tiny screen, small 2000 mah battery, no OLED, no ProMotion, no Night Mode?
And if you don’t use any of those things on your phone why get a new one at all?
I occasionally use my old iPhone 7 when my SE2 is charging. I don't think you've used any older iPhones recently but after years of firmware updates, they often lag and freeze now even for basic tasks and apps are more prone to crashing. A15 might be overkill but A10 or older don't offer a good basic smartphone experience nowadays (dunno about A11 since I skipped the iPhone 8).
Granted, even the SE 2020 offers plenty of performance but the SE 2022 is an even better upgrade (longevity and battery-wise) for those who held off updating their iPhone 5+ year old phones.
Mind, for me, OLED is a con (headaches). I also prefer the 4.7" 16:9 display. Easier for me to reach majority of the display with my thumb. With the 12 mini, I had to do finger acrobatics to open the Control Center and the narrower width actually made the typing experience worse.
I’m one uses the SE 16 every day in last 6 yrs (buyed at D1).
7 SEs, 2 screen replacement (Home Button fail every 3/4 weeks), 3 battery replacement, everything on warranty.
Previous I had a 5s, only ‘cause it was new at half price in 2013; but the best one, the Nokia 3310 of Apple, for me, was my white 4S, better then my first white 3Gs.
So I owned only small iPhones, just one 6 buyed for two weeks in march 2016 ‘cause SE 16 wasn’t still avalaible.
Refused every single iPhone from 6 to SE3 (only one I save from that family was the 8 gold for the color, not for the phone), and from X to 11.
12/13 with mini are the real iPhone 4/4S/5/5S/SE iPhones, but prices (and battery for 12 mini) was the bug.
I really don’t understand who could buy a SE 22 if it is not necessary for its small price, for me is just an older phone, from 2015.
Battery? iOS is a bug with a drain battery giganormus bug from iOS 13, and Apple sell a 2015 capable battery for 2022 os and chip.
A15 on a A8 case made for?
Every SE 16 I owned fail the rear superior “glass” cause A9 became too hot: with iOS 9~iOS 15. 5 case was the phisical limit for new chip and battery, and iOS degrade in years is the final point.
I hope everyone who want a small iPhone could buy a new/used mini, 12/13; everything else just make e Apple glorious of selling old hw with new chip.
Apple want a cheap target phone? Make a mini one, nor a mini with 859€ entry target or 2015 old phone with A15 at 550€. I don’t think Apple had not resource to develop a new cheap mini phone, is just too jealous of the revenue of s*it hw.
7 SEs, 2 screen replacement (Home Button fail every 3/4 weeks), 3 battery replacement, everything on warranty.
Previous I had a 5s, only ‘cause it was new at half price in 2013; but the best one, the Nokia 3310 of Apple, for me, was my white 4S, better then my first white 3Gs.
So I owned only small iPhones, just one 6 buyed for two weeks in march 2016 ‘cause SE 16 wasn’t still avalaible.
Refused every single iPhone from 6 to SE3 (only one I save from that family was the 8 gold for the color, not for the phone), and from X to 11.
12/13 with mini are the real iPhone 4/4S/5/5S/SE iPhones, but prices (and battery for 12 mini) was the bug.
I really don’t understand who could buy a SE 22 if it is not necessary for its small price, for me is just an older phone, from 2015.
Battery? iOS is a bug with a drain battery giganormus bug from iOS 13, and Apple sell a 2015 capable battery for 2022 os and chip.
A15 on a A8 case made for?
Every SE 16 I owned fail the rear superior “glass” cause A9 became too hot: with iOS 9~iOS 15. 5 case was the phisical limit for new chip and battery, and iOS degrade in years is the final point.
I hope everyone who want a small iPhone could buy a new/used mini, 12/13; everything else just make e Apple glorious of selling old hw with new chip.
Apple want a cheap target phone? Make a mini one, nor a mini with 859€ entry target or 2015 old phone with A15 at 550€. I don’t think Apple had not resource to develop a new cheap mini phone, is just too jealous of the revenue of s*it hw.
Apple literally just updated FaceID to work with masks, however only on the iPhone 12 & 13 series, so your iPhone 11 does not make the cut at least for now.
I too grumbled about it in the first year of covid, but they did make somewhat of a workaround about a year ago with the Apple Watch authentication to unlock it, which was good enough for my needs not to punch in the code every time.
Of course that didn't work for people without an Apple watch.
I was hoping that Apple would somehow integrate the TouchID power button into a newer iPhone though, too bad it didn't happen with the SE3
I used the 4.7" phones until the iPhone 8, (never the plus), but eventually caved in for a XS Max and 12 Pro Max. I don't think I'd go back to the smaller screens now though even though the phones cost so much more.
Excellent review CE3. I'm glad Apple makes smaller phones - although not the most popular design, a lot of people prefer a smaller screen. I used the SE1 from 03/2017 until the summer of 2018 and it was so nice - all of the Apple firepower in a pocketable package. I went back to larger screens when I retired and started to game a lot! (Minecraft, Roblox, etc. etc. lol)
If you're interested in all of those things, then you're right. But if someone has an aging SE2, or anything older, then the SE3 fits their needs perfectly. It's like a car. You get a Toyota Camry, keep it for 10 years, 150k miles, then you replace it with another Toyota Camry, but it's just the newer model b/c your previous one was on its last leg (though Camry's can usually go much longer if taken care of...
). You don't necessarily need or have the budget for something "better", but you want an updated/upgraded version of what you like or what you're used to.I wonder if your issue with your iphone 7 was due to weakening battery and/or 2GB of RAM. I don't have performance issues in my 7+, but battery life is mediocre at best and it overheats easily.
I expect it’s mainly the 2GB RAM.
That said, A10 just doesn’t feel as fast as it used to (even on A10/3GB iPad 7th gen). Of course, apart from slowdown due to iOS upgrades, the perception of slowness could also be due to the fact that I’m used to better performance from A12-M1 iPads.
I spent a while in the Apple Store yesterday comparing the SE3 to my current iPhone 8. I felt it was time for a new phone, but I'm not particularly driven by CPU improvements or even 5G- I had hoped the SE3 would be a massive improvement on the 8 after all these years, but it's virtually the same device.
Certainly not improved or updated enough to pay several hundred dollars to get hold of- in fact it seems like a little bit of a con.
I'm going to wait until September, for sure.
Why can’t they just put a Touch ID sensor on the iPhone like they have in the iPad Air? It’s another stupid and totally random stratification I don’t understand.
A massive improvement how? I mean, the whole point of the SE (other than cost) is to continue to offer the iPhone 8 form factor to those who prefer it, so apart from the major CPU improvement and improved camera performance I’m not sure what you were hoping it would offer over your 8.
I bought the iPhone SE 2022, and was using iPhone 8 before. Save money, buy iPhone 11. The new chip is almost non-existent as it I don't feel any different in using the device from iPhone 8. With SE 2022, I get over one hour SOT for every 10% of battery, but that is over WiFi and brightness and everything turned low. I expect the SOT to be half over LTE. But I noticed about 4% battery loss overnight, which I believe is from personal hotspot always turned on coupled with the phone having low battery. Apple designed personal hotspot to be always turned on for the newer phones with bigger capacity batteries, not smaller capacity phones like the SE line. Also, I noticed WiFi issues. I have 1gig connection, and when compared to iPhone 8, I sometimes only reach about a third of the speed as compared to iPhone 8, with speed test done from the exact spot back to back. This low speed was consistent as I tested over a dozen times with consistent results of SE 2022 having poor speeds, or, not able to reach iPhone 8 WiFi speeds on most occasions. I think Apple might have used inferior parts in this SE 2022 cheap line.
I also have the issue of selfies being auto-brightened up by Apple. I did not have this issue with my iPhone 8 under the latest iOS.
To me, I feel like I should have simply replaced the iPhone 8 battery instead of buying this one. This feels like a downgrade. Contemplating on returning this and getting a Samsung S22.
I also have the issue of selfies being auto-brightened up by Apple. I did not have this issue with my iPhone 8 under the latest iOS.
To me, I feel like I should have simply replaced the iPhone 8 battery instead of buying this one. This feels like a downgrade. Contemplating on returning this and getting a Samsung S22.
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This UI choice always makes me scratch my head and has me questioning why Apple would make access to control center for the FaceID iPhones in the farthest most difficult area to reach? Usually Apple is good with keeping ergonomics in mind but not in this case.
The ability to swipe up from the bottom of the screen for control center and have quick access to some of the most important parts of a smartphone is sublime.
How easy is it to swipe down from the top right of the screen to access control center on the 13 Mini?
The Wi-Fi thing is interesting and surprising: the iPhone 8 is limited to 802.11ac whereas the 2022 iPhone SE supports 802.11ax and WiFi 6, so it's certainly not older technology holding your SE back. It could be they used a problematic WiFi chipset for the new models, and I can't find any reviews where anyone's tested the Wi-Fi performance of the 2022 SE, but at least for the 2020 SE it performed pretty much identically to the contemporary iPhone 11 so they didn't seem to be cheaping out back then (293 Mbps vs. 303 Mbps): https://appleinsider.com/articles/2...the-definition-of-affordable-smartphone-power
Unless the 2022 SE's WiFi chip is somehow worse than the one in the 2020 model, it sounds like you might either have a problem device or a specific problem with your network. Theoretically, you should be getting a healthy boost in WiFi speed with the new model.
You, uh, may want to read the reviews before making that decision. I'd give the Pixel line a look if you're going that direction, or alternatively give the iPhone 13 or 13 Mini a shot if you're looking for something that really feels different from an 8.
I just checked the WiFi speeds again, and now SE 2022 is on par, if not better than iPhone 8. When I tested yesterday night, SE 2022 was plugged into the charger. So, I am guessing that had an impact somehow.
