For the past couple of years, phone makers have said that if you want a small phone, you must have little needs. However that simply isn't real. Some people have small hands and big ideas. The new iPhone SE from Apple ($ 399 for 32GB; $499 for 128GB) is the little phone that many individuals have actually been awaiting, with a cautious balance of elements that keep it present, while also hitting a midrange price point. Anybody who has actually been driven nuts by significantly big devices and wants to return to simpler, one-handed days will enjoy this phone. It's our Editors' Option for smaller sized mobile phones.
Truthful, Objective Reviews PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent evaluations of the current product or services. Our expert industry analysis and useful options assist you make better purchasing decisions and get more from technology.
Physical Features and Ergonomics Here's a fast rundown: The iPhone SE has the very same body, screen, and storage as the iPhone fives (at Amazon). It has the exact same modem, Touch ID sensor with NFC for Apple Pay, and front camera as the iPhone 6. And it shares a processor and rear electronic camera with the iPhone sixes (599.99 with code VZWDEAL at Verizon). These elements add up to a phone that can run the latest apps without complaining, and suits a kid's hand.
From a design perspective, the iPhone SE (at Amazon) uses the iPhone fives body. That indicates it determines 4.87 by 2.31 by 0.30 inches (HWD) and weighs 4.0 ounces, and has a brushed-metal back with glass panels at the top and bottom. There's a Touch ID-equipped, fingerprint-sensing physical Home button below the display screen. The phone fits quickly into iPhone 5 or iPhone fives cases. There are only two noticeable distinctions between this and the older phones: there's a small SE logo on the back, and the diagonal edges are matte instead of shiny. The phone also now can be found in increased gold, in addition to dark gray, gold, and silver.The iPhone SE likewise uses the same screen as the iPhone fives, a 4-inch, 1,136-by-640 panel that has 326 pixels per inch. In regards to quality, it's pretty similar to the iPhone 6 and sixes screens, which are simply bigger. These are high-quality LCDs that have actually made numerous millions of people happy for many years, however it is essential to remember they aren't leading-edge: The screens on the Samsung Galaxy S7 ($ 199.99 at Samsung) and the LG G5 ($ 624.00 at Verizon), for instance, are brighter, with richer colors and much greater pixel density, making everything look more vibrant than it does on iPhones.
The 4-inch screen lowers functional realty, of course. Checking out an e-mail in Outlook, I could see about 90 words on the SE's Browse around this site screen, as compared with 160 words on the iPhone sixes, 250 on the Galaxy S7, and 360 on Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Taking a look at a Google Sheet spreadsheet, I could see 13 rows on the SE, as compared to 17 on the sixes, 22 on the Galaxy S7, and 27 on the Note 5.
That can be aggravating, but it can likewise be liberating. I utilized the SE as my primary phone for a weekend, coming off of a couple of months with a Galaxy Note 5, and found that you use them differently. I discovered myself less most likely to write long e-mails and social networks messages on the iPhone SE than on the larger Note 5, however most likely to quickly check numerous feeds and read news, especially while doing something else. The iPhone SE sat so strongly in my hand that I never ever felt like I was going to drop it, the method I in some cases felt with the Galaxy Note 5. I commute with my tween daughter, and she found it more comfy to play games on the SE than on the Note 5-- which is so big that she in fact can't hold it safely in one hand.
Call Quality and Networking
Call quality here is similar to the iPhone 6: Voices are loud and strong through the earpiece, with support for HD calling, Wi-Fi calling, and voice-over-LTE (VoLTE). The speakerphone is adequate, but not amazing. Transmissions through the microphone on the T-Mobile VoLTE network were clear and solid.
There are two designs of the iPhone SE. The model we tested-- A1662, which Apple describes as SIM-free-- is sold for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon; it's also the design sold opened. It supports LTE bands 1/2/3/ 4/5/8/ 12/13/17/ 18/19/20/ 25/26/29. That significantly excludes Sprint's high-speed band 41, so a different system, A1723, is sold for Sprint. The SIM-free design likewise has the most-used basic LTE strolling bands, but not band 7, which boosts speeds on Canadian and some European networks. The iPhone sixes has all the bands, and recovers from dead zones much more rapidly than the SE.
That said, the iPhone SE is going to outshine both the iPhone fives and the iPhone 6 (but not the sixes) on T-Mobile, since it supports band 12, which has ended up being extremely crucial for prolonged LTE coverage. The fives and 6 don't have that band; the 6s and SE do. The iPhone 6 and SE must have similar efficiency to each other on the AT&T and Verizon networks.
The iPhone SE performs consistently much better than the iPhone 5s, however not in addition to the iPhone 6s, on Wi-Fi networks. While the SE and sixes did about as well as each other within 25 feet of a Wi-Fi router, the sixes provided better speeds on the edge of the Wi-Fi cell and in a really Wi-Fi-noisy area. I got double the Wi-Fi speed of the SE on the sixes in edge cases, where both phones were stuck under 10Mbps on a 100Mbps connection. That's to be expected, because the sixes supports MIMO and the 6 does not.