Gadgetory

it's the same old song and dance new phone comes out we all rush to review it a bunch of folks will try to say if it's worth it after a couple days then we all rush out to review the next new phone how phone ages is as important as that out of the box experience so let's do something about that released in March of last year Apple attempted a second try at a mid-range phone and reactions were mixed nearly a year later how has this mikeymouse held up it's time for our iPhone se after the buzz let's get part of the verdict out of the way right now the iPhone se is my personal favorite Apple product of 2016 for all the jokes about the iPhone snooze edition this is a terrifically executed gadget expertly targeted at a specific demographic judged on those merits it's one of the most successful smartphones that Apple has ever built the iPhone 5s was the culmination of Apple's small form-factor phones released before creeping up the screen size on the iPhone 6 a blend of metal and glass recalling the sharp modern lines of the iPhone 4 but with a more durable rear case Apple recycled that design exactly here and it's held up well I was happy to find an old 5s case in a drawer so admittedly the SE has spent most of its time in this bumper but screen and cameras are still looking clean all of the improvements are internal throwing in the chipset and camera found in the iPhone 6s like taking an old popular roadster and dropping in a modern engine this phone is a screamer and it's become my preferred platform for running iOS betas now on iOS 10.3 we benefit from Apple's latest features and for a mid-range ur have not experienced any significant slowdown as situation often found with slightly older phones running more demanding software for phones released in 2016 we miss precious few of the omitted features found in the iPhone 7 when looking at on-the-go use I really can't remember the last time I used peaking or popping so it's not been much of an issue on the SE losing that taptic feedback also means this phone has a built-in headphone jack a slightly higher quality headphone jack over the iPhone 7 dongle for folks on cabled headphones this is a happy compromise to make you can use 3.5 millimeter or lightning and moving over to bluetooth means you'll experience the exact same audio quality is any higher priced iPhone like the iPhone 6s it's the more complete solution for legacy and future headphone audio the camera is still terrifically competitive losing a little in low-light performance against the hardware stabilization on the iPhone 7 but delivering apples characteristic post-processing excellent HDR and wonderfully smooth UHD video this is all tied up in software which is just better designed for smaller screens as iPhones have gotten larger iOS hasn't really evolved to address bigger hardware we might have mocked older iPhone Hershel your thumb reaches from here to here but Apple wasn't really wrong top corner mounted controls sure gestures can replace most of that interaction but the visual indicator is in a location you can't really reach on a plus if you have normal sized hands Apple screen shrink helps vertically but provides no one-handed benefit reaching across the phone the SE suffers none of this and offers one of the best one thumb experiences the smartphone world has ever seen even the battery life has held up well for such a small cell a year later the SE can still largely keep up with most flagships training about 6 percent and immediate at streaming 30 minutes of video over Wi-Fi at 190 lux this phone isn't designed to be a multimedia or gaming champ though this chipset chews up future fight better than almost all high-end Android phones in the hands of its target demo it's an all-day champ at keeping people connected and interacting in short bursts to get work done there are of course bombers we absolutely appreciate the stereo speakers on the newest iPhones and enhanced water resistance delivers more peace of mind but the biggest bummer with the SE is storage a base-model phone with 16 gigabytes was a tight fit in 2015 let alone now it certainly has a chilling effect on how often you shoot that high-quality UHD video now this is extremely competitive price territory but a $50 jump for 64 gigabytes of built-in storage keeps this phone close to the current crop of premium mid Ranger's there's still an Apple tax at play of course but it's not completely out of step with what the market can bear here so let's wrap this up 11 months later where does that leave us with the iPhone se to finish my verdict from the top of this video Apple is building a bum reputation for its vision of progress and how it supports industry standards the ones cohesive ecosystem is a little disjointed at the moment removing headphone jacks on phones but keeping them on laptops USBC on mac books but USB a cables included with the iPhone rumors pointing to a new accessory port it's easy to see why there's been a bit of frustration in Apple and so when I say that this is one of the most successful phones Apple has ever produced we obviously don't mean in terms of overall sales or in terms of breaking new ground Apple executives saw the remainder of a market folks still buying lower-cost smaller iPhone 5 and built a product specifically targeted at that demographic while still being able to support future software balancing those improvements against costs the SE absolutely nails what it sets out to do satisfy a legacy market it's not a sustainable market and we probably won't see a refresh to this exact same form factor again but for the moment it's a jewel of a gadget folks who enjoy tech life on the bleeding edge should rightfully ignore this phone but we all know people friends family who hold onto phones longer or don't need the most robust multimedia platform or just don't want to buy new cases or car mounts the iPhone se is a terrific solution for them as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews like these and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos bag now some gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review