The iPhone SE Review
by Brandon Chester on May 16, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone
- iPhone SE
Battery Life
Our battery life tests have also been upgraded for 2016. Our web browsing test was previously shown in the first part of the Galaxy S7 review, and since that time it has been tweaked to the point that we're happy with the workload it puts on devices. We've also migrated to GFXBench's Manhattan test for examining battery life with a heavy GPU workload.
In our WiFi web browsing test the iPhone SE does quite well. When Apple originally advertised that the SE has better web browsing battery life than the 6s and 6s Plus I saw some confusion from many people, but it's actually not a surprising outcome. The SE is using a much smaller and lower resolution LCD display than the other iPhones, which significantly reduces the total platform power. The boost in battery capacity from the iPhone 5s helps as well. Apple advertises that the SE can last two hours longer on WiFi than the 6s, and in our test it almost meets that target.
Due to a recent move, I'm still trying to find a place with sufficient signal strength that I can use for LTE battery life testing. Until such a time, I'm unable to post LTE battery life results for the SE. In general you can expect LTE battery life to be a couple hours shorter than on WiFi, and Apple advertises that the SE can last three hours longer on LTE than the 6s, so if they get anywhere close to that then LTE battery life should be quite good.
The 4-inch iPhones have never lasted long in GFXBench's battery test. With the new Manhattan test the GPU is doing a lot more work than it was with T-Rex HD, and there aren't any periods of idle. The iPhone SE achieves the lowest battery lifetime of just 1.46 hours. However, the on screen frame rate during the test is hitting Vsync, which is actually concerning because we moved to Manhattan to avoid the problem of devices hitting that cap and then idling in the middle of the test. As I've said in the past, you need to consider both performance and battery life in this test. The iPhone SE is obviously an improvement over the 5s even though it dies half an hour earlier, because by the end of the test the iPhone SE is giving you 6x the performance of the 5s due to the A7 SoC's greater degree of thermal throttling.
Charge Time
Like the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the iPhone SE ships with Apple's 5W charging block. While this can be quite problematic on a large phone like the iPhone 6s Plus, on a small phone it won't pose as much of an issue as the phone's battery capacity is much lower. Ideally we'd like to see a time to charge that is under three hours, and coming in under two hours is even better.
The iPhone SE charges quite quickly. We've seen improvements to charge time on the iPhone since the era of the iPhone 5s, and with the SE having a smaller battery than the iPhone 6s it makes sense that the charge time would be shorter. I do wonder how long it would take to get to full charge if Apple bundled a 10-15W charger with the phone, although with the current time being under two hours you also need to consider if the potential reduction in battery longevity from quicker charging is worth it.
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Impulses - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
I think it's less about not having the necessary display tech and more about A) reusing parts and tooling plus B) sticking to the aspect ratios iOS has been made to work well with.I don't fundamentally disagree with you tho, but at the same time I wish there were more/better small Android phones so I'm actually glad Apple saw a demand for the SE and put it out there.
I'm still clinging to a Nexus 5, in 2.5yrs I've seen nothing that has tempted me away from it outside the Z3/5 Compact which would've required a carrier change (still considered it).
The N5X looked ok, specially at Project Fi prices, just not quite enough... Hopefully there's another small Nexus this year. Otherwise I might give up and try a large phone (S7/HTC 10), ugh.
fanofanand - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
I'm with you, my Nexus 5 screen shattered last summer, but the 5X was not impressive to me (still 2 gb of ram?) so I have been holding out for October to see what the new release is. Too many things on my phone are failing now (imagine the dirt, dust, etc. that got in there over the course of a year) but rather than shell out $400+ I went to swappa and found a 32 gb Mint Nexus 5 for $135. Unless something is horribly wrong with it (in which case I can return it) that phone will be plenty "good enough" until hopefully October 2017 when 14/16 nm is matured.fanofanand - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
Before anyone asks why I would need more than 2 Gb of ram, I am constantly having apps evicted, even when there is only one app going. For example, playing a game, I get a text. I reply to the text, and when I go back to the game, it had been evicted from ram and I have to completely re-load it. If I am going to shell out for a brand new phone, no way I will get one with less than 3 gb of ram.Impulses - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
Games are probably the worst case scenario in that regard, possibly followed by heavy camera use... I don't do/use much of either on my phone so I've gotten along just fine with 2 GB. I think the phone actually manages RAM better now than when it launched on Lollipop.Spectrophobic - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
1. Get used to it. Bezels are there for a purpose.2. And yet people complain about fingerprint sensors on other device as "too fast".
3. Stop taking selfies.
4. You gotta be kidding me.
5. It's also 5.1".
kmmatney - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
You need the bezels, at least on the side - makes it much easier to access the sides of the screen with a case on. People have to give up and the bezel argument - iPhone users like the bezel size.Grendelrtg - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link
I wouldn't go as far as to say iphone users like them...as me and a lot of people i know that use iphones hate the bezels. I have a 6s plus that feels bigger than my brothers phone which has a larger screen. I like my iphone but they can decresase the damn bezels anytime!!osxandwindows - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
In typical anandtech iPhone review fashion, it didn't take long for the "this review is so biased" comment to show up.vFunct - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
I think the 5s design is the best so far. I found that the curved edges on the 6/6+ are too slippery compared to the hard edges on the 5s.Also, the button-click feel on iPhones are so much better than anything on Android. Buttons on Android phones are so mushy feeling, it really cheapens their experience.
Byte - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
I'm really surprised apple went to flagship parity on the internals while using the same part number for the front screen. Good job apple!