The iPhone SE Review
by Brandon Chester on May 16, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iPhone
- iPhone SE
Still Image Quality
Like the iPhone 6s, the iPhone SE has a 12MP 1/3" camera sensor, and a lens with an f/2.2 aperture. With the A9 SoC also comes the same image signal processor (ISP), and so in theory photos should be identical between the two phones. This represents an enormous improvement from the iPhone 5s, which used Apple's first 1/3" sensor with a resolution of 8MP. Moving to a higher resolution sensor has enabled UHD video recording, and the new ISP built into A9 allows for 1080p120 slow motion video as well as Apple's Live Photos feature. Based on my experience, the iPhone SE and the iPhone 6s produce identical results when taking photos and shooting video, but I've put together two comparisons below just to illustrate that fact.
| Daytime Photography |
Photos taken in the day with the iPhone SE look quite good. Photos are noticeably sharper than on the 5s, which is a combination of the higher resolution sensor and two years of improvements to Apple's image signal processor when going from Apple A7 to Apple A9. As expected, the image quality is essentially the same as the 6s due to their shared camera and ISP, and it definitely gives the best results I've seen from a $400 phone.
| Night Photography |
Night time photos on the iPhone SE are identical to those from the iPhone 6s. In this case it almost looks like I just took the one photo and shifted it slightly, as the exposure, processing, and level of detail are the same between the SE and the 6s.
What’s interesting about the iPhone SE sharing a camera with the iPhone 6s is the fact that they’re priced $250 apart. Daytime photo quality on the iPhone 6s is quite good, but it’s definitely a step behind the 6s Plus and the best Android device in low light due to its smaller sensor than the Android flagships and the lack of OIS which is included on the 6s Plus. At $400, Apple is playing a completely different game, as the camera quality is often one of the first things to be sacrificed when you step down from the flagship price bracket. I would argue that the iPhone SE gives you the best camera in a smartphone at its price point.
Given that the iPhone SE and iPhone 6s use the same camera, there's not much point in repeating a large number of photo tests. My Galaxy S6's VCM also broke which unfortunately prevented me from including it in these comparisons. For some additional photo comparisons and some video comparisons you can take a look at those sections from our iPhone 6s review where a number of 2015's Android flagship smartphones are also compared.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
138 Comments
View All Comments
Alexey291 - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
So it's kinda buggy, badly built but you love it? Kaywhiteiphoneproblems - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
Yep - two minor bugs. Never owned a phone (by any manufacturer) that was bug-free!Impulses - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
They sound more like hardware faults or QC issues than bugs to me, but maybe we have different definitions of said word...whiteiphoneproblems - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link
That other guy called it "buggy"; OK word by me, I guess. The power button issue has been widely reported (think it goes back to the 5S), so don't know if a hardware swap would be worthwhile. (With a case, it's barely noticeable.)Don't know if the brightness thing is software or hardware. Maybe it's calibrated to work that way for this model? I can investigate further, I suppose.
All told, the advantages of this phone far outweigh these imperfections for me.
Klug4Pres - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
I see a problem with Apple's strategy here.People who cannot afford Apple's larger phones do not necessarily want a smaller phone.
There is also the old problem that people who want large screen phones do not necessarily want gigantic bezels on their phones.
Might there be better ways to differentiate the product line?
Guspaz - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
I helped my mother buy an iPhone SE yesterday (which was tricky since we visited 6 cellphone stores, all of which were sold out, before we finally found a store that had one in stock). She was upgrading from an iPhone 4S, since it was getting on in years and they'll likely discontinue software support for it this fall.For her, it was the perfect choice: she didn't like the iPhone 6S due to the much larger screen, and the much larger price. The iPhone SE sells for $579 CAD, while the iPhone 6S sells for $915 CAD (or at least it did yesterday in-store, looks like it's gone down to $899 since), which is a big price difference.
She was happy. A lighter phone without much of a size increase, at $336 cheaper than the 6S.
UtilityMax - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link
The fact that your ma likes a phone with a small screen does not disprove the previous argument. Apple has a huge problem on its hands. There are plenty of great android smartphones with large screens sold for under $400, heck many are priced exactly at around 200 bucks. Throwing a bone in the form of cheaper and smaller iPhone SE to the consumers looking for value will not appease most of them them.michael2k - Tuesday, May 17, 2016 - link
On the other hand, Apple has no competition in this space, as everything else in this size is significantly slower in CPU, GPU, and NAND.So people who want a small phone can get the SE, and have the fastest and most powerful phone. People who want a large phone can get the 6S and still have the fastest and most powerful phone.
jerrytouille - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
Which CPU did the SE tested have: Samsung or TSMC?Spectrophobic - Monday, May 16, 2016 - link
Doesn't matter. Margin of error difference.