New iPhone SE: The GTI among smartphones

The new entry-level iPhone will be released on Friday. If you pick it up, you could confuse it with the iPhone 8. But thanks to the latest hardware, it is faster than the top smartphones with Android.

Apple will be selling the new version of its entry-level iPhone starting Friday. We were able to test the device in advance and explain who it is suitable for, what has changed compared to its predecessors and for whom an upgrade is worthwhile.

The concept of the iPhone SE is as simple as it is special

The iPhone SE can be explained quite quickly as a concept – but in this form it is still unique on the smartphone market: Apple takes a popular case that is already a few years old, builds almost the same technology into it as in a current iPhone model and then sells the device for just over half what it’s asking for the new iPhones. It’s a bit like the upgraded Golf GTI: on the outside it’s a rather conservative family car – but motorized like a significantly more expensive sports car.

So it is that the new iPhone SE (64 GB), which is available from Friday everywhere from 519 euros, has a more powerful chip than anything that Android can currently offer in its upper class. Because Apple is not making any compromises here – at least not yet: From the most expensive and largest iPhone 13 Pro Max (from 1249 euros) down to the upcoming iPhone SE, all iPhones currently sold have exactly the same chip: the A15 Bionic.

This is still perhaps the most important news for everyone who is thinking about buying a new iPhone SE: While mid-range Android devices are often no longer fun to use after two or three years because of their cheap CPUs, you can iPhone SE can also be used without restrictions after four or five years and also usually receives security updates and the new version of the iPhone operating system iOS for at least five years.

Of course, buyers also have to make some compromises: The design is no longer up-to-date, the camera doesn’t keep up with the more expensive models and things like Face ID face recognition or wireless charging via MagSafe don’t work either (wireless charging works though) – but many can do without it, or even welcome it, for example because they prefer to use a fingerprint sensor instead of Face ID anyway.

What’s new? What is better?

On paper, the differences to the two-year-old predecessor are quickly identified: instead of the A13, there is now the A15, instead of 4G, the new model also supports fast 5G data transmission, and the battery should now last 15 hours instead of 13 hours.

Doesn’t sound spectacular – but it provides improvements in exactly the right places. The A15 Bionic processor is 15 to 25 percent faster than the A13, depending on the application. The graphics chip can noticeably set itself apart from its predecessor, especially in games. That may not matter to many SE users, after all the A13 also offers more than enough performance. But the new chip has two other noticeable advantages.

The first is the new ISP, which is the chip responsible for processing iPhone photos. The third-generation iPhone SE has more or less the same camera hardware as its predecessor, but the new ISP ensures that the photos on the new device are visibly better. The keywords here are Smart HDR 4 and Deep Fusion – this is what Apple calls automatic software optimizations that run in the background and ensure that images look better, more detailed and sharper than before.

Especially when the subject is only moderately or weakly lit, the difference to the images from the predecessor is striking: many more details, better structures, sharper edges. The pictures look a lot better – you don’t have to pay attention to anything when you take the picture. Even “Photographic Styles” is available. Here you can adapt photos better to your own taste – should the pictures be a little warmer, a little colder or a little brighter? This can be preset directly here.

The second advantage is better efficiency: Although the new iPhone is equipped with an energy-hungry 5G chip, the battery lasts two hours longer than its predecessor, according to Apple. This definitely has something to do with a more economical processor. However, Apple also states that it has installed a new, slightly larger battery – nevertheless, the new model is four grams lighter (144g) than its predecessor.

We didn’t actually measure it – but the battery easily lasted a whole day and also noticeably longer than our comparison device, an iPhone SE from 2020.

5G instead of 4G is not yet a real advantage in everyday life. However, it must be borne in mind that the iPhone SE can easily be used for five years or longer. Until then, it should be essential to own a smartphone with 5G support. So buyers are on the safe side here.

What has also not been mentioned so far is that Apple uses the hardest glass to date for the new SE, which is also used on the back of the iPhone 13. However, this is expressly not the material called ‘Ceramic Shield’ that Apple uses on the front of its latest iPhones. If you want to use your smartphone for many years, it is still better to use a protective cover – but at least the new device is slightly better protected against glass breakage than the old one.

Bottom Line: Who Should Buy It, Who Should Upgrade?

The new iPhone SE is a wolf in sheep’s clothing – at least as far as performance is concerned: Don’t be fooled by the somewhat dusty exterior – the device is not only the most powerful smartphone in this price segment – it also outperforms the fastest Android devices in terms of computing power and is in no way inferior to the top devices from Apple, which are more than twice as expensive. That may not matter at the moment – but it means that there will be sufficient performance reserves for years to come.

The long support period that Apple is used to is also an argument in favor of the device: If you buy it now, you will be able to use it with the latest updates for at least five years, maybe even longer. Not a single Android device offers this guarantee. Anyone who actually plans to use their iPhone SE for so long would have to buy at least two cheap Android phones for the same period.

Thanks in particular to the 5G support, the SE is an absolute price recommendation for anyone who wants a cheap Apple device that they can use for a long time. In the previous model from 2020, the missing 5G capability will be missed more and more in the coming years. Thanks to Smart HDR 4 support and Deep Fusion, the photos of the new SE are also much more sustainable than the previous device.

But you have to make a few compromises, which are due to the low price: The design is even more dated this year than it was two years ago and the display is also really small by today’s standards. But there are many users for whom that doesn’t matter much – on the contrary, they are rather happy that the smartphone feels exactly like the iPhone 6s or iPhone 8 that they used before.

So if you can’t and don’t want to spend 800 euros or more for a fast and up-to-date iPhone – and can live with small cuts such as the small display, you will get more performance for your money with the iPhone SE of the third generation than anywhere else.

If you still own a first-generation iPhone SE, you can upgrade without hesitation. The SE model from 2020 can actually still be used well at the moment. This is where owners need to decide if 5G and the camera upgrade will be such a huge benefit for them. If in doubt, you should wait for the next version of the SE.

The iPhone SE (64GB) is available from Friday, March 18 for 519 euros in black, white and red. A model with 128 GB of storage costs 569 euros, with 256 GB of storage it costs 689 euros.