Hands On With The Apple iPhone SE Gen 3 (2022)
Retail Price: $429
Buy AT Apple
Third Time’s The…Same?
If someone had told me ten years ago that one day, Apple would create their own “flagship killer” device, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. The concept of providing the highest end chipset on a phone that costs what a mid-range competitor should cost was more or less why Android devices like OnePlus and Axon became so popular back in the day. Yet here we are in 2022 with a $429 iPhone SE that comes with almost all the essentials of its much more expensive predecessors. The only drawbacks? It’s Apple’s third time around with the SE line and we get the same compact, or to put it nicely, classic body we’ve had on the iPhone 7, 8, 9, and SE 2. By my count this is the fifth time we’ve seen this exact body design from Apple. Meanwhile, we’re losing some premium functionality on the camera side of things. Are those tradeoffs worth it for the massive price difference? That’s what we aim to find out after our full review period runs its course.
It’s an interesting decision that Apple has made here to refresh the iPhone SE when you consider the fact that they are simultaneously also producing a slightly more expensive iPhone 13 Mini. They’re similar in size, but the iPhone SE offers a more affordable package with just slightly fewer numbers on the spec sheet. For all intent and purposes, those two lines of phones should hypothetically fill the same role. Yet, here we are, another small iPhone in the lineup! This year’s SE is only offered in three simple colors: red, white (starlight) and black (midnight). It comes with as little as 64 GB and as high as 256 GB of storage. We opted for the most affordable midnight color with 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM. This lowest possible combination of specs can be had for a mere $429. While it’s a slight inflation in price when compared to the original MSRP of the Gen 2 SE in 2020, when you pit it against the rest of the current market, it automatically provides the best processor for the dollar amount.
The iPhone SE Gen 3 alongside the 12 Mini and 13 Pro
When placed next to the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 13 Pro, the SE Gen 3 is noticeably thinner and smaller. It’s quite slippery in the hands and will most definitely require a case of some kind. It’s been awhile since I used this iPhone design and I’m instantly nostalgic for it and definitely notice the significant chamfering and design changes on the newer iPhones. The 4.7-inch Retina IPS display packs the pixels tightly together with 326 ppi for an outdated, yet still pleasurable 750p viewing experience. We know exactly what to expect from this display thanks to previous experiences with Gen 2 so it isn’t necessarily a let down. Being as it shares the same body as its predecessor, this phone has the large bezel chin and forehead that we all lugged around for years on classic iPhones of the past. Instead of using the current generation of tech like Face ID, the SE retains a haptic touch Home button that reuses the Touch ID fingerprint sensor for payments and authentication.
Initial Thoughts
When it comes to the processor, Apple incorporated its flagship A15 Bionic chip, which on first impressions, makes this phone quite the valued purchase. It’ll take some time before we can fully appreciate how much this makes a difference in day to day phone performance, but it’s quite an admirable feat for Apple to include their top of the line mobile chipset at this significantly lower price. This pairs quite well with iOS 15, which might not have been an automatic assumption, seeing as the newer iOS features were designed with non-home button interfaces in mind. Apple began endorsing the swipe navigation starting on the iPhone 10 and really hasn’t looked back ever since. The only reason they put up with maintaining synergy with the home button is because they profit off these budget offerings. Nevertheless, there are a few other tradeoffs to be made in order to accommodate this price point, but the user experience doesn’t seem to be one of them.
Like other iPhones of recent past, there’s no charging brick included with the purchase while Apple still uses its proprietary Lightning port. You get a USB-C to Lightning cable and that is it. While there’s no MagSafe on this year’s SE, there is wireless charging and fast-charge capability. Qi charging on a sub-$500 phone is already more than what a lot of other phones in this price range typically offer. Add in the newly included 5G band capability that is a first for the SE line and it rounds out to be quite an impressive budget package.
Apple opted to retain the same single camera from the SE 2020
Where we see the biggest detractors due to the price tag seems to be with the cameras. I should say camera. There’s only one rear camera on the SE, which is fewer than what we see on the Mini and Pro iPhones. This old iPhone 7 design does retain that minuscule camera hump that looks much cleaner than the humps on the new designs, but this is one instance where looks probably should matter less than the quantity of sensors. We’ll have to take a few more photos and videos to see how this singular lens holds up. The main camera features a 12 MP camera (same as on the SE 2) that records 4K video at up to 60 frames per second. The selfie camera spec sits at 7 MP and records video at 1080p up to 120 frames per second from the front side. However, while the specs are the same as the previous generation, the much superior A15 Bionic processor gives this phone an updated camera performance as the SE can still take advantage of new Apple processing software features like Smart HDR 4 for advanced color adjustments to photos.
More to Come
So far on paper, there’s a lot to be impressed with in this little package. Time will tell how it holds up with day to day use, but on paper, this may very well be the phone we recommend just about anyone to purchase in 2022 due to its sheer value per dollar offering.
Lida
Always the number cruncher, the former narrative journalist turned data scientist, can’t help but find herself bursting with excitement with each new generation of tech gadgets. After all, predicting future trends is Lida’s forte. Any gadget that survives Lida’s torturous, adult working woman itinerary of over 700 notifications a day deserves praise!