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Art et designTranscription
00:00Hey what's up guys, MKBHD here, and this is it.
00:15This is the new iPhone SE 2020, it's the new $400 iPhone, one of the hottest phones
00:21of this year, and honestly, one of the most important phones in a long time, especially
00:26for Apple.
00:27I've been using this phone as my daily iPhone for almost about a week now, in fact I started
00:33using it right after I shot that video about my thoughts on the iPhone SE.
00:39No like, like literally, like right after.
00:43It's a crazy time to be alive.
00:45Either way, that's been it, thanks for watching this quick first impression, and I'll catch
00:50you guys very soon in the next one.
00:52Peace!
00:54Alright, time to unbox this guy.
01:14So, fast forward to now, and this phone's about to start shipping, it's going to start
01:18arriving in the real world, there really now is a brand new iPhone people are going to
01:23pay $400 for.
01:28So reviewing this phone should be pretty easy, because we've already seen this before
01:32basically.
01:33I've already reviewed the iPhone 8, I'll link it below the like button if you want to watch
01:37it again, but there are some new things, a couple little tweaks in here, so here's a
01:42refresher.
01:43This iPhone SE has the body of an iPhone 8, a new camera system, and the chip from the
01:48iPhone 11, the newest A13 Bionic.
01:51So the body itself is so small, at least by today's standards.
01:54Now today's standards happen to be pretty big, they happen to include a lot of pretty
01:59huge phones, including Apple's own huge phone, but on the other hand, it doesn't quite go
02:03all the way back to the size of the first iPhone SE, which now looking back is just
02:08absolutely tiny.
02:09I like the size of this phone though, and it's less about overall footprint size, and
02:14actually more about just how thin and lightweight it is.
02:17It really is pretty noticeable, like walking around with this as the only phone in my
02:21pocket, it's honestly pretty refreshing having a phone that's so light and maneuverable.
02:26So I know SE apparently stands for Special Edition unofficially, but I'm going to go
02:30ahead and adjust that to Small Edition.
02:33Now the body is also IP67 water and dust resistant, it's got the glass back to give you wireless
02:39charging, and the logo's actually moved down to the middle of the phone as you can see
02:43to match all the newer iPhones, and then the rest you remember, you know, speakers at the
02:47bottom paired with the earpiece, and of course, the big forehead and chin with Touch ID.
02:54Yeah, Touch ID.
02:56In a world of face masks and nose coverings though, this latest version of a standard
03:01fingerprint reader that they pretty much perfected on a home button is still working great.
03:06Then there are three colors for the new SE, red, black, and white, and they all have black
03:11fronts, black bezels.
03:14Remember when you used to have to hack together two phones to get a red phone with a black front?
03:20Now even the white one's got a black front, so the black bezel is a nice little update.
03:24Naturally, I went for the product red.
03:27Side note, the materials in the box still say product red proceeds go towards AIDS relief,
03:32but on Apple's site now, that's changed to say COVID relief, so that's a good cause too.
03:37Really besides, obviously, the design overall, the only part here on this older parts bin
03:43phone that frustrated me at all was the display.
03:46First of all, it doesn't double tap to wake.
03:48I didn't realize how much I did that on phones that don't have home buttons.
03:52And then second, it just doesn't get as bright as today's phones, and outdoor visibility
03:56took a bit of a hit.
03:57And it wasn't even that bad, and the resolution and pixel density or 60 hertz refresh rate
04:02didn't bother me as much, because let's not forget, this is a $400 phone.
04:06But yeah, I'm just so used to screens that have gotten brighter since 2017.
04:10So, knowing what we know coming into this review for iPhone SE, we know it's old body,
04:15new chip, new camera, what we want to know for the review from actually using it is how
04:20good is the performance, how good is the battery life, and how good is the camera?
04:26Well, performance, this may come as a shocker.
04:29The A13 and extra RAM absolutely fly through iOS on a 720p display.
04:35Yeah, I know, breaking news, right?
04:37Super unexpected.
04:39Performance is fine.
04:40Apple didn't have to put the A13 in here, but I'm glad they did, because performance
04:44overhead here is insane.
04:47And I mentioned this in the impressions, but this phone is going to have the longest life
04:51of any $400 phone, probably that I've ever seen.
04:55So performance is great.
04:57Battery life has also been good.
05:00It has a really great standby time, as most iPhones do, and the efficiency of the A13,
05:05again, with a small, not very bright 720p screen, shines through.
05:10The cool thing is, it's also a tiny battery.
05:12I think it's less than 2,000 mAh, just because the phone is so small and thin.
05:18So it's not the battery life champ that the XR or the 11 might be, but I had no problems
05:23getting through the day with this guy, plus wireless charging, it's good to see.
05:28And then that single camera around the back.
05:30Okay, so Apple won't tell me if it's the same camera as the 8 or the 11, or a completely
05:36new system, or a hybrid of parts, but it is a single camera system, and it's a pretty
05:41good one.
05:42Photos from it definitely look like familiar iPhone photos, as you can tell.
05:46When you give it enough light, it's right up there with the best, minus the fringing
05:52on close-up subjects that we've seen on some other phones, because this sensor is still
05:55so small.
05:57When you get into less favorable lighting, things get a bit grainy, and when you get
06:00to dark, there is no night mode at all.
06:03I actually figured they might be able to pull off night mode with the A13 chip here, but
06:07I guess not.
06:08Either way, I'm looking at this camera as, overall, way above average for this price.
06:14Selfies are also pretty good, I'm sticking with it, I'm actually testing selfie cameras
06:18in phones.
06:19Again, I couldn't tell you if this is the same selfie camera as iPhone 8, but it looks
06:24about as good.
06:25And then with video, 4K30 video from this camera is the best on any phone at this price.
06:31Easy.
06:32It's a lot easier to take down.
06:33And that's important.
06:34People take a lot of videos of pets, of kids, of events.
06:39So this is great.
06:40You don't need 8K video or any fancy features or modes, you just need rock solid, stable,
06:46good focus, and good detail.
06:48And this one's a winner.
06:49And that is about it for this phone.
06:51I mean, honestly, it's a pretty simple formula.
06:54Take the old body, put new internals in it, sell it for cheap.
06:58But I think this strategy coming from Apple is actually more interesting than the phone
07:04itself.
07:05You know, at first glance, it may seem kind of lazy that they didn't redesign anything
07:09about this phone at all.
07:10You know, just maybe thin up the bezels a little bit or just do something to make it
07:14look more modern than the iPhone 8.
07:18But then you realize that that's exactly why this phone is so cheap.
07:23It's because they've streamlined the manufacturing of these parts for so long and for so many
07:28years that they can churn out this phone for a very low price.
07:33And redesigning any little part of it would involve new research, new tooling, new manufacturing
07:39processes.
07:40And that would have been extra cost on top.
07:42So they can make this phone for cheap.
07:45But I also think Apple may just be the only company that can pull off a budget phone like
07:52this.
07:53A phone that just nails the fundamentals and does absolutely nothing else extra.
07:59Speaker?
08:00Solid, but not amazing.
08:02Camera?
08:03Solid, pretty good, but no zoom.
08:05Display?
08:06Solid, but not high refresh rate or OLED.
08:09Battery?
08:10Solid, but not super fast charging.
08:13Like this phone checks all the basic necessary selling points for a phone in this price range.
08:19And the selling point is it's an iPhone.
08:23You see, for others, they typically need some standout feature or something to give
08:27you a reason to buy it over the other budget phones.
08:30So whether it's the budget phone with high refresh rate, Poco X2, or the budget phone
08:36with a stylus, we just saw that from Motorola, or the budget phone with an amazing camera,
08:41Pixel 3a.
08:43But those phones also tend to have a little bit of sacrifices in other areas.
08:47This is the budget phone that's an iPhone.
08:50And for many people, many, many people, that's enough.
08:54And I have no problem recommending this phone to those people.
08:57My only hesitation would be to pay attention to storage.
09:01It's 50 bucks extra to go up from 64 gigs base storage to 128.
09:06I'd recommend if you can spend the extra 50 to do that, then it's another 100 to double
09:10it again.
09:11But other than that, iPhone SE, small edition, is a great buy.
09:17Oh, and of course, since apparently 99% of people put a case on their phone anyway, this
09:21is one of the few phones that you can put a case on and it doesn't make it huge in
09:25your pocket.
09:26So channel sponsor dbrand has got you covered here, literally.
09:29And side benefit, the grip case from them also keeps those buttons feeling super clicky.
09:34So check it out, link below.
09:36So there you have it.
09:37As far as value, thanks to it having such a long life ahead of it as far as performance
09:41overhead and software updates, Apple essentially just delivered one of the best value phones
09:48of the year and in a long time.
09:51That's why it's so important.
09:52Can't be mad at that.
09:55Thanks for watching.
09:56Catch you guys very soon in the next one.
09:58Peace.