In this article, we are talking about the new apple affordable phone iPhone SE 5g (2022).
In 2020, Apple took that classic and upgraded the CPU to an A13 Bionic, the rear camera to a 12MP wide, and introduced ‘monocular depth estimation,’ which improved Portrait Mode photography for the front and rear cameras. It was a nifty AI-infused trick that worked like a charm on faces, but nothing else.
Everything you liked about the iPhone SE (2020) is still in the iPhone SE (2022). The tiny and light body hasn’t changed, the 3.5mm headphone jack hasn’t been reintroduced, and Touch ID hasn’t been removed. The Liquid Retina display has been left alone. The cameras are identical, with a 12MP back and 7MP front.
So before we go dig deep into the preview let’s have quick look at the specifications of the iPhone SE 5g.
| Display | 4.7-inch LCD (1344 x 750) |
| Chip | A15 Bionic |
| Rear cameras | 12MP (f/1.8) |
| Front camera | 7MP (f/2.2) |
| Storage | 64GB, 128GB, 256GB |
| Size | 5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 inches |
| Weight | 5 ounces |
| Colors | Midnight, Starlight, (PRODUCT)RED |
| TODAY’S DEAL | Checkout Now |
Design:
Picking up the iPhone SE 2022 for me is like taking a trip back in time. There’s a Touch ID button instead of Face ID, and the bezels around the display take up a lot of room compared to, say, the iPhone 13 mini or Google Pixel 5a.
But the iPhone SE 5g (2022) is water and dust-resistant, with IP67 certification.
There is no 3.5mm headphone jack on the phone, but it does have a Lightning charging port, which could accommodate a pair of Lightning of earbuds. Those aren’t included, sadly, but the phone does work perfectly with wireless AirPods if you have them. There’s also a USB-C to Lightning port charging cable in the box.
Cameras:
Our phones are increasingly also our cameras these days, and any handset that skimps in this area is asking for trouble. Even though the iPhone SE (2022) is graced with just two lenses that are the same as those on the SE 2020, it manages to take photos that are pleasing to the eye, color-accurate, and often beautiful.
The rear 12MP, f/1/8 wide lens is now backed by the A15 Bionic’s image processing and supported by Smart HDR 4 and Deep Fusion (introduced with the A13 Bionic and present in the last iPhone SE 5g).
In Portrait mode you can adjust a faux-aperture setting to control the depth of field effect, throwing more or less of the background behind your subject out of focus. We’re a bit frustrated, however, that the iPhone SE Portrait Mode photography is still limited to people – you can’t shoot bokeh shots of dogs, plants, or anything else without a face.
The camera does support all the other expected photos styles. including panorama and time-lapse – and new here is Night Timelapse, which you can use with a tripod, though there’s no support for Apple’s Night Mode still photography.
On the video front, the iPhone SE 5g can shoot all the way up to 4K 60fps. The footage looks good on the phone’s screen, although, some resolution is obviously lost in the 1334×750 display.
The phone also shoots smooth 1080P, 240 fps Cinematic slow motion. Speaking of Cinematic, even with the A15 Bionic, there’s no support for the Cinematic mode video you’ll find on the entire iPhone 13 line.
The quality of Portrait Mode for both the front and back camera is better than what we experienced on the iPhone SE (2020). It’s now capable of picking up tiny details, like wisps of hair, and carefully separating them from the blurred background. We found virtually no anomalies – blurred details that should have been sharp, and vice versa – that ruined the effect.
Overall, the photo quality on this mid-range phone is good but if you want a camera phone then you should not consider iPhone SE 5g.
Display:
Let’s just say that watching shows and movies on the iPhone SE 2022 is not exactly immersive. This 4.7-inch LCD panel has a resolution of 1344 x 750 pixels, so it’s not full HD, and it’s impossible not to notice the large bezels when watching movies and videos on this phone.
One could argue that the Pixel 5a is for a different target audience with its 6.34-inch display, but you can’t ignore that you can get a much bigger full HD OLED screen for just $20 more.
Still, the iPhone SE 5g 2022’s display performed well in lab tests. The panel registered 114.7% of the sRGB color gamut and 81.2% of the more demanding DCI-P3 color space. That’s good, but behind the 119.3% and 84.5% turned in by the Pixel 5a. However, the new iPhone SE still wins on color accuracy with a Delta-E score of 0.21 (where 0 is perfect); the Pixel 5a scored 0.32.
Performance and specs:
Apple’s total control over its manufacturing processes and component lines makes it easy to take one cutting-edge element from its newest products and fit it neatly into a design it cooked up more than three years ago.
The A15 Bionic is Apple’s most powerful mobile processor, and putting it into the iPhone SE’s tiny frame is akin to strapping rocket motors to a bicycle.
To be clear, this is not some stunted or throttled version of Apple’s chip. Geekbench 5 numbers put the iPhone SE 5g (2022) on equal footing with the A15 Bionic in the iPhone 13 mini. It’s worth noting that the phone now has 4GB of RAM, which will certainly help with performance.
Basically, everything that’s good or better about this phone (4K video shooting and editing, console-level gaming, AI-enhanced photography) is better because of the A15 Bionic. It pushes the boundaries of what’s possible within the confines that 2017 design dictates.
The iPhone SE (2022) welcomes the SE line into the iPhone 5G family. Again, the approach is full-boat, with no skimping on power or performance. This meant we could turn off WiFi, download apps, play multi-player games like BGMI, and stream HD Netflix without hesitation.
It was all so much fun, it almost made us forget about the too-small 4.7-inch display
5G is still unavailable in some areas and its performance can be wildly inconsistent. In the office, our download speeds varied from one place to another by over 100Mbps.
In some places, we have to console ourselves with just LTE speeds. Still, it’s kind of wild to have such an affordable iPhone with such impressive powers of connectivity.
Battery life and charging:
The iPhone SE 5g 2022 is rated to deliver up to 2 hours of longer battery life than the previous iPhone SE, thanks to a slightly larger battery and efficiency gains from the A15 Bionic chip.
The new iPhone SE 3 lasted 9 hours and 5 minutes on the Battery Test, which involves continuous web surfing over 5G at 150 nits of screen brightness. That’s actually a bit less than the iPhone SE 2020’s runtime of 9:18; however, that was over a 4G LTE connection, which uses less power. The 5G-enabled Google Pixel 5a lasted a longer 9 hours and 45 minutes.
On the plus side, the iPhone SE can charge fairly quickly if you have a 20W Apple charger. We got to 61% in 30 minutes, which is better than Apple’s 30-minute claim.
Final Words:
At last, I only want to say that this iPhone SE 5G is good but with an old and classic design. But if you want a phone under 50000 with great camera performance then you may go with some other phones like iPhone 12 mini, Samsung S21 FE, or iQOO 9.
