iPhone SE (2022): 4 Days To Go
Body, Design & Display:
This new phone on the SE series remains almost identical to its predecessor, the iPhone SE 2020, in the context of its body design. The dimensional ratios [138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3] mm are cloned into this phone from its old generation. A slight difference, however, can be noticed in its weight. This new model weighs just an unnoticeable 4gm less than its older version.
The designing materials for the front and back cover are still of Ion-strengthened glass. However, it is considered to be more durable and less prone to breaks than its old generation. The side frame is made out of aluminium that shares the same colour ranges of its front and back covers, either Starlight, Midnight or Red. The side frame holds the volume key onto the left and the power key onto the phone's right. The alert slider rests just slightly higher than the volume keys allowing easy switching to ring, silent and vibrate mode.
The whole body is designed with IP67 grade equipment, thus offering solid resistance against dust and sand particles. It is believed to be resistive for about one to 30 minutes while submerged in 15 cm to 1 m water.
The body of 5.5" is segmented with a display size of 4.7" featuring a Retina IPS LCD display while leaving the remaining inches for its thick upper and lower bezels in even distribution. The top bezel homes the 7-megapixel f/ 2.2 front-facing camera just beside the microphone located in the middle segment. Similarly, the bottom bezel homes a circular Touch ID Home button for fingerprint biometric authentication.
The phone has the screen aspect ratio of 16:9 with 750 x 1334 pixels averaging 326 ppi density. The phone also supports decent outdoor usability, typically with 625 nits of screen brightness. And with the features like wide colour gamut and true-tone, the phone is sure to provide a realistic display quality.
Memory, Platform and Processors:
Like any other Apple product, this phone, too, doesn’t possess a memory card slot. So the users are limited with the default memory size that the phone comes with. However, the phone comes with three different memory sizes of 64 GB, 128 GB and 258 GB, thus allowing users to make choices depending on their requirements and budget.
Again, to keep things interesting with this new product, Apple has provided this phone with 4 GB of RAM, unlike its predecessor iPhone SE 2020, which came with just 3 GB of RAM. The additional 1 GB of RAM indeed provides this phone with the ability to swiftly handle a wide range of tasks.
This phone will arrive in the market with the third version of the latest iOS 15, iOS 15.3, ultimately carrying all the recent upgrades. The added portrait mode and spatial audio greatly enhance the call quality during FaceTime. In addition, the 3D augmented reality mode for Apple maps is sure to get people to explore their surroundings with a never-before kind of experience. Also, this iOS equips the system with increased security and privacy.
Another significant part of this phone is Apple A15 Bionic Chipset, the powerhouse used in the iPhone 13 series. The Chipset features a 64-bit six-core CPU, allowing two cores to stay dedicated for higher performance and four cores for energy efficiency. Further, a four-core Apple GPU is integrated with this device for handling high-end graphical processing. The integration of the A15 Bionic Chipset is confirmed to have boosted the graphical performance by 1.2 times compared with its previous generation phone with the A13 Bionic Chipset as reported by Apple.
Further, it holds a 16 core Neural Engine capable of making 15.8 trillion operations per second. This 16 core Neural Processing Unit remains fully dedicated to accelerating artificial intelligence and machine learning tasks.
With all this installation, the new iPhone SE (2022) managed to hit 1695 points on the single-core test and 4021 points on the multi-core test, which is slightly less than most top-class iPhone models.
Sound & Camera:
The device delivers the audio output with an inbuilt stereo speaker; however it does not have any audio jack port.
iPhone SE (2022) is equipped with a single-lens 12 megapixel back camera with f/ 1.8 aperture when it comes to camera. However, this single-lens camera is backed with PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) features for better image quality. Although, the phone doesn't support Night mode, it has additional features like wide colour support, true-tone flash and HDR for great shots in high contrast situations.
The back camera can record 1080p videos at up to 240fps while managing to take 4k videos at 60 fps, all being supported by HDR, OIS and stereo sound recording features. It supports slow-motion and time-lapse videos as well.
The front selfie camera can also get 1080p videos at up to 120fps while being supported by HDR and gyro-EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) to minimize blurring and compensate for device shake.
Battery:
The phone holds Li-Ion non-removable battery with 18W fast charging. The phone is believed to get charged up to 50% in just 30 minutes, with an 18W or higher charging adapter. However, the device doesn't come with a charger during shipping. And although there are no words regarding the battery capacity, it is rumoured to run for additional 2 hours duration in comparison to its old generation, thanks to the A15 Bionic Chipset. In addition, the device is built to support Qi wireless charging.
Connectivity and Sensors:
5G connectivity is another major upgrade in this phone compared to its old generation. It also supports Wi-Fi connection across the range from Wi-Fi 802.11 a to Wi-Fi 802.11 6. Its Bluetooth connection feature supports LE, A2DP and 5 versions. Also, it supports Near Field Communication (NFC) to allow users to make secure transactions or exchange digital content. Its GPS connectivity supports various GPS systems such as GLONASS, BDS, QZSS, GALILEO and of course, A-GPS. It supports Lightning and USB 2.0 for USB connectivity. However, it doesn’t support radio connections.
The device is equipped with 6 different sensors. The home button is integrated with a fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication. A barometer for measuring the pressure difference resulting due to an elevation change. The proximity sensors allow the phone to turn off the display to avoid keypad presses and battery consumption during a call. The compass sensor to aid in map navigation. The accelerometer is used to detect the phone's orientation, and the gyro keeps track of the rotation and twists of the phone.
Conclusion:
Though this device doesn't scale much to other premium iPhones in context of price, but that doesn't mean the phone is out of their league. The phone sure does have potential to stand alongside the other models while we make comparisons on the basis of it operational power. However, the old bezel design which appears to shrink the display area could be a factor to hinder it fondness among the mass. For now we can only wait for its debut. 4 Days To Go.
