Introduction and unboxing
The small screen smartphone market was bound only to low-cost devices, leaving many people (including the writer of this review) at will. Sony created the Compact line of some Xperia Z, but only one of these phones was sold worldwide. Now, Apple shows that it is possible to create a four-inch smartphone, maintaining hardware with enough firepower to fight several more expensive competitors. This is the iPhone SE, which comes with exactly the same processor and RAM that is in the iPhone 6s, but in a smaller body. If it is really a stone in the shoe and Android salvation for small screens lovers, it is what I will try to tell in the next lines.
The case of this model is basically the same as you saw in our review of the iPhone 6s or other iPhones, only much smaller. It is made with the same tight cardboard with a picture of the smartphone in real size in the front and which is embossed. The phone package has exactly the necessary space for accessories, the smartphone and nothing else more. It comes with a Lightning cable, charger jack, EarPods headphones in their own plastic box and a package with the phone manual and stickers with the logo of the manufacturer.
Design
If you've bumped into life with the iPhone 5s, you will not notice almost any difference in this model. The iPhone SE is basically the iPhone 5s in size and visual, and finishing material, but with the latest hardware from Apple in 2015. If you have not seen the iPhone 5s, here are some details on the body of this model: the edges are made of aluminum and the back too, with the exception of the top and top ends, which are glass in smartphone color. The front displays an IPS LCD screen of 4 inches with a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels, which gives about 326 pixels per inch density, occupies 60.8% of the front of the gadget and accommodates a fingerprint reader, a 1,2 megapixel front camera and the speaker.
The color reproduction capability and detail is exactly the same as the iPhone 5s, which means that we have well-balanced and without chromatic aberrations colors in almost every time. The viewing angle is quite large and the display in bright sunlight is not a problem - even lower than any AMOLED screen can offer.
The volume control buttons are again round and are close to the traditional lever of Apple to turn on, or off, the silent mode. Below is the entrance to the Lightning cable, which works on USB 2.0, microphone and speaker. Above is only the on/off button. On the other side is the lone drawer nano-SIM, which needs a specific tool that comes in the box to be opened.
The hand holding, because it is too small, is quite comfortable and the back does not slide much. It has a height of 123.8 mm by 58.6 mm wide and 7.6 thick, all added to 113 grams of total weight. This is thanks to rugged metal used by Apple and that adds good grip in the hand and also on flat surfaces. Behind is a 12 megapixel camera, aperture f/2.2, two LEDs for flash and shoot up to 4K at 30 frames per second. The battery is still sealed in the device and presented a range of 15 straight hours of use.
Performance
Here things are almost identical to what I saw there in the iPhone 6s (and the iPhone 6s Plus), but with a positive point for Apple. In the processor there is an Apple A9 chip, which placed two Twister cores running at 1.84 GHz, accompanied by 2 GB of RAM and options of 16 GB and 64 GB of internal memory. It may seem small, but as said before this hardware is the same as the more expensive models, which fight head-on with Galaxy S7 and the G5 from the outside, which is not our gelded. The advantage of the iPhone SE is that it has less resolution to the GPU PowerVR GT7600 work, which means a significant gain firepower, even with the same hardware.
As it has happened in the most expensive iPhones, performance animations and even with many apps open at once, it's fantastic. Everything runs good, no crashes and much less gagging by the entire system. IOS 9.3.2 that is installed on this test model did not show slowness even when it was over 20 apps open in the background, something that hardly an Android at same price range can do. Looking at the iOS itself, it is exactly the same iOS that is in all other iPhones, but one feature that was removed for cost containment here: no 3D Touch and the fingerprint reader is not as fast like the iPhone 6s.
Even without the reader agile fingerprints of its more powerful brother, SE iPhone does not ugly and you only need a rest one or two seconds the button to unlock the screen. As there is no 4-inch screen on the latest handsets from Apple for a long time, the development of the user interface was more focused on resolution. This point is visible in some applications that are with texts popping out buttons, or are simply cut before the end, as in the case of Cabify. In some, as in the game Sky Force, the texts are too small to be able to read easily - it may be that this is a custom that have large screens with larger text, or even vision problems. In the vast majority of applications and games, this problem is not apparent.
Moreover, we have the same amount of pre-installed apps from other iPhones, as the stock app, weather, Safari browser, Watch (for the Apple Watch) or the email client and Apple's photo management . None of them is removable (at least iOS 9.x).
Gaming
The GPU PowerVR GT7600 is the same we have the most expensive iPhone, the same goes for the processor and RAM available. This can only mean that the same firepower of the stocky devices, is also here - and with an extra breath, due to the lower resolution. That's just what happens. I tested heavy titles like Dead Trigger 2, Real Racing 3 and Mortal Kombat X, which ran very easily and even swapping game while two were in the background. None of them showed any crash or falling performance, even during the app changes. This can give you the assurance that the SE iPhone will run any heavy game from the App Store to the next generation, or even further.
Camera
Again SE iPhone does exactly as the older devices, as it has exactly the same sensor and iPhone 6s lenses. This means that you will find here a 12 megapixel rear camera with f / 2.2, which shoots in 4K and makes videos in slow motion up to 240 frames per second. The color reproduction is well balanced, there is no exaggerated contrast in the HDR work and he, HDR, is very fast to record the picture and release the camera app to the next photo. Photos in low light conditions are little more dark and grainy than direct competitors such as the Galaxy A and to the S7 or G5.
The front camera is a cost-cutting points and has only 1.2 megapixels, with quality only acceptable for a selfie in well-lit environment. If you think of doing night selfie, or want to group several friends in one photo, forget it. The viewing angle of the iPhone SE camera is very small and the granulate is visible even in photos taken day.
Strong points and weak points
Strong points
• Same performance, or even greater, than the iPhone 6s
• Compact and can control everything with one hand
• Price extremely competitive, at least outside
• software improvements have made the battery last a few extra minutes
Weaknesses
• There are some apps that are not adapted to a small screen
• Few accessories still exist in the market
• Battery, as always, could have greater autonomy
• Front camera is terrible to 2016
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