Apple's 2022 iPhone SE is one of the fastest smartphones in the
world, not to mention the smallest and most affordable iPhone that unlocks
access to most of the latest 5G network bands—not bad considering
it starts at $429. But you should demand a little more from your device,
especially in terms of battery life, hardware design, and camera features.
If you own an older model and want a more future-proof phone, or you simply
don’t want to spend a lot more on a high-end handset, the new iPhone SE is
definitely worth considering. But the admittedly pricier iPhone
13 ($799) remains our Editors’ Choice winner in Apple's current
lineup.
Just a Little Different
The previous iPhone SE launched in April 2020, which was a very
weird time for the world in general and for me in particular. My
neighborhood in Queens was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic(Opens in a new window) in the US, and I felt like I was living in the middle of a
world-changing disaster. In that context, the then-$399 iPhone SE was the
perfect phone. The idea of spending $800 or more on a cell phone during an
economic downturn when you might need that money for, say, basic daily
necessities, was laughable. I wrote then: “A few months ago, our economy
looked capable of supporting $1,200 smartphones, from both Apple and
Samsung; now, we have an unemployment rate of over 20 percent."
But 2022 is not 2020. We aren't back to the Before Times (inflation is still
a concern, as are lingering coronavirus variants), but we aren't in a
bewildering crisis either. The new iPhone SE, however, is still pretty much
the same phone it was two years ago.
Case in point, the 2022 iPhone SE is exactly the same size as the 2020
model, at 2.65 by 5.45 by 0.29 inches (it fits into the same cases). It
weighs a little more (5.22 ounces compared with 5.09), but I didn't notice
the difference in handling it.
The phone also still uses the iPhone 8 body design from 2017,
which is now a bit stale. I like that it includes a physical Touch ID home
button, but the bezels are huge compared with sleeker, more recent devices
like the $699 iPhone 13 mini, not to mention recent midrange and
higher-end Android phones.
If you're looking for a small iPhone, the SE is pocketable, but so is the
iPhone 13 mini
As far as I can tell, the new model uses the same screen as the 2020 iPhone
SE: a 4.7-inch, 1,334-by-750-pixel LCD with 625 nits of maximum brightness.
It sports the same camera hardware, too, including a single 12MP f/1.8
camera with 4K video recording on the back and a 7MP f/2.2 camera on the
front. Also like the 2020 SE, the new model carries the same IP67
waterproof rating and doesn't include a headphone jack.
The 2022 iPhone SE is available in Midnight (a sort of blue-black),
Starlight (pearl white), or red. You can outfit it with either 64GB ($429),
128GB ($479), or 256GB ($579) of storage. If you plan to take photos and
videos at all, you should get at least the 128GB model.
So, in light of all the hardware similarities, why does the 2022 iPhone SE
exist? I'm pretty sure carriers demanded it.
The Carriers Needed a 5G iPhone SE...Do You?
Wireless carriers in the US and much of the developed world spent tens of
billions of dollars on 5G airwaves over the past few years, and really want
us to move over to those empty lanes on their wireless highways. Verizon,
for one, has been battling congestion issues on 4G recently, a problem it
could solve by transitioning customers to 5G network bands. The new iPhone
SE moves you into that new HOV lane on your carrier's highway and out of the
4G gridlock.
How does this factor into the iPhone SE lineup? For reference, Apple sold
its 2016 iPhone SE for four years. The iPhone 2020 SE, however, has been
on shelves for only about two years. Because this latest update to the
lineup appears to come in the middle of a cycle, I imagine the carriers
pleaded with Apple to make the most affordable iPhone 5G-compatible. And
once the price on 5G chipsets became right, Apple did.
Apple wouldn't tell us which modem the 2022 iPhone SE uses, but the style
of its Field Test Mode indicates that it's one from Qualcomm—my bet is on
the same Qualcomm X60 chip that's in the iPhone 13 series. There
are five different international models of the 2022 iPhone SE,
but they're more similar than the various models in previous years, so
make sure to buy the model appropriate for your country.
In terms of basic calling and texting, the 2022 iPhone SE functions much
the same as the 2020 model. It makes calls using 4G networks and call
quality is similar to other iPhones. The upcoming 3G
shutdowns won't affect it. For hearing aid users, this is the easiest
way into a post-3G lifestyle, as iPhones tend to offer superior
compatibility with hearing aids than Android phones.
For data, mid-band 5G matters. It can matter a lot if you're somewhere
with mid-band 5G coverage from your carrier; in this scenario, the 2022
iPhone SE offers significant performance improvements over older 4G iPhones. Check out our
article on whether you need a 5G iPhone for more information.
If you have mid-band 5G coverage on T-Mobile or Verizon, this phone offers
significant performance improvements over a 4G-only one. On AT&T's
network, you likely won't get an advantage from 5G now, but this phone is
an investment in the future, at least to some extent. The iPhone SE
supports AT&T's C-band, but not its 3.45GHz spectrum, which is a key
part of the carrier's mid-band 5G rollout. This means AT&T network
performance improvements here will be patchy—consider waiting for
the iPhone 14 lineup if that's important to you.
That said, the iPhone SE is the weakest performer of the recent round of
5G iPhones. The phone lacks support for millimeter-wave, a super-fast,
short-range system that Verizon uses. Don't let that bug you too much; we
have millimeter-wave here in New York, but it's relatively rare throughout
the rest of the country.
The iPhone SE's 2x2 MIMO setup (two data streams with two antennas) also
weakens its network performance. Most modern phones use a 4x4 MIMO setup
with four antennas. I compared the new iPhone SE with the iPhone 13
mini and the Samsung Galaxy S22, both of which have 4x4 MIMO
setups. For testing, I connected the phones to Verizon's network and
walked through a part of Brooklyn that has a mix of C-band and
millimeter-wave coverage.
If data speeds matter to you, you're much better off with the iPhone 13
mini than the iPhone SE. But if you live in an area with good coverage for
your carrier and don't particularly care how fast the connection is, the
iPhone SE is fine. One important note about how phones report signal
strength: The difference in speed won't show up in the number of bars you
have, so an iPhone SE with more bars may get slower performance than an
iPhone 13 mini with fewer bars.
Apple's OS notably lets you turn 5G on or off manually, an option you
don't get with 4G phones (or with some 5G Android phones). You can save
the 5G for later in the buildouts if you prefer.
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