I ditched my iPhone 11 Pro for iPhone SE for a month: What I loved and hated
I ditched my iPhone 11 Pro for iPhone SE for a month: What I loved and hated
I really enjoy trying out the latest smartphones equally office of my job, but I am too aware that a focus on the height-end brands and models can distract people from cheaper phones that will yet adjust them well while being within upkeep. It's why I was so interested in trying out the recently launched iPhone SE (2020), as information technology promised all the cardinal parts of the iPhone experience at a much more than affordable price.
I've been using an iPhone 11 Pro since Dec 2019, and I've institute very little to complain about during that half dozen months. Therefore, I decided to swap Apple's flagship model for the SE for a month and see if what I really valued about the iPhone experience could be establish in a phone worth less than half of the one I had been using.
I hoped that I'd be able to report back that the experiences were so similar that nearly people could easily save $600 if they wanted. Unfortunately, I don't have the clear cut answer I was looking for, but what I learnt will hopefully aid you lot out if you lot're non looking forward to dropping lots of money onto the latest Cupertino-designed gadget.
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First Impressions
As I unpacked the iPhone SE to prepare for the great switch-over, I was instantly drawn to the color of my Product:Cherry edition. It looks much more interesting than the subtle metallic options you get on the iPhone 11 Pro models, though it's worth pointing out that this reddish is available on the standard iPhone 11 alongside a suite of other brighter hues.
Having switched over my information and apps (which is super easy since information technology was iPhone to iPhone), I immediately loved the smaller size of the SE. Beingness able to fit the phone in whatever of my jean pockets without a 2nd idea is a pleasure I'd totally forgotten about after years of using huge phablet phones. In fact, sometimes I forgot the SE was in my pocket at all.
Reuniting with Touch ID
Leaving Confront ID behind for Impact ID in the iPhone SE is strange. I noticed that opening my phone now required a conscious action to put my thumb on the Home Push rather than the phone just unlocking as presently as I raised it up. However, I could now easily unlock the phone at any angle and in any light condition.
Losing gesture controls was strange for a time, merely there is definitely something about having a physical push button to press that makes using the iPhone SE just feel better. I can appreciate why some smartphone users detest the buttonless layout of modern phones, fifty-fifty if I more often than not am a fan of gesture navigation.
Apple uses the same Taptic Engine for haptic feedback in the iPhone SE as information technology does in the iPhone 11 serial, and it makes for a fantastic user experience when navigating through the phone. No Android phone has ever come shut to matching this from my bespeak of view, and so the fact y'all can now go the same tech on a far cheaper telephone is 1 of the iPhone SE'southward nearly underappreciated features.
The display is a weakness
I watch a large amount of video on my phones, and the brandish of the iPhone SE is ane of its weak points. Its four.seven-inch LCD panel, flanked by two very mesomorphic bezels, makes for a cramped and sometimes dim experience. Equally my colleague Adam Ismail recently commented in a Tom'southward Guide editorial meeting, no other company apart from Apple tree could release a phone with such big bezels in 2020 and get away with it. He'southward completely right, and I wish that Apple tree had been willing to make some outside changes to the SE in gild to modernize information technology a little.
The iPhone SE still has stereo speakers though, which are a rarity at this price bespeak. Although it sounds a piffling quieter and shallower, you withal get a fairly full sound when listening to music or speech communication without wireless headphones. And it will have to be wireless headphones, because there's still no headphone jack on the iPhone SE, despite the improver of the 3.5mm port being common on budget phones to business relationship for cheaper sound hardware. (Alternatively, you could use a fix of Lightning-equipped headphones or a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter, though Apple doesn't even send the latter with iPhones anymore.)
A decent budget camera, just information technology's no Pro
The camera divergence is where I truly missed the iPhone 11 Pro — not and then much the ultrawide sensor or the higher resolution forepart camera, only the 2x optical zoom sensor that differentiates the iPhone eleven Pro from the iPhone xi. Being able to get closer to the subject area of your photograph without losing detail is an awesome photographic camera feature to take, only it is an expensive one. Digital zoom is non really a replacement, considering the average 12MP sensor size of the SE'southward photographic camera, but using information technology sparingly can help.
I took the two phones to the beach with me to do some comparison shots. Trying out the phones' zoom abilities by focusing on this hovering drone is a no-contest. The iPhone 11 Pro'south optical zoom is far amend than what the SE could ever promise to manage, offering clarity where the SE tin only produce graininess. This only gets worse if you zoom in further, the SE having to blow up its pixels even more and therefore producing even more dissonance.
Changing to a main sensor shot, in that location's a notable divergence in color warmth, the 11 Pro being cooler and the SE being warmer. The embankment, sky and hills in this shot benefit differently from both approaches, so I am hesitant to telephone call either one better.
There'southward no way to compare ultrawide performance on a phone that doesn't have the right kind of sensor, so our last test is a portrait mode selfie. There'south not much separating these photos in terms of colour and image quality, despite a 5MP discrepancy. In fact, I'd say the SE did a improve chore of cutting out my head for the portrait mode, although that could be due to the windy atmospheric condition spoiling things for my iPhone 11 Pro shots.
Battery life is the big catch
Theoretically, any performance differences between the SE and 11 Pro are minimal. Both utilise Apple's newest A13 Bionic chipset, but the SE has 3GB RAM while the 11 Pro has 4GB RAM (as does the standard iPhone 11). Both phones also run on the latest version of iOS 13, meaning they're basically identical aside from the gesture control/domicile button difference.
I didn't accept to alter the way I use my phone everyday after swapping, which mainly revolves around Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube and a few different mobile games and education apps. I noticed some slowdown a handful of times, but I can't guarantee it wouldn't have happened on the 11 Pro. People who use their phones for intensive tasks like video or photo editing are unlikely to use an iPhone SE exclusively, if at all, only it's skilful to know that you lot're likely to get a nigh-identical experience to a premium iPhone, although the smaller display could carp you.
The worst function of the experience actually wasn't the operation, or the camera or even the tiny brandish, though: it was the battery and charging. First off, the capacity of the iPhone SE is pretty pathetic for a 2020 phone, but 1,821 mAh based on teardowns of the phone (Apple doesn't release official capacities for its phones' batteries). Even the iPhone 11 Pro, another phone with a notably small bombardment, has a 3,046-mAh capacity.
This is made worse by the fact this old-fashioned bombardment is attached to a mod processor, with a modern ambition for power. I regularly found the telephone dipped below xxx% after a normal day'due south use, where the iPhone eleven Pro would manage to stay above fifty%. This isn't critical correct now since I'grand not really going anywhere outside my home, but this could likely lead to a catchy situation if I didn't take access to a charging cablevision and needed to have my phone out constantly for navigating or making a series of telephone calls.
Speaking of which, it boggles my heed that Apple yet thinks it's OK to transport all but its nearly expensive phones with 5W charging bricks. Fifty-fifty the well-nigh basic Android phones give you at least a 15W charger. Admittedly it isn't quite so bad, given the SE has a lot less bombardment to fill upwards, just information technology'southward withal sorry.
Even so, the charging experience isn't completely bad. The SE has wireless charging, a rare feature on cheaper phones, which is simply as fast as the default charging speed. Plus it volition fast accuse with Apple's 18W power bricks if y'all purchase i yourself, which meant when I used it with the charger from my iPhone xi Pro, it was topped upwards in almost no time.
Verdict
And so did I miss the xi Pro? Yes, I did, but not every bit much as I thought I might. What I missed the most was the 11 Pro'south brighter, college-res display, its far better bombardment life and the 2x zoom option and Night Style from its cameras. Withal, I would only call the battery issue the real dealbreaker, and it could be countered fairly easily past purchasing a minor power bank and keeping it and a Lightning cable in your bag when y'all go out.
You lot're unlikely to have both of these phones on the same list if you're going by toll or cardinal features. Just if value for coin or full features were all that was of import for you, you'd probably go for an Android phone instead. There is definitely something unique about using an iPhone, and you tin get almost all of it on the iPhone SE. You lot aren't going to miss out on the best bits of the experience — the App Store, the (generally) intelligent features and layout of iOS and an boilerplate of five years of software updates, which is far amend than the best-case scenario 2 years you get with an Android device.
So my ultimate recommendation is that you aren't going to miss out on the best of iPhone life if yous go for the cheapest option instead of the most expensive. In other words, don't worry if y'all tin can't beget a Pro model — the SE will have y'all covered. And if you're not convinced to drop all the way from an 11 Pro to an SE, retrieve that there are steps between the two.
There's the bones iPhone 11 that cuts $300 off the iPhone 11 Pro's price but keeps a larger notched display, Confront ID, the ultrawide camera, Dark Mode and bigger battery. Yous could also go a refurbished iPhone XS, iPhone XR or iPhone X if yous wanted to drop the price further while still hanging onto the near-fullscreen display, just then you're taking steps back in processor ability and shortening the number of years you lot'll receive iOS updates. Stick with the SE, standard 11 or eleven Pro, depending on your budget, and you'll be happy no matter your choice.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/features/ditched-my-iphone-11-pro-for-iphone-se
Posted by: vanwykandessaint.blogspot.com
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