Verdict
Could this be the best ‘S’ phone Apple’s ever released? Maybe. Does it matter? Not especially. This is a great phone, simple as that.
Showing posts with label iphone. Show all posts
Marvels Guardians of the galaxy the telltale series episode 4 who needs you Review
Talk about a rollercoaster ride: Following on the heels of the weakest Guardians episode of the season, Who Needs You is right up there with the first in contention for being the best so far. This introspective side adventure does almost nothing to advance the “Stop the bad guys!” plot, but taking a break from that obligation allowed Telltale to give us a snappy couple hours crammed with meaningful character moments, supplemented by just enough action to keep it from feeling like a soap opera.
Drax takes his turn at center stage this time around (though I’m sure he’d insist he has never been on a stage, as he is not an actor), but I was somewhat disappointed by the relative brevity of his flashback sequence. He gets a mere one scene with his deceased daughter, but it’s one of the most powerful and tear-jerking scenes in a Telltale game since the first season of The Walking Dead and contains the first moment in any series where I felt like letting the choice timer run out and saying nothing sent a far more powerful message than any of the other options I could have chosen.
At the same time, Episode 4 is still very much about Gamora and (depending on your earlier choices) Nebula, continuing and paying off their arc from the previous episode in a surprising and emotionally satisfying way. It’s not always a given that all the little, “So-and-so will remember this” choices in a Telltale game are meaningfully vindicated in a single moment that really makes you feel like you did the right thing. Gamora and Nebula’s interactions here did just that.
Not all the consequences I faced seemed to line up with my prior actions, though. When the tensions that have been boiling throughout the series spilled over, the resulting backlash seemed like a predetermined outcome that I never had any power to change, despite all the opportunities I’d been given to try to prevent it. I thought I’d been reasonably successful, but it turned out I’d accomplished nothing. Characters two whom I’d shown the most favoritism weren’t necessarily the ones that sided with me. The one Guardian that did have my back was the last person I would have expected, which was an interesting surprise, but one that seemed to diminish the importance of my choices to the point that I wondered if this was the only way things could have turned out.
It definitely raised my eyebrows in the heat of the moment
Who Needs You also throws a major curveball of the same magnitude as the fantastic Thanos encounter in Episode 1. While I’m at least more than half certain it’s going to end up being a fake out, it definitely raised my eyebrows in the heat of the moment. It’s a very dark chapter that leaves the team and the galaxy in mourning with bleak prospects, yet the tone never really lets go of the hopeful, adventurous spirit that has framed everything from the beginning.
The action bits are goofy but exciting, and it seems like Telltale’s designers have finally solved the pacing issues between talking and shooting that most of the previous episodes have suffered from. After so many battles with a melodramatic Kree warlord, it’s nice to see Peter and the gang engaged in almost slapstick combat against a giant space worm - because why not? There’s enough interpersonal drama running through every scene that the whole fate of the universe thing isn’t really missed for a second. Plus, repairing a spaceship in motion with a pair of broken jet boots while Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy” blares was sublimely entertaining, and the best use of licensed music to punctuate a quicktime sequence in the series so far.
The Verdict
I can definitely feel that end-of-series crunch happening in Who Needs You, where all the many choices I’ve made have to converge back together to fit a limited number of endings. It comes across a bit heavy-handed in setting the stage for what seems like a somewhat predictable final chapter, but Telltale has surprised me before. As a standalone adventure, it’s definitely up there with Episode 1 as something I’d play over a couple more times, not just to explore different choices but because it’s simply fun and exciting. The fact that it pulls very few emotional punches left me feeling a bit worn out, but also with a glowing sense of anticipation for the sprint to the finish and tying it all together.
iPhone 6S Review
Key Features
- Review Price: £539.00
- 4.7-inch, 326ppi LCD
- 7.1mm thick
- 143g
- 1.8GHz Dual-Core
- 2GB RAM
- 16/64/128GB storage
- 12-megapixel iSight camera
- 5-megapixel Facetime HD camera
iPhone 6S long-term review: It’s still a great phone
Update: The iPhone 8 and iPhone X are here. But, the iPhone 6S is still available, starting from £449.
Apple launched the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but what’s new?
While the overall look is very similar, it’s now waterproof and comes in a few new colours. 16GB is gone, as is the headphone jack, but it’s now equipped with stereo speakers and a wider colour gamut enabled display. The camera is new too, with OIS and it’ll let in 25% more light.
So the iPhone 6S is still a great phone and one that I’m happy to recommend. It’s the middle iPhone size-wise, and in my mind feels the most comfortable to hold. The SE is limited by its small size, while the iPhone 6S Plus is often ungainly. The 4.7-inch display, which sits above a 720p resolution, is soundly beaten on paper by the Android rivals but it’s compact and still looks good.
Even though it’s been on the market for well over six months, the iPhone 6S has aged well. The A9 CPU and 2GB RAM is still a potent combination that feels as snappy as it did last September. The phone still easily handles all the games and apps I throw at it.
Battery life hasn’t seen a dramatic downturn either. So far, the 6S keeps up with my workload fine. I normally hit 5% by around 10pm on a normal day, and that’s without using the Low Power mode – that’s around 12 to 14 hours a day.
3D Touch, a headline feature at launch, has slowly been improving without really setting the world alight. More apps use it now, but it’s still limited and lacks a real function. Hopefully the iPhone 7 will take it to the next level. I like ‘3D Touching’ app icons to bring up shortcuts, but beyond that I don’t use it that much.
What is the iPhone 6S?
For all its “fast moving innovation” the tech industry is a predictable thing sometimes. Every other year Apple puts an ‘S’ on the end of its last phone, buffs it up with a few tarty new features and delivers it to splendid applause.
That’s a horrific simplification, of course, but the general point stands. The iPhone 6S is that phone this year, and it adds some clever new ‘taptic’ features, camera improvements and a radically faster processor to last year’s iPhone 6.
You can get it in Rose Gold now if you fancy a change. But whatever your feelings on the matter, rest assured this another excellent phone from Apple.
iPhone 6S – Design & Features
All ‘S’ phones look like their forbears and the iPhone 6S is no different. Even the screen is the same. It’s not the very best there is – Samsung’s OLEDs are in a different league in this respect – but it’s excellent for an LCD.
Contrast is great and colours are natural. Some might argue its 326 pixels per inch (ppi) isn’t sharp enough, but that argument doesn’t hold water with me. It’s plenty sharp enough.
Before I move onto the interesting stuff, however, it bears repeating what a successful design this is. Not only does the iPhone 6S look great, it’s naturally comfortable. Everything just fits.
Having lived with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ recently, it’s a pleasure to return to a phone that’s comfortable to use in one hand, and which has volume buttons I don’t jog accidentally in my pocket.
Beyond the flashy new features and new Rose Gold option, Apple gets the basics right. That matters.
But what is flashy and new? After all, if something isn’t new enough, then it’s rubbish, right? The undoubted highlight is 3D Touch. Like Force Touch, which Apple introduced on the Apple Watch, 3D Touch detects how hard you press on the screen, opening up new interactions for app developers to explore.
There are effectively three levels of pressure – the regular tap, a slightly harder press and one further level beyond it. Each one, depending on the context, will trigger a different action.
But the pressure is “analogue” in nature – 3D Touch doesn’t just detect three levels of pressure, but all the points between. This opens up some interesting potential, particularly in games, which I’ll expand on in a moment.
Sadly, making room for the new Taptic Engine that helps power 3D Touch means a small, 5% reduction in battery capacity. Apple says that improved power efficiencies in iOS 9 and the new Low Power Mode ensure the iPhone 6S’s battery life is similar to the iPhone 6.
Other serious changes concern the cameras. Apple has increased the resolution of the iSight Camera (rear) and Facetime HD camera (front) to 12-megapixels and 5-megapixels. That’s 50% and over 300% more pixels respectively – not small numbers considering the 6S uses the same size sensors.
This means sharper, more detailed photos – read more about that in the iPhone 6S camera section. It also means the iPhone 6S can record 4K video at 30fps, which will be great for that 4K TV you (probably) don’t own.
Finally, we have a new processor – the A9. While there’s plenty still to learn about the inner workings of the new dual-core chip, a core speed bump from 1.4GHz to 1.8GHz heralds some serious performance improvements.
iPhone 6S – 3D Touch and the Taptic Engine
First, though, 3D Touch. This is, without question, the defining feature of the iPhone 6S. As explained above, 3D Touch lets the iPhone detect different levels of pressure and trigger new actions depending on how hard you press.
It’s the kind of feature that demands exploration and experimentation from users and developers alike. At first, you’ll explore the home screen – pressing harder on icons to see what happens. Sometimes it’s nothing, which is frustrating, but sometimes you’ll be presented with shortcuts to specific actions.
For example, “3D Touch” on the Camera app icon – I can’t help feel “Force Touch” is a better verb – and you’ll get shortcuts to take selfie or shoot a video.
Try it on the Maps app and you can quickly share your location or get directions directly home. The Music app will launch the Beats1 radio station; the Calendar app will create a new event; the Wallet app will show you your last transaction. You get the idea.
All these little shortcuts are useful, but it’s inside apps where 3D Touch shows real dividends. My favourite feature is pressing down on the keyboard to drag the cursor around accurately. It’s a simple thing, but it makes correcting mistakes and basic editing simple and effortless. You see, basics.
The other key strand of 3D Touch is what Apple calls ‘Peek’ and ‘Pop’. In short, press hard to ‘Peek’ at the contents of an item (e.g. an email, message or hyperlink) and press harder still to ‘Pop’ that into full screen. Relaxing the pressure, meanwhile, sends you back to where you came.
It that sounds naff and pointless to you, I assure you it isn’t. Mail and Messages are the best examples of how useful Peek and Pop is. Peeking into a message previews its contents without marking it as read, which shortens the irritating flow of checking a message, leaving it and then marking it as unread again to look at later.
(I know that’s what ‘flagging’ is for but how often do you flag emails and just forget them? I do it all the time.)
Peeking and then sliding the window upwards reveals further actions, such as sending a standard reply or forwarding it to someone else. It’s great for checking a link to see if it’s genuinely useful, or you can slide it up and select ‘Open in new Tab’.
Even in its infancy, 3D Touch is a great and convincing addition to the iPhone. It’ll only grow in potency as developers explore and discover new ways to use it, and they certainly will. The enduring strength of the iPhone is how developers seize upon new features and make them their own.
All of this is enhanced by the new Taptic Engine – a redesigned motor and software stack that delivers subtler, smarter taptic events.
I like it even more than 3D Touch itself. The way the Taptic Engine delivers short, precise and gentle ‘blips’ adds a new dimension to notifications. You’ll quickly learn the pattern and character of these vibrations, so you can instantly discern what kind of alert you’re getting without looking. You can customise them to an extent, too.
It’s a far cry from the iPhone 5 and 5S, which rumbled fiercely with all the subtlety of a small, yappy dog. Once you’ve used the iPhone 6S and experienced the difference, you’ll wonder how you ever put with that racket. It’s great.
The only disappointing aspect of 3D Touch are Live Photos. Although nominally a part of the Camera app, it’s a barefaced tech demo for the 3D Touch feature. Basically, when enabled Live Photos record a short snippet of video along with a photo. Pressing on the photo activates the ‘Live’ version, but quickly grew bored of the feature and turned it off.
iPhone 6S – Camera
On paper alone, there are legitimate reasons for disappointment with the iPhone 6S camera. While the bump from 8-megapixels to 12-megapixels is very welcome, Apple hasn’t upgraded the lens. Its f/2.2 aperture doesn’t sound that impressive sat next to the f/1.8 of the Galaxy S6 range, or the f/1.7 of the LG G4 – lower is better in this case.
This is important because a ‘wider’ aperture lets in more light onto the sensor. More light leads to better low light performance and superior ‘depth of field’ – where the background is blurred behind your subject.
The latter quality, often referred to as ‘bokeh’ – choose your own pronunciation of that one – is the desirable effect that gives photos that professional sheen. When veteran TrustedReviews contributor Andrew Williams describes something as “bokehlicious” you can be assured he approves.
But wars aren’t fought on paper and neither are camera… erm, wars. Yes, it would be nice if Apple gave the iPhone a faster lens – my money is on the iPhone 7 for that one – but the iPhone 6S doesn’t seriously suffer for it.
optical image stabilisation (OIS) as its ability to counter shaky hand motions would help low light performance even more, but that’s reserved for the larger iPhone 6S Plus for size reasons. This is arguably a greater loss than a faster lens, but you’ll only miss it when shooting in very low light, or for video.
Bottom line: The iPhone 6S is still right up there with – and sometimes leading – the best, though it’s a hotly contested (and disputed) field these days.
This first shot shows some of the improvements in the iPhone 6S. First, there’s more detail. I’ve actually cropped into this shot to reframe it, yet it still looks great thanks to the excellent detail in the bud and petals.
Above is the Galaxy S6’s effort – also cropped. It’s a good shot and the S6’s faster lens and shorter focus distance creates a lovely bokeh effect that isolates the flower beautifully. However, Samsung’s preference for extra sharpening creates a couple of small problems – some odd fringing around the edges and some smudged detail in the flower petals.
In comparison, the iPhone 6S controls noise a little better and retains the contours of the petal as a result. It’s all fine margins, but it’s a good start.
In part, this reflects Apple and Samsung’s differing approaches to photography. Neither is inherently better or worse than the other, but the iPhone tends towards natural, softer and more ‘lifelike’ shots. Conversely, Samsung favours a sharper, punchier and more bombastic approach – an approach that can produce stunning results, I might add.
You can see this again in the following HDR composition. HDR is an especially useful technique that combines different ‘exposures’ of the same shot. This helps resolve extremes of light and dark that a single shot can’t. Both have Auto HDR, which means they’ll choose the best time to use it automatically.
In the iPhone 6S example, it takes an even approach. The foreground isn’t outstandingly bright, but it’s clear, and the sky and distant building look exactly as they should.
The Galaxy S6, meanwhile, supercharges the foreground but blows out the sky. I should point out that, in the interests of fairness, I chose the same exposure point for both shots.
This isn’t to illustrate why the iPhone 6S is better than the S6, though. Both approaches can be brilliant and flawed in different scenarios, and there’s no inherently ‘right’ way to expose this scene.
But it reinforces how the iPhone 6S remains an outstanding cameraphone. It renders colours faithfully with nice, smooth gradations that bring out the subtleties of shots, and it has excellent native dynamic range.
The vegetable stand above shows this nicely where the pumpkins (centre of shot) transition from red to orange. The S6 captures richer colours, though, particularly reds, and its punchier contrast arguably edges this example.
It’s also much better in low light, which is the iPhone 6S’s primary weakness. The 6S is better than the iPhone 6, as the below shots demonstrate, but it can’t hope to match phones that have optical image stabilisation.
The noise in the dark sky of the 6S shot is much finer and controlled, and the lights don’t cause such serious problems. It’s a decent effort, but there are better.
Despite some odd shards of light, the Galaxy S6 is the clear winner here. There’s more contrast and detail in the water and sky, while the buildings in the background are far clearer. This is the difference optical image stabilisation makes.
Needless to say, the differences between the iPhone 6S and iPhone 5S are more extreme.
Beyond pure image quality, there are noticeable improvements in performance, too. The iPhone 6S focusses faster than the iPhone 6 for one as it spends less time hunting back and forth. Choosing between the iPhone and Galaxy S6 is impossible, though; they’re both lightning fast.
iPhone 6S – FaceTime HD Camera
Apple has lavished the iPhone 6S with a serious front camera upgrade this time around. It’s up from 1.2-megapixels to 5-megapixels, a pixel increase that has more in common with the inflation rate of your average banana republic.
Apple’s also developed a method for using the screen as a flash for the front facing camera – a neater option than the HTC Desire EYE’s dedicated front flash. As Nigel Atherton, Editor of Amateur Photographer explained to me; this is clever because a large area flash like this should be softer and more flattering.
But this puts me in awkward position because I abhor taking selfies. But if forced at gunpoint to take some selfies, I’d be happy enough to use the iPhone 6S.
The ‘screen flash’ is handy in dingy indoor lighting, the primary locale for the selfie. Like the dual-tone LED flash at the rear, the screen uses a flesh tone to avoid turning you too ghostly. It’s effective, too, aside from the odd white spot on my nose. Is “shiny nose” a thing?
Incidentally, Apple’s resisted the trend for strapping wide angle lenses on the front of phones. This makes it tricky to take ‘groufies’ without one of those stick-o-ma-bobs (umbrella’s, I think?), but affords just enough space to show how awesome your holiday destination is while you gurn furiously in the foreground.
It’s beyond the scope of this review to say whether this is the ‘best selfie cam’ or not, but it has to be up there thanks to the flash system.
iPhone 6S – Video & 4K
The iPhone 6S’s video capabilities are very good. It’s only held back, again, by the lack of optical image stabilisation, which is handy for suppressing shaky hands.
There are two video modes and six settings in total: 720p at 30fps, 1080p at 30fps, 1080p at 60fps, 4K at 30fps and the two slo-mo modes, 720p at 120fps and 240fps.
The 240fps mode introduced on the iPhone 6 is especially fun – tech journos call it the “cat’s pajamas”, because that’s how we talk.
The 60fps 1080p mode is interesting since it delivers smoother motion, though be warned it’s unusable in low light. As is 4K for that matter. The default mode is 1080p at 30fps, which is perfect for most conditions.
Moreover, while it’s easy to dismiss the addition of 4K as “pointless”, don’t be too hasty. For one, downscaling 4K footage to 1080p will result in sharper footing than native 1080p. The adventurous can even use 4K’s extra pixels to reframe and ‘zoom’ into their footage at 1080p without losing detail – 4K is effectively four times 1080p, after all.
In the right hands you don’t need to transmit or watch in 4K for it to be useful.
Inexplicably, though, you can’t change the standard video and slo-mo options from within the Camera app. You have to delve into the Photos & Camera section of the Settings app to change the defaults every time, a decision so inexplicably stupid it defies belief.
It’s odd because the iPhone’s Camera app is impeccably designed otherwise – I tried using the Moto G (2015) camera app the other day and it was like being parachuted into a world full of stupid in comparison. Seriously, Motorola, sort that out.
iPhone 6S – Software & Apps
We have a well-appointed that covers the numerous ins and outs of the Apple’s latest software update. As usual, it’s a healthy mix of good stuff – deep Spotlight search integration and improved Siri-ness – and other stuff that could stand to be better – i.e. notifications.
Actually, notifications are much improved in iOS 9, even if Android still does them better. They’re organised by day instead of by app now, and while you can’t dismiss the whole lot in one go, you can dismiss a whole day at a time. It makes it easier to review and then dismiss, which is good.
Beyond the 3D Touch features, which I’ve already discussed, one of my favourite changes is to the Battery section of the Settings app.
It’s split into ‘Last 24 Hours’ and ‘Last 6 Days’ views. But what makes the feature is how tapping on the list reveals how much screen time and background time each app uses. It’s a brilliant way to single out rogue apps sucking down more than their fair share, which I’ll get into more in the battery life section.
iOS 9, unsurprisingly, runs like an absolute dream on the iPhone 6S. Admittedly I’ve been testing on a fresh install – a good idea if you can face it – rather than recalling an old backup. All the same, iOS 9 and the iPhone 6S are as sprightly as a particularly lively sheepdog.
iPhone 6S – Performance
The iPhone 6S is hell-a-fast, which is apparently not as fast as “stupidfast” but is nonetheless pretty nippy. The new chip tops rivals in most benchmarks and is a good 50 to 60% faster than the A8 – a serious jump.
Apple’s upgraded A9 SoC (System on a Chip) houses a shiny new PowerVR GPU and two CPU cores clocked at 1.8GHz each, up from 1.4GHz, and there’s 2GB of RAM.
Yes, you read that correctly, the iPhone finally has two whole gigabytes of RAM. Without becoming too glib, it was about time. While I’m typically wary of the massed throngs complaining about such details, on this occasion they had point. Things were getting a bit silly.
Not because iOS didn’t run smoothly on 1GB, but because the Safari web browser couldn’t hold more than a few tabs at a time without reloading them. With the iPhone 6S, I’ve managed to switch between as many as 10 simultaneously loaded tabs without any reloads.
You could probably load a few more, but by that point I was satisfied. They’ll still reload if you leave the app and come back some time later, but in the time you’re active within Safari it handles the workload well. Praise be.
iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 owners will notice unlocking from Touch ID is faster, too, especially when the screen is already off. It’s only a small point, but each fraction makes the whole experience feel smoother and slicker.
There’s an enviable amount of graphics grunt on tap, too – not that any game I’ve found makes full use of it yet.iPhone 6S – Battery Life
“Battery life could be a problem,” was my first thought when I started my iPhone 6S review, and with good reason. Wonderful though 3D Touch and the Taptic Engine are, Apple had to reduce the battery capacity from 1,810mAh to 1,715mAh to fit them in. It made the 6S slightly thicker and heavier, too, though not enough that anyone should care.
The iPhone 6 didn’t have a stellar reputation for battery life, and while some of those complaints are overblown, they’re not without foundation. Certainly, the ‘Plus’ variant is the phone to go for if you suffer range “range anxiety”.
Through my week using the the iPhone 6S, I consistently managed 15 to 17 hours per day. Switching off Bluetooth and disabling the Facebook app’s background refresh made a big difference, though I always left Wi-Fi on.
For whatever reason, the Facebook app uses more background time than other app. Before the change Facebook was responsible for close to 25% of the phone’s battery drain, despite being on screen for just 20 minutes or so. iOS 9’s improved battery monitoring was a godsend here.
Navigation puts a big strain on the battery, though, particularly in built-up areas. One 15-minute walk with directions drained 7% from the battery. Streaming video over Wi-Fi burns through around 12% of battery per hour, depending on the quality and how bright your screen is.
The new Low Power won’t extend your life indefinitely, but it’s useful and effective enough. iOS prompts you to turn it on when your battery hits 20% and it turns off all background activity, while also throttling down the CPU and GPU.
The iPhone is already frugal when idle, but Low Power extends that further still – I once got five hours of very light use after passing 20%, which is handy if you’re staying out late. And you can turn Low Power on earlier if you know you have a long day ahead – the iPhone 6S runs fine when it’s on.
Ultimately, while some management is needed from time to time, I never felt like I would run out before I got home, and it would only concern me if I was on a “night out” and got home late. In those cases, a few simple precautions will avert problems.
Power users who stream video all day, use navigation lots or play games often should look at the 6S Plus, but the 6S’s battery life is fine for the majority of people.
iPhone 6S – Sound & Call Quality
There are no changes here. The iPhone 6S still has a single mono speaker. It’s a pretty decent one, though. It’s loud enough to enjoy in a quiet environment and delivers crisp, clear dialogue in videos or on speakerphone. It just won’t put a dent in the portable Bluetooth speaker market anytime soon, or ever.
Call quality, meanwhile, is excellent. This is doubly true if you’re on a network that supports Wi-Fi Calling or Voice over LTE (VoLTE). Both use these superior networks to deliver crisper, infinitely clearer call quality, though UK adoption remains patchy at best so far.
Other things to consider
Now seems a good time to mention a few things the iPhone 6S lacks, particularly in comparison to rivals. While the 6S gains 3D Touch, the Galaxy S6 has wireless charging. It’s a feature that’s made its way to many a mid-range phone, too, such as the Lumia 830.
Once Apple could have claimed it didn’t charge fast enough, but that argument doesn’t wash anymore. It works a treat on the S6 and there are IKEA lamps with it built-in. When IKEA is doing it you know people are ready. I won’t bet against it being an iPhone 7 feature.
The iPhone 6S also lacks fast charging, a near universal feature for any Android phone featuring any of Qualcomm’s top-end processors. It lets phone charge in as little as an hour and a half, sometimes less. It’s damned handy in a pinch.
This isn’t a huge problem for the iPhone 6S, though. It has smaller battery after all, and I timed a full charge at one hour and 50 minutes – hardly slow. The iPhone 6S Plus and it’s bigger battery, however, could be a different matter.
Should I buy the iPhone 6S?
Yeah, probably. While a small corner of the internet secretly hopes Apple will drop a clanger – or convinces themselves it already has – this time round it hasn’t. The better question is who should buy it?
iPhone 5S owners who don’t want to “upsize” should sign on the dotted line. You could wait for the iPhone 7 if you’re feeling patient, but the 6S is a great upgrade. 3D Touch is fantastic and the S6 is so, very, very fast.
The same applies to any older iPhone owners who can stomach the price, of course, but don’t rule out any of the excellent cheap Android phones on the market. The Motorola Moto G (2015) is a good place to start, but there are many good options in our best cheap phones round-up.
Potential Android switchers should take a long hard look at the 6S Plus, though, on the assumption you’re already using a ‘big’ phone. That said, if what you really want is something human hand-sized then the iPhone 6S crushes all comers.
Score in detail
- Performance10
- Camera9
- Design9
- Battery Life7
- Value8
- Software9
- Calls & Sound8
- Screen Quality9
iPhone SE Review
Key Features
- Review Price: £359.00
- 4-inch IPS Retina screen
- iOS 10
- A9 dual-core processor
- 2GB RAM
- Touch ID fingerprint sensor
- 1624 mAh battery
- 16 or 64GB storage
- 12MP rear camera
- 1.2MP Facetime front camera
- Live photos
What is the iPhone SE?
Update: After the announcement of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple reduced the price of the iPhone SE to £349, making it an excellent choice if you’re looking for a small phone.
Phones getting bigger and bigger, but the iPhone SE totally bucks the trend. This is a phone that’s easy to use with one hand. Yes the the Samsung Galaxy S8 and HTC U11 are great handsets, but for many of us they’re simply too large.
How can a phone with a three year old design do it? Apple has given people a choice with the iPhone SE. The compact body is rare these days, but even though it’s small it packs a mighty punch. This is a very powerful and capable phone. It can boast the same top-notch internals as the iPhone 6S, a snazzy pink (sorry, Rose Gold) hue and support for Apple Pay. Normally small phones are hamstrung, the iPhone SE isn’t.
iPhone SE – Design, Screen and Audio
A surprising amount of people I speak to say they want a small phone that packs all the features of a full-fat flagship. Sony is the only manufacturer to have previously attempted anything like this, but even its Xperia Z5 Compact has a not-so-tiny 4.6-inch screen and it’s quite thick. The iPhone SE is much smaller and much easier to handle.
Anyone who’s used an iPhone 5 or iPhone 5S will feel at ease with the iPhone SE – it looks and feels almost identical, except now you can get it in a fetching rose-gold colour and its cut edges are matte rather than shiny chrome.
Those phones have an iconic design and I have no problem with Apple reusing it, especially if it means they can keep costs down and pass the savings on. The best thing about the design of the iPhone SE is that it still feels quality. The brushed aluminium back is both hard and cool to touch, the buttons are solid, and it’s easily small enough to use one-handed, regardless of the size of your hands.
Coming from using the giant iPhone 6S Plus and Huawei Mate 8 I also found it a relief to be able to bend my leg again when I put a phone in my front pocket.
In other ways it’s taken me time to adjust to the smaller screen. It’s not just that I have to move it closer to my face to read text, like my granddad reading the morning paper, I also struggle with the small keyboard. Ironically I often have to use both my hands and thumbs on the phone to minimise the potential for embarrassing autocorrect fails. I’ve gotten more used to it, but I still don’t find it comfortable after a few weeks of using the phone non-stop. The small screen also means watching video is a little cramped and, while the iPhone SE is more than powerful enough to play all the best games, trying to maneuver precisely requires daintier digits than mine.
While the iPhone SE still looks good there are a couple of aspects of the design that aren’t perfect, and others that feel dated. For starters, if you don’t use a case with the iPhone SE you might find the edges a little harsh, particularly if you’re more used to the rounded metal sides on contemporary phone designs. The screen bezel is also rather wide – especially at the top and bottom – and that means you don’t get a lot of screen for the size of the phone.
That’s not the only problem with the screen.
It packs the exact same display as the 5S. While the 1136 x 640 resolution provides a perfectly sharp 326 pixels per inch the screen lacks punch and has a reddish tinge that is exacerbated when it’s tilted at some angles. Compare it to Samsung’s colour-packed Super AMOLED screens or even the newer LCD technology on a phone like the HTC 10 and it really starts looking its age.
Still, it’s quite acceptable – bright enough to be used outdoors and sharp enough to read websites on the go without noticing any fuzzy edges to letters.
The speaker located at the bottom of the phone is decent rather than outstanding. Top-level volume isn’t as high as some other phones, but the quality of the audio output is surprisingly good from such a small package – sound is balanced, if a little thin, and there’s no distortion at the highest volume.
Call quality is also strong. The ear speaker is clear and loud and the noise-cancelling mic does a good job of clearing up any distracting external noises when you’re on a call. There are louder call speakers out there but I didn’t have any problems hearing or making myself heard even on windy days with lots of traffic noise around me.
Neither the design, screen or sound quality excites the blood much – so far the iPhone SE isn’t very different at all when compared to its predecessors. That all changes, though, when I scratch the surface and take the camera for a spin around London.iPhone SE – Camera
The rear iSight camera is where the iPhone SE gets interesting. It packs the same sensor and lens as the iPhone 6S, which means it has one of the most impressive phone cameras on the market right now.
It’s not just the quality of the pictures the iPhone SE delivers that makes it a corker; it’s also dead easy to use. This is thanks to the simple and robust camera app, which also enables the shooting of Live Photos – pictures that can also be viewed as short videos.
The iPhone SE’s camera produces results that belie its specs.
The iPhone SE can deliver cracking photos in good light
A 12-megapixel sensor seems adequate these days, rather than impressive, as does the f/2.2 aperture. By comparison the Samsung Galaxy S7 has a wider f/1.7 aperture and the LG G5 an f/1.8 aperture. This is one of those cases where you want the number to be smaller. A smaller aperture means more light can get into the sensor, making for better low-light performance and less chance of blur.
However the iPhone SE doesn’t seem to suffer by comparison. The lens is plenty fast and the “Focus Pixel” (otherwise known as phase detection) technology it uses means speedy focusing too.
Cropped image of a pigeon taking off, showing that the iPhone SE can focus quickly and capture movement well
Shots look more natural and lifelike when compared to some of its high-end competitors, and noise is kept to a minimum.
Macro shot of an orchid shows the iPhone SE can capture details and natural colours
Is it better than the Samsung Galaxy S7 or LG G5 when it comes to image quality in good light? The lines are fine and some will prefer the punchier colours the Samsung or LG deliver over the more lifelike tones of the iPhone. Others won’t. There’s no definitive winner.
It’s in low light that the iPhone SE suffers. Wider apertures and optical image stabilisation (OIS) help competing phones deliver more detailed, contrasty shots in dark environments.
The cameras on the iPhone SE and 6S Plus are identical apart from OIS, but this makes a difference at night
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Of course, there is a flash on the back of the SE and this is of the True Tone variety we first saw on the iPhone 5S. Two LED lights adapt to produce a varied flash depending on the ambient light. The aim is to reproduce a realistic colour tone, where a normal flash tends to produce a “ghost face” effect. It’s not just a gimmick, either – True Tone does work.
Since the SE has the same camera and processor as the 6S, it also shares 4K video recording at 30 frames per second. Not only that but it comes with the excellent slo-mo video recording that lets you shoot at a whopping 240fps for 720p and 120fps at 1080p resolutions.
The rear camera on the iPhone SE is outstanding, particularly considering how much less this phone costs than the iPhone 6S.
The front camera is less impressive. Instead of the 5-megapixel sensor on the iPhone 6S it’s a disappointing 1.2-megapixel one. Megapixels aren’t everything, but with a difference this large you can expect poorer shots.
There’s a big difference between the iPhone SE (left) and 6S (right) when it comes to the front camera in low-light conditions
It seems strange that Apple’s decided to opt for a weak front camera. I see the iPhone SE being popular with kids whose parents don’t want to fork out for the iPhone 6S, but it’s exactly these young people who tend to make the most out of a selfie cam.
The one plus side is that Retina Flash makes an appearance. Retina Flash allows the iPhone SE’s screen to light up three times more brightly than normal, so you get some light when taking a selfie in the dark. It works well enough but the smaller screen size means it’s not quite as effective as on the iPhone 6S.
There’s more to a phone than its cameras and the iPhone SE manages to squeeze incredible performance into a small shell.
iPhone SE – iOS 9 and Apps
The iPhone SE runs Apple’s latest iOS 9 operating system. Anyone familiar with an iPhone or iPad will get to grips with it in seconds, and it won’t take much longer for first-timers.
Some might say it’s too restrictive, that you can’t customise an iPhone anywhere near as much as an Android or even Windows phone. There are no widgets for your homepages, nor a manual mode for the camera – it’s all kept simple and light.
I don’t find it much of a problem. The older and busier I get, the more I appreciate the fact that I don’t have to tinker too much to get a slick experience or great results. iOS 9.3 works, and it works well right out of the box.
It also comes with a few cool new features. One of the highlights is Night Shift. Turn this on and the iPhone SE’s display changes colour tone, removing a lot of the blue light and becoming much warmer. There’s a good reason for this. The blue light that electronic screens emit trick the body into thinking it’s still daylight and makes getting a good night’s sleep harder. Night Shift helps to stop that.
The Apple App Store is also still the one to beat. It’s packed full of high-quality apps and games that make the most out of the iPhone SE.
The iPhone SE also comes with an NFC chip you can use with Apple Pay. That means you can hand over your money simply by holding your phone to a tap-and-pay terminal and using the Touch ID fingerprint sensor that’s built into the home button. But it only works if your bank and country participates in the program, so best to check before you get too excited about that feature.
iPhone SE – Performance, Storage and Features
A dual-core A9 processor and 2GB of RAM might not sound like much when compared to top-flight Android phones, but the iPhone SE is one of the most powerful handsets you can get right now.
It blitzes our like-for-like benchmark tests with results that are almost identical to those from the iPhone 6S, but because the screen resolution is so much lower it actually tests better on some hardcore gaming tests.
There’s an incredible amount of processing muscle in the iPhone SE’s diminutive frame and it doesn’t get too hot or bothered by all that horsepower either. Touch ID also unlocks your phone more quickly than it does on the iPhone 5S thanks to the new processor.
The A9 processor offers more than an incredibly fast and smooth experience; it also helps the iPhone SE keep going for longer. Efficiency improvements mean the A9 uses less of the iPhone SE’s battery and the M9 co-processor helps reduce power drain when the SE is immobile or out of signal.
It’s clever stuff and means the SE lasts a good long while for such a small phone.
Performance may be identical to that of the 6S, but there is one feature lacking on the iPhone SE – 3D Touch, which lets you access additional features by pressing harder on the 6S’s screen. Ironically it’s a bit like a right mouse click, which is something Apple computers don’t have. It’s a useful feature, but not one that I particularly miss when it’s not there.More problematic is Apple’s continued insistence that 16GB of storage is enough for an entry-level phone these days. It isn’t, particularly when you can’t add extra storage via a microSD card. Thankfully the iPhone SE also comes in a 64GB configuration, which is the one I’d recommend, even though it is a lot more expensive.
iPhone SE – Battery Life
The iPhone 5S didn’t have the stamina I hoped for when I reviewed it back in 2013. It was average at best. Since the iPhone SE’s battery is only a smidgen larger, I didn’t have high hopes, despite the fact that Apple told me battery life is 50% better than the old flagship’s.
Scoff I did, but my scoff was thrown back in my face with gusto. This phone has impressive staying power.
In day-to-day use I regularly find myself with more than 60% left over by the time I get home from a hard day at theTrustedReviews offices, and more than 40% by the time I’m ready to head to the land of nod.
Different uses drain the battery more than others. I found that it lasted a long time when streaming content to it via Wi-Fi with the screen brightness at 70% – 11 hours of Netflix on one charge is a great effort. Of course, intense 3D gaming impacts the battery more than simple Wi-Fi web browsing and I found using the iPhone SE to navigate around London drained the battery more quickly than I expected.
It took a fair amount of effort to run the battery down to zero in a single day, but I managed it with two hours of Wi-Fi video streaming, shooting 100 photos, doing less than an hour of 2D gaming, two-ish hours of GPS navigation and four hours of browsing the web, reading emails and looking at my favourite news apps – the latter on 4G.
That’s seriously impressive stuff and beats the iPhone 6S, although it doesn’t quite reach the heady levels of the iPhone 6S Plus.
If you want to make the battery on the iPhone SE last a little longer then make sure you select “Yes” when it asks you to turn on “Battery Saver Mode”. This appears when you’re down to your last 20%, but you can turn it on any time manually by going to Settings and then to the Battery section. Battery saver mode reduces the power consumption of the processor and limits background tasks so the iPhone SE can last longer.
Unlike some of the latest Android flagships, the iPhone SE doesn’t have fast charging or wireless charging capabilities, so you’ll need to tether it to a Lightning cable when it’s running low on juice. A one-hour charge gives you 63% of your battery back from empty and you can fully recharge in a little under two hours.
Should I buy the iPhone SE?
If you love a small phone but feel you’re missing out on a top-notch camera, solid battery life and speedy processor, the iPhone SE is impossible to ignore. It delivers in spades and doesn’t have a comparable competitor.
Even though it’s the lowest-priced iPhone we’ve ever seen, it’s still not cheap, especially since the 16GB option is inadequate for most users. However, if you look after it then its resale value will remain high. No other phones retain their value quite like iPhones do.
The one major downside, for some, will be the distinctly average front-facing camera. If you’re a registered member of the selfie generation then consider yourself warned.
Verdict
It may not be the most exciting phone Apple has ever released, but the iPhone SE will be a godsend for those who want a high-quality phone that isn’t massive.
Score in detail
- Performance10
- Camera8
- Design7
- Battery Life9
- Value9
- Software9
- Calls & Sound8
- Screen Quality7