Apple iPhone SE (2022) review: a modern phone with yesterday’s design

If you buy something from a link, it may earn you a commission. Our ethics statement can be found here.

The screen is the most important component in the next few years and it is designed for the iPhone SE. The top and bottom of the device have thick bezels. It is a tired design that makes an already small screen feel even smaller than it could be.

That's a shame, because the SE is a great phone. It will give you an excellent return on your investment since it will almost certainly get software updates for years to come. This year's model also includes 5G and Apple's most powerful processor, both of which will make the phone future-proof.

The SE has some notable improvements, like a bigger battery and software-based camera updates, which help keep it up to date. Some people prefer the Touch ID home button over Face ID and gesture navigation. For someone who doesn't mind a small screen, or for someone who just wants an Apple device for as little money as possible, this is the one for them. I think this vintage design is a little too dated and best left in the past for everyone else.

Underneath the vintage iPhone 8, lies the A15 Bionic, Apple's very latest mobile processor. It is the same one you will find in the top-of-the-line 13 Pro Max. The 13 Pro Max costs more than twice the price of the SE. That is just plain cool. The SE behaves like a phone with a top-tier processor. Even the graphics-intensive Genshin Impact runs smoothly. There isn't a lot that the SE can do that a phone can.

The performance is hampered by the small screen. It's not a bad display, it has a 750 x 1334 screen that is bright for outdoor use. You don't get a faster refresh rate, you don't get the same pop and punchiness ofOLED, and it's definitely one of the smallest screens sold on a new smartphone today. You can enlarge the text at the default setting, but you have to scroll more.

I felt like I was running out of room when I was playing a game with the phone in landscape mode. The kid in Limbo was hurt when my thumb obscured what I was supposed to be avoiding. The phone is capable of running the most graphics-laden games, but it is less enjoyable to play on a small, cramped screen than it is to play on a wide-aspect display.

Even in the phone's native image gallery app, I have to aim carefully to tap the button that says "pause", because it feels cramped on the SE. The icons at the bottom of the Facebook app are jammed. The messages icon is tucked underneath my battery life percentage. The modern internet and app experience was built for a smaller screen.

The base model of SE only has 64 gigabytes of storage. If you're light on app downloads and not a huge photo-taker, it's possible to get by on 64GB. If you want this phone to last more than a couple years, you should buy the 128GB version, which costs an extra $50. The phone's practical price is $479.

The 2020 SE's weakest point was its sub-par battery life, so one feature that did get a boost this year is stamina. The power management is improved with the A15 chip. The extra two hours of charge for most users is checked out by Apple. I got through a day and a half of moderate use, and one full day of heavy use with some video recording, gaming, and a lot of screen on time with brightness boosted.

Most SE owners will get through a day on a single charge because the SE isn't geared toward things that drain a battery. That is a welcome improvement over the last generation, and one that will probably make a bigger immediate difference to someone buying the phone than 5G or the new processor.

There is no MagSafe on the SE, which would open up a new world of accessories and attachments, but the phone still offers standard wireless charging. That feature is not guaranteed in a phone that costs under $500, so it's another point for the SE. The phone has dust and water resistance that is rare in the middle class.

The SE will get 5G this year. It doesn't include the very fast but hard-to- find millimeter wave, which was the future that Verizon tried to convince us was the future two years ago. It doesn't matter that the SE doesn't support it because it does support low and mid-band 5G. The expansion of 5G networks by AT&T and Verizon will improve network speeds considerably. Even if support for 5G is not very useful, it is a good future-proofing feature.

The best feature of the iPhone is not new. The lowest cost of entry to Apple has been provided by the SE since the introduction of the phone. The company has a great track record of including older phones in new OS version updates. Older phones get a lot of new features in the new version of the software.

I dug up my first-gen 2016 iPhone SE, powered it up, and downloaded the latest version of the operating system. And it works. Four years after I dropped my phone in a toilet and left it for dead, the current software version of the company is pretty cool. I swear that the phone is clean.

This is a contradiction of the iPhone SE. It will get software updates for many years to come, but it will probably outlive the usefulness of its tiny screen. The phones are not getting any smaller. The people who design web pages and app menus are planning for giant screens to stay. Even if the phone is still chugging along on iOS 21, the screen will feel very small in 2028.

The last model included a 12-megapixel f/1.8 with optical stabilization and a 7-megapixel f/2.2 selfie camera. Both of the camera modules you got in the 2020 model are the same hardware. Even though the hardware is old, image quality is still good enough for day-to-day snapshots. A single lens can do decent looking portrait mode photos.

The new processor adds Apple's Deep Fusion technology to boost details in medium and dim lighting. It's a feature that engages automatically under certain conditions, and there isn't a way to tell when it's being used, but I can say that photos of static subjects in crappy indoor lighting look a lot detailed.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

In low light, the SE doesn't do as well. There is no night mode on many other phones, like the Moto G Stylus 5G, and the Google Pixel 5A. In low light, the colors look blurry. Night mode on any phone isn't very useful for moving people. It's a shame that it isn't included here because it's a nice tool to have when conditions are dark and flash isn't an option.

Video recording is available at up to 4K / 60p. Video recorded at up to 30p in either 4K or1080 resolutions offers extended dynamic range, which improves clips with very high contrast, like a shot that pans across a bright window and subjects under dim indoor lighting. The A15 chip can be used to improve the processing of low light video, which does a good job of removing noise, although clips look soft as a result. Mobile video is a strength for Apple, and the video quality on the SE is excellent.

The single rear camera on the SE might be a case of Apple not fixing what isn't broken. Why add more if SE owners are fine with one camera? The phone's target audience probably doesn't mind that the camera isn't wide enough, and will be satisfied with what remains a very capable camera for everyday photos.

When he reviewed the 2020 SE, he was so impressed, he questioned the entire concept of the $1000 flagship phone. The current-gen SE and that phone do a lot of what a premium phone can do at less than half the price. That remains very impressive, and it's not lost on me when I pick up the SE and whip through menu screens, record great-looking 4K video, or run Genshin Impact with hardly a hiccup.

The phone design has changed in the last two years, but the SE has stayed the same. I think it's fair to demand a little more from your mobile device, since most of us look at our phone screens a lot.

That isn't saying that nobody should buy the SE. If you know that you won't mind a small screen for the next few years, and you just want a reasonably priced device that gets you through your day without any trouble, then this is the device for you. It is fast, has all the 5G bands that matter, and will most certainly get you through the foreseeable future without having to make another phone purchase.

A bigger screen is a necessity for everyone else. If you want to switch to the green bubble life, the Google Pixel 5A is a great option that's right around the same price. It has an ultrawide camera, a great night mode, and a bigger screen. It is only guaranteed updates for three years.

I think the last time we will see this design in a new phone from Apple will be in the 2022 SE. If you are a fan of this form factor and Touch ID, then this is your last chance to keep them. If we see another SE device in the next two years, it will most likely not have the home button. The SE is a powerful little phone with a retro design that is too vintage for most of us.

Allison Johnson is a photographer.

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it. It is impossible for us to read and analyze all of these agreements. We're going to start counting how many times you have to use devices when we review them since they are agreements most people don't read.

You have to agree to use the iPhone SE.

• The iOS Terms and Conditions, which you can have sent to you by email
• Apple’s warranty agreement, which you can have sent to you by email

You can't use the phone if you don't agree to the agreements.

The setup of Apple Cash and Apple Pay requires you to agree to:

• The Apple Cash agreement, which specifies that services are actually provided by Green Dot Bank and Apple Payments, Inc. and further consists of the following agreements:
• The Apple Cash terms and conditions
• The electronic communications agreement
• The Green Dot bank privacy policy
• Direct payments terms and conditions
• Direct payments privacy notice
• Apple Payments, Inc. license

You have to agree to add a credit card to Apple Pay.

• The terms from your credit card provider, which do not have an option to be emailed

There were two mandatory agreements and six optional agreements for Apple Cash.