Hands on with the new iPhone SE: Talking Tech podcast

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Hey there listeners. It's Brett Molina. Welcome back to Talking Tech. This Friday, Apple rolls out its latest iPhone. It's the iPhone SE. It costs 429. It is the lowest priced smartphone available in Apple's portfolio. I got the chance to check it out for a few days. You can read my review in a story on tech.usatoday.com. I describe it as the essential iPhone experience and here's what I mean. If you are looking for a smartphone that just takes care of the basics, obviously email, texting, social media, whatever you need, it's going to handle that and it's going to handle that quite well.

If you're looking for bells and whistles, if you really like face ID, if you really want that bigger screen, if you want the multi lens camera system that the iPhone provides, then this probably isn't your device. I don't say this in my review, but I compare it almost to buying a car. You know, you can buy a car that's like the standard model. It's got everything you need. It's going to drive you places. It's got everything you need to get what you need done, done. If you want say, the heated seats or you want the leather trim, or if you want whatever it is you want, you don't necessarily need it, but it's nice, it adds a little more to the overall experience. That's kind of what it felt like using the SE.

It's going to do a lot of your basic stuff really well. It's just, if you want the more sophisticated stuff, this might not be your device. The screen itself, it's about 4.7 inches. It is the same as the iPhone mini, the iPhone 12 mini and the 13 mini. The overall design of the phone honestly, reminded me a lot of the iPhone 7, which for some people might be a little weird, because it feels like, well, why doesn't it have the updated kind of more block design that we're used to with the newer models? This is what we have. And between that and the home button, it does kind of feel like you are revisiting a phone from the past. It's really weird. I like it though.

You have like two or three lenses on some of the higher up models of iPhone. As a result of that, there are some modes that you're not going to get access to, like night mode, which is really great if you're taking a lot of photos at night with low lighting, no 4K recording for video. You can wirelessly charge the SE, but it doesn't support any of the MagSafe stuff. Battery wise, it was okay. I mean, it was pretty solid. It appears to have the same battery life as the iPhone 12 mini. From my experience it's been all right, obviously if you're using your phone a lot, you're not going to get the full charge through the day, so you're probably going to have to charge it once, maybe twice in between, depending. And again, this is just going off of the iPhone 12 experience I've had, and it looks like there's similar battery life, so that could be something to expect there.

Resolution on the display isn't as crisp. It's going to be a lot sharper, a lot better looking on a 13 or 13 pro, any of those. But again, going back to the car buying analogy, if you just want an iPhone that is at a good price and is going to let you do just all the simple stuff that you do. If you just want it for, social media, taking some photos, doing some stuff like that, I think this is a really good phone. If you want more of those bells and whistles, you can upgrade. But I think this is a really good phone for people who just want the basic functions, but done very effectively. It's not just about, oh yes, it sends text and email. It still has iOS. It still works very well. If that's what you want, this is I think a very good model.

I think the price wise is really good. And yeah, it's worth it if you're okay with the older feel where if again, reminding me of an iPhone seven, if you're okay with that, I think this is a really good budget phone if that's something you're looking for. You can read more in my review about the iPhone SE on tech.usatoday.com. Listeners let's hear from you. Do you have any comments, questions, show ideas, any tech problems you want us to try to address? You can find me on Twitter @brettmolina23. Please don't forget to subscribe and rate us or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you get your podcasts. You've been listening to Talking Tech. We'll be back tomorrow with another quick hit from the world of tech.