REVIEW: iPHONE SE (2022) AN UNEVEN AND DISAPPOINTING 'UPGRADE'

APPLE UPGRADED THE PART IT DIDN'T NEED IGNORING ALL TO THE PROCESSOR-WHILE THE UPGRADES IT SHOULD HAVE MADE.

- JASON CROSS

The iPhone SE is sort of a brilliant T concept. Recognizing that there's a huge market for people who can't afford the typical price of a new iPhone (or just don't want to spend that much), Apple takes a somewhat outdated model, replaces the processor with the latest one, and sells it at a greatly reduced price.

In 2016, the original iPhone SE put the latest processor (A9) in the body of a two-generations-old iPhone 5S for just $399. It took four years for Apple to release a second-generation iPhone SE, which once again put the latest processor (A13) in a two-generations-old iPhone 8, still for just $399.

Now two years later, Apple has abandoned this winning iPhone SE formula. It's still the latest processor (A15), but instead of putting it in the two generations-old iPhone 11, or even the iPhone XR, Apple is once again using the body of the ancient iPhone 8. And the price went up, to $429.

This is still the least-expensive new iPhone you can buy, and it's not bad, but it's disappointing to see Apple charge more while not advancing its budget phone in the most important ways.

WHAT THAT A15 PROCESSOR GIVES YOU

The A15 is faster than the A13 in the second-generation iPhone SE, that much is certain. You can expect CPU and GPU performance around 20 to 30 percent better, though it can be more or less depending on the exact task. Whether you'll really notice that sort of performance in everyday use is another matter.

I found that in most benchmarks, the iPhone SE is right on par with the iPhone 13, within a small margin of error (but not with the iPhone 13 Pro, which has a fifth GPU core). This makes it by far the fastest phone in this price range. But was performance really an issue that needed addressing in the iPhone SE from two years ago? The A13 already outpaces most other $400 phones today.