Apple iPhone SE review – too small for most people

Apple iPhone SE review – too small for most

Taking the guts of the iPhone 6S and squeezing them into the frame of the iPhone 5S is great, but only those who really want a 4in phone should buy one

The Apple iPhone SE is one of the best smaller phones available, but its 4in screen is just a bit too small for 2016.

With the iPhone SE everything that is old is now new again, but is that a good thing and is a small, 4in smartphone really up to scratch in 2016?
The new iPhone SE comes in at the bottom end of Apple’s iPhone range on cost, below the iPhone 6S and 2014’s iPhone 6, a spot typically filled by last year’s model. It’s now the only smartphone Apple makes with a screen smaller than 4.7in, which for some could be a big deal. For others it could be a deal breaker.

iPhone 5, 5S or iPhone SE?

All-metal body, glass top and bottom and a glass-front, a mirror image of the iPhone 5 and 5S. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

The iPhone SE is the spitting image of the iPhone 5S. The only differences are that the edges are the same colour and texture as the back of the device, it comes in rose gold, the Apple logo on the back is shiny, and there’s a small “SE” emblem on the back, reminiscent of the Machintosh SE from 1987.

Advertisement

It’s still relatively slender at 7.6mm thick - its hard square edges make it feel thicker than it is - and it weighs 113g, which is quite light for a smartphone these days. Then again, it’s very small for a smartphone in 2016.
The screen is the same as the 5S, 4in on the diagonal with the same quality colours, brightness and blacks. Compared to the iPhone 6S the screen is noticeably weaker, with poorer blacks and vibrancy. It’s not a bad screen by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just a good screen from two years ago, which is exactly what it is.
In the hand the body feels sharp and hard, with unforgiving edges which are only acceptable because of the phone’s diminutive size. The hard edges are easier to grip than the slippery rounded sides of the iPhone 6S, and particularly the large 6S Plus, but they hurt my palms after clutching it for an hour or two.
The iPhone SE’s closest rival is the excellent Sony Xperia Z5 Compact, which has a significantly larger 4.6in display, weighs 138g, is 8.9mm thick and has slightly larger dimensions. Practically no other 4in devices in this high-end category exist anymore.
Using a 4in screen in 2016 is a compromise. Websites feel very cramped, apps often leave only a small amount of screen to the content they’re trying to display and buttons can end up very small making tapping them a bit of a challenge.

The display is decent, but not quite as good as modern displays on today’s top-end smartphones. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

Specifications

• Screen: 4in 1136 x 640 pixels (326 ppi)
• Processor: dual-core Apple A9
• RAM: 2GB of RAM Storage: 16/64GB; no SD card
• Operating system: iOS 9.3
• Camera: 12MP rear camera, 1.2MP front-facing camera
• Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.2 and GPS
• Dimensions: 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm Weight: 113g

Three generations in one device

The Touch ID sensor is slower than the one on the iPhone 6S, which makes it easier to see the lockscreen, but also forces you to wait a second or so to get to the homescreen. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

When you dig into the innards of the iPhone SE things start to get more interesting. It has a combination of iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S parts. The processor and graphics chip is an Apple A9 from the iPhone 6S, which makes it as fast as its bigger brother. It also has 2GB of RAM - double the iPhone 5S - which makes multitasking or browsing multiple tabs in Safari a lot faster with less reloading.

Advertisement

Performance is much faster overall than the iPhone 5S and feels similar to that of the iPhone 6S, apart from the fingerprint sensor, which is pretty slow for a 2016 smartphone costing £350+. It’s the same original Touch ID sensor from the iPhone 5S/6, not the new, much faster Touch ID sensor from the 6S, which is disappointing.
The iPhone SE’s battery life is better than the 6S, mirroring that of the 6S Plus. Using it as my main device, with hundreds of emails, push notifications, three hours of browsing and listening to music - without the Facebook app installed - the iPhone SE lasted a solid working day. I went to bed with 10% battery left and work up eight hours later with 5%.
Compared to other iPhones, most will see better battery out of the SE, but it doesn’t come close to its closest Android competitor, the Xperia Z5 Compact, which lasted as long as three days between charges.
Call quality was excellent. I also didn’t suffer from the reported Bluetooth audio issues.

iOS 9

The iPhone SE runs Apple’s latest version of iOS 9.3.1 with Night Mode, which reduces the blue light emitted by the display intended to help you sleep. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

The iPhone SE comes loaded with iOS 9.3, which currently runs on the iPhone 4S and newer, including the iPhone 5S.
It includes features such as Apple’s Night Mode, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted by the display in the evening to help you sleep. It’s the exact same version running on the iPhone 6S currently and behaves as such, minus the 3D Touch gestures that the SE does not support.
It’s worth noting that iOS works better on smaller devices, where your thumb can reach all areas of the screen. Activating the Control Center feels more consistent, as does swapping between apps using the task switcher on the smaller screen.

• iOS 9 review: an upgrade to jump for, or skip?

Camera

The camera is the same as the iPhone 6S and as such is very good, if not quite the best. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

The rear camera is the same 12-megapixel shooter as fitted in the iPhone 6S and performs as such. It’s one of the better cameras available on a smartphone, with good detail and colour balance, but it has been bettered recently by cameras from Samsung, Sony and Google.
It is a big step up from the iPhone 5S with 4K video recording and Apple’s Live Photos, which are nice to play with but end up being a gimmick that’s difficult to share with non-iPhone users.
The 1.2-megapixel selfie camera, however, is the same as that fitted to the iPhone 5S and is distinctly worse than the rear camera or that fitted to the iPhone 6S, which is a shame. It will shoot decent selfies in good light, but struggles in low-light conditions.

Price

The iPhone SE is available in four colours and two storage options costing £359 for 16GB of space and £439 for 64GB of space.
For comparison, the iPhone 6S costs £539, the iPhone 6 costs £459 and the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact costs £300.

Observations

• It took a full phone reset to get iCloud Music/iTunes Match to work properly, which was deeply irritating.
• Do not buy the 16GB version unless you can help it. 16GB of storage will rapidly be filled up with apps, videos, music and photos.
• The iPhone SE will fit in any cases and take any accessories designed for the iPhone 5S or 5
• Apple Pay is supported, unlike the 5S
• Compared to larger phones the SE feels more robust
• Typing on the 4in screen is quite fiddly and slow - my thumbs clashed on the tiny keyboard
• My hands started to cramp after half a day trying to grip the small phone
• The hard edges were sore on my palms and are a downgrade over the iPhone 5S. Stick it in a case.
• The iPhone SE lacks 3D touch and the Taptic engine from the iPhone 6S, which means many of the new gestures built into iOS9 for swapping between apps etc are not available.

Verdict

The iPhone SE is one of the best of the very few small phones still available. It would be a significant downgrade from an iPhone 6, isn’t a quantum leap over the iPhone 5S and should only really be considered if size is the overriding factor.
It might make a good first iPhone, but it feels like a step backwards - the 4in screen is very small for browsing, viewing photos, apps, games and typing. Smartphones, and what we consume on them, have moved on in the four years since a 4in iPhone was first unveiled, and the iPhone SE feels much less engaging than a 6S.
It is much more pocketable, easier to grip and costs less, but it still isn’t a “budget” iPhone and is still relatively expensive compared to competing smartphones from other manufacturers.

Pros: one-day battery, good rear camera, decent screen, easy to hold, easy to fit in a pocket, fits in existing iPhone 5 accessories
Cons: very small screen, edges are hard on hands, looks like an iPhone 5 or 5S, selfie camera isn’t great, no expandable storage or removable battery

       WhatsApp Encryption Ups Privacy Ante

WhatsApp on Tuesday told its 1 billion users that their communications would be better protected from prying eyes with end-to-end encryption.

The company always has made data and communication security a priority, according to Jan Koum and Brian Acton, the founders of WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for US$19 billion in 2014.
"From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end to end encrypted by default, including group chats," they wrote in a blog post.

Signal Protocol

WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption is accomplished through the use of the Signal Protocol, developed by Open Whisper Systems.
The company has been working with WhatsApp for a year to integrate the technology with all the platforms WhatsApp works on, including chats, group chats, attachments, voice notes and voice calls across Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Nokia S40, Nokia S60, BlackBerry and BB10.
During the transition period while users upgrade to the new version of WhatsApp, there will be some unencrypted text, also known as plaintext, on the system, said Moxie Marlinspike, a member of Open Whisper's management team.
"To make this transition as clear as possible," he said, "WhatsApp clients notify users when their chats become end to end encrypted."

User Alerts

Starting Tuesday, WhatsApp users began seeing notices on their conversation screens, as well as under a chat's preference screen, when an individual or group chat is end to end encrypted.
"Once a client recognizes a contact as being fully e2e capable, it will not permit transmitting plaintext to that contact, even if that contact were to downgrade to a version of the software that is not fully e2e capable. This prevents the server or a network attacker from being able to perform a downgrade attack," Marlinspike said.
The Signal Protocol has more than a billion monthly active users worldwide, he added.
"Over the next year," Marlinspike added, "we will continue to work with additional messengers to amplify the impact and scope of private communication."

Appropriate Response

More companies should emulate WhatsApp's attitude toward encryption, maintained Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst at IT-Harvest.
"It's the appropriate response of vendors of communication tools that need privacy," he told TechNewsWorld.
"It pushes the care and feeding of the encryption keys to the users. That offloads discovery and all the hassles with requests from law enforcement to decrypt captured data," Stiennon said.
"It's the only economically viable solution for anyone who does this," he added.

Conflicting Interests

Although WhatsApp recognized that end-to-end encryption can be a barrier to effective law enforcement, Koum and Acton defended the company's use of the technology, asserting that efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing users' information to abuse from cybercriminals and rogue countries.
"While WhatsApp is among the few communication platforms to build full end-to-end encryption that is on by default for everything you do, we expect that it will ultimately represent the future of personal communication," the pair added.
If that happens, however, confrontations between tech companies and law enforcement agencies likely will escalate.
"We're definitely going to see more incidents," said Matthew Green, a professor specializing in cryptography at Johns Hopkins University.
"Law enforcement is hugely dependent on wiretaps," he told TechNewsWorld. "Since we've only begun to see data encrypted, we're only at the beginning of this controversy."

Imperfect Protection

While end-to-end encryption is a strong measure to protect privacy, the messages of WhatsApp users still can be exposed in other ways, warned Cris Thomas, a strategist with Tenable Network Security.
"If you're using an unencrypted iCloud backup or someone has access to your Android device, your messages are still readable," he told TechNewsWorld.
End-to-end encryption is akin to transporting valuables in an armored car, Thomas said. "The messages while in transit are secure, but the endpoints are still vulnerable."
In addition, although WhatsApp can't decrypt the data on users' phones, it still has the metadata about their activity -- their phone numbers, who they messaged and when they message them.

10 things to know about Google's biggest business

1/1110 things to know about Google's biggest business

Google and its parent company Alphabet may nowadays be known for a myriad of projects, such as self-driving cars and smart contact lenses, but the brand is still best for its search division.

Here are 10 things you probably don't know about Google's search division, its biggest business...

...Read more

2/11

First, a trip down memory lane. Here's what Google's search page looked like back in 1997

3/11

In 1998, the year Google officially launched, users were making about 500,000 searches per day. Now, there are more than 2.3 million Google searches per second.

4/11

That adds up to more than 100,000,000,000 Google searches per month.

5/11

For each one, Google takes over 200 factors into account before delivering you the best results to any query in 1/8 of a second.

6/11

People rely on Google's services so heavily that when they all went down for 5 minutes in 2013, global internet traffic dropped by 40%.

7/11

Google's search index contains over 100 million GB of data. It would take 100,000 one-terabyte personal drives to contain the same amount of data.

8/11

Although the 69% of internet browser users who have Chrome don't actually ever type out "Google.com" anymore, the company owns a bunch of domains that are common misspellings of Google, like Gooogle.com, Gogle.com, Googlr.com, and more. Google also owns 466453.com, too ...

9/11

Google creates products that it hopes will matter to millions, or even billions, of people.

However, it also takes on important projects that matter only to small groups: Google's internationalization team spent more than four years working with reps from Cherokee Nation to bring the language into search (it's also available on Gmail, Chromebooks, and Android).

...Read more

10/11

Since October 2015, more than half of Google's searches happen on mobile.

11/11

If you want to dive into your own digital archive, you can visit Google.com/history to see *every single search* tied to your account.

Man vs machine

Man vs machine: Korean Go player scores surprise win over Google's AlphaGo programme

 

EOUL: South Korean Lee Sedol won his first match against a computer program developed by a Google subsidiary on Sunday in the ancient board game Go, denying a clean sweep for the artificial intelligence in a five-match series.

Lee, one of the world's top players and a holder of 18 international titles, recovered from three consecutive losses against the AlphaGo program developed by DeepMind.

"This win is invaluable and I would not trade it for anything else in the world," a jubilant Lee told reporters after the match, thanking fans for their support.

Google's Alpha Go software beats human in Go championship

The 33-year-old professional player has admitted to underestimating AlphaGo's skills but also said the program was not perfect, asking supporters to keep watching the contest.

DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis told reporters the loss was a valuable learning tool and would help identify weaknesses in the program that his team needed to address.

With Google's AlphaGo, AI gets closer to human intelligence

"It's a real testament to Mr Lee's incredible fighting spirit and he was able to play so brilliantly today after three defeats," Hassabis said.

Go, most popular in countries such as China, South Korea and Japan, involves two contestants moving black and white stones on a square grid, with the aim of seizing the most territory.

Experts did not expect an artificial intelligence program to beat a human professional for at least a decade, until AlphaGo beat a European champion player last year. Lee was considered a much more formidable opponent, however.

Google executives say Go offers too many possible moves for a machine to win simply through brute-force calculations, unlike chess, in which IBM's Deep Blue famously beat former world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.

Instead, they said, AlphaGo has sought to approximate human intuition, by studying old matches and using simulated games to hone itself independently.

The fifth and final match is scheduled for Tuesday.

 

HTC Vive VR Headset Price, Pre-Orders, Minimum Specs Announced at MWC 2016.

At MWC 2016 on Sunday, HTC announced the pricing and availability information of its VR headset - the Vive - co-developed with Valve. The HTC Vive consumer edition will be priced at $799 (roughly Rs. 54,900), and will begin shipping April 1. Pre-orders begin on February 29. The announced price should be a relief to those consumers scared away by reports of the Vive sporting a $1,500 price tag - though it is still $200 more than the Oculus Rift.
The Vive will be made available in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
To put the price of the perspective, note that its chief rival - the Oculus Rift - is priced at $599 (roughly 41,200). The Rift box will include the headset with built-in headphones and mic, sensor, an Xbox One controller and an Oculus Remote, a new input device that helps users navigate through the Oculus store or explore video content. The Oculus Touch motion controller however, will be shipped later at an additional cost. The Rift pre-orders will also ship with EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky's Tale. Oculus Rift will start shipping to 20 countries from March. It will also be available in limited regions with select retailers in April.
The HTC Vive on the other hand ships with two wireless controllers, two Lighthouse laser base stations for room-based motion tracking, a hub to collect data and send it to the PC, and two games - Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives by Owlchemy Labs, and Fantastic Corporation by Northway Games. The Vive headset features a front-facing camera, an integrated microphone, Bluetooth connectivity, and HTC is also touting a new feature called Vive Phone Services, giving users access to phone features such as making or receiving phone calls, reading text messages, seeing calendar invites, and more.
HTC also says the consumer edition of the Vive headset is much more comfortable to wear than previous prototypes and developer editions, with a new and improved headstrap, apart from other minor design changes that make it more ergonomic for a wider range of users. Just as with the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive is required to be connected to a relatively powerful PC to work as intended.
The Taiwanese company has also revealed the minimum PC specifications for the HTC Vive.

• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970, AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or better
• CPU: Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 equivalent or better
• RAM: 4GB or more
• Video Output: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
• USB Port: 1x USB 2.0 or better port
• Operating System: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or later, Windows 10

To recall, HTC unveiled the Vive Pre second generation developer headset during the CES 2016 trade show in January. The second-gen developer edition sports few changes in hardware design. The company also overhauled the VR controllers, making it more ergonomic than before. It also has softer edges, improved balance, new textured buttons and a more comfortable grip pads.
Download the Gadgets 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the latest tech news, product reviews, and exclusive deals on the popular mobiles.

Cyanogen's Mod Platform to Enable Deep App Integration in Cyanogen OS

Cyanogen on Monday announced 'Mod,' a platform that will enable app developers to integrate their apps more directly into its Cyanogen OS operating system. The company has also launched a similar program for OEM and MNO partners. The programme should not be confused with the community-sourced CyanogenMod development initiative.
The software company that aims to take "Android's future away from Google's hands" said it is making many APIs available to app developers that will allow them to better leverage and position their apps on its commercial Android operating system, Cyanogen OS.
Such integration will open new doors for app developers. For instance, if an app developer has a voice calling app, he or she will be able to integrate this feature directly into the default dialler app of the operating system.
The company says that 'Mod' will allow its developer to work in the "post-app" era. For now, however, it has partnered with a small number of app developers. It insists that it will open the program to everyone eventually. The platform will roll out to users with Cyanogen devices with Cyanogen OS 13.0 in March.
For an average consumer Joe, this means that they will have a plethora of mods to choose from. Cyanogen says that it will even "nudge users to install the perfect mod" to help them with their daily chores.
"Thinner bezel, better biometrics, faster processors... changes never cease, yet many people are still bored with their devices. Why is this? We think people are intuitively looking for a more natural way to interact with them. Mod enables this by effectively creating a new runtime, a new way to build services for the Android super platform," said Kirt McMaster, CEO & Co-Founder of Cyanogen.



The first generation of these mods features deep integrations of Cortana and Skype into Cyanogen OS. The company says that through its partnership with Microsoft, a user will be able to install Skype directly into their dialer to add VoIP functionality. Cortana, on the other hand, offers improved integrations with features such as voice-activated selfies. Cyanogen also said that it will soon make possible integrating Hyperlapse into the camera app. A mod for Truecaller is also available that offers protection from spam messaging.
To recall, Microsoft released Cortana to Android last year. The company's digital voice assistant, however, due to limitations imposed by Google, can only offer some of its features.
And for the same reason, this program will excite many app developers. If app developers are able to position their apps and services more prominently in the operating system, they can better serve the customers. Google, while offers a range of APIs that a developer could use and take advantage of, many have criticised the company for not allowing developers to integrate their apps with the core of the operating system.
Cyanogen says that it has launched a programme called Mod Ready for OEMs and MNO partners to speed up the development time of new devices and services. It says that it will provide them with a development kit and ensure that their software is ready for the latest generation of SoC models. Mod Ready is now available for partners.

SanDisk Launches USB Type-C Flash Drive, New MicroSD Cards.

MWC 2016: SanDisk Launches USB Type-C Flash Drive, New MicroSD Cards

 

 

Home

 |   Mobiles

 |   Mobiles News

MWC 2016: SanDisk Launches USB Type-C Flash Drive, New MicroSD Cards

Amidst smartphone and tablet launches, SanDisk Corporation at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2016 trade show launched its SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C flash drive for mobiles, tablets, laptops, and other compatible devices. The company also launched two new microSD cards.
The SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive is available to buy from Amazon and other leading retailers. The new drive comes in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models at $19.99 $29.99, $49.99, and $79.99 respectively.
The new flash drive delivers transfer speeds of up to 150MB per second, making it the company's fastest and highest capacity USB Type-C offering. The SanDisk Ultra Type-C Drive features a slim design and is also compatible with SanDisk Memory Zone app for Android, which is available to download from Google Play.
"We expect to see many new USB Type-C supported devices released in 2016," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. "As more consumers purchase ultra-mobile PCs, smartphones and tablets that feature this new, more advanced USB standard, it is critical to offer a complete ecosystem of compatible products. New offerings, like our SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C Flash Drive, will give consumers the capabilities they've come to expect from traditional Type A ports, but with the added benefit of better performance."
The company additionally launched two new microSD cards - Extreme Pro SDXC - with transfer speeds of up to 275MB per second. The cards will come in 64GB and 128GB models and will be made available in the Q2 of this year. While the 64GB version is priced at $179.99, the 128GB variant costs $299.99.
"Action cameras are now the fastest-growing segment in digital imaging and drones are becoming increasingly popular, creating an opportunity for people to capture more high-capacity, high-quality 4K Ultra HD content," said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product marketing, SanDisk. "We designed this card specifically to address consumers' needs for a faster solution when transferring massive files - and now, with nearly 3x the speed of our fastest microSD UHS-I card, this new offering dramatically reduces time spent transferring content."