Apple iPhone SE User Reviews

Overall User Rating
Build quality
9.6
Camera quality
8.9
Performance
9.3
Display
7.8
Battery life and charging
8.7
Rating breakdown (out of 10)
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User reviews
10

iPhone SE (1st Generation) Still a Good Phone in 2020

Phone owned for more than a year

This phone is 4 years old and still get software updates. It’s still snappy and fast. I use it a lot. Small fits in 1 hand and easy to use. Screen quality is still good in 2020. I love the form factor (build quality) of this little phone. Makes a good backup phone or nice for a high school teenager.

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8

Decent Phone From Apple

Phone owned for more than a year

I'll start out this review by giving a small perhaps insignificant disclaimer: I'm neither a fan of iOS/Apple nor Android/Google.

This phone works amazing in some cases and in the most important cases it dies. That last part might seem odd to read at first and I'll get to that but first the pros because in my experience there are more cons.

This phone works amazing as stated before, it's fast, responsive and does all the tasks you want a smart gizmo to do without it slowing down. Apps usually work as they should without issues.

Now for the cons... The biggest con the phone has is the battery. The battery indicates its percentage improperly much of the time (i.e. plug it in to charge it and if it reads 40% and I unplug it it might say 30% or 50%, plug it in again and it could stay or show a different number) and if that's excusable to you, fine - you are a very tolerant person, what's inexcusable in every way is how the phone shuts off in cold weather and I mean even if it's just a little cold. This phone will not work properly in cold weather.

- - -

Updated review: April 14, 2020

Around February I replaced the battery to this phone and now it works like new. I looked at the battery tab last night and it reports I get an average of 6 hours screen on time from some web browsing and instant messaging and the occasional music listening.

The phone works great now. I am astonished that a smartphone with only a dual core can perform so well when other phones have quad cores or even octo cores.

My regret is getting a 32GB model when I should have gotten at least a 64GB model and my only concern is when I'll be needing to replace its battery again. I have heard and read in countless places how small a lifespan iPhone batteries have.

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4

2small4me

Phone owned for less than a month

Not too bad small phone but for the price almost everything is bad catastrophy of a phone if you play games or text or watch something or take pictures so literally almlst useless and apple slapped huge price like a cherry on top noice

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9

A great little heap of power

Phone owned for more than a year

A great phone. Powerful, with a small form factor. There will always be an audience for such a device, and with its very good battery life and 3.5mm headphone jack, this little man was the cock of the walk.

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8

Great device when it was released, not as good now

Phone owned for more than a year

This is a good phone for those on a budget or love the design of their aging 5/5C/5S but need an upgrade.
Battery life is excellent as long as it isn't used heavily.
This phone is quite durable as well.
It lacks modern niceties such as wireless charging or water resistance, but these aren't noticeable on a daily basis. The screen is fine unless you're planning on binge-watching Netflix or the like. The camera works well in ideal conditions. The audio is fine, but it isn't particularly immersive.

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9

A Small Wonder

Phone owned for less than 3 months

if you like a small smartphone, just go for it. it has a very very fast performance, great camera with RAW support, slim and nice design. but for me, such a small size screen has become boring, otherwise, the device is fantastic.

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10

Best 4" smartphone on the market

Phone owned for less than a year

First and foremost,the iPhone SE is not for everyone.Those who start "keyboard war" telling there are much better phones with bigger screen out there..just stop! Consider that it's an upgrade for those who had 5 and 5s.Same shell with specs from iPhone 6S.I'm going to keep it for the next couple of years.I came from cheaper phones like HTC Wildfire and Samsung Galaxy Core so my current phone is rocket against my previous phones.

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9

Simply the best smartphone in a reasonable size

Phone owned for less than a year

if you can't get Sony's Xperia XZ1 Compact. 6S specs, 6S camera, very snappy with apps, outperforms my 2016 Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7" in smoothness of motion in the game Township. Games are surprisingly not difficult to play on the small screen. Yes, the keyboard is small but swipe typing takes care of that. I haven't even turned on the fingerprint scanner yet! Pressing the button has done the job up to now.

It has most of the meaningful new features. Apple CarPlay, Apple Pay, Apple Health! No aspects are outdated in a major way - maybe the 1.2MP front-facing camera, but that does outperform some other phone cameras with higher MP. 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Voice over LTE, Wi-Fi Calling. One of the best looking phones of all time. It's a timeless design, like a classic car.

There is such a thing as big enough. This is a phone. I have big screens everywhere. A TV, 24" desktop monitor, 9.7" tablet. In 2010 and 2011, phones left us wanting because they were not nearly as capable. We thought increasing the screen size would solve problems, but we lost something as well along the way. The SE is so ergonomic and functional.

I was mulling over the iPhone 8 last September and was almost ready to get it. But it felt like I was settling for it with its chubby body. I bought the SE, in September 2017, because I fear that the next model will be spoiled in some way, such as by having a 6/7/8 body. The iPhone 8 was filler with an uncompetitive design today and only released because it is unprofitable for Apple to make a smaller X. I'm not buying that phone. Also, the leak about 3 giant new iPhone models later in the year, no leaks about a new SE model and the capability of the current SE make the benefit of a new model evaporate.

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9

I like it

Phone owned for less than a year

I like the size and the build quality of the little iPhone SE. I have my second SE, with 128 GB Memory. I am not a friend of big displays. I hope they make a follower with 256 GB Memory or a SD card slot.

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10

Sensational phone

Phone owned for less than 3 months

Coming from android and the quotes I hear about how shocking Apple is.I was amazed by this device.Went for the 64gb for the extra 200 dollars. First few hours took a while to adapt to the software.But it's lag free,everything is done to a great standard.The specs say most things but even when we hear the 1.2mp camera I got down but when I tried it boom amazing beats a 5mp android camera. The battery well is sensational I like the occasional 3D game and I lead the wifi on. I expected the phone to dye after school but no at 9 pm this beast is still running with 20 percent left. Not even my android Samsung lasted that long. So even though it is over priced and specs don't seem amazing it performs well above its weight. And I can still use the special features ie live camera !! Down side is can't Bluetooth files so think I'll do it through iTunes.

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