Submitted by Scott Davert at:
www.applevis.com <http://www.applevis.com>
Introduction
As the number of active Apple devices increases, so too do the different
choices that the consumer has. The latest offering from Apple is the
<https://applevis.com/blog/apple-launches-new-399-iphone-se-47-inch-lcd-disp
lay-a13-chip-and-touch-id> new iPhone SE 2020. This iPhone is a mix of the
old and new: it retains the build size of the iPhone 8, but has the new A13
Bionic chip offered in the iPhone 11 series. It offers Bluetooth 5.0, but
retains the Home button, which also includes Touch ID. The following review
is written from the perspective of a braille and VoiceOver user.
There have been many reviews in the mainstream media already. Some examples
include this positive review from
<https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/22/review-apples-cheep-and-cheerful-iphone-s
e/> Tech Crunch, <https://www.wired.com/review/apple-iphone-se-2020/> a
less- enthusiastic review from Wired, and
<https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/22/21230308/apple-iphone-se-2-2020-review-f
eatures-specs-camera-price> this review from the Verge. What these examples
all point to are that photos are not quite as detailed as what you find with
the iPhone 11; the design is old-school; but that it is a great price for a
budget phone. They all also point out that the iPhone SE lacks Face ID in
favor of Touch ID, has a shorter battery life than the iPhone 11, and that
it supports fast charging.
Touch ID
Though I understand how to use Face ID, and have trained others on how to do
so, I have found it doesn't fit into my workflow as well as does Touch ID.
As a braille user, I do not need to ever take my phone out of my pocket to
unlock it. Almost everything a VoiceOver speech user can do with their
touchscreen, I can do with my braille display connected via Bluetooth. With
the iPhone XR, which I have used for quite some time, I had to either unlock
my phone with Face ID, or type in my passcode manually using my braille
display. In either case, those methods required more effort on my part and
lead to less productivity. With the iPhone SE 2020, Touch ID is back, and I
can resume unlocking my phone with ease. I have found that Touch ID with the
iPhone SE 2020 is faster and more reliable than what I experienced with the
iPhone 8. While Touch ID was just one of the reasons I was interested in
checking out the iPhone SE 2020, trying to use Face ID with a face covering
(though it can be done) made the experience even less pleasant for me.
What's missing?
Unlike the first generation of the iPhone SE, the 2020 model mirrors the
outward appearance of the iPhone 7 and 8. Unfortunately, this includes the
absence of a headphone jack. Not only does the iPhone SE 2020 not have a
headphone jack, but Apple does not include a 3.5 MM to Lightning adaptor
with this phone. I was also hoping that Apple would have retained the
smaller iPhone 5/5S/SE build, as I have little use for the screen. That
said, the iPhone SE 2020 is smaller than any of the other modern iOS devices
Apple makes, so that is an improvement for me.
The Audio
In my informal way of testing, I found that the sound from the iPhone SE was
noticeably more clear than what I had on the iPhone 8. I determined this by
having a friend use both phones with the same song and randomly choose which
one I would hear first. He would play one for fifteen seconds or so, and
then the other. After each pair of clips of audio, I would choose which I
felt sounded better. In six out of seven instances, I chose the iPhone SE as
sounding more clear. We reversed the experiment, and he picked the iPhone SE
all seven times over the iPhone 8 in terms of better sounding audio.
Differences in Camera
As noted above, one of the compromises made with the iPhone SE 2020 is with
the camera. Unlike the iPhone 11 series, the iPhone SE 2020 only has one
back-facing camera and one front-facing camera. The reviews above, along
with several others, say that the iPhone 11 series has more image
stabilization and that those phones can take a picture that is more detailed
than what you would get from the iPhone SE 2020.
To try and evaluate the cameras on a task many VoiceOver and braille users
might use it for, I compared the cameras of both an iPhone SE 2020 and an
iPhone 11 using the
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/voice-dream-scanner/id1446737725?mt=8>
Voice Dream Scanner app. Though I did not formalize the experiment, I simply
took pictures of documents using the same methods to center the text and
take the pictures as I usually do. In all cases, though a word was
misinterpreted from time to time, both phones seemed to perform evenly with
one exception. When I did OCR in a darker environment, the iPhone 11 seemed
to make less errors than the SE, but in both instances, I was able to get
enough text to understand what was written on the paper I was scanning.
I also did some currency recognition using the
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cash-reader-tool-for-blind/id1344802905?mt=
8> Cash Reader application. Whether using the iPhone 11 or the SE 2020, I
found that recognition was always accurate and occurred within two seconds
on both devices. My informal conclusion is that OCR doesn't seem to work too
much better on the iPhone 11 compared to the iPhone SE 2020. Unlike OCR with
documents, the currency recognition still seemed just as reliable with the
iPhone 11 as it did with the iPhone SE 2020.
Bluetooth and the A13 Bionic Chip
Though I did not have the borrowed iPhone 11 long enough to try all of the
Bluetooth stuff I wanted to, I do have an iPhone 8. Both my iPhone 8 and the
iPhone SE 2020 have Bluetooth 5.0, but the iPhone 8 has the A11 chip instead
of the A13 which is found in the iPhone SE 2020. I've already
<https://www.applevis.com/blog/cross-disability-communication-meets-apple-de
sign-can-we-remain-connected> discussed my challenges with Bluetooth in
another article, so I will not do so at great length in this review. I have,
so far, found that Bluetooth is more responsive on the iPhone SE 2020 model
and that the connection drops less frequently on the new SE than it did on
the iPhone 8 or XR. When I throw four or five devices at the iPhone SE 2020,
the connection still is reliable, but I've found it is more solid if I'm
only using three devices. I also found, however, that I still needed to turn
off all other Bluetooth devices to transfer data from one iOS device to
another.
The Thing That Bugs Me!
As a full-time braille user of iOS, all of my productivity is dependent on
iOS's braille support. One large point against the iPhone SE is that there
is not an option to run iOS 12. iOS 13 came with many features and some
bugs; many of those bugs have been worked out during the iOS 13 release
cycle, but
<https://www.applevis.com/bugs/ios/when-editing-text-contains-linebreaks-usi
ng-braille-display-cursor-which-represented-dots> one particularly nasty
braille bug has not yet been resolved. When editing text that contains line
brakes using a braille display, the cursor which is represented by dots 7
and 8 will often times disappear after a cursor routing button is pressed.
This makes writing professional emails a major challenge, and it has been
the reason I have stayed on iOS 12 and not upgraded to a newer device. It is
also my understanding from many other deaf-blind braille users that they are
not upgrading to newer phones for this exact reason.
Battery Life
Apple has said that the battery life of the iPhone SE 2020 is equivalent to
that of the iPhone 8. Sadly, I would agree that my iPhone 8 and iPhone SE
2020 have about the same battery life; the issue with this is that the
battery in my iPhone 8 is over two years old. It is still at 88% capacity,
which isn't bad, but this seems to be what the iPhone SE will give you with
a brand new battery at 100% capacity. That said, with Bluetooth and Wifi
constantly running, I can still manage to get a full day out of the battery
on the iPhone SE 2020. The difference, though, was that the iPhone SE 2020
charges at a much faster rate
Conclusion
If you are on a budget, the <https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/> iPhone SE
2020 starts at $399 US, which makes it the cheapest model on the market.
Though there are some compromises in terms of battery life and camera
performance, your wallet will thank you for the cheaper purchase. On the
other hand, for those using Braille Screen Input, the smaller screen may not
offer enough real estate to type comfortably using this method. As a
braille-only VoiceOver user, if the above-mentioned braille bug is
rectified, the iPhone SE 2020 would be a strong contender for me. Though the
battery life is less than an iPhone 11, the iPhone SE 2020 will still give
me a full day of use in most cases, and I can carry around a battery pack to
offset this challenge if I'm going to be away from electricity for longer
than a day. Finally, the return of Touch ID is something that I'm very happy
with. As someone who rarely uses my touchscreen, and who almost never takes
their phone out of their pocket, it is fantastic that a modern device
supports it.
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