O iPhone SE (2022) is the new cell phone Apple’s entry ticket and starts being sold in several countries this Friday (18) —in Brazil there is still no official date, but there is already an official price: from R$ 4,199.
The new iPhone was one of the highlights of the company’s first event this year, held in the last week. However, the launch again raised questions about Apple’s lack of innovation in terms of design, something that so remarkable for the company co-founded by Steve Jobs.
Contrary to the competition with infinite and folding screens, the device still has a button with a fingerprint sensor – which Apple launched in 2013 e started to “kill” in 2018. And edges… lots of edges on a 4.7-inch (11.9 cm) screen.
This context has left some people with the feeling that Apple has stopped in time. But did she really stop? The answer is not simple and involves at least three “it depends”.
The first has to do with understanding where Apple fits its line iPhone SE in front of the devices that it continues to sell today: iPhone 11 and phones within families iPhone 12 e iPhone 13 (which has four versions).
iPhone SE 2022 has a 4.7-inch screen
Image: Disclosure/Apple
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1. Who is the button iPhone for?
This year’s iPhone SE arrives in its third generation. The powerful processor equal to the 13 line and the lowest price are the main strategies used to convince consumers who have never had a company phone or who have very old versions.
Priced at US$ 429 in the US, it is the most affordable value among the devices that make up the current portfolio of the North American company. The same thing happens in Brazil.
O iPhone 11, for example, was released in September 2019 and is still sold by Apple. It starts at R$4,999. That is, R$ 800 more than this year’s SE.
—iPhone 11 has two main cameras; iPhone SE (2022) has only one
Image: Disclosure
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In order to maintain the lowest value compared to other phones of the brand, Apple uses the body of an old iPhone – in the case of the iPhone 8, it leaves aside some innovations, but integrates more current technical specifications, from 2021, in the case . That
“cake recipe” is traditional across the SE line.
In a nutshell, this year we have a cell phone that, apart from design old, it has a better processor and an updated photo processing system (with artificial intelligence), and it costs less than the iPhone 11.
And here’s a tip. If you are someone who has more to spend, wants an Apple cell phone and loves a small phone, search for the iPhone 12 mini it’s the iPhone 13 mini. Their screen follows the “infinity” pattern and both have facial recognition — which is not present on the SE 2022.
A TiltApple highlights that the focus is to make the iPhone SE the company’s first cell phone for many people, with high performance.
“iPhone SE is a favorite of our current and new iPhone customers, with design, performance and form factor that fits in the hand,” said Kaiann Dramce, Apple’s vice president of global iPhone product marketing, Tilt.
2. But couldn’t you really remove the button?
Let’s go to our second “it depends”. The home button is not just for browsing on mobile. It works as a security feature by having an integrated fingerprint reader — the Touch ID— for screen unlocking and authentication of online purchases, for example.
So, if the company had taken this technology out of the game, it wouldn’t justify having a device with a button in 2022. If it chose to do that, the price would likely be impacted — for more.
—iPhone SE version released by Apple in 2020
Image: Disclosure/Apple
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In reply to Tilt on the decision to continue with a button on the SE line, the company claims that the 4.7-inch screen with Touch ID remains very popular with iPhone users.
In addition, the company points out that the device has fast processor performance A15 Bionicin addition to what customers can get in this price range.
3. There are consumers who like the button
Aside from the cost-savings factor of using an old cell phone structure, which doesn’t require major tweaks to make the phone commercially viable, there’s a lineup of Apple fans who love the physical button. In a quick search on the internet, it is possible to feel a little of this relationship.
Button iphone a thousand times better than face ID
— Lol (@carol_furlaan) March 11, 2022
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I see iphone with a button as something more vintage and the like, stop envying you
– (@biaguassu) March 16, 2022
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I got out of the button iphone and I wanted to say it’s too bad without home button
— André (@andrerr_b) March 16, 2022
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people? what’s the problem now with button iPhone? I like mine so much
— Samarinhaa (@santasonsa) March 17, 2022
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Yes, I still haven’t changed my cell phone because I’m attached to the home button
— Anna (@AlyceFilgueiras) March 14, 2022
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The difficulty of unlocking the iPhone during the covid-19 pandemic because of the masks also made many owners of the company’s cell phone dream of the return of the fingerprint sensor on the device.
Of course, not a large structure taking up part of the cell phone, like the iPhone SE (2022). but not on and off button, as it already works with the iPad Air line.
—Apple launched the first iPhone SE in 2016. The model marked the technology company’s return to four-inch screens for smartphones
Image: Disclosure
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And why do they say that Apple no longer innovates?
As stated before, the iPhone SE (2022) has a very old body, more precisely from 2017 – some still see similarities with the iPhone 6, from 2014. But despite that, another reason for this lack of major updates in the “look” of the cell phone is that Apple has been investing much more in internal improvements in recent years than in external ones.
To understand this scenario, it is necessary to go back in time a little. In 2007, when the first iPhone was launched, Apple went against the grain of the market, removing the traditional physical keyboard on cell phones and inserting a virtual keyboard, which made its phone’s screen much larger than that of any competitor. .
—First iPhone
Image: Reproduction
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The idea of making the screen larger has not been lost since. On the contrary, with smartphones running more and more games, films and series, consumers continued to look for large screens with good image definition to satisfy the experience.
One of the company’s milestones at this point was the launch of the iPhone XS Max (6.5 inches; 16.5 cm), which became known as the largest cell phone ever made by the company… up until O iPhone 12 Pro Max (6.7 inches = 17 cm).
—iPhone XS Max inaugurated Apple’s line of cell phones with large screens
Image: Bruna Souza Cruz/UOL
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The point is that for those who see it from the outside Apple stopped there in terms of visuals. And it’s not all a lie. The notch, the name given to the cut at the top of the screen, where the front camera and facial recognition sensors are located, is still very large compared to competitors.
Only last year did the iPhone show a 20% smaller cut — but still big — after years of keeping the same thing. At the rear, the cameras gained slightly different structures. But nothing radical.
Innovation is certainly where “nobody sees it”
The changes that Apple has adopted year after year are no longer so visible, which doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
The investment in evolution has been internal: its latest processors use 5-nanometer technology, with nearly 15 billion transistors to handle the most demanding tasks. The processor debuted in the iPhone 12 family, which ushered in a new era of chip technology.
The iPhone 13 has a 6-core CPU, which the company says is 50% faster than any other on the market, and a 4-core GPU, making it up to 30% faster than the others.
—14.Sep.2021 – A15 Bionic processor summary
Image: Reproduction
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While the GPU is busy processing graphics in detail, making the images better defined, the CPU is responsible for processing the other data. In other words, the latest iPhone lineup has a great combination of a powerful graphics card and a fast brain to get things done.
In addition, the so-called Neural Engine, the iPhone’s artificial intelligence engine, is capable of performing up to 15.8 trillion operations per second, according to the company, which allows the device to have even faster machine learning. A processor with powerful AI like this can run heavy games well and take better photos.
The result can be evaluated in benchmark tests, made to compare the performance of different software and hardware. In one of them, conducted by PCMag magazine, the iPhone 13 Pro Max delivered a performance 35% faster than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultrathe best of the South Korean company’s latest line.
The great performance remains the highlight of the iPhone. However, internal innovations also consume battery faster, and this is still a great Achilles heel for the brand: in the cost-benefit comparison, iPhones with the most powerful battery are always the most expensive, which limits purchasing power. of many consumers.
iPhone 14 may have novelty in design
As is an annual tradition, the announcement of a new iPhone, the 14, is expected in September of this year. This time, one of the main speculations involves the design: will the notch finally be reduced?
That’s what some market analysts believe. Perhaps, Apple will adopt—years late—the circular notch for the camera and a small strip for the facial recognition sensors.
Another market bet is that the iPhone 14 may have a fingerprint sensor on the cell phone’s on and off button, as smartphones from several other brands already have. If implemented, this change would not dispense with the use of Face ID, which remains one of the milestones in technology popularized by Apple.
Having an iPhone with an in-display fingerprint sensor doesn’t seem to be in Apple’s upcoming plans. Not, at least, according to rumors.
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