News With iPhone SE, Apple beats Android at its own game

Apr 24, 2020
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This is a little biased for my taste.
I have a Galaxy A70, which costs less than the 128gb SE and has the same capacity. It has three cameras, maybe not as optimized as the one on the SE but they do an amazing job. It has an in-display fingerprint scanner, a headphone jack, a FullHD+ display, a much larger screen (6.7" might be too big for some but the size of the SE is just too small for anything but social media nowadays), and it's a Super AMOLED panel. Oh, and an enormous 4500mah battery.
I don't see the point of having an A13 chip on a phone that is really not suited for more than Instagram scrolling and email writing.
Oh, and mine is the old model. You're comparing the SE with a Galaxy A50 when you could compare it to the newer A51, or the A71 for the larger capacity version.
 
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Apr 24, 2020
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My thoughts exactly. It's an agenda article, with a click-bait title.

The reality is, SE has a blazing fast chipset with a decent camera, and that's about it. Its generations behind on screen quality, is incredibly inefficient in screen to body ratio, has a tiny battery with an antiquated 5 year old design.

In a world where 2 to 3 high quality cameras are status quo, having one shooter for a $400 phone is a decision which should be called out, rather than praised.

Would expect more from a Tom's Guide article, frankly.
 
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Apr 24, 2020
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My thoughts exactly. It's an agenda article, with a click-bait title.

The reality is, SE has a blazing fast chipset with a decent camera, and that's about it. Its generations behind on screen quality, is incredibly inefficient in screen to body ratio, has a tiny battery with an antiquated 5 year old design.

In a world where 2 to 3 high quality cameras are status quo, having one shooter for a $400 phone is a decision which should be called out, rather than praised.

Would expect more from a Tom's Guide article, frankly.
Exactly. This is more like an advertisement than an actual article. Unfortunately this kind of bias seems to be everywhere nowadays. I mean, we get it. Sponsors keep the business going. But a little more integrity goes a long way.
 

Marshall Honorof

Editor
Herald
Aug 1, 2013
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Just wanted to weigh in here: I'm not entirely sure what you folks objected to in the article.


This is a little biased for my taste.

Biased in what way, precisely? I'm not an Apple booster, which should be pretty obvious right from the first paragraph. I didn't compare every single metric, as you pointed out, but we have an iPhone SE in-house. We've been able to evaluate it firsthand. It generally performs better than comparably priced Android phones. I'm not sure how much more due diligence I could have done.

My thoughts exactly. It's an agenda article, with a click-bait title.

Without going into tremendous detail, no one writer gets to select the headline. But my only "agenda" in writing it was to point out that the iPhone SE seems like a much better deal than comparable Android phones. You don't have to agree, but that was my analysis. My reasoning is laid out in the article itself.

Sponsors keep the business going. But a little more integrity goes a long way.

This isn't a sponsored piece. We do occasionally published sponcon, but it's always very clearly marked, and never written by someone on staff. I wrote this piece as part of my regular job duties, and I get paid a regular salary. Believe it or disbelieve it, but it's the truth, and telling the truth is a sign of integrity, as you said.

Criticize the article all you want, but those are facts. Take 'em or leave 'em.
 
Apr 24, 2020
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Marshall

Thanks for the response.

My issue is that Apple is not being held to the same standard as other manufacturers in a highly competitive market place.

Samsung, BBK group (Oppo, Realme, etc), Huawei (Honor), Xiaomi (Poco) all have highly competitive offerings in the space, and none of them could get away with (i) having 1 rear camera, (2) LCD display, (3) tiny battery, (4) 2 massive bezels, (5) a 5-year old design. If any of them tried offering not all but any of the above, they would have been called out by reviewers for being hopelessly out of touch with the competition.

But yet, here is Apple being praised for putting in not one but all of the above in a $400 phone in 2020. Frustrating double standard for a tech chap like me.

Maybe the US market is less competitive because of all the carrier tie-ins and the mass market consumer does not see the other Android options available at $400. But I would expect a respected publication like Tom's Guide to guide consumers, and hold Apple's feet to the fire a bit more, instead of being a sideline cheerleader.
 
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Apr 24, 2020
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Just wanted to weigh in here: I'm not entirely sure what you folks objected to in the article.




Biased in what way, precisely? I'm not an Apple booster, which should be pretty obvious right from the first paragraph. I didn't compare every single metric, as you pointed out, but we have an iPhone SE in-house. We've been able to evaluate it firsthand. It generally performs better than comparably priced Android phones. I'm not sure how much more due diligence I could have done.



Without going into tremendous detail, no one writer gets to select the headline. But my only "agenda" in writing it was to point out that the iPhone SE seems like a much better deal than comparable Android phones. You don't have to agree, but that was my analysis. My reasoning is laid out in the article itself.



This isn't a sponsored piece. We do occasionally published sponcon, but it's always very clearly marked, and never written by someone on staff. I wrote this piece as part of my regular job duties, and I get paid a regular salary. Believe it or disbelieve it, but it's the truth, and telling the truth is a sign of integrity, as you said.

Criticize the article all you want, but those are facts. Take 'em or leave 'em.

Look, I'm not saying that the iPhone SE is bad. I'm not saying my phone is faster. But let's see...

"I'm not sure how much more due diligence I could have done."
With minimal research you could have compared it to the newer A51 instead of the year-old A50. Or even the A71, since it's priced lower than the 128Gb SE in most markets. Both of these have fairly faster chips than their predecessors, so if you're talking about speed, maybe you should compare the SE to these. I don't believe they will be faster, but yeah, there's your lack of due diligence.

"[...] the iPhone SE seems like a much better deal than comparable Android phones. "
You're only referring to speed and cameras. What about the outdated form factor? Or the LCD screen? Or the minuscule size compared to...well, even 100 dollar Androids? Or the display resolution? Or battery size? Or fast charging capabilities?
You literally took the two advantages the iPhone has and pretty much ignored all the minuses, then proceeded to call it a better deal. That definitely sounds biased to me.

And integrity isn't only about displaying the truth. It's also about stating facts without taking sides and only then taking conclusions, which you've failed to do, as I've proven above.


Again...I don't think it's a bad phone. And I think it's good to see Apple putting some effort into this pricing segment. But the way you're exposing this is by no means fair.

And since you want to pin it against last year Android models, you could've also compared the SE to last year's Galaxy S10e, which has the S10's processor, waterproofing, wireless charging, and all the other pro's you listed in favor of the SE. And a lot more features I mentioned earlier...But that would take away most of your arguments, so you'd better not, right?

Anyway, thank you for your answers. Most authors wouldn't even go through the trouble of replying.
 
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