I prefer iOS, but those photographs look horrible on the SE. Too saturated and orange. The Pixel 6a looks much better, but even then, the pictures there seem too dark. I wouldn't buy either.
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Budget Smartphone Comparison: Google's $449 Pixel 6a vs. Apple's $429 iPhone SE
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Not sure where this assumption about the screen freezing and no updates comes from? Just curious…?
Agree with this a lot —-^
Still using my 2020 iphone SE, works great, got a new case recently so it feels new-adjacent, at least for the next 5 days to a week. Lol.
But seriously, just the same size as the current SEs and filling up the empty space above and below would be super!
Yeah, reading this and the review’s similar notes keeps me confident I don’t need or want to switch. So many “little” things like that element working better, and the for me large thing, of less blatant lack of privacy, remind me several strong reasons to not use Google related hardware or software.
I definitely appreciate the side-by-side reviews like this, since things can / do change from year to year.
it would also help if they framed the shots the same. The extra table surface in the iPhone shot is creating am entirely different photo from the pixel one. It's throwing the metering and color balance off more so than if they were framed the same. the other examples seem to be in an acceptable range even if it is not to one's personal preference, but the first shot is apples and oranges because they aren't even the same photo
What I read was the 6a comes with Android 12. Will receive 13,14,15. That's all for sure but 5 years of security updates. You would think Google could do better.
I have tablets. My 2019 iPad works fine and should update a few more times for iPad OS.
My 2019 Samsung tablet is already EOL for updates. 2 Android updates and done. Also, no more security updates.
I fully support the new Microsoft plan to update every 2 years.
Example from the past: Mac OS Tiger (10.4) was introduced in 4/29/2005.
Final update was 10.4.11 on 11/14/2007. Leopard had already been released.
November 2007 is when I got my iMac and it was preloaded with Tiger. They opened the box at the Apple Store and slipped a Leopard DVD inside.
This is how it should be. The difference between Tiger and Leopard was big!
Apple introduced its own voice Alex. Then they farmed out the voices to someone else.
I have tablets. My 2019 iPad works fine and should update a few more times for iPad OS.
My 2019 Samsung tablet is already EOL for updates. 2 Android updates and done. Also, no more security updates.
I fully support the new Microsoft plan to update every 2 years.
Example from the past: Mac OS Tiger (10.4) was introduced in 4/29/2005.
Final update was 10.4.11 on 11/14/2007. Leopard had already been released.
November 2007 is when I got my iMac and it was preloaded with Tiger. They opened the box at the Apple Store and slipped a Leopard DVD inside.
This is how it should be. The difference between Tiger and Leopard was big!
Apple introduced its own voice Alex. Then they farmed out the voices to someone else.
The phone camera have different focal lengths (the iPhone is wider). No way around it since they wanted the subject to be the same size in both photos.
Usually, portrait shots with wide angle are unflattering (the Jimmy Durante big schnoz look). The obviously fake lense blur does not help.🤮 But if there is a certain effect the photographer is after with wide angle portrait, it can be very unique and artistic.
But the subject wasn't the same size in both shots. They could have moved closer and framed the shot so it was tighter or picked a different scene. Even the half body shot balanced better despite being a different focal length. Fake bokeh and differing focal lengths aside which are unnoticeable at first glance, the only thing that makes that first photo horrendous is the color balance due to the table taking up nearly 1/3 of the scene.
Yeah, all the pics on Pixel are much much better than the iPhone! The iPhone pics have overblown saturation to make them look more appealing at a casual glance, but are actually bordering on woeful. Plus the bokeh is massively better, as is the clarity, detail, colours, focus, everything. I can't see a single aspect of the iPhone pic that I prefer.Hepatitis skin tone is a turn off.
PS - I currently rock an SE, and have been an iPhone user for the last 10 years, so not coming from any Android bias.
What?! The SE design is very dated! It is literally the iPhone 6 design, released in 2014.
And quite frankly, Apple is plagued with software quality control problems, never bothering to entirely fix the bugs in one OS version before releasing the next super buggy version. And haven't exactly been immune to hardware issues either.
And yeah, I own an SE and a MBP, and have been exclusively on iPhones and MBPs for over 10 years. A deep Apple love/hate relationship.
That's an issue for any lithium ion battery, not the phone. At least with iphone, iOS tells you the approximate battery health. With Android, there's no way of knowing how's the battery health. Regardless, you can always replace the battery, so not really a big deal.
Agree that Google should do better, especially since the Pixel 6 series uses their own chip. Even Samsung is giving longer Android upgrades than Google for their flagships (4 years of OS upgrades vs Google's 3 years).
Pre 2020 Samsung devices only get 2 Android OS upgrades. That's still the standard for mid to low range models, and that's actually better than the market as most other OEMs only provide 1 OS upgrade if you're lucky. The upside is, you will still be getting Google Play security updates, and sometimes Google introduces new features to older devices through that route.
Totally agree. I had an iPhone 7 for years and years and just refused to update to a 2022 SE because the design is exactly the same! Everything was the same except the CPU. Hard to justify a "new" phone when it has the LCD of an iPhone 6 and the camera of an iPhone 7.
It's a marketing strategy, and intentional. Create a low price point to lure people into the ecosystem, but make it look outdated with old design so not only it's cheap to make, it might encourage people in the store to simply go for the more expensive models (eg iphone 11) that look more current. More profit for Apple. The current Apple is all about upselling.
Even the base ipad suffers the same thing, using a really old (but cheap for Apple) design. It doesn't even have laminated screen.
Pixel only gets 3 years of OS upgrades. Remaining 2 years is only security patches. This is actually disappointing as the Pixel 6 series uses Google's own chip. Meanwhile, Samsung is able to offer 4 years of OS upgrades on their flagships.
Apple's record is currently the 6s, with 6 years of OS upgrades. Hopefully they improve that further on newer devices.
That 3 years of updates MIGHT extend to 4 years, now that Google is using their own chip. Time will tell.
Apple has had to provide full OS upgrades in order to provide security updates because it was previously not possible to separate the two. Now that Apple has finally modularized iOS to the point that they can separate the two, I wouldn't bank on the lengthy iOS support cycle to continue.
As far as Pixel updates go - the five year guarantee is for security updates and "Pixel" updates which do include features. That timeframe is also only a minimum guaranteed timeframe. Updates could very well still be provided beyond what is stated in that link - they are just guaranteed not to end sooner.
My Samsung Note 8 (circa 2017) still gets security updates.
No. The iPhone SE sports a beautifully refined design built on a timeless classic. Nobody will ever remember the Pixel 6a.
I dont care about cheap pixel phones but you are off the scale with your love for apple.
They say some people go bananas, but you went into that direction with apples lol.
"Might" is not good enough. Google themselves already stated the support timeline.
iPhone SE customers love the device, that's what really counts. If you don't love it, you have plenty of other iPhones to choose.
I'm still running an SE2 and really can't fault it. I'd love a little bigger screen but the jump to the next iPhone is quite a lot of money. The battery life has been great and especially integration with my iPad and MacBook (particularly using the SE2 for filming video and the iPad as a remote monitor for it).
The horrible skin tones in the photos above are most likely getting the white balance wrong and being biased to warm. You can manually overcome this with photo apps if you're seriously into photography. That said, it looks worse by having a cooler image right next to it - in some cases a warm bias actually works well for indoor lighting. Don't judge the phone or camera by this one shot is the point I would make.
The horrible skin tones in the photos above are most likely getting the white balance wrong and being biased to warm. You can manually overcome this with photo apps if you're seriously into photography. That said, it looks worse by having a cooler image right next to it - in some cases a warm bias actually works well for indoor lighting. Don't judge the phone or camera by this one shot is the point I would make.