Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Web Browsing Experience on iPhone SE

R

rsg1010

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 8, 2014
72
18
I'm curious to see how people find web browsing/reading text on the iPhone SE. It has been years since I used a small phone but was curious to see how others find it.

Is it a struggle and do you to try to avoid of possible?
Or do you actually find it easy and even comparable to a iPhone 6/6s?

I don't have one to compare to and haven't seen any online videos discuss this in any great detail.

Thanks
 
I don't think you want to browse the web for hours and hours or all day long on an SE while it's possible it is small but an hour or short periods throughout the day is no problem. If you have poor vision it might be a problem for you even at short periods. Go to a store and try it out for yourself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tedson and Traverse
My eyes are not the best but I haven't had any issues. I double tap to zoom when needed. Mind you, I don't often use the web on my phone to begin with but it will do in a pinch. Font size seems about the same as my 6, there is just less content that you can see on the screen at one time. I will likely just bring my iPad along when I know I will be reading a lot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5105973
Fine for short periods.

For proper reading or researching, I'd use a desktop screen anyway.
I have an iPad Mini for in-between-ness...!
 
  • Like
Reactions: tedson
It's doable. But just like the 3.5 inch was doable. Not ideal when compared to the 6s and especially the 6s+. But that's the trade off of portability.
 
Slightly better than 3.5" screens and slightly worse than 4.7" and 5.5" screens.

It honestly depends on your usage and needs. For some it's acceptable and for others it's not.
 
It's great for me, especially with ad blocking enabled. I find it easy. I have no issues with it. It was pretty crappy on my 5S, but the the 2 GB of RAM and A9 chip, browsing isn't an issue at all. Everything is speedy and fast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Math889 and Mernak
BMcCoy said:
Fine for short periods.

For proper reading or researching, I'd use a desktop screen anyway.
I have an iPad Mini for in-between-ness...!
Click to expand...

This!

All the phone screen sizes are too small for long reading (for this i prefer using desktop, laptop or at least tablet), but for quick search on the go, they are all good.
In the end its all about your own preferences > small, light and portable or big, heavy and bulky.
 
geta said:
This!

All the phone screen sizes are too small for long reading (for this i prefer using desktop, laptop or at least tablet), but for quick search on the go, they are all good.
In the end its all about your own preferences > small, light and portable or big, heavy and bulky.
Click to expand...
Long reading doesn't bother me on this phone. Night Shift helps immensely for reading for long periods of time.
 
Seems like it would work just fine, as it did for years with iPhones prior to iPhone 6.
 
As others have said, depends on personal preference. For me, it's an improvement over the 1 GB iPhone 5, which had to reload tabs constantly. On the go, it works just fine. If I'm at home and need anything bigger, I reach for my iPad or MacBook Pro.
 
Works great. It's really not all that different than the larger models, as it's not like any of the iPhones present content in a different way. It's all just slight scaling.

I wouldn't recommend the SE or any iPhone for long stretches, but for the average phone internet use it's solid.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrGuder
I wouldn't want it to be my only device (even the 6+ is too small for that), but for an hour or two on a compute and during the day usages it's fine. I've been using my friend's iPhone 5S and was amazing at how little difference there is between 4" and 4.7"

Attached are two screenshots of the twitter app on the same part of the timeline/feed. While note Safari, it's a similar situation. Notice how on the larger iPhone 6 screenshot all you see a brief glimpse at the next tweet. So it's 2 tweets vs 2.4 tweets.

In Safari, many sites like Macrumors have dynamically adjusting text now so text is the same size on both screens, you'd just see maybe 2.5 posts on the iPhone 6 and 2 on the 5S. THat's almost a negligible difference to me.

IMG_1040.PNG IMG_1041.PNG
 
  • Like
Reactions: willmtaylor
I've done fine with a 4 inch screen for the past 2 and a half years and 3.5 inches for 4 years before that!

Just depends on what you like :p
 
\-V-/ said:
It's great for me, especially with ad blocking enabled. I find it easy. I have no issues with it. It was pretty crappy on my 5S, but the the 2 GB of RAM and A9 chip, browsing isn't an issue at all. Everything is speedy and fast.
Click to expand...

Ad blocking and removing the social buttons has significantly improved the amount of actual space on a lot of sites. I would definitely suggest that on any smaller phone
 
  • Like
Reactions: MephistoZap and MrGuder
I am only a large screen user. But, played with one at Best Buy since I may upgrade my wife's 5 toward Christmas. I thought page rendering on the web was just fine. Better than my 2 previous 5 inch Samsungs.
 
web browising on my SE is no issue for me.. Actually, I really missed the design of the iphone 5 and the 4 inch screen,. Its is comfortable to use . and battery life has been amazing!!!!!!!
 
Quick searches on Safari on the SE are fine for me. If I know I'm going to do some in-depth web browsing, I'll use my iPad Mini or rMBP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back