[NFB-DB] Article, HKNC: WHEN THE OLD MEETS THE NEW: A REVIEW OF THE IPHONE SE 3

Wed Apr 6 19:10:13 UTC 2022

You are very welcome. I appreciate your feedback and am glad you found
the article useful!

Best,
Scott

On 4/6/22, Leisa Gary via NFB-DB <nfb-db at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Thank you so much for this review, Scott. I was wondering about some of
> these things and this really helped.
>
> Thank you,
>
>
>
> Leisa Sekhon
>
>> On Apr 6, 2022, at 8:08 AM, Scott Davert via NFB-DB <nfb-db at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Just passing along FYI
>>
>> https://www.helenkeller.org/hknc/iphone-se-3
>>
>> Introduction
>> This review was completed after 10 days of using the iPhone SE 3.
>> Most of my comparison will be with the iPhone SE 2 since that was the
>> phone I had been using previously. For the sake of clarity, when
>> referring to the previous generation of iPhone SE released in 2020, it
>> will be referred to as the iPhone SE 2. Apple refers to the current
>> model of iPhone SE simply by that name. This was also true of the
>> first and second generation.
>> The iPhone SE 3 is a step forward in some respects, but not in others.
>> The reviews from the mainstream are generally positive, though many
>> people feel the need to comment on the older design. This CNet review
>> details how the new iPhone SE 3 compares to the SE 2 and other devices
>> on the market. I will not spend much time discussing the mainstream
>> features, as other blogs have already done this. I will, however, be
>> discussing how the new iPhone SE 3 functions from the perspective of a
>> blind and DeafBlind user.
>>
>> It’s the same, only not
>> If you line up an iPhone SE 2, SE 3 and iPhone 8 side by side, it is
>> impossible to tell them apart since the physical profile of each
>> device is nearly identical. The 3 models are so similar that you can
>> use the same cases for all 3 phones. I purchased a Mophie Juice Pack
>> after being very confident in the rumors about the SE 3, and it fits
>> perfectly on the new iPhone, just like it did on the SE 2.
>> As noted in the linked review, the iPhone SE 3 doesn't have multiple
>> rear cameras like you would find on the flagship iPhone 13 series. It
>> also lacks the LiDAR sensor found on the iPhone 13 Pro. Another
>> missing feature is the U1 chip which means that if you are an owner of
>> Air Tags, you will not be able to take advantage of the precision
>> finding features which provide useful information when locating an Air
>> Tag.
>>
>> The Setup
>> In my review of the iPhone SE 2, I noted that I was unable to transfer
>> data from one device to another unless all other Bluetooth devices
>> connected to my other phone were turned off. When setting up my SE 3,
>> I left my braille display and hearing aids connected to the iPhone SE
>> 2 and found that the transfer between them and the new iPhone worked
>> flawlessly. This is a major improvement since I did not have to try
>> using speech only through the internal speakers to make the transfer
>> happen.
>> In 2018, the Universal Serial Bus Implementers Forum (USB-IF) approved
>> a new Human Interface Device (HID) standard for braille displays.
>> USB-IF is a non-profit organization comprised of many industry-leading
>> companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google. Their goal is to
>> advance USB technology to make it more useable. What this means for
>> consumers is that, if both the braille display manufacturer and
>> mainstream technology manufacturer support it, you will be able to
>> start a screen reader, plug a display in via USB and have access to
>> braille with no further effort required. It will be unnecessary to
>> find and install drivers, connect via Bluetooth or change settings
>> before plugging your display into a USB port.
>> In 2020, Humanware announced that its forthcoming collaborative
>> efforts into the braille display market with APH will also support the
>> standard when it's released. I decided to see if the HID standard
>> would work 2 years after the announcement. Sadly, it did not work
>> during the initial setup, but did work after the initial
>> configuration. One limitation I found to the USB connection was
>> unresponsiveness from the braille keyboard after the screen has been
>> locked. This issue can be resolved by either restarting VoiceOver, or
>> unplugging the display and then plugging it back in. It may also be
>> worth noting that the braille display customized commands that have
>> been set up under Bluetooth do not appear to work when connecting to
>> USB. Though Apple indicated to me that they are not officially
>> supporting the standard, I thought it would be a good idea to try it
>> out.
>>
>> Battery Life
>> The SE 3, according to Apple, will give the user 1 to 2 more hours of
>> battery life than the SE 2. I would say that I get several hours more
>> than I do with my SE 2. The SE 2 cannot give me enough power to last a
>> full day without a battery case these days, but that could be because
>> my location does not have reliable cell phone coverage. This was not
>> an issue 2 years ago when I worked at a different location and was
>> testing the iPhone SE 2, so I don’t feel confident in commenting on
>> how the SE 2’s battery life was when new compared to the SE 3. Running
>> 5G certainly offers a speed boost over 4G and doesn’t appear to run
>> down the battery any more than when 5G is disabled. That said, I do
>> not stream HD video content, which is where the user would most likely
>> encounter the further battery drain. Streaming audio did not seem to
>> impact battery life as I consistently had between 15-20% battery left
>> at the end of the day.
>>
>> Buying some bugs
>> This particular section is mostly for users of braille displays. If
>> you have been holding off on upgrading iOS due to some issues related
>> to braille devices, the iPhone SE 3, or any other new iOS Device, will
>> be running 15.4 or 15.4.1. The good news about iOS 15.4.1 is that one
>> frustration which has been eliminatet. The bug in 15.4  was that quite
>> often, when panning through text using a braille display, the panning
>> command or buttons will not respond, or will respond twice skipping
>> past content that should be displayed.
>> Some issues remain in iOS 15.4.1. If you enjoy writing emails in the
>> native Mail app, you probably will not on iOS 15.4.1 if you wish to be
>> able to insert line breaks. This is because when editing or composing
>> an email in the Mail app using a braille display, after inserting a
>> line break, focus will appear to jump to the top of the screen, even
>> though the cursor has not. If that’s not enough, the aforementioned
>> bug also appears to trigger another one: when composing a lengthy
>> email with the Apple Mail app using a braille display random words
>> will be inserted in the incorrect place, especially after a line break
>> is inserted. The first bug has been around since iOS 15.1, so there is
>> no guarantee a fix will be coming any time soon. Interestingly, there
>> were also issues with braille and editing text noted in my SE 2 review
>> so, in some ways, this seems as though things may not change anytime
>> soon. Those considering the purchase of any new iOS Device may wish to
>> bear this information in mind.
>>
>> The Home Button and Touch ID
>> The SE 3 maintains Touch ID and the Home button. The Home button seems
>> to be preferred by a large number of the consumers I work with. In
>> fact, customizing a gesture for going to the Home screen on iOS
>> Devices without Home buttons is probably the most common thing I
>> support consumers with when we begin training. As such, many have
>> requested the SE 2 and now may begin requesting the SE 3 for this
>> reason.
>> Though Apple has said that users can now unlock their iOS devices with
>> a face mask in iOS 15.4, several Users have reported struggles using
>> this new feature. With Touch ID, there isn’t an issue. For my use
>> case, the Home button isn’t really a consideration itself. Touch ID is
>> the biggest reason I decided to upgrade to this particular model. As a
>> braille-only user, there is no point to me taking my phone out of my
>> pocket since my braille display is connected through Bluetooth. Touch
>> ID is very fast, since I can just rest a thumb on the Home button to
>> unlock my iPhone. When comparing Touch ID between the SE 2 and SE 3,
>> there was no noticeable difference in terms of the speed at which the
>> device was unlocked.
>>
>> Recognition
>> One of the concerns with the SE 3 when compared to the other flagship
>> iOS devices is that the lack of a series of cameras will negatively
>> impact the results of OCR. In my testing, where I compared the iPhone
>> 13 Mini with the SE 2 and SE 3, there is little discernible difference
>> between the 3. I used Voice Dream Scanner to obtain these results and
>> performed all testing on the same stand in the same environment with
>> the same lighting. One of the exceptions in my results was in
>> situations where there was less light. The iPhone SE 2 and SE 3
>> appeared to have the same number of errors, whereas the 13 I was
>> testing had none. The one area where the SE 3 outperforms the SE 2 is
>> the speed at which it gets an OCR result. The SE 3, not surprisingly,
>> produced faster results. This is likely a difference between the A13
>> chip on the SE 2 and the A15 processor found in the SE 3.
>> Currency recognition, when using the Cash Reader app seemed equally
>> fast and accurate on all 3 devices. The SE 2, SE 3, and 13 all were
>> able to recognize bills in under 2 seconds. These bills were tested
>> under the same environmental conditions mentioned above.
>>
>> Hearing aid performance
>> I reported in my SE 2 review that it seemed as though the difference
>> in processors between the iPhone 8 and SE 2 allowed the user to have a
>> more stable Bluetooth connection. I was a little disappointed to find
>> no further improvements between the SE 2 and SE 3, other than that,
>> the lag with Live Listen seems to have decreased. I would estimate
>> about a half second delay between when the person speaks and when
>> their speech comes through the iPhone using the SE 2. The SE 3 seems
>> to have a delay of about a quarter of a second.
>> Whether using mFI hearing aids or those which simply connect through
>> Bluetooth, the only improvement I noticed was that the Bluetooth
>> connection did not become less stable when I was using, for example,
>> my braille display to interact with the phone and my hearing aids to
>> listen to audio. Though the Bluetooth connection still becomes choppy
>> from time to time on the SE 3, I have noticed it happens a bit less
>> than on the SE 2. I noticed, for example, that I had issues with
>> Bluetooth 3 times in an hour when using the SE 2. That went down to 1
>> time the next hour when using the SE 3.
>>
>> Audio
>> Though my ears are certainly not the best judge, I am still able to
>> hear sound quality differences when they are dramatic enough. Unless
>> I’m comparing the SE 2 with the SE 3. I had a friend hang on to both
>> the SE 2 and SE 3 and randomly play the same song through one device
>> or another. My guesses were only correct about 40% of the time. When
>> reversing the exercise, my friend, who says he has normal hearing,
>> could also not tell the difference reliably. If there is an
>> improvement, then it is my conclusion that the differences are very
>> subtle.
>> When testing for any sort of lagginess with the SE 2 and SE 3, I noted
>> none when using speech output. Concerning Siri, I noticed that the SE
>> 3 is much faster than the SE 2, likely because of the 5G connection.
>> Speaking of 5G, the SE 3 does not have access to the MM wave band of
>> frequencies. What this means is that the iPhone 13 will likely
>> outperform the SE 3 when in cities where 5g has been deployed and
>> works correctly. Locally, there appeared to be no difference between
>> the 13 and SE 3.
>>
>> Conclusion
>> Just like with the flagship products versus the older models going
>> back to the original iPhone SE, there are compromises with the SE 3.
>> One of those compromises is the price tag. At $429 for the 64 GB
>> version, it’s the cheapest iPhone on the market. Though there are some
>> things missing from the SE 3 which are on the flagship iPhones, like
>> the camera system, Face ID and a longer battery life, for some
>> individuals it will be a more solid solution. As for me, I was
>> considering returning the SE 3 due to the annoying braille panning
>> issues I did not have to contend with on my SE 2, which is still
>> running iOS 15.1. After some bugs were resolved in 15.4.1, I will keep
>> the phone since the increased speed and longer battery life when
>> compared to the SE 2 are welcomed changes.
>>
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