Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple’s new iPhone SE is coming with a bigger battery

The 2022 iPhone SE is a blend of an old chassis packing faster innards, with a handful of new tricks in tow. But a major area of improvement potential buyers have been waiting for is the battery life. Well, Apple has delivered on that expectation, boosting the battery longevity and its capacity as well.

As per the official product page, the third-generation iPhone SE can last through 15 hours of video playback, while the 2020 iPhone SE was rated to survive 13 hours of local video playback. As far as streaming goes, Apple claims that the iPhone SE 3 can last 10 hours, while its predecessor tapped out at eight hours. Audio playback duration on a single charge has also gone up from 40 hours to 50 hours this year.

Apple’s press release only mentions “longer battery life” and pins it on factors like next-generation battery chemistry, tighter integration with iOS 15, and the A15 Bionic chip at its heart. There is no explicit mention of a bump in the actual battery capacity. But as per The Verge, Apple told reporters during a briefing session that the battery inside the iPhone SE 3 is physically larger.

Color options for the third generation iPhone SE which include red, white, midnight blue, and black.
Apple

As usual, Apple hasn’t revealed the actual battery capacity in mAh figures, but a teardown will unravel the mystery in the coming weeks. It is quite evident, though, that the 2022 iPhone SE’s battery is still smaller than the iPhone 13 Mini, which is claimed to last up to 17 hours of local video playback and 13 hours worth of video streaming.

Interestingly, the latest-gen iPhone SE is physically bigger than the iPhone 13 Mini but still rocks a smaller battery despite missing out on power-draining assets like mmWave 5G support, a more pixel-dense display, and beefier camera hardware. Nonetheless, it’s a sigh of relief that the iPhone SE (2022) is still an improvement over its predecessor whose battery longevity left a lot to be desired.

Thanks to a larger battery, the arrival of 5G support, a faster chip, and a tougher glass build, the third-generation iPhone SE’s starting price has also gone up to $429. For folks unfazed by its stale design, the low-resolution LCD display, and willingness to turn a blind eye to Android alternatives, the iPhone SE 3 is a compelling phone with that price tag.

Editors' Recommendations

Nadeem Sarwar
Nadeem is a tech journalist who started reading about cool smartphone tech out of curiosity and soon started writing…
I found a huge problem with the new ChatGPT iPhone app
ChatGPT app running on an iPhone.

Seemingly out of nowhere, OpenAI released its official ChatGPT iOS app this week. Available for both iPhones and iPads, the free app allows you to use the popular AI chatbot in a much simpler, easier way than ever before. No more messing with the mobile website or trying to fiddle with uncertain third-party apps — just download the official ChatGPT application, and you're good to go.

It's a big step forward to make ChatGPT more accessible and to get it into the hands of more people. Naturally, I was curious to test it out for myself. I've been using the ChatGPT iPhone app to ask the chatbot various questions, and while the whole thing works just like you'd expect, there's one big, glaring problem that makes me never want to touch the app again.
The ChatGPT iPhone app's biggest limitation
ChatGPT (left) vs. Perplexity AI (right) Digital Trends

Read more
Let’s be clear, Apple — it’s time to make a transparent iPhone
Deep Purple iPhone 14 Pro with Beats Studio Buds+ in Transparent

Apple has released a new product that's gotten a lot of attention because of an awesome new color option. No, it’s not an iPhone, iPad, or even an Apple Watch. Heck, it’s not even the AirPods Pro 2. So, what am I talking about?

Apple acquired Beats by Dre in 2014, and this week, Beats dropped the new Beats Studio Buds+, which are pretty similar to the AirPods Pro 2, but cost less dough. And they come in one of the coolest colors I’ve seen in a long time: transparent.

Read more
OpenAI’s new ChatGPT app is free for iPhone and iPad
The ChatGPT website on an iPhone.

OpenAI has just launched a free ChatGPT app for iOS, giving iPhone and iPad owners an easy way to take the AI-powered tool for a spin.

The new app, which is able to converse in a remarkably human-like way, is available now in the U.S. App Store and will come to additional countries “in the coming weeks,” OpenAI said. Android users are promised their own ChatGPT app “soon.”

Read more