The iPhone SE (2020) Review: A Reinvigorated Classic
by Andrei Frumusanu on April 24, 2020 6:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Apple
- Smartphones
- iPhone SE
- Apple A13
- iPhone SE 2020
Display Measurement
The screen of the iPhone SE shouldn’t be much different to that of the iPhone 8. It’s still an LCD IPS display, but it’s also one of the best on the market, even though the resolution is quite low.
We move on to the display calibration and fundamental display measurements of the iPhone SE screen. As always, we thank X-Rite and SpecraCal, as our measurements are performed with an X-Rite i1Pro 2 spectrophotometer, with the exception of black levels which are measured with an i1Display Pro colorimeter. Data is collected and examined using Portrait Display's CalMAN software.
In terms of brightness, the iPhone SE comes in at a maximum of 675 nits, which is in line with Apple’s previous generation LCD devices. It’s not quite as bright as the OLED iPhone 11’s and this can be noticeable in bright daylight, but it’s otherwise a very acceptable result.
In terms of greyscale calibration, minus a gamma that’s slightly too high and by a bit off with slightly darker tones, the color accuracy of the iPhone SE is dead-on. Whites come in at 6492K is almost perfect, and in general the color error is below a dEITP of 1.
Saturation calibration is also extremely good, with only a quite larger overshoot towards the higher saturation reds.
In the GMB test, the display is incredibly accurate with a color error of only 0.99 dEITP, only slightly worsened by the very slightly off gamma and darker tones for a total of 2.12 dEITP.
Overall, the iPhone SE’s display is in line with what we’ve seen on the iPhone 8. It’s amongst the best LCD screens in the market, even though by now it’s been outpaced in terms of brightness output and evidently resolution.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
196 Comments
View All Comments
Che - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I am happy to see Apple have a phone at the $399 price, and great performance. But my goodness, it is ugly in my opinion.Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I personally loved the "white front" design from before, wish they kept that as an option, but it looks good in person.Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
I bet all black phones looks the same to youIrish910 - Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - link
Did you see “stupid” written on the ceiling??lmcd - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The biggest selling point of this phone is upgraded internals paired with TouchID. Face unlock is a huge detriment compared to fingerprint unlock and will be a selling point when my mom picks one up within the next year.Icehawk - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
If they offered an 8+ version I’d be on it in a heartbeat as I love the home button - the camera is a little bit of a letdown but at $400ish something has gotta givefmcjw - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
With inferior camera hardware, the only selling point over a second hand iPhone 8 is the A13, as it's fast and efficient enough. It seems reviewers are lavishing praise on the computational gimmicks, spending time testing out digital bokeh and HDR (and binning and night modes in other phones), which at the end of the day is just saccharine. Like the proliferation of mini boom boxes which claim to have a "great" sound, the one test is whether your ears get tired from the distortion.In my experience, people who care for quality pocket sized photography is served by the largest sensor (pixel-size, not binning equivalent) coupled with smooth jitter free video and lack of any obvious flaws in the processing algorithms. The Galaxy S20's 12MP main camera is a good example, too bad the package is overpriced.
Perhaps this inspires a market for a thicker phone with Snapdragon 865 and a 22mm ultrawide (non-existant) 1/1.33" 20MP sensor?
hoodlum90 - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
"and lack of any obvious flaws in the processing algorithms. The Galaxy S20's 12MP main camera is a good example"Not according to Anandtech's review and may others online as well.
"The main camera sensors on the other hand I feel fall short of the high expectations. Yes, they are better than what we see on the S10 series, however Samsung here is still falling short of proving the same quality that Apple achieves on the iPhone 11 – and it’s also optically inferior to Huawei’s newest devices."
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Depends on who the reviewer wasDeicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Large parts are probably already 2nd hand