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
First Thoughts & End Remarks
This very much has been a light-speed review for a phone that at the time of writing I’ve only received 23 hours ago now, but the iPhone SE is also a phone which many of us should actually be plenty familiar with.
There’s no doubt that Apple's choice of recycling the iPhone 8 design and housing is related to achieving the super low $399 cost of the iPhone SE. This is a manufacturing chain that has been pumping out hundreds of millions of these phones over the years and I imagine that re-using that machinery very much helps the affordability of the phone.
It’s a very familiar design, but it’s certainly no longer a modern one. Besides the actual price of the phone, I can imagine that for some the biggest selling point of the phone is that it’s so a small device compared to other contemporary options. Particularly for people attached to the iPhone and iOS ecosystem, the iPhone SE is the only option going forward if you’re after a small form-factor phone.
The iPhone SE’s display is in line with that of the iPhone 8, meaning it’s an excellent LCD panel with outstandingly good color calibration, although it’s no longer keeping up in terms of brightness and resolution with newer generation OLED phones.
Performance of the iPhone SE is arguably the very best part of the phone, and Apple’s choice to go with the new A13 chipset is an outright disruptive move in the $399 sector. In essence, Apple’s lowest-end phone right now outperforms all other Android flagships on the market, painting quite the stark contrast of the competitive situation of the silicon playing-field.
Camera performance of the iPhone SE was the biggest question mark for the phone, and the new SE delivers on its promises. In daylight pictures, there’s much better HDR and dynamic range characteristics, and Apple here is mostly able to match the compositions of the iPhone 11 in the vast majority of scenarios. Detail-wise, the phone is also extremely strong although slightly lagging behind the class-leading iPhone 11 cameras. Meanwhile colour temperature is still on the warmer side, similar to previous generation iPhones.
Low-light capture, whilst not explicitly tested in this piece today, is significantly improved for the new iPhone SE, massively upgrading the quality of shots compared to the iPhone 8. Whilst it doesn’t quite match the low-light ability of the iPhone 11 series, it’s a very respectable performer here given the lack of computational photography.
Overall, at the end of the day what the new 2020 iPhone SE represents is a $399 iPhone – and that’s a selling point all by itself. It’s a significantly better device than the now discontinued iPhone 8, for a cheaper price. You’re getting the best performance of any mobile device out there on the market – and the compromises in the screen, battery life and cameras are reasonable given the price of the phone.
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Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
it's a long time trick to make screens longer and longer to inflate the specs, you need to look at the width of the screen which is fine, I don't care if it is technically 4.7 inches, you can build a 6 inch screen just as wide, but taller, and I wouldn't want thatweevilone - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I really felt this moving from the 6+ to the 11. The loss of screen width really meant that the display size was a net downgrade regardless of specs.Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Yeap for me personally I felt the screen on the original SE was too small, but the iPhone 8 screen size is fine, I just wanted an all screen front (fingerprint on the back). I'll take the SE 2020 though, the screen is wide, but the phone is lightweight.heffeque - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
It's not a trick, it's having a phone that is mostly the size of the screen. I have a Mi 9T and couldn't be happier that it doesn't even have a camera in sight. I can read a lot more text without scrolling, which IMPOV is great.Alistair - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Also you might have missed it, but the battery life was about the same screen on time as the S20 at 120hz, or more battery life on standby than that phone. Not amazing, but not bad either.sonny73n - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link
4 hours of general usage for a fully charged battery in 2020 is LAME.cha0z_ - Wednesday, July 29, 2020 - link
Having iphone 6s as secondary phone - the screen size is fine tbh, tho I would not use anything smaller. Bezels are big, but you got a really good physical FP scanner (can't stress that enough, a top end recent android phones I have are with far inferior FP scanners to the 6s. Including those with physical like the note 9 I have) + in person it does look good and premium. Dunno, hard to explain. Friend of mine have iphone SE and the battery life is quite good actually for the size of the phone/battery. Easily 5-6 hours screen with heavy usage and no power saving features + mobile data a lot of the time, navigation, carplay, calls, music playing and so on... my point is that the battery is not bad at all for daily charging. Fun fact, exynos s20 ultra is not much better at 120Hz in the battery department with it's huge battery. :)I totally agree on your last sentence tho, media calling 400$ phones as budget ones is baffling, but yet again - phones now chase the 1500$ mark... so maybe they have a point.
Alexvrb - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
I know a couple of other holdouts that are probably going to make this their next upgrade. :PGood specs and decent price too.
YB1064 - Monday, April 27, 2020 - link
I'm still rocking the old 4inch SE as well. One of the best phones ever made. Phones these days are tablets, that require a backpack to carry.yetanotherhuman - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
"outright diminutive stature."You spelled "reasonable, normal size for a smartphone" in a weird manner.