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.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
196 Comments
View All Comments
Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link
Meh I guess poor people need phone too. Too bad they have to get Appleeuskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
To be fair, every other review (I've read 6 so far) had a much better experience with the camera. It's likely the sample AT received might have been camera-defective.michael2k - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
The people who will buy this phone probably don't see the excitement either. Just like people who buy Corollas or Civics don't see the excitement in their cars; they don't want an exciting car, they just want a reasonably good car.So in that sense, it doesn't matter that this was a world class design years ago, it just matters that it promises 5 years of OS support, 3 years of reasonably battery life, 10 hours of battery use, $399 price point, and smaller size, as well as compatibility with their existing 5 year old phone.
My sister in law has a 5 year old iPhone. My daughter has a 4 year old iPhone. Both are likely candidates for this phone because it's cheap and good enough.
You can argue there are plenty of Android phones that are cheap and good enough, but those phones don't get 4 years of OS upgrades.
cha0z_ - Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - link
mmm 6s is already guaranteed 6 years with ios14 (it will be supported fully to atleast September 2021) + apple still releases security updates for iphones as old as 4s, so you are wrong - the support is even better than you present it + new battery is 50$ original.Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
So a summary of the review: great chipset, great screen with thick bezels, decent battery life, decent camera. In contrast to Android mid-rangers with great battery life, good screen with thin-ish bezels, decent camera, decent chipset.This makes the iPhone SE really good value, compared to most Androids at the same price range, but not necessarily an instant buy especially for people who don't need the chipset prowess (social media/youtube etc)
shabby - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
One thing those android mid-rangers lack will be 5 years of software updates, that and a high end soc.Kudos to Apple, you're turn google... but who are we kidding.
crimson117 - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
That's a great point, 5 years updates and a chipset that should keep up with those updates.duploxxx - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
5 years of updates that will make it 10% slower every year and remove 10% battery life every year.I am so happy you are convinced that updates is all you need….
try lineageOS and see how many updates and android versions are available for ARM cpu . My oneplus one backup device is running lineageOS 17.1 that is android 10... a 2013 device and still as fast as day 1.... good look with your 5y speedy IOS updates.
haukionkannel - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
When we get Android phone that get those updates without loaderfu... Then I would be impressed. Now it is two to three years and after that you have to do things that 99% of phone users don`t know how. Don`t get me wrong. LineageOS is food thing. It just should be automatic option without need the user to do a thing!trparky - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
Once again you prove that your average tech enthusiast is out of touch with the average person on the street. Yes, you can say that you can load LineageOS but how many average Joe's are actually going to load it let alone know how to load it? Not many.Your average person doesn't know how to do that so for those kinds of people this iPhone SE (2020 version) ticks every single box while being a low-priced device with guaranteed software updates for at least five years. This is a serious win for people who aren't geeks and nerds.