iPhone SE (2020)
The 2020 iPhone SE is lightweight, cheap and future-proofed - well done, Apple.
The iPhone SE has exactly the same design and display as the iPhone 8 from 2017. Using this form factor and screen hardware allowed Apple to keep the cost of the device as low as it has, as it didn’t need to invest in a whole new manufacturing process.
It feels like the iPhone world has moved on in three years though – that the 4.7-inch screen with the chunky bezels above and below has been consigned to the past.
In that time the flagship iPhone range has moved to an all-screen design – barring a notch at the top, you’re presented with barely any bezels – while with more premium aluminum inside, things have got a little weightier in recent years.
So returning to the iPhone 8 design means Apple is bringing back its more lightweight phone, and anyone upgrading from something like the first iPhone SE will feel less of a change than if they went for the behemothic (but impressive) iPhone 11 Pro Max, for example.
Indeed, picking up the new iPhone SE , the first thing you’ll notice is how lightweight it is. Again, some might not notice the change if they’re coming from a smaller phone from 2016/17, but trust us: it could have been a lot worse, as the devices in the newer all-screen iPhone ranges are a lot heavier.
While the iPhone 8’s design might feel like an archaic choice for a new iPhone, it makes a lot of sense in the iPhone SE 2020 – and for some who don’t particularly care for the latest features, this more familiar design will be a lot
more desirable.
One suspects that if Apple had rebooted the original iPhone SE shape, with the smaller 4-inch screen and clickable home button (the new iPhone SE 2020 features a haptic button that doesn’t move, but simulates the feel of a click with a small vibration), it would still have sold well; but the larger 4.7-inch LCD screen is more useful for today’s apps, which make good use of the extended display.
One thing that many will miss is the 3.5mm headphone jack. We’ve been saying we miss this for many moons now, but as the original iPhone SE or other cheaper phones that are two to three years old had this feature we can see it might still cause consternation.
A13 Bionic chipset
The big change with the iPhone SE 2020 (and we don’t use the italics lightly there) is the upgraded engine from the iPhone 8. While the external design is nigh-on identical, Apple has supercharged the insides, with an improved chipset running the show.
That extra power is designed to allow the new iPhone SE to rival the iPhone 11 range in terms of speed when flipping between apps, and editing snaps and video, and should also improve the camera performance (thanks to upgraded computational power from the new chipset).
Apple looks to have implemented some serious performance improvements while keeping the cost of this phone down, and that impression has been borne out in our experience with the iPhone SE: it matched the iPhone 11 Pro Max – the most powerful phone from Apple on the market – for speed when exporting an iMovie, and actually compressed a 1080p four-and-a-half minute video at an almost identical speed.
We compared it to the older iPhone 8 Plus with the same test, and when compressing and exporting a movie down to a smaller size, the iPhone SE 2020 managed the task so much quicker.
In our view, the make-orbreak feature for the iPhone SE – and so the key focus of this review – is the iPhone SE camera and how well it performs in day to day use – given that there’s ‘old’ hardware on offer here, Apple has taken a gamble that it can improve photo quality using image processing powered by the A13 Bionic chipset.
Spoiler alert: the gamble has paid off handsomely. The new iPhone SE goes toe-to-toe with the iPhone 11 Pro Max in terms of general snapping, and only struggles when it comes to the areas where the hardware is lacking.
Apple’s ‘tuning’ of images from the new iPhone SE – the way it thinks a photo should look – is interesting, with the processing appearing to follow in the footsteps of that in the iPhone 11 range, favoring a cooler-looking scene.
This results in images that look less warm compared to those from even the iPhone XS from 2018 (which, to our eye, are more visually appealing), but the processing does produce snaps with good levels of sharpness and clarity.
In a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the most feature-packed phone Apple has ever created, the iPhone SE doesn’t perform as well… but that’s understandable for the price. It’s clear that the SE has a tendency towards overexposing in some scenarios, with some of the color and vividness lost in a few pictures.
Battery
In practical use, we saw a mixed performance from the new iPhone in terms of battery life: it certainly wasn’t in the same power-use bracket as the impressive iPhone XR and iPhone 11 range, and we found ourselves having to regularly reach for the charger in the evening.
However, on low-usage days, where we didn’t use the iPhone for a heavy amount of photography or web browsing, we got to the end of the day with over 30% left in the tank, and we saw little powerdrain overnight too, suggesting that the iPhone SE is pretty power-efficient in standby mode. This is the phone to get if you just want a new iPhone, and one that will last you a few years, but don’t want to pay a lot for it. If you’re after ‘decent but not top-end’ performance, then that’s what the iPhone SE 2020 will offer you: there’s a good camera, enough power, a great App Store to plunder and a lighter-weight design than the current crop of iPhone 11 models.
Apple looks to have implemented some serious performance improvements while keeping the cost of this phone down, and that impression has been borne out in our experience with the iPhone SE: it matched the iPhone 11 Pro Max.