Apple’s latest iPhone SE is being released today, and it’s certainly going to make a big impact on the market, for the simple reason that this is a $399 iPhone. We’ve had the new phone for a mere 24 hours, but we've been able to quickly put the device through its paces, showcasing the biggest differentiating factors for the phone – a device that can be essentially described as an iPhone 8 but with the brains of an iPhone 11.

In that sense, the second-generation iPhone SE is an extremely straightforward device. Externally, there’s very little that exposes it as a 2020 phone, with only the most minute design changes present. Powered by Apple's latest-generation A13 chip however, it’s hiding the strongest internal components in the market right now, easily beating any other device from the competition – at any price point. What’s left to be tested is how the new iPhone SE’s camera holds up, and if there’s any other noticeable differences between it, the iPhone 8, and the iPhone 11 series phones.

Apple 2019-2020 iPhone Specifications
  iPhone 11 Pro iPhone 11 Pro Max iPhone 11

iPhone SE
(2020)

SoC Apple A13 Bionic

2 × Lightning Performance @ 2.66GHz
8MB L2

4 × Thunder Efficiency @ 1.73GHz
4MB L2
GPU Apple, 4 Cores
DRAM 4GB LPDDR4X 3GB LPDDR4X
Display 5.8-inch OLED
2436×1125
DCI-P3/True Tone
800 cd/m² brightness
2M:1 contrast ratio
3D Touch
6.5-inch OLED
2688×1242
DCI-P3/True Tone
800 cd/m² brightness
2M:1 contrast ratio
3D Touch
6.1-inch LCD
1792×828
DCI-P3/True Tone
625 cd/m² brightness
1400:1 contrast ratio
-
4.7-inch LCD
1334×750
DCI-P3/True Tone
625 cd/m² brightness
1400:1 contrast ratio
-
Size Height 144.0 mm 158.0 mm 150.9 mm 138.4 mm
Width 71.4 m 77.8 mm 75.7 mm 67.3 mm
Depth 8.1 mm 8.1 mm 8.3 mm 7.3 mm
Weight 188 grams 226 grams 194 grams 148 grams
Battery Life 3046mAh

+14.5% capacity
"+4H vs XS"
3969mAh

+25% capacity
"+5H vs XS Max"
3110mAh

+5.7% capacity
"+1H vs XR"
1810mAh

+0% capacity
vs iPhone 8
Wireless Charging Qi
Rear Cameras Main 12 MP 1.4µm Dual Pixel PD

f/1.8, OIS

Wide Color Gamut
Quad LED True Tone Flash
12 MP 1.4µm

f/1.8, OIS

Wide Color Gamut
Quad LED True Tone Flash
Tele-
Photo
12 MP f/2.0 Telephoto, OIS
2x Optical Zoom
- -
Wide 12MP f/2.4
120° Ultra-wide Angle
-
Front Camera 12MP f/2.2 Wide Angle 7MP f/2.2
Storage 64 GB
256 GB
512 GB
64 GB
256 GB
512 GB
64 GB
128 GB
256 GB
64 GB
128 GB
256 GB
I/O Apple Lightning
Wireless (local) 802.11ax Wi-Fi with MIMO + Bluetooth 5.0 + NFC
Cellular Gigabit-class LTE-A
4x4 MIMO and LAA
Gigabit-class
LTE-A
2x2 MIMO and LAA
Gigabit-class
LTE-A
Splash, Water, Dust Resistance IP68
up to 2 meters (Pro models = 4 meters), up to 30 minutes
IP67
up to 1 meters, up to 30 minutes
Dual-SIM nano-SIM + eSIM
Launch Price 64 GB:
$999 / £1049 / 1149€

256 GB:
$1149 / £1199 / 1319€

512 GB:
$1349 / £1399 / 1549€
64 GB:
$1099 / £1149 / 1249€

256 GB:
$1249 / £1299 / 1419€

512 GB:
$1449 / £1499 / 1649€
64 GB:
$699 / £729 / 799€

128 GB:
$749 / £779 / 849€

256 GB:
$849 / £879 / 969€
64 GB:
$399 / £419 / €479

128 GB:
$449 / £469 / €529

256 GB:
$549 / £569 / €649
 

Hardware-wise, the iPhone SE is anything but a budget or middle-range phone. Being powered by Apple’s A13 SoC, the company didn't spare any expense by going for a previous generation chipset, and rather used the latest and greatest they had available. What this means is that performance-wise, the new iPhone SE essentially should be on par with the iPhone 11 series – which in turn means that alongside its siblings, the new SE will be the most powerful mobile phone on the market right now.

As to why Apple chose to do this, I think it’s just a simple matter of projected longevity of the phone. Apple might not be producing previous generation A-series chipsets for much longer whereas the iPhone SE is a new product that will need to be supported (and likely to be produced) for several years into the future. Choosing the A13 here might not be the cheapest option at the very beginning of the phone’s lifetime, but it’s certainly going to pay off long-term when it comes to production as well as support.

Apple gives the iPhone SE 3GB of LPDDR4X RAM – one less GB than the iPhone 11 series, but still significantly more than past iterations of iPhones. Other internal component upgrades are the new cellular modem which is on par with the iPhone 11 series, and the new WiFi 6 combo chip that now also provides Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity.

While I generally prefer black front bezels on smartphones, it’s a so-so choice for the iPhone SE. On one hand it focuses you more on the screen content, however the black is also a lot more a finger-print magnet, and I did think the white iPhone 8 looked quite nice as it was. Holding both phones side-by-side, the back front does feel “older” and less modern than the white variant. I guess it’s a matter of preference.

As for the display, the only difference between the 4.7-inch iPhone SE and the iPhone 8’s own 4.7-inch, 1334 x 750 resolution IPS LCD is the fact that the new screen lacks 3D Touch. Instead, Apple is favoring the new long-press haptics that were introduced in the iPhone 11 series.

From the back, there’s also some very slight design changes. First of all, the new logo is centered, and the “iPhone” marking is gone, compared to the iPhone 8’s back glass design.

Interestingly, the new white design is actually significantly whiter than the iPhone 8’s white on the back glass, it now matches the brighter tone that was previously found on the front bezels. It does allow the white to pop out a lot more and I do prefer this shade.

The only other minuscule difference between the two phones is the fact that the back microphone and bottom speaker’s black mesh has been replaced with a silver one, more closely matching the white theme of the phone.

Size-wise, compared to contemporary phones, the iPhone SE has an outright diminutive stature. Compared to the iPhone X/XS/11 Pro body, which for the last two years has been Apple’s smallest form-factor device, the iPhone SE feels tiny, not only in its dimensions, but also in terms of weight.

The weight difference however does come with one big caveat: the iPhone SE shares the same battery as the iPhone 8, meaning it comes in at a tiny 1810mAh. That’s a huge disadvantage compared to the bigger capacities of the new iPhone 11 series phones, but the iPhone SE is also sporting a very small and very efficient display panel. Apple claims battery life is in line with the iPhone 8 – a claim we’ll verify later in the mini-review.

Overall, it’s been refreshing to use a smaller form-factor phone these days. I have no doubts that a very large part of the potential buyers of the iPhone SE will be those that just aren’t willing to switch to the bigger and heftier devices that have become the norm in the last few years. It’s a dying breed of phones, and the iPhone SE here no doubt is catering both for nostalgia and smaller-form-factor market.

Camera-wise, that’s where we’ll be seeing some quite larger differences between the new iPhone SE and its contemporary siblings. Whilst the A13 and its new ISP will be no doubt upgrading the image processing abilities of the phone, its hardware is still only similar to that of the iPhone 8. Apple here uses the same generation sensor, which means it’s significantly smaller than what’s found on the iPhone 11’s – and of course there’s only one module. We did some quick camera testing and found some differences to the iPhone 8’s capturing ability – some positive but also some negatives, read more in the later section.

Overall, the iPhone SE is taking the physical formula that should be well tested and proven by almost 500 million users out there. It’s certainly not a modern-looking phone, but it remains unique in the market today due to its size and light weight.

System Performance
Comments Locked

196 Comments

View All Comments

  • euskalzabe - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link

    Exactly. And not just those who are not geeks/nerds. I'm tired of being one, tired of fighting Android, tired of inconsistency, tired of having to resort to flashing devices because they're not supported. 5 years on Android, and this SE is now the perfect moment to finally buy a good device that's reasonably priced and that I don't have to mess with for the next 4-5 years. Just for that, take my $399.
  • trparky - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link

    > tired of fighting Android, tired of inconsistency, tired of having to resort to flashing devices because they're not supported

    That was me back when I switched back to the iPhone all the way back when the iPhone 6 Plus was new. Mind you, Android was even worse back then but seeing as how you're saying what you're saying now tells me that Android is still a mess.

    We would never support this kind of bulls**t from Microsoft yet here we are accepting it on phones which usually end up being more expensive than a notebook PC. I see something wrong with this picture.
  • euskalzabe - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link

    You nailed it. It's been 13 years and they still have not figured out how to update us properly. Project treble was supposed to be the great savior that at least would allow OEMs to give us more updates or allow users to install generic Android images on a new phone. The reality is that only a few of the funds released will allow you to do that, and there has been little to no improvement on the amount of updates users get (certainly not the amount of improvement you would expect for a company that has supposedly made OS upgrades such a priority for the past 3 years). I can tell you that my Moto Z2 play had an Android 9 update readied my Motorola and then they proceeded to not seed it to us users for the next 4 months. Fed up, I decided to force the update manually, for which I had to unlock the bootloader (which is allowed by both Google and Motorola) and somehow the OS lost trust on my device when I did that and so I lost the ability to do NFC payments. Are you kidding me? This is a circus. I refuse to be Google's beta tester anymore. I'm done.
  • Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link

    Stop buying crappy 3rd world phone, and get a modern Android device.
  • Retycint - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link

    The average person also most likely won't care about software updates, or will actively avoid updates because "why fix something when it isn't broken". Seriously, this 5 year software update thing had to be one of the biggest circlejerks in the tech community. Both mobile OSes are extremely polished and feature rich at this point, and it literally makes no difference whatsoever whether you're using the latest OS or an OS from 1/2 years ago.

    Security updates also makes no difference whatsoever because your average person is never going to have data important enough for people to ever bother attempting these exploits, most of which require physical access to the device.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that software updates are bad; 5 years support is always better than 2 years. I'm just saying that it does not matter for the average person at all, because they will probably never make use of any of the new features. And this is reflected in the continued success of Android flagships (anywhere that is not the US, at least)
  • Oxford Guy - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link

    "Security updates also makes no difference whatsoever because your average person is never going to have data important enough for people to ever bother attempting these exploits, most of which require physical access to the device."

    Not everyone is "the average person".
  • Retycint - Saturday, April 25, 2020 - link

    We are talking about the average person, are we not? Stop trying to shift the goalposts.
  • Deicidium369 - Sunday, April 26, 2020 - link

    Yeah, the not everyone is "the average person" is kinda implied.....
  • cha0z_ - Thursday, August 6, 2020 - link

    I would argue that even the average user nowdays is actively interested in operating system updates and security + got a tech heavy friend who can ask on the topic for more details + media/youtubers are bringing awareness. So you are wrong.

    Also no important data? hahahahah today people keep ALL THEIR LIVES on their phones + on top of that credit cards/payments/bank accounts and whatnot! You have no idea what damage someone can do to you if he got access to those things! No matter if interested person who knowns you or total stranger over the internet with criminal intentions!

    Also you are wrong that the operating systems are not evolving rofl, I can list a lot with both android and ios! And iphones are receiving atleast 6 years of full support, my secondary 6s from 2015 is on ios 14 beta - smooth as silk and fast too + all the features coming with ios 14 are on my phone! Will be supported fully to atleast September 2021 when ios 15 is releasing and that's 6 years! Security updates you say? Apple support with security updates iphones as old as the 4s from 2011!

    Now check the pricing of top android phones and iphones, different picture vs what it was 5 years ago, right?! If they want to copy apple price wise and even surpass them (and that is what happens the last 2 years) - they better also copy what apple does right!
  • shabby - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link

    The amount of people who load aosp on their phones is about as much as the amount of people who rebuild an engine in their garage or build a house from scratch by themselves, meaning basically 0.
    Go tell your parents to install lineageOS on their phone...

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now