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
System Performance
Performance-wise, the inclusion of the new A13 chip should essentially blow the iPhone 8 out of the water given it’s two generations newer than the A11. For more details about the A13, please read our in-depth coverage of the chip in our review of the iPhone 11 series.
In the steady-state Javascript web benchmarks, the iPhone SE unsurprisingly matches the newer iPhone 11. In JetStream, the phone even gets a boost here, which might be due to the newer iOS version. I haven’t had the chance to re-test the older iPhones, but I’m certain the scores will level out across the A13 generation devices.
On WebXPRT 3, the iPhone SE did score quite a bit worse than the iPhone 11 phones. This test is more interactive in its workloads and more impacted by DVFS responsiveness, rather than just being a continuous stead-state load. It’s very much possible that Apple has tuned down the DVFS of the chip in order to remain at the more power efficient frequency states for more workloads. I haven’t had the time to update Xcode to run our workload ramp test yet – but it’s something that can be easily verified in a follow-up update on the topic.
Update April 29th:
I was also able to verify the CPU frequencies of the A13 in the iPhone SE, and the phone tracks identical peak frequencies as on the iPhone 11. This means that we're seeing 2.66GHz peak clocks on the Lightning cores when a single core is on, and up to around 2.59GHz when both cores are enabled. The Thunder cores clock in at up to 1.73GHz as well, just as on the iPhone 11’s.
The DVFS of the two phones is also identical – with the same ramp-up times between the SE and the iPhone 11. In general, any performance differences between the new SE and the flagship phones should simply be due to thermal characteristics of the smaller phone, possibly throttling things faster when under more strenuous workloads.
Overall Performance
Whilst I haven’t had too much time on the SE, the first impressions of the device are very much that this is just an as good experience as the iPhone 11 series. Much like on the iPhone 11 series, I actually feel that the raw performance of the hardware is actually hampered by the software, for example animations could be much shorter or even disabled in order to improve the user’s experience of speed and responsiveness. In either case, the iPhone SE’s performance is fantastic, and that’s due to the A13 chipset’s raw power.
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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