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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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.