Apple iPhone SE review (2020): $400 phone, $1,000 performance By Engadget

Later this year, Apple is widely expected to show off a trio of new iPhones, but LIDAR sensors and superfast chipsets and sleek designs. Perhaps inspired by the iPad pros. They'll probably be great, but despite all of that, the iPhone SE might be the most important found Apple releases all year. Now, I'll be honest. This iPhone is not for me. My eyes are pretty lousy, so I prefer bigger screens and I also have fat thumbs, so typing on this thing can get pretty tricky.

Maybe some of that sounds familiar to you and if it does, the iPhone SE might not be right for you either. What's more important, though, is that it's going to be just right for a lot of people. We probably all know someone clings to an older phone, because the new ones are just too big and there's also no shortage of people who just don't get worked up over a new phone. The way we do it and gadget they just want something, affordable and powerful enough to last them a while for those people and for many others. The iPhone SE is the right phone at the right time, but let's back up a bit first, if you've heard anything about the iPhone SE, it's probably some combination of these bullet points.

It's cheap, it's small, and it's powerful. Let's go through these in order. The base iPhone SE with 64 gigs of storage, cost 399 dollars, which means it is priced to move. If you need more storage, that's totally fair. The upgrade to 128 gigs will cost you an extra 50 bucks, or you could splurge on Macs that model with 256 gigs of storage for 549 dollars.

If this is roughly how much you're willing to spend on a smartphone, and you're open to Android as well as iOS, there are plenty of great options out there: Samsung's Galaxy, a 71, the OnePlus 70, the Motorola 1 hyper I could run through this list all day. Just keep one thing in mind: hardly any of those four to $500. Smartphones use the highest end chipsets available the iPhone SE does the iPhone. Se is also small, but everyone saw that coming like the original iPhone SE before it. This new model packs modern components like the 13 Bionic chips at better wireless antennas and more basically into the body of the iPhone 8, we'll get to how well the iPhone SE performs in just a bit, but I want to spend a little time digging into this design.

Personally, I find it a little dated since the last time we got a new iPhone SE mid-range Android smartphones, like the ones I just talked about, have adopted, edge to edge displays, and they've sprouted, multiple rear cameras. The iPhone SE is by comparison, pretty basic, all right. Fine, it looks like a phone from three years ago because it uses the body of a three-year-old phone. Just look for a moment at these bezels. Remember those Android phones, I was just talking about the ones that cost roughly the same as this iPhone every single one of them looks better looks, aren't everything though, and the iPhone SE still has a lot of going for it in this familiar package, the home button is back, and it definitely takes a little getting used to if you've been using all screen phones for a while.

But let me just say: I forgot how good Apple's touch ID sensors are setting. This thing up was a breeze. It works really quickly and most importantly, and I guess perhaps sadly also it still lets. You unlock the phone while you're wearing a mask. It's also rated ip67 for water and dust resistance, so it'll survive a dip in the shallow end of your pool for up to 30 minutes and I should point out that Apple's also made some important additions under the hood beyond obvious stuff.

Like the chipset choice, the iPhone SE supports dual SIM via an Easton, which makes it a great option for traveling. There's also support for Wi-Fi 6 here, which is great. If you've already invested in a Wi-Fi 6 router. There aren't many of you I'm sure, but everyone else will catch up to you eventually and then there is the screen, a 4.7 inch Retina display that runs at 1334 by 750. It's its exactly the same screen we got a few years ago and there's nothing wrong with that.

In my experience, it's still plenty bright compared to the iPhone 11 and colors looks surprisingly good here, because the iPhone 8 does support a wide color gamut, and even though this screen runs at a lower resolution than any other smartphone Apple makes its smaller display. Size means you're, looking at as many pixels per inch as on an iPhone Palette, in other words, you're, probably not going to see individual pixels. Unless you smash your nose right into the glass now I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I am in love with a screen or anything, but it is perfectly nice for what it is. The only real question is whether it's big enough for you and I can't really help you with that. I find it too small.

Personally, as I've said, I will say, though, that there are some advantages with Apple's choice of screen that I didn't really expect going into this for one. If it breaks, you'll spend a lot less trying to repair it than you would on a high-end. iPhone Apple is going to charge a hundred and twenty-nine dollars for iPhone SE screen replacements, which is 20 dollars less than the same procedure would cost for an iPhone 8, which is kind of ridiculous and $70. Less than replacing the screen on an iPhone 11 if you'd rather dodge the Genius Bar entirely and take it to a third-party repair shop or just try and fix it yourself, I guess, replacement parts will also likely cost you less than they would for a more powerful iPhone. It's really easy to get hung up on how little you'll spend on an iPhone SE, but I think it's also important to know that it won't cost you a ton of money to keep it running.

If something does go wrong and because the iPhone SE uses Apple's 813 Bionic chips at me very same chipset that you will find in the company's most expensive smartphones. You will not be wanting for power if anything, squeezing this processor package into a $400 phone feels like the best kind of overkill. The iPhone SE will outgun every other smartphone in this price range. If you want more detail about the architecture or how it splits loads between its different processor cores, please check out our other iPhone reviews. This kind of isn't the place for that.

All anyone really needs to know is that the iPhone SE can handle damn near anything. I have been playing graphically intense games, I have been jumping between apps, like a crazy person. I have been rendering 4k videos just for fun. Basically, I've been trying to do everything I could to throw this thing for a loop, and this little guy does not quit and, more importantly, neither does its battery I've been testing. This thing for a couple of days now, and even after long stretches of use, I've still generally gotten 11 or 12 hours of use from a single charge.

That's not amazing, but for a small phone like this, it's kind of too expected going into this. The camera was the only real question mark Apple eventually confirmed to us that it isn't using the same 12 megapixel sensor as the iPhone 11, but it wouldn't elaborate any further. What we do know is that this single main camera has an F 1.8 aperture at 6 element, lands and optical image. Stabilization. It's its, honestly.

Pretty great I am just as surprised as you are I've been testing the iPhone SE against the iPhone 11 and my favorite Android phone of all time. Google's pixel, free AXL, going into this I, was sure. I would prefer the pixels photos, but the photos I shot with the iPhone SE frequently had warmer more appealing, colors and less noise. Overall, most of the time, I couldn't tell the difference between the photos. The iPhone SE took and the photos the iPhone 11 took, which I guess is because the processing that's happening with the a13 chipset is similar, if not identical between the two phones, every once in a while, I wouldn't notice, a few fine details in a picture I shot with the iPhone 11 that weren't, quite as distinct in a photo I shot with the iPhone SE just check out the star button and the ribbing on this analog.

Stick still the fact that I have to sit here and scrutinize these photos to make out the difference kind of says it all the iPhone SE s main camera punches way above its weight. The 7 megapixel front-facing camera produces some decent, looking selfies ? and you can use either that or the iPhone SD s main camera to shoot. Handsome bouquet filled. Portraits I should point out. You'll also get every single portion mode option which you couldn't on some earlier devices like the iPhone 10 are the only real caveat there is that you can only use it on people, but I think you'll probably survive.

Even the 4k video clips, I shot, look pretty good I mean none of them are gonna, get the nod, Cal award season, but they're more than fine, considering the price. Really. The only other rock aside from the portrait mode stuff, is that the iPhone SE doesn't have a dedicated night mode. Apple wouldn't really explain to me why, but for now at least that's going to remain exclusive to high-end iPhones. There is just one more thing: I have to mention the original iPhone SE, the one that launched over four years ago got the iOS 13 update last year.

That is four years of new software. Now I like Samsung plenty, but even if you buy their most expensive smartphones right now, they will still only guarantee two years of software updates. Google's pixels are a little better since they'll get at least three years worth of updates. But the point is the for. Se will almost certainly get more than both of those devices.

It is a bargain chore, but it's a bargain that will continue to stay relevant for a long time. All told the iPhone SE is a phenomenal smartphone for the price and I know what some of you are thinking. Yes, there are handfuls of devices out there that cost more or less the same, with bigger screens and more cameras and more flexibility in whatever that's fine. The thing is the iPhone SE tends to the basics, so well that practically speaking, hardly any of those other phones even come close I'll grant you. It is not the prettiest device out there and that will turn some people off, but if all you care about is getting an extremely powerful, extremely practical smartphone, the iPhone SE, is its damn well perfect, I liked it.

Could you tell thank you for watching our iPhone SE review I honestly wish more of it sucked, so I didn't have to be so effusive with praise, but it just gets a lot of right and for the price, my god, this thing is going to sell like crazy? If you have feedback and want to know more about the iPhone SE, please check out the full written review on and gadget com leave a comment below and as always thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.

Source : Engadget