iPhone SE 2020 In-Depth Review | The Best Value iPhone in Years? By InsideTech

In, a change from what we're used to saying Apple's latest iPhone isn't the best phone they have to offer, but instead a more budget-friendly option and, in fact, the cheapest phone the company has made in years. This is the new iPhone SE a phone that serves as a successor to the popular first generation set hat was released back in 2016. The original iPhone SE took the small body of the iPhone 5 but packed in the processing power, but the higher-end iPhone 6s providing a more affordable option for consumers who still wanted the fastest iPhone on the market. The new SE takes the physical form and design of the iPhone 8, but has upgraded internals, including the latest, a 13 Bionic chip, essentially creating the iPhone 8s. That was never released compared to the rest of the iPhone line up the phone benefits from having a smaller form factor, but still has the processor found in Apple's current highest end phone, the iPhone 11 Pro the SE cuts corners in terms of the display, specs, the camera and a few other areas too, but crucially, is available for under $400 a fraction of the cost of the pro series in this video we'll be taking a look at all the specs and features of Apple's newest phone I'll draw comparisons to the original iPhone SE throughout the video too, and I think it'll be interesting to see everything. That's changed over the past four years.

Obviously, I'll also make reference to the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 11, since the new SE borrows elements from both of these phones. So I'll explain exactly what's been upgraded and what's missing compared to these phones. Let's take a look so starting off with the design, as I said in the intro, the SE bar is the design of the iPhone 8, a design that even back then Apple had maintained for three generations. You won't mistake the white version for any of the older models, though, since Apple have changed all three SE colors to have black front glass to blend seamlessly, with the display for some people. This is exactly what you've been asking for years, whilst others may miss the personality that the white bezels provided.

You can also identify the new SE from the back of the phone which, like the iPhone 8, is still made of glass, but following the trend set last year, the position of the Apple logo has been centered and the iPhone text has been removed. Sadly, the phone doesn't get the matte finish of the pro series, so the glossy back still collects lots of fingerprints. The new SE maintains the iPhone eights water resistance to allowing you to submerge the phone underwater to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes. The aluminum frame is color matched for each phone housing, the volume keys, a mute, switch on the left side, the power button and SIM card tray on the right side and the speakers microphone and lightning port on the bottom. Unsurprisingly, you won't find the headphone jack here.

So this marks, perhaps the only downgrade from the original iPhone SE the phone has exactly the same dimensions as the iPhone 8 and by today's standards. You could consider this a small phone. Switching back to this smaller form factor I, immediately noticed how comfortable a phone of this size and weight feels in the hand it's a considerable step up from the original SE, of course, but is now the smallest phone that apple offers in their lineup. The most noticeable part of the SES design is the front display, which is capped by thick top and bottom bezels. In an effort to keep the cost down, the SE doesn't receive an all screen design, as we've seen in iPhones for the past couple of years, which is perhaps the least surprising but also the least exciting part of this phone.

This is now a six-year-old design, one we first saw back with the iPhone 6, and it does seem dated compared to the modern, looking but often more expensive phones. We're now used to this design. Choice has also seen the return of touch ID, which, although is a setback compared to newer iPhones. There are certainly many people out there. You prefer this to face ID.

This is the 2nd gen sensor used in the iPhone 8, which, as a secure biometric system for opening, secure, apps, Apple Pay and, of course, unlocking the phone. It's still a pretty reliable and fast unlock method, and unlike face ID, can take you straight to the home screen with a single press, but, as with all fingerprint, sensors is still liable to repeat attempts with any dirt moisture or miss placement. The display is taken directly from the iPhone 8 and has almost identical specs. We have exactly the same brightness color range and pixel density. It's the only difference is that the SE uses haptic touch rather than 3d touch.

Apple have been phasing out the expensive 3d touch and even their 11 Pro Series phones didn't get the technology. So I'd say this is the sole advantage of the iPhone 8 over the new SE. It's not exactly a dealbreaker since haptic touch. Lets you perform pretty much. The same functions.3D touch was just a bit faster and a unique feature in the smartphone market. You can't really ignore the fact that this display doesn't have exciting features like an old screen design or a high refresh rate, but it still a great looking display with bright and vibrant colors, especially for a budget phone and will likely be a huge upgrade to those coming from older phones.

It's still a pretty decent, albeit small, screen, to watch movies on with support for both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 content. Well, though, you can't enjoy this in as true form, since this isn't an HDR display. The stereo speakers will answer this experience too, which can get surprisingly loud. Take a listen max. It was successful because it delivered in areas that people seem to care about the most.

We significantly improved battery life and a completely redesigned camera system. In fact, the iPhone competes with the Google Pixel 4 for having the best camera does not phone with the smaller phone size comes a smaller battery and for me, the s ease battery life is the phone's biggest weakness. It's not exactly bad. Under average, use it'll see you through the whole day, and I've personally, been averaging over 6 hours of screen on time. But if you want to use the phone heavily with demanding applications like the camera or for gaming, then you may find yourself needing to charge up before the day is done for context.

It's supposed to last, as long as the iPhone 8 now I. Don't personally remember my 8 struggling to last the day like this one does, but having used newer phones for some time now could well just be accustomed to bettering battery life in phones. Clearly, the SE is marketed at those upgrading from much older phones, and this isn't supposed to compete with the great battery layers of the iPhone 11 series. So the majority of people will be happy enough, but even those coming from the Plus models may notice a drop in battery life. The benefit of a smaller battery, though, is faster charging, and the SE can be fast charged from bought to full in under two hours it had charged a quarter of the way after just over 10 minutes and over 85% in an hour.

So you can very quickly top up the phone if needed. Of course, this is nothing compared to the ultra-fast speeds found on many Android devices, but very good, bye, ? standards. Just remember that only the slower 5 watt charger comes in the box. The clasp back also allows the super convenient wireless charging, which can charge the phone to fall in just under two and a half hours. Moving on now to the camera, the SE has just a single 12 megapixel lens, which is seemingly taken directly from the iPhone 8 and not the 10r s unpredicted.

But the newer processor grants the phone additional features and improvements. The major benefits over the iPhone 8 are next gen, smart, HDR and also portrait mode on the whole I've been really happy with this camera pictures are sharp, have great color and in some situations can keep up with the market leaders thanks to smart HDR. The improvements with dynamic range, with the main differences I noticed from the iPhone 8, and those upgrading from older phones will notice a huge improvement. The SE still doesn't have the contrast or as wide dynamic range, as the eleventh series, though, so you should really think of the camera as an improved iPhone, eight lenses, rather than just taking the white lens from the newer iPhone 11. The white aperture creates a nice natural background blur for close-up subjects and also allows a decent amount of light in to expose subjects in dark environments, with the ESI's processor again helping to improve images from the iPhone 8.

However, the SE doesn't get the excellent night mode of the iPhone 11 and there's still a massive difference in low-light image performance compared to apples, high-end phones. The SE does, however, gain the Elevens portrait mode. It's Apple's first iPhone to create a depth map, that's entirely based on software and, to be honest, it does a pretty decent job for a single camera lens. The SE sport rate mode comes with all six lighting modes, despite not having a second lens to enhance the portrait effect. Still, the limitations of the single lens are pretty clear and the cutout just seems a little unnatural, like the subject has been superimposed onto the background, and you can tell the phone is struggling without the added information that the secondary lens would provide.

Looking at this photo here, you can see how the phone was unable to differentiate the subject from the background in the more tricky areas, and this is where the iPhone Elevens extra lenses come in handy video recording is characteristically excellent, as we've now come to expect from an iPhone and is as smooth and stable as ever. The SE gains a couple of improvements over the iPhone 8, with extended dynamic range up to 30 frames per second and a big improvement with audio thanks to stereo recording. It also gets the new quick, take video feature from the 11 series and the SES video quality trails only slightly behind the top-tier iPhones, which also get features like audio zoom and 60 frames per second extended dynamic range. The new front-facing camera is taken directly from the iPhone 8, but again thanks to the 13 chip. The SE benefits from some additional features found in the newer iPhones, such as portrait mode and cinematic stabilization, but taking a look first at photo mode.

The front camera quality has been significantly improved from the previous SE and images a sharper, more vibrant and have much better dynamic range. The new SE obviously benefits from the higher resolution lens and wider aperture, but also from auto HDR, which was only introduced with the iPhone 8. Nowadays, we take for granted the image processing that goes on behind the scenes in newer phones. But if you remember back to using phones like the original SE, the phone would actually take two images, the second being an HDR copy, auto HDR on the new SE blends multiple exposures into one photo, which clearly produces a much better final image. The front portrait mode performance was typically perfect, much better than with the rear camera and the phone did a great job with identifying and blurring the background.

Edges, weren't either, sharp or distinct to create a jarring effect. That's the transition into the blurred background was very smooth. The 3dtrue depth cameras found on the iPhone 10 inure will give you a better portrait effect, but again for a single camera lens. The portrait effect is surprisingly good on the new SE. The second major addition to the SE is that the front-facing video now has cinematic stabilization.

So not only has the resolution been improved from the original SE, but the stability is now even better than on the iPhone 8, the stabilization, as well as the color vibrancy, with the two main improvements I noticed from the original SE, where the video seems washed out by comparison again, the video performance isn't as good as the eleventh series, which have 4k slow motion and extended dynamic range support. I would have liked to have seen a 60 frames per second option on the new SE, even if only a 1080p resolution, but the video quality is still very good for a phone in this price range. Overall, the camera system on the new SE is very capable, and certainly one of the best single lens shooters on the market. It's clearly lacking the full feature set and versatility with the multi lens iPhone 11 series, but I must say that it's really refreshing to go back to the appealing aesthetic with the single lens. Even if the days of the flush, camera lens are a thing of the past.

I think the lack of night mode will be the biggest disappointment for people, but the s ease camera still provides some nice improvements from the iPhone 8 and will be a huge upgrade for anyone coming from older devices. The SE comes with a handful of performance upgrades over the iPhone eight such as gigabit two class LTE and Wi-Fi six, but strangely didn't get the iPhone Elevens u1 chip for spatial awareness, perhaps the most interesting selling point of the SE, though, is that is packing the same: a 13 Bionic chip and third general engine that Apple use in their premium iPhone 11 series on paper. This might seem to suggest that the SE will have the same processing power as the iPhone 11 Pro, but this isn't necessarily the case. If you look at the single core benchmarks, then yes, the SE is on par with Apple's best smartphones, and this is technically one of the fastest on the market. Right now for day-to-day use, the SE will be just as fast as the 11pro and may even beat it in certain situations like opening apps from a very simple standpoint.

You've got the same processor here, but in a smaller device that has fewer pixels to process in the display, so it has the potential to be apple's fastest phone for certain tasks. However, the 11 Series phones have more RAM and offer better graphics performance so for intensive tasks like editing gaming or for handling multiple apps. In the background, the SE does fall behind. The SE is easily powerful enough to run even the most demanding of apps, but to think the battery life will be a bit of a restriction here, and this highlights the advantage of the more expensive iPhone 11. The smaller size of the SE works to its disadvantage too, since it's more likely to overheat and cause thermal throttling, and I've definitely noticed this phone, getting very warm using power demanding apps or when fast charging.

So, although the performance is great, just don't expect quite the same performance as the 11 series. The two main features with the iPhone SE are having modern high-end specs, but also maintaining a low price tag and Apple achieves this by retailing, the phone for 399 dollars. There is a huge market for people who not only don't want a huge 7-inch display that barely fits in their pocket, but who also don't want to pay over a thousand dollars for that privilege which I completely understand. Not everyone cares about having the very latest gimmick or a cutting-edge design. Some people just want a reliable phone with great performance at a good price, and the new SE offers exactly that.

This is a small and compact phone. That's superfast and has a great camera all for a fraction of the cost of a flagship device. If you have an older iPhone anything up to an iPhone 8, then this phone is an easy choice to upgrade to and also an excellent phone to, transition onto iOS for anyone with an older Android device. I think androids the best current competitor is Google's Pixel 3a, a phone that beats the SE 4 price, the display and for its camera. However, it also makes sacrifices in its build quality and especially performance compared to the SE.

And if you plan on holding on to these phones for a few years, the iPhone will offer greater longevity. But realistically it's whether you want an OSR Android that will be the most important factor, the pixel for an is likely just around the corner to, so you may want to hang on to see what that's offering first, if you're, still undecided for anyone who currently has an iPhone eight, the SE does offer a few nice improvements, but I don't think it's really worth the upgrade unless you've used your iPhone eight heavily and your battery health is suffering. There's no need to upgrade just yet and if you did want to then I'd look to the eleven series instead for a more worthwhile upgrade for anyone with an iPhone, 10 or newer. The speed boost you get with the S II doesn't nearly justify all the compromises that go with it, so this phone probably isn't for you either for those who are considering upgrading to the iPhone 8 I'd highly recommend you get the new S II instead it'll be supported by Apple for longer. It has a bunch of great improvements, and only if you found it at some crazy discount price would it really be worth buying instead, I think the biggest downside when switching to the S II is that you're, essentially getting more of the same, but just a bit faster.

The phone has a dated design that we've seen for many years now and only offers a handful of new features like portrait mode. So the experience is very familiar and this will be the biggest reason not to buy the new S II. If not the fact that the battery life is only average at best, it's an easy and safe choice for sure, but not necessarily all that exciting as long as you're happy with this or if you specifically want the power of the iPhone 11 in a smaller handset, the sew ill be perfect, but if you really want to feel like you're, getting an exciting new phone, you'll be better off. Looking at one of the old screen designs like the iPhone 11, the thinner, bezels and removal of the home button creates a gesture based navigation system that feels fresh and new. So you might need to spend a little more in order to really feel like you're getting a big upgrade.

The iPhone 11 strikes a great balance between features and price and offers so many improvements over the iPhone SE that this, in fact, might be the upgrade you're. Looking for the 11 offers you an all screen design, better water resistance, the true depth camera face, ID, an ultra-wide lens night mode and a much better battery life, and this really brings us back to answering the question in the title of this video when you wail this up for the extra $300, you get a lot extra for your money, certainly more than you get to the next $300 jump up to the pro series, so the crown for the best value iPhone might actually belong to the iPhone 11. Instead, if you come quite stretch your budget that far then the iPhone 10 are might be a good compromise. Without the a13 chip it actually doesn't have all the features or as good performance as the SE. So I, don't think of us as good value for money as the 11, but it does still have an old screen.

Design with features like face ID so might offer that fresh and exciting experience. That's missing in the SE overall, the iPhone SE offers something rather unique in the crowded smartphone market, the power of a flagship device in the body of a much smaller and cheaper phone. There are few if any, competing phones at this price point. Let's offer better value for your money and for me the iPhone SE is the best phone under $400. So what I want to know from you guys is what phone are you switching from to get the new iPhone SE, but also for those who are thinking of buying the SE, but have now decided not to what is it that's missing from this phone that stops you from buying it? Thank you very much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.

Source : InsideTech