iPhone SE (2020) review By CNET

This is the brand-new iPhone SE from Apple. It looks like an iPhone. Eight runs like an iPhone 1111 Pro, but cost 399 dollars. Yeah, there's a lot to like about this phone. There are a lot of different ways. You can look at the iPhone SE from Apple.

That is a more affordable option than the iPhone 11, which it is. That is a sequel to the original iPhone SE in 2016, which it is that is the smallest iPhone you can currently buy which it is or that it is an iPhone 8 with the brains of an iPhone 11. That offers literally better improvements to everything you do on the phone. The new iPhone SE is all of these things, which is why I'm enamored with it hey this film looks like a classic iPhone. It's got the forehead snap, the chin, the home button, but it's the inside.

It's that processor that got brought over from the iPhone 1111 pen 11 pro max. That not only makes it run faster, Melt brings of our new features, but also future proofs. It's meaning this phone will be able to support iOS updates for years. If anything, the iPhone SE is a showcase for just how powerful Apple's a 13 Bionic chip really is. Now you don't get a $399 iPhone without there being some compromises and I really do believe that Apple made smart compromises to get this to be a budget phone, but it only has a single rear camera.

It doesn't have faced ID and a Mowgli me mode lease low fees, it's missing. Camera features like night mode and deep fusion processing, but you know what that's fine in 2017, while reviewing the iPhone 8, my colleague, Scott Stein, described it as V. Let's not spend a thousand dollars on an iPhone and two and a half years later the same could apply to the iPhone SE with a tweak. It's the let's not spend $700 on an iPhone, 11 iPhones, you know. What's weird is now, if you think about it, Apple now has an iPhone at 50 or $100 increments, going from 399 dollars all the way up to 1400 or $49.

Let's talk about the design, for all intents and purposes, this is physically an iPhone 8. It has glass in the front and back has an aluminum chassis and sides, and the only way you can physically tell the difference between the two phones is where the Apple logo is located on the iPhone SE, it's been moved right into the middle. Probably the biggest thing that got sacrificed to get a $399 price on this iPhone is the lack of cutting edge design. It looks old I mean it looks like an iPhone 6, 6 s, 7 or 8. It's not ugly.

Furthermore, it's just last year's design from a few years ago, okay, after being on faced ID models for the past few years, it was a strange and satisfying sensation to set up touch. I'd and I forgot how much I liked the whole button, and it seems so much less fussy to navigate and do interactions with it then swipes and holds on the screen. It's fast, it's satisfying to use a button. Even if it's not a real button, it's just haptic vibrations. The new iPhone SE has a 4.7-inch screen now, for those of you, hoping for the 4-inch screen, embody the old iPhone SE yeah I'm. Sorry, ok, but aside from the iPhone SE s squared off corners, the quality of the screen seems equal to that of the iPhone.11 I mean text to sharp animations. Look good colors seem accurate, and you could see it out in the bright sunny day.

The new iPhone SE is rated ip67 for water and dust resistance, which means it could be submerged under 1 meter of water for 30 minutes now, I was not able to test this claim, though. I did submerge it in 1, liter of water for 30 minutes and everything worked fine. It is highly unusual for a phone that costs less than $400 to have water and dust resistance, and it is particularly noteworthy that the iPhone SE actually includes it. The oven SE comes in three colors black white and red, which is the one I've been using now I realize the iPhone 8 did have it red version, but seeing this in person yeah, it looks so damn good in red and the black vessels on the front. So this is one of the reasons why I'm little iffy about the design, because it's an old foam, but it looks pretty good.

So, let's talk about the thing, the biggest thing that makes this not an iPhone 8 ?, and that would be the processor it has an 8 13 Bionic processors used in the iPhone 11 11 pro 11 Pro max. Not only does it change what this phone is, it is also future proves it, so I am likely to get years longer updates of iOS on the iPhone. Se then had I bought an iPhone 8 just a couple of months ago, and let's just acknowledge that the longevity with which Apple supports iOS and older devices is quietly one of the most significant appeals of owning an iPhone. So what does all this performance get you well in performance tests, the new iPhone SE scored higher than the iPhone 8 and their surprise the original iPhone SE. It also scored right on par with the iPhone 11:11 Pro and 11 pro max in everyday use.

It's a submit apps were fast and launched quickly. Gaming was a breeze FaceTime with friends and stickers was no problem. Editing photos was easy and I neither was able to do AR games on an iPhone SE yea this little guy is no slouch. It's actually pretty impressive when it comes to battery life. Well, things are a talking so on Apple's website they claim the new iPhone SE lasts about the same amount of time as the iPhone 8.

Well, that's not true. It lasts much longer. We ran a video test where we play a video loop back in airplane mode at 50% brightness, and it lasted 15 hours and 45 minutes that is hours longer than what the iPhone 8 and the original iPhone SE did when we ran that same test on them when they were brand new. Now look in everyday use, I got easily a day and a half between charges on the iPhone SE a couple of times. It went two whole days without charging.

Very impressive I should note that I have more battery tests to run on the iPhone SE and that you can check out my review on cnn. com, where I'll update not only their but also the battery score for the review. I should mention that the iPhone SE has wireless charging, and this is another feature that you don't often see on budget phones. It also has fast charging where they can charge the battery 50 percent into the sturdy minutes. However, it doesn't come with a necessary 18 watt charger and said the SE comes with the old 5 watt charger.

Hey look I, get it smart compromises, speaking of which, let's talk about the cameras, so I thought the best way to look at the cameras on the iPhone SE is to actually compare them to those on the iPhone 11. So let's do a little mini shootout and compare photos and videos from the iPhone 11 versus the iPhone SE. Both the front and rear cameras on the iPhone SE are pretty much the same hardware wise as they were on the iPhone 8, but they get a huge improvement in image quality as well as functionality, because of that a 13 processor. Now you get things like smart HDR for photography. You get the quick take filming button means you hold the shutter down in the camera app.

You also get portrait mode photos both on the rear camera and on the selfie camera, and that is truly a first on any 4.7 inch. iPhone, hey I should also apologize. You're going to see a lot of me in these photos and videos, and that's just reflective of the times, are in and trying to test a camera that comes out while you're sheltering in place. So let's talk about the cameras on each phone on the iPhone SE, the rear camera has a 28 millimeter lens with an F 1.8 aperture. Compare that to the two cameras in the back of the iPhone 11, its main camera, which has an 26 millimeter lens with an F 1.8 aperture and the ultra wide-angle camera, which has a 13 millimeter lens with an F 2.4 aperture look I, really like the ultra wide-angle camera on the 11, but I have to, say: I didn't really miss not having it on the iPhone, see and good light photos from each phone are very similar in terms of image. Quality I mean look at these pictures of a tree.

I took at my backyard. You tell which phone took which picture yeah. Now you see my point yeah the iPhone SE photo is framed ever so slightly tighter because of that 28 millimeter lens compared to the iPhone 11, with its 26 millimeter lens. But here are a few other photos where things again are pretty much identical. Both phones have portrait mode and produce excellent results.

The iPhone 11 can do portrait mode photos of people and pets, while the iPhone SE can only do people the photos, look very close, but the iPhone Elevens portrait mode captures just a bit more detail. Sorry about this, but if you zoom in and look at my skin, the iPhone 11 photo has a dusting, more detail and less noise than the iPhone SE photo. Let's look closely at my shoulder in these photos, and you'll notice that the fall-off between in focus and out-of-focus areas in the photo is a little more naturally rendered in the iPhone 11 than it is in the iPhone SE. Alright, and here's a shot of my bike trainer taken indoors in medium light. The most obvious difference is the framing again is tighter on the iPhone SE than the iPhone 11, but in terms of image quality the photo from the iPhone 11 again, it just has a pinch more detail like look at the wall outlet here and the one from the iPhone SE suffers from some noise in the shadows.

That said, this isn't a huge difference in image quality indoors, but the iPhone 11 does have an edge, albeit a very thin edge. The same applies for video. It's nearly impossible to see the difference in terms of image quality, both phones, compute, 4k, 60 frames per. Second. Both phones have extended dynamic range, however, the SE only goes up to 4k 30 frames per second, whereas the iPhone 11 can get that extended.

Dynamic range at 4k, 60 frames per second, perhaps the place where there is the biggest difference between the iPhone, 11 and iPhone. Se is the selfie camera. The iPhone 11 has a wider front-facing camera, and it's capable of 4k video and slow fees. The iPhone SE can only shoot 1080p video and no slow fees. Both phones have portrait selfie mode and again the image quality is just a tad bit better on the iPhone 11 there's just a little more detail in those photos.

Look I, guess the biggest takeaway from this mini camera shootout is that the iPhone SE can go toe-to-toe with the main cameras on the iPhone, 11 and 11 Pro. So to put a bow on this entire review, the iPhone SE has an attractive price. It gets fantastic battery life, it has a great rear camera. It has that bonkers, powerful 813 processors. Furthermore, it has water resistance and wireless charging.

The iPhone SE is not only a wonderful iPhone, but it is one of the best budget phones that you can buy hey. So that's my review for the iPhone SE. If you want to look at more take a look at cnet. com, my full in-depth review is there, but if you have questions for me, throw them in the comments. I'd love to answer them, but also I'd love to know.

Are you getting a SE or you considering it? And so what are you upgrading from.

Source : CNET