iPhone SE 2020 vs iPhone 11 vs iPhone XR Detailed Camera Comparison By TecworkZ

"Music" Hey guys its Sagar from Tecworkz, and today we are going compare the camera on the new 2020 iPhone SE with the ones on the iPhone 11 and the iPhone XR. I am a bit late with this video, but I wanted to take some time to make sure I cover everything that I think is important. Since the new iPhone SE is the most affordable new iPhone from Apple, lot of you guys want to know where does its camera stand in comparison to the other iPhones. So that is exactly what we are going to try and find out in this video. iPhone XR is from 2018 and it is the oldest phone in this comparison. It gets a single 12 megapixel camera, with F/1.8 aperture and a 26mm lens. Then there is the iPhone 11, which came out in 2019, and it comes with a dual camera setup.

Primary camera gets a 12 megapixel sensor with F/1.8 aperture and 26mm lens. Secondary camera gets a 12 megapixel sensor with F/2.4 aperture and a 13mm ultra wide lens. iPhone SE is Apple’s latest smartphone, as it was released in 2020. It also comes a 12 megapixel sensor with F/1.8 aperture on its back. Looking at the specs, It sounds like all 3 phones have a similar camera, but these are in fact different sensors.

XR gets the same camera sensor as the primary camera on the iPhone XS, and it is backed by the image signal processor on Apple’s A12 Bionic chip. iPhone 11 gets the latest camera sensor and it gets backed up by the image signal processor on the latest A13 Bionic chip. Whereas the new iPhone SE, gets the same camera sensor as the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X, and this old sensor is backed up by the latest image signal processor on the A13 Bionic chip. All 3 phones can record optically stabilised 4K videos at 24,30 and 60fps. iPhone XR and SE can record extended dynamic range in videos at up to 30fps, while the iPhone 11 can do this at up to 60fps.

They can also shoot 1080p slow motion videos at 120 or 240fps. At the front, iPhone XR and SE get a 7 megapixel sensor with F/2.2 aperture, while the iPhone 11 comes with a 12 megapixel sensor and F/2.2 aperture. iPhone 11 and iPhone XR gets the true depth camera system with the dot projector, flood illuminator, IR sensor and all. While the new iPhone SE gets the basic FaceTime HD camera. Before moving on to the image and video samples from these 3 phones, if you are new to this channel, please consider hitting the subscribe button and the bell icon next to it.

That way, you wont miss out on any of the amazing videos coming up on this channel. Starting off with the daytime images. It was raining and pretty overcast when I took these images, so we get to see how these phones perform in diffused lighting conditions. If you want to check out how each of them performed in bright sunny lighting conditions, I suggest you guys check out their dedicated camera reviews on my channel. I will leave cards to them on the top right corner of the screen, and also leave links to them in the description section.

Coming back to these images, there are plenty of details in each of these shots. Even if we zoom way in, it is difficult to say which one is showing more details, which is a big compliment for the tiny new iPhone SE. Images from the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE are showing a bit warmer tones, while colours in the images from the iPhone XR are leaning slightly on the cooler side. I took this image indoor, and even when I zoom in, we can see similar amount of details being captures by all 3 phones. Some of these images actually look very similar from all 3 phones.

If we take a closer look, there is a bit less noise in the image from the iPhone 11 in shadows, compared to the other 2. Now if I removed the label, and rearrange the order of these images, would you be able to tell which one is from which phone. Let us do a quick blind test, with some of these images. Have a look at them, and try to figure out that which one is from which phone. And then pause the video and write in the comments which phone is A, B and C.

Make sure you don’t scrub ahead and look at the answers before you comment. So what do you think? If you had to pause on each of these images, and it took you longer than a minute to decide, this is already a big win for the iPhone SE. The phone A is iPhone SE, B is iPhone 11 and C is the iPhone XR. How many of you did get all 3 phones right? And if you did what gave it away? No matter how many of these you got right, there is no denying that Apple knows how to tune the cameras on their phone, despite of how old the sensor is. When we are taking images indoors, the deep fusion mode on the iPhone 11 kicks in, and helps it capture slightly more details.

You wont notice it unless you zoom way in on these images, and even then you will have to know what you are looking for. Even without this mode, we see the iPhone SE capturing more details than the iPhone XR in some of these shots, but we have to zoom in 2-3 times to see this. Coming to the situations where these phones need to capture a wider dynamic range, SmartHDR mode on all these phones does an amazing job. XR seems to be lacking a bit behind in these conditions, where it tries to bring up the shadows, and as a result the image looks a bit faded. Whereas the iPhone 11 and SE are doing slightly better with the highlights, colours and the contrast in these situations.

This is one of my favourite shots, You can not only see the dynamic range that these 3 phones can capture but also the wide range of colours they can get in one shot. I know someone is going to point out that the sky looks more golden in the images from the iPhone 11 and XR, and not so much in the shot from the iPhone SE. It’s not SE’s fault, it was the last phone that I clicked this image with, and by that time sun had set a bit more, and hence the difference in colour, nothing else. Speaking of colours, I like how all 3 phones manage to captures them as close to the actual scene as possible. As I mentioned earlier in the video, XR is leaning a bit towards capturing cooler colours, while the iPhone 11 and SE capture naturally warm images.

The shift in colour might not be very obvious to everyone, but it is there. Which one of these will you like on depend on your colour preference. I like the ones from the iPhone 11 and SE, as I like the colours in my images to look a bit warm. Now let us move on to the close up shots. All 3 phones are very quick at setting the focus on a nearby object, so just walk up to an object, point your phone at it, and click the image.

No need to wait for the phone to hunt for focus. As you can see, the subject closest to the camera or the one that you tapped on is in perfect sharp focus, and thanks to the wide F/1.8 aperture, background gets a very nice optical blur in all these close up shots. Colours and dynamic range is on point while taking these close up shots as well. iPhone 11 packs in the same main camera as the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is Apples’s most expensive iPhone, and the iPhone SE is the most affordable new iPhone. In fact iPhone 11 Pro Max costs almost 3 times as much as the iPhone SE, but if you look at these images, there is barely any noticeable difference.

This tells us how good is the single camera on the iPhone SE. Now let us move on to the portrait shots. This is going to be one of the 2 big tests for the iPhone SE that I am looking forward to. iPhone 11 gets 2 cameras, and even if the 2nd camera is a wide lens, it is also used to calculate the depth for portrait shots. While the iPhone SE and XR both get only one camera, and they have to rely on the software alone to calculate the depth information for these portrait shots.

Let us see how big of a difference does that make. Turns out, not that much. Now these are not 3 different images from the iPhone 11, I can assure you that they have been clicked with these respective phones. I am just as amazed as you to see how well the XR and SE separated the subject from the background. Other than missing on some stands of hair, which were moving because of the wind, edge detection is near perfect from all 3 phones.

I expected the iPhone 11 to be the most accurate one when it comes to edge detection, but I did not expect the XR and specially the iPhone SE to be so good. I take a lot of portrait shots with my phones, so the portrait mode performance is a make or break thing for me. So knowing that the SE only gets a single camera, one of my major concerns was its portrait mode performance, but as you can see, we have nothing to worry in this department. Now one major disappointment is, the iPhone SE and XR needs to detect a person in the frame, in order to click portrait shots. Which means you cannot take portrait mode images of objects with these phones, well at least not with the native camera app.

But we can take portraits of objects with the dual cameras on the iPhone 11. Someone who takes a lot of portraits of objects, I was somewhat disappointed by this, but I found that there are some 3rd party apps which let me take portraits of objects with these phones as well, so its not a very big deal for me now. Speaking of things the iPhone SE and XR cant do, since they just have one camera at the back, they cant take wide shots like the iPhone 11 can. I have started taking more and more wide shots, because this lens helps us show a different perspective of the scene. Wide lens is not as sharp as the primary one, but it is still nice to have a different focal length to shoot with.

Unlike other manufacturers, Apple does very well to match the white balance and colour temperature between these 2 lenses as closely as possible. Technically, you can use add on lenses like these ones on the iPhone SE and XR to take wise shots. But then that is an extra piece of accessory that you need to carry around with you, so it is not as convenient as having an extra wide lens on the phone. Now let us look at the images that I took in indoor, artificial and lower lighting conditions. This is the 2nd big test for the camera on the iPhone SE, low light.

In most of the indoor conditions, when we have good ambient light, all phones take detailed images. As we zoom in, we see slightly less details in the image from the XR, but the SE is performing as good as the iPhone 11. Things start to change a bit as we get into even darker lighting situations. iPhone 11 captures the most details, then we have the iPhone SE with a bit less detail and more noise in its images, and finally the iPhone XR captured the lest amount of details in its image. iPhone 11 also gets a night mode, which makes its already good looking images even better.

We see the same trend in this next set of images as well. Since the SE gets the same processor as the iPhone 11, Apple could have added the night mode to the SE as well, but for some reason, they did not. As we get to even lower lighting scenes, images with the auto mode are almost useless, with a lot of noise, but the ones with the Night mode from the iPhone 11 look really good. While the low light performance of the SE is slightly better than the iPhone XR, it is nowhere close to that of the iPhone 11. So the night mode is one area where we see the iPhone SE fall clearly behind the iPhone 11.

If there is decent about of ambient light, then the SE takes just as good images as the iPhone 11, so that’s good. If you take most of your images in very low light, you should just get the iPhone 11. That brings us to the front facing cameras. iPhone 11 has a considerably wide lens compared to the other 2, but to use it, you will have to tap on the arrows at the bottom, else it will shoot in the default cropped mode. Colours look good from all, but the skin tones look more natural in the selfies from the iPhone 11 and SE, while they were a bit saturated in the selfies from the XR.

There is slightly less contrast in the selfies from the iPhone SE, but from the first look, these images are looking good from all 3 phones. For taking portrait selfies, iPhone SE doesn’t have the true depth camera system for calculating the depth data, as the other 2 have, so it again has to rely on the software. And even with just the software, SE is doing a very good job of detecting the edged for these portrait selfies. SE is actually doing a better job of keeping my hair in focus, where the other 2 consistently blurs them. So for selfies, despite of having a lower resolution sensor, you wont see a big difference between the selfies from the SE and the other 2 phones.

Here is a video from the front facing camera of the iPhone 11, iPhone SE and the iPhone XR. You see how these phones are handling the overall colours of the scene, exposure and stabilisation when I am walking around with them. iPhones have always been the best when it comes to shooting videos, and these 3 phones are no exception. They are doing an amazing job with the colours, dynamic range and also the stabilisation. These videos are virtually indistinguishable from each other, so with the iPhone SE you are getting the best quality video in the most affordable price.

For slow motion, all of them can shoot 1080p videos at 120 and 240fps. Just make sure to shoot these slow motion videos in plenty of light, else they turn out to be very noisy. So after looking at over 65 image and video samples, it is clear that other than in lower light, images from the iPhone SE look almost same as the ones from the iPhone 11. Its camera performance is slightly better than the iPhone XR, but the difference is barely noticeable. Apple’s A13 Bionic processor helps the SE take amazing images even with a few years older image sensor.

So if you want to get the new iPhone SE, but you were worried about its camera performance, don’t be. As you saw in this video, other than in very low light, its performance is at par with the camera on the iPhone 11. It cant take portraits of objects, but there are 3rd party apps that let you do that. Even for the wide shots, you can use add on lenses. So by going with the iPhone SE, you are not missing out on a lot in terms of the camera.

Only thing that I felt it lacks behind a bit is the battery life. I started the day with a full charger at about 10am, and after taking close to 300 images through the day, I had to charge it again at 4pm before I could start taking low light shots. While the other 2 were not even at the 50% mark by that time. To get around this problem, I think you can always buy a fast charging power bank with the money that you save by going with the iPhone SE over the iPhone 11. After looking at all these images, what do you think about the camera on the iPhone SE? Do let me know int he comments.

And if you are looking to purchase any of these phones, I will really appreciate if you get them from the affiliate links in the description section. That is it for this video guys. Please hit the like button if you enjoyed this video and subscribe to the channel for more quality tech videos like this. You can also check out some of the other videos on this channel. This has been Sagar, and I will catch you guys in the next video.

Take care.

Source : TecworkZ