Apple Inc. started back in 1976, in a garage when three visionaries started their journey towards a dream. What began as a personal computer venture, has evolved over the last four decades and the firm now produces everything from laptops, to phones and portable media players. Apple entered the smartphone market in 2007 with the iPhone, and the rest is history. Apple’s most recent launch was the 2020 version of the iPhone SE, and it was very well received by the techno-heads.

What most attracts smartphone lovers about the latest iPhone model is its lower-than-standard price; it starts at $399. The iPhone SE was first launched in 2016 and flaunted a 4-inch display screen. The 2020 model has a 4.7-inch, which might not be an idle size for operating the phone single-handedly. That said, giant screens are a new norm in today’s world.

So what are the hits and misses of the iPhone SE 2020? What’s there to like and dislike? Does it really prove to be a good bargain? Let’s check it out

Pros

• A highly competitive price; less than half the cost of top-of-the-line iOS and Android flagships
• Super-fast performance
• An effective, secure, and robust mobile operating system 
• The inclusion of Apple’s A13 chip that ensures support to new apps and updates for a long time

Cons

• Battery life below-par than other iPhones
• A dated design
• No headphone adapter included in the box
• Ordinary low-light camera performance

Specifications

As we mentioned earlier, the iPhone SE comes with a 4.7-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1334×750 pixels at 326ppi. The display is well-calibrated and has an impressive 1400:1 contrast ratio, with 625 maximum nits of brightness.

The phone is powered by the A13 system-on-a-chip, which includes a CPU, GPU, machine learning processor, image signal processor, and more. The A13 is arguably the fastest mobile processor in the market, and at this price, it’s a real bargain. The iPhone SE supports the new Wi-Fi 6 wireless standard, and Bluetooth 5.0.

As far as the photography is concerned, you get a 12-megapixel, ƒ/1.8 aperture camera with a wide-angle lens at the rear that supports Apple’s machine-learning-driven computational photography features. The rear camera can shoot 4K video at up to 60 frames per second. The front camera offers 7-megapixel and a ƒ/2.2 aperture, and it can take 1080p videos at 30 frames per second.

Accessories in the box include a charging brick, a lightning USB charging cable, and EarPods wired earbuds. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. Though the adapter only costs $9 when purchased separately, we feel Apple should have included it, considering the target consumers buying the iPhone at this price point. 

The iPhone SE’s battery can last up to 13 hours for local video playback, eight for streaming video, and 40 for audio playback, as per company claims. These figures are way less than the iPhone 11 performance, but we can’t expect a lot from a smaller phone, with less space, packing a big battery.

The latest iPhone SE is available in three storage configurations – 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB, priced at $399, $449, and $549 respectively. 

iPhone SE 2020 Design

By first looks, the iPhone SE 2020 looks reminiscent of the iPhone 8. It has the exact same dimensions at 5.45×2.65×0.29 inches. All the externally visible components are in the same places, from the camera to the home button. The phone has a home button, making it the only iPhone in the lineup that doesn’t use Face ID for authentication. 

There’s not a lot to say about the design since it is the same basic design we’ve been reviewing for years. It looks dated, and wouldn’t be turning heads around. Although it is one of the most tested and accepted smartphone designs ever, some users might get disappointed by the fact that Apple hasn’t brought back the 4-inch smartphone like the original SE. There are three colors to choose from – black, white, and a special red edition.

Camera

Preliminary reports suggest that camera hardware remains the same as the iPhone 8. That said, it is paired with the A13 chip, which claims to offer new and improved image processing, so it may take slightly better photos under some circumstances. While Apple’s current flagships offer additional lenses (telephoto and ultra-wide angle), the SE provides neither of these. The iPhone SE camera is just fine, but it’s one of the main things you’re compromising on when you skip out on paying significantly more for an iPhone 11 Pro or any other high-end Android phone.

Performance

The iPhone SE performs at par with the iPhone 11 Pro. It outperforms every prior iPhone, and every Android phone, including recent releases with vastly higher price tags. This phone might be small, and it might be relatively cheap, but it is exceedingly powerful. The level of performance for this price is overwhelming. 

On the other hand, the iPhone SE can’t compete with the latest iPhones and Android phones in terms of battery life. Apple says the iPhone SE can handle up to 13 hours of local video playback, that’s quite less as compared to 18 hours for the iPhone 11. If you care the most about battery life in a smartphone, this is not the phone for you. But if you’re looking for an excellent price-to-performance ratio, the SE is the best pick out there.

Software

The iPhone SE currently runs iOS 13, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is the primary reason people buy iPhones. It’s relatively stable and straightforward to use, with one of the best software ecosystems that have ever existed on any platform. iOS differentiates itself from the competing Android platform through a promise of software-hardware integration and an added focus on personal privacy. We aren’t saying that this operating system is perfect, but it’s more than good enough for almost anyone.

Read about 7 most common screens of a Mobile App here

iPhone SE 2020 Verdict

If you prioritize a large screen for consuming rich content on your phone regularly and prefer taking high-quality photos with your phone, especially in low light, then go for the more expensive iPhones. But if you just want a reliable, super-fast phone with excellent software support at a reasonable price, go for the iPhone SE. Apart from a few shortcomings in terms of the camera and battery life, the iPhone SE packs in all the most important things about its flagships. Only the luxuries or good-to-have features like OLED, Face ID, and secondary cameras are excluded, which makes it affordable.

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