iPhone se 2020 Review

Introduction

The Apple iPhone SE. The Special Edition. Even if the Smaller Edition was more appropriate. And just like the first iPhone SE, its second generation is both - Small, even if larger than the first one, and Special - as such launch happens once in four years or so.

I am sure Apple had plans for a great premiere event last March, but COVID-19 turned everything upside down and such plans were abruptly scrapped. The new iPhone was unveiled fanfare-less on the maker's website, out of the blue, but it quickly became famous for being not only one of the cheapest iPhones ever made but also as one of the season's hottest bang for the buck offersImagine that - bang for the buck coming from Apple! Indeed, the highlight feature of the new iPhone SE is the A13 Bionic chip - that's Apple's latest platform - the one that's powering the iPhone 11 trio. As for the rest, well, it's mostly iPhone 8.

Apple did use the 2.5 years old iPhone 8 as a canvas in more than one way. The shell is the same, as is the screen (sans the 3D Touch layer), same front and rear cameras ergo photo and video capabilities, same stereo speakers, same battery capacity, same charging capabilities. A thorough look reveals the iPhone SE (2020) is indeed small by today's standards, and while it brings features introduced more than two years ago, those are hardly outdated - the phone is water-resistant, its single camera offers numerous features such as portraits, Smart HDR and even 4K at 60 with both OIS and EIS available, while the stereo speakers are of an excellent quality that is tough to beat even to this very day.

The bezels are what looked old on the iPhone 8, and now they look ancient on this new SE model. They are wonderful as thumb rests for when you are using the phone in landscape orientation for gaming or videos, but they will be a target for many laughs either way. And the battery capacity could have been improved a bit, but we are yet to see the new A13 chip in action, so let's not judge just yet.

And now, it's time to unpack our red iPhone SE.

Features......

NETWORK	Technology	GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE

LAUNCH	Announced	2020, April 15
	Status	Available. Released 2020, April 24

BODY	Dimensions	138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm (5.45 x 2.65 x 0.29 in)
	Weight	148 g (5.22 oz)
	Build	Glass front, glass back, aluminum frame
	SIM	Nano-SIM and/or eSIM
		IP67 dust/water resistant (up to 1m for 30 mins) Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified)

DISPLAY	Type	Retina IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	4.7 inches, 60.9 cm2 (~65.4% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	750 x 1334 pixels, 16:9 ratio (~326 ppi density)
	Protection	Ion-strengthened glass, oleophobic coating
		Wide color gamut True-tone 625 nits max brightness (advertised)

PLATFORM	OS	iOS 13
	Chipset	Apple A13 Bionic (7 nm+)
	CPU	Hexa-core (2x2.65 GHz Lightning + 4x1.8 GHz Thunder)
	GPU	Apple GPU (4-core graphics)

MEMORY	Card slot	No
	Internal	64GB 3GB RAM, 128GB 3GB RAM, 256GB 3GB RAM
		NVMe

MAIN CAMERA	Single	12 MP, f/1.8 (wide), PDAF, OIS
	Features	Quad-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, panorama
	Video	2160p@24/30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/120/240fps, HDR, OIS, stereo sound rec.

SELFIE CAMERA	Single	7 MP, f/2.2
	Features	Face detection, HDR, panorama
	Video	1080p@30fps; gyro-EIS

SOUND	Loudspeaker	Yes, with stereo speakers
	3.5mm jack	No

COMMS	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, dual-band, hotspot
	Bluetooth	5.0, A2DP, LE
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
	NFC	Yes
	Radio	No
	USB	2.0, proprietary reversible connector

FEATURES	Sensors	Fingerprint (front-mounted), accelerometer, proximity, gyro, compass, barometer
		Siri natural language commands and dictation

BATTERY		Non-removable Li-Ion 1821 mAh battery (6.96 Wh)
	Charging	Fast charging 18W, 50% in 30 min (advertised) Qi wireless charging

MISC	Colors	Black, White, Red
	Models	A2275, A2296, A2298
	SAR	1.17 W/kg (head)     1.16 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.98 W/kg (head)     0.99 W/kg (body)
	Price	$ 399.00 / £ 419.00 / € 649.00

TESTS	Performance	AnTuTu: 462253 (v8) GeekBench: 3237 (v5.1)
	Display	Contrast ratio: 1544:1 (nominal)
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Loudspeaker	-24.1 LUFS (Very good)
	Battery life	Endurance rating 59h

Versions:
A2296 (Global market)
A2275 (USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands)
A2298 (China)
Also known as Apple iPhone SE2, Apple iPhone SE (2nd generation)

REVIEW

The iPhone SE 2020 is built around one goal: to create a new iPhone for less money than ever, and it achieves that well. For just $399 / £419 / 42k Rupees(India) you can have a brand-new handset from Apple – it’s one of the  best Iphone ever created and you can now get your hands on one.

The design of the phone is going to be familiar to anyone that’s used an iPhone recently – unless you’ve not held a handset from Apple since 2013 then you’ll have seen this 4.7-inch frame before, complete with bezels top and bottom and a home button with fingerprint scanner built in.

It’s now seen as the ‘smaller’ iPhone form factor given the all-screen designs of the more recent models, and it’s both more lightweight and pocketable than anything from the Iphone 11 range.

It’s pleasingly water resistant, but does have some drawbacks thanks to the older design: it lacks a headphone jack at the bottom, and because the display technology is slightly dated (as it comes from the iPhone 8) it can suffer in bright light when you’re trying to watch videos or the like.

Apple might have stuck with the same design as the iphone 8, but the innards are much improved – notably the new A13 Bionic chipset inside, which adds speed nearly everywhere and really does improve the performance over the older 4.7-inch models. It’s not quite at the level of the iPhones launched last year, but it’s not far off.

That A13 chipset has improved the camera performance too, despite no discernible change to the specs of the sensor since the iPhone 8 (there’s just a single lens on the iPhone SE 2020). 

It takes decent, bright photos that will please most people, although it doesn’t quite offer the same color reproduction or clarity as the iphone 11 pro max, for example.

The portrait mode doesn’t work as well as on phones that pack a second, depth-sensing sensor for precise bokeh effects , and as a result you can be left with some odd-looking fringing around the edges of subjects. But overall the camera – and especially for the price – takes impressive pictures in most scenarios

Battery life is probably one of the biggest issues we found with the iPhone SE 2020 – it’s not going to easily last you a day unless you’re a particularly light and sedate user. 

Given the number of power-hungry apps available that will make the most of all that power provided by the A13 chipset, I should have liked to have seen at least an all-day battery in there, even for the lower price.However, don’t let that detract from the fact that the iPhone SE 2020 follows on from its predecessor by bringing you a new iPhone, with not a lot of compromise, for less money than you might expect.While it doesn’t hit many heights in terms of power or performance, it more than offsets that by being the cheapest iPhone Apple has ever launched while still packing refined and useful hardware, making the new iPhone SE a splendid option for those either on a budget or just wanting to find an easy route into the Apple ecosystem.