Apple iPhone SE review: A fantastic entry-level iPhone

Note: This review was first published on 24 Apr 2020.

iPhone SE redux

After dominating the sales charts of high-end phones, Apple is finally turning its attention elsewhere. The iPhone SE is back. And even though it doesn’t possess bleeding-edge tech and is the result of a parts bin raid, it’s exciting for two reasons. The first is that it is genuinely affordable. Affordability is a relative term but a starting price of just S$649 means the iPhone SE is either comparable to or undercuts many of its rivals. What’s more instructive to me is to consider that the most expensive version of the iPhone SE, the one with 256GB of storage, is still well under S$1,000.

The second reason is that this new iPhone SE is powered by the A13 Bionic chip, Apple’s latest and greatest smartphone processor. This means that it should perform just as well as Apple’s much more expensive iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. But perhaps more importantly, it also should also mean that it will run rings around – no, wipe the floor with – any similarly-priced Android alternative. Imagine Mercedes stuffing its biggest and baddest AMG engine into its cheapest A-Class. That is what's happening here.

And so it is for these two key reasons – and many more as you will see later – and in these austere times that the iPhone SE is precisely so intriguing.

4.7 is the magic number

The iPhone SE may be Apple’s most affordable phone but it doesn’t feel anything like it. Unlike some brands that have resorted to cost-cutting measures like using plastic for the body, Apple is sticking with aerospace-grade 7000 series aluminium and glass. The overall fit and finish are typical Apple, which is to say it’s very high. According to Apple, it uses no less than a seven-layer ink process to achieve the final colours on the iPhone SE. Three finishes are available: white, black, and PRODUCT(RED). And it doesn’t matter which finish you pick, the front of the phone is black.

The iPhone SE is physically identical to the iPhone 8 to the point where the two can even share phone casings. This has a few important consequences. The first is that it has a, by modern standards at least, small display. Specifically, what it has is a 4.7-inch Retina HD display – identical to the iPhone 8. Resolution is 1,334 x 750 pixels, which sounds underwhelming but actual pixel density is 326 pixels per inch and that’s the same as the iPhone 11’s Liquid Retina display.

The second is that it has really thick bezels above and below the display. I touched upon this in my earlier first impressions piece but it’s worth mentioning again because even if you aren’t obsessed with screen-to-body ratios, those bezels are incongruous on a phone released in 2020. If cut-price Android phones today can already have nearly bezel-less displays, surely Apple can do better? Thinner bezels don’t just look nicer, it also means a smaller and more pocketable phone.

Fortunately, the display is pretty good. Obviously, it can’t compare against the Super Retina XDR display on the iPhone 11 Pro, but it’s still good. It’s crisp, sharp, and bright enough in all but the harshest of sunlight, and crucially, the colours look accurate and vivid. It also has TrueTone technology, which colour corrects the display based on the lighting in your environment.

Below the display is the familiar Home button with Touch ID. Having been accustomed to Apple’s Face ID authentication system, this feels like a relic. For longtime iPhone owners, Touch ID will be familiar, but owners coming from a Face ID phone like the iPhone X, XS, or XR, will need to relearn the gestures. At any rate, Touch ID remains wicked fast and in today’s world where masks are a constant, Touch ID is much more reliable.

And finally, like the iPhone 8, there’s no headphone jack. Luckily, Apple provides Lightning headphones, which are passable. This isn’t something that bothers me since most flagship-class handphones today have already done away with headphone jacks, but headphone jacks are something still is found on a lot of affordable Android phones, so I think it’s worth pointing out. The Google Pixel 3a XL, for instance, has a headphone jack; and so does the Samsung Galaxy S10e.

And if we are talking about things the iPhone SE lacks, it's worth mentioning it doesn't have expandable storage like most Android phones do. But this has been the iPhone way ever since day one. So make sure you order your iPhone SE with the amount of storage you think you'd need for your apps. If you ever need more storage in the future, one thing you can do is to get iCloud storage and upload your photos to the cloud to make space.

Chock-full of useful features

As dated as the iPhone SE looks, it’s nice to see that it comes with modern features that will be appreciated by many users. The first worth mentioning is that it is IP67 water and dust resistant. This means it can be submerged in up to a metre of water for up to 30 minutes. This shouldn’t be overlooked since it means a little rain or an accidental splash of water won’t send you panicking and rushing for the hairdryer. And in today’s world where cleanliness is of utmost importance, it’s easier to sanitise the iPhone SE more thoroughly.

Next is wireless charging. Sure, you could always plug in the charging cable and it’s certainly quicker to charge with the cable, but there’s something to be said for the convenience of wireless charging. It’s so much easier if you just want to give your phone a quick mid-day juice up.

Stereo speakers feature on the iPhone SE. This shouldn’t be overlooked and I use the speakers on my iPhone a lot to play podcasts and listen to the odd song while I’m doing chores or in the shower. It’s not as loud or as full sounding as my iPhone 11 Pro Max’s speakers, but it’s easily above average. It also makes me wonder when will Apple finally make stereo speakers standard on all of its iPads – only the iPad Pro has stereo speakers – but I digress.

The last feature I want to talk about is support for Wi-Fi 6, which the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro already have. This new wireless standard uses LTE technology and promises better network performance by increasing the throughput to each connected device and supporting more connected devices. You can read more about it here and here.

Camera and sample images

Unlike Apple’s newer iPhones, the iPhone SE only has a single camera on the back. It’s similar to the iPhone XR’s in that it’s a 12-megapixel f/1.8 camera. Apple won’t say but some have reported that the sensor is identical to the iPhone XR but the lens is different. The front-facing camera shoots at 7-megapixel, which, again, is similar to the iPhone XR.

However, the iPhone SE benefits from using the A13 Bionic’s advanced imaging processing. One of the highlights of the new imaging processing pipeline is Apple’s new Smart HDR algorithm which automatically adjusts highlights, shadows, and sharpness in specific areas of the photo. It can also automatically detect people and treat them differently from the rest of the photo. And on top of Portrait Mode, the iPhone SE also gets all of Apple’s Portrait Lighting modes, including the new High-Key Light Mono mode.

In well-lit situations, I think most people will struggle to tell the difference between photos taken by the iPhone SE and the iPhone 11 Pro. The more expensive iPhone 11 Pro has more detail but it’s not immediately apparent on the screen of your phone unless you zoom in on specific areas to investigate. It’s only in poor light that the difference becomes very apparent. That’s because the iPhone SE does not possess the cheat mode that is Apple’s fantastic new Night Mode or the company's new high-tech Deep Fusion camera feature. The short story is this: though Apple’s pricier iPhones take better photos, the iPhone SE is still a very capable shooter and is more than a match for comparably-priced Android competition.

Where the iPhone SE really excels, however, is in video. It can take 4K videos and at up to 60fps with optical and software stabilisation. Go see if any comparable Android phone can do the same. If you want better quality and colours, you can opt for an extended dynamic range mode, but in that mode, you are limited to 4K resolution at 30fps. Videos on the iPhone SE have great dynamic range, colours, and stabilisation, which are things that even flagship Android phones still struggle to do properly today.

Sample images

Performance analysis

One of the highlights of the iPhone SE is that it is powered by Apple's A13 Bionic chip. This is the same chip found in the pricier iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro phones. And it has a number of important implications worth talking about before we actually dive into the benchmarking results.

What this means is that you could save hundreds of dollars and have a phone that’s not any slower than Apple’s priciest phones. You’ll be able to run the same apps and games at the same quality without sacrificing on performance. But more importantly, I think it’s important to consider that it also means that Apple fully intends to support the iPhone SE for a long time.

One thing that even the most rabid iPhone detractors cannot deny is that Apple supports its iPhones for a long time – much longer than its rivals. The oldest phone to support the latest version of iOS – iOS 13 – is the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, which are turning five years old in a few month’s time. How many Android phones from 2015 can even run the latest or last version of Android? In short, having the A13 Bionic chip means the iPhone SE will have the necessary processing chops to support software updates for years.

Now on to benchmarks, as you can see the iPhone SE is beastly. Mostly, it performed at the same level as the iPhone 11 Pro Max, but it was a tad behind on some benchmarks like AnTuTu and 3DMark, and I’m thinking that it could be because of its smaller memory (3GB vs 4GB) or maybe it’s smaller chassis is less efficient at dissipating heat. At any rate, Apple's cheapest phone handily outperforms flagship Android phones that cost twice as much or more like the Samsung S20 Ultra (Exynos 990), Huawei P40 Pro (Kirin 990), Pixel 4 (Snapdragon 855).

Battery life

Apple did not disclose the battery capacity of the iPhone SE and only mentions that it “lasts about the same as iPhone 8.” The iPhone 8 had a 1,821mAh, which is tiny by today’s standards, and that’s just about half the battery capacity of the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Still, it lasted a pretty long time on our battery test which has the following parameters:

• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

The iPhone SE lasted 273 minutes or just about 4.5 hours. That’s longer than the iPhone XR but half an hour down from the iPhone XS Max. The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, which were designed with larger batteries in mind, lasted substantially longer. Still, in normal day-to-day use, insofar as a day can be normal under current circumstances, I found that the iPhone SE could just about last an entire day. I would certainly subject it to a mid-day charge just to have a peace of mind. But if battery life is your highest priority and you don’t want to carry around a charger or subject your phone to a mid-day charge, Android phones, which typically have larger batteries, are your best bet.

Speaking of charging, the iPhone SE can attain 50% charge in 30 minutes with an 18W charger (or higher). Unfortunately, the bundled charger is only rated at 5W so you’ll need to get a more powerful charger if you want to enjoy the benefits of fast charging.

A cheap and cheerful iPhone

Flagship-class phones have got really expensive lately and are their prices justified? That depends on your outlook and purchasing philosophy. And for a device that is used so frequently and is almost always with us, I’d argue that it makes sense to get the best phone you can possibly afford. And having lived with an iPhone 11 Pro Max for the past half a year or so, I can say that I use and appreciate most of its features. The expansive OLED display is gorgeous, the wide-angle camera was really handy when it came to renovating my house, Night Mode means I can take photos even when lightning is less than ideal, and Face ID is so, so convenient that Touch ID feels absolutely primitive to me now.

But are these really necessary? Probably not. What most people really want out of a phone is good performance, a great camera that takes nice photos, and software updates to keep the phone secure and usable over the next few years. The new iPhone SE ticks all those boxes. Simply put, it’s a solid phone at an utterly reasonable price. At this price, my only real gripe is those jarring bezels.

There are also other considerations. The iPhone SE offers a lower barrier of entry to Apple’s ecosystem. You may or may not care about them, but it means being able to use your phone with other Apple devices and services, such as the Apple Watch and AirPods Pro, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+, to their full potential. It also means the full backing of Apple’s arguably stricter and more rigid privacy policies. Also, it's an iPhone and that carries a certain amount of cachet, just like saying a phone is a Galaxy or a Pixel.

For the money, there are no shortage of Android rivals. They may look nicer and they may best the iPhone SE in a category or two –  Google's Pixel 3a takes better photos at night, Vivo's V15 Pro has a nicer design and display – but they can't match the iPhone SE's overall combination of performance, camera, build quality, features, and software updates.

In today’s age of social distancing and isolation, a phone is now more important than ever. For some people, it could even be their only connection to the outside world. But if you need a new phone, buying a S$2,000 flagship-class phone now would seem like the most irresponsible thing to do. But buying a S$659 phone that can ostensibly last you for the next two to five years? That seems downright sensible by comparison. This is the iPhone for these crazy times.

Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.