iPhone SE 2020 Review: Don’t SEttle

Last month, Apple announced the iPhone SE: an entry level iPhone that mirrors the design of the iPhone 8 and its predecessors. The $399 price tag was met with a lot of fanfare, considering how much flagship phones cost recently. But does that $399 price warrant giving up a modern design and modern features? Personally, I think not. But if you’re looking to replace an iPhone 8 or older, and don’t like the new design, this might be the perfect phone for people looking to upgrade their iPhone 6S or 7.

Design

This is a design that you should be familiar with. It’s the same general design of the iPhone 8, which was just an evolution of the design of the 7, 6S, and 6 before it. It does have a simplicity and cleanness that I can appreciate, though. The single camera and Apple logo on the back looks like a final form of the iPhone 6’s design, and the smooth glass and aluminum frame still look great in 2020. But the front of the phone looks quite outdated.

It’s disappointing that Apple doesn’t make a phone this size that also has an edge to edge display, because this phone fits in one’s hand better than any phone released since the iPhone X. But this generation, Apple switched to a black front panel rather than the white of the iPhone 8, and it makes the frame around the screen less noticeable.

Display

The iPhone SE sports the same 4.7″ LCD that was found on the iPhone 8. Generally, colors look really good, and the resolution is clear enough for the size. When I dusted off the iPhone 8 last month, I was generally impressed with what Apple could accomplish without using an OLED display, and I realized that the demand for OLED is more of a demand for specs and not actually a requirement for a good experience. The same goes for the iPhone SE, with one exception: the size.

Even when it was announced 3 years ago, the iPhone 8 had a small display. Only the Sony Xperia XZ1 Compact was smaller at 4.6", and the Pixel 2 was close at 5". And since then, display sizes have only grown. Over the past few weeks, I really struggled to want to use the iPhone SE, because I knew the experience wouldn’t be enjoyable. Yes, I’m getting older and my eyes aren’t what they were before, but the bigger issue stems from developers not designing their apps for such small screens. They expect to have tall canvases to paint on, and squeezing those paintings down makes for a bad experience.

The size of the iPhone SE’s display bothered me endlessly during this review. At no point did I want to watch anything or read anything, and I if I did for too long my eyes would be strained. It’s not a bad display overall, but it’s like a horse-drawn carriage in an era where Ferraris exist; why would you choose to subject yourself to it?

Cameras

At first, I was concerned about the potential of the cameras in the iPhone SE, since rumors indicated that the sensor would be the same as the iPhone 8. After using the SE for a couple weeks, I realized that my fears were unfounded…mostly. In most situations, the iPhone SE takes great pictures. Colors come out great and edges are just sharp enough. But if you start trying to use the SE in low light pictures, you will be disappointed. For some reason, Apple didn’t bring over the excellent Night Mode from the iPhone 11 range, and the result is grainy images or too little light.

Thankfully Apple did include portrait mode, but it is also hamstrung. While it seems to work alright on people, it does not work on non-human subjects such as pets, food or landmarks, which I tend to take more pictures of.

Regardless, the iPhone SE’s camera will be a huge upgrade over the iPhone 8’s, even if it doesn’t have all of the features of the iPhone 11.

Performance and Battery Life

Apple crammed an unnecessary amount of performance into a small package, for few reasons outside of longevity and so they could brag about it.

The iPhone SE has the same processor as the iPhone 11 released last year, the A13 Bionic. This is more than enough for a little phone like the iPhone SE, and makes it one of the most powerful phones on the market, which is quite impressive for its price point. I haven’t noticed a lot more speed versus the iPhone 8 I reviewed earlier in the year, but the good news is it will stay fast for years into the future. Apple will also support it with software updates for several years, meaning that this phone will likely last until the next iPhone SE is released.

The iPhone 8 that this phone succeeds was not known for having good battery life. At the time, you often needed to opt for the “bigger” phones (in this case the 8 Plus) in order to get good battery life. The SE unfortunately doesn’t fix that issue. In my typical usage, I saw about 4 hours of screen on time, which is not bad, but a little disappointing considering how small the display is. I wish Apple dialed back the performance a little bit to give this phone more battery life, or gave users the option.

Software

For the most part, there’s little I could say about the iPhone SE’s software that couldn’t be applied from any other modern iPhone review. That’s one of Apple’s strengths — you get a similar experience on a $1,200 iPhone 11 Pro Max as you do on a $200 used iPhone 8. But there are some caveats.

After 3 years of larger screens being the norm, most app developers have gotten used to having a larger canvas to design their apps on. I found several apps to have issues fitting on the smaller display, and font and element sizes were very small.

In addition, the iPhone SE does not have 3D Touch like the iPhone 8 does, and it does not have gestures like the iPhone 11 does. As a result, navigation is more difficult and more tedious for me. If you prefer home button navigation, then the iPhone SE will be familiar for you.

This is the first phone since 2017 with a TouchID sensor. This seems a little counterintuitive since Apple specifically bashed TouchID years ago for being less secure than FaceID, but security shouldn’t be a concern here. The sensor itself is as good as you remember- fast and reliable, and I’ve found it is more reliable and versatile than FaceID, even if it feels a bit more manual.

Bottom Line

Admittedly, I don’t think Apple needed to do a lot to have a compelling iPhone SE. There are a lot of folks who still hold onto their iPhone 6S or 7 because Apple has not offered a compelling small phone for 3 years. Apple didn’t just do the bare minimum — the iPhone SE has a great design, great performance and a great camera. But this isn’t a flagship killer — it’s missing a lot of the luxuries $700+ phones offer. I personally could never live with this phone as my daily driver, as it would be too difficult to deal with the tiny display.

If you currently own an iPhone 6 to 8, love the design of your phone and just want a few upgrades, then the iPhone SE 2020 will be an excellent option for you. It will be a major upgrade to battery life, camera quality, performance and support. That upgrade will be the last you have to do for a few years. But if you are one of the many people who have moved on to the brave new world of big edge-to-edge OLED displays with FaceID, then the iPhone SE is not the phone for you. While few manufacturers sell flagship phones at the $399 price point, you can either opt for a mid-ranged phone or get an older model.

Originally published at https://innoiso.com.