iPhone SE (2020) Review: everything you need
What do you want out of an iPhone?You probably think of something like a good camera or long battery life and yes, you definitely want those things, but what you want out of an iPhone, what you really want, isall of the iPhone stuff that you don't usually think about. You want the thing thatworks with iMessage. That's going to bereliable for several years. That has access to all of the best apps and that's easy and simple to use. And this iPhone, the brand new iPhone SE, does all of those thingsfor only 399 bucks for the base 64 gig model. So this review is actuallygonna be really simple. Is this an iPhone? Check, yes. Yes it is. It does all of the iPhone things. The only question we have to answer then is whether or not it doesall those things well. Basically, if paying just400 bucks for an iPhone means that you're giving up way too much. So if you've seen aniPhone 8 or an iPhone 7 or an iPhone 6S or iPhone 6, you get the basic shape andfeel of the new iPhone SE. It has a 4.7 inch LCDdisplay with true tone to make the colors changedepending on the light and it's a really good display. It also has these huge bezelson the top and the bottom and there is a classichome button on the bottom with a fingerprint sensor. It's compatible with iPhone 8 cases.
It's IP67 water proof, which is not the best,but it's pretty good. Overall, this thing is just really solid and it's really familiarfrom the glass back to the fingerprint sensorto the whole package. And I gotta say, dearhome button, I missed you. I didn't realize howmuch, but you're great. Anyway, there are still twosmall bummers to talk about with this overall designthat we're so familiar with. One, I'm just gonna say it again, these bezels, they're huge. And I'm knocking it because a bunch of inexpensive Android phones have figured out howto reduce these bezels to fit a bigger screen and a smaller body. But Apple is just keeping things the same that it's always been here. Two is the size. It's 4.7 inches, it's small, but it's not nearly as small as this guy, the original iPhone SE.
Whereas this thing isbasically not that much smaller than my iPhone 11 Pro. And sorry, that's just theway the phone world is now. Actually, there is athird thing to gripe about and that is that there's noheadphone jack on this phone and that is also the waythe phone world is now too. But at this price point,a bunch of Android phones do manage to hang on to theheadphone jack to be clear. So it is a little bit of a bummer here. At least Apple is includingWired Lightning headphones, it's just not includinga headphone 3.5 adapter. Now the reason this phoneis really impressive is that inside it hasthe exact same processor as the iPhone 11 Pro. It's the A13 Bionic. That means this phoneis really fast, sure, but the real reason it matters is that it means this phoneis sure to get OS updates from many years to come. Now there may be other Androidphones that cost the same, $399, but it's not really about that cost, it's about how often you have to spend it. And with this iPhone, you're not gonna have tospend it for a very long time. I was hoping that that modern processor would mean that batterylife would be about as good as on the iPhone 11Pro, but it's not quite.
It's still very good, don't get me wrong. I'm getting through a whole day and it's somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five hours of screen time. It's just not stellar. I am glad it has wireless charging though, which makes the average-ish battery life a little bit easier to deal with. So let's talk camera. There's just one on the back. It's 12 megapixels andthere is a seven megapixel selfie camera on the front. And for a $400 phone,I have zero complaints. In bright lighting conditions,it's kind of lovely. Photos are well detailed, they're color accurate and they're sharp. In good light, it is almosthard to tell the difference between this phone and athousand dollar iPhone 11 Pro. It does some other stuff withnew portrait effects and so on because it has that A13 Bionic chip, but it's still hit andmiss with portrait mode because you know, you lose something when you save this much money. So for example, low light is, it's not great. There's no night mode for one thing and for another, whenit's really dim light, I feel like the softwarejust kind of panics and over corrects andintroduces a bunch of artifacts that didn't need to be there. If you're coming from anOG iPhone SE or an iPhone 6 or even iPhone 7, you're stillgonna see a huge improvement. And I know that the Pixel3a and the upcoming Pixel 4a are probably gonna be able tobeat this thing in low light, but they will not beat itat video where the iPhone SE completely punchesabove it's weight class.
So look, if you took away my iPhone 11 Pro or because I'm a nerd Ialso have a Galaxy S20, and you told me I couldn'thave my multiple camera systems or my fancy face unlock orin screen fingerprint sensor and the big bezelless OLED screens and instead I had to use this iPhone SE, I'd be sad, I'd miss those things, but not as much as you might think. Because other than low light photography, I am able to do all thesame things that I do on those thousand dollarphones on this $400 phone. Now if I were buying the SE, I would probably spend the extra 50 bucks to get a 128 gigs ofstorage instead of 64. I think it's a good upgradeif you want this phone to last three or four or maybe even five years. And that time span is whythe iPhone SE is a big deal. No other phone for less than $500 can promise that it'sgoing to be this good or that it's going to last that long. And beyond that, the iPhone SE, it isn't just a good deal, it's a really good phone. Hi, thank you so much for watching. Let me know what youthink of the iPhone SE down in the comments and if you missed it, I also reviewed the MagicKeyboard for the iPad Pro and there'll be a linksomewhere on your screen. I never know where to point. I do my best.
It's IP67 water proof, which is not the best,but it's pretty good. Overall, this thing is just really solid and it's really familiarfrom the glass back to the fingerprint sensorto the whole package. And I gotta say, dearhome button, I missed you. I didn't realize howmuch, but you're great. Anyway, there are still twosmall bummers to talk about with this overall designthat we're so familiar with. One, I'm just gonna say it again, these bezels, they're huge. And I'm knocking it because a bunch of inexpensive Android phones have figured out howto reduce these bezels to fit a bigger screen and a smaller body. But Apple is just keeping things the same that it's always been here. Two is the size. It's 4.7 inches, it's small, but it's not nearly as small as this guy, the original iPhone SE.
Whereas this thing isbasically not that much smaller than my iPhone 11 Pro. And sorry, that's just theway the phone world is now. Actually, there is athird thing to gripe about and that is that there's noheadphone jack on this phone and that is also the waythe phone world is now too. But at this price point,a bunch of Android phones do manage to hang on to theheadphone jack to be clear. So it is a little bit of a bummer here. At least Apple is includingWired Lightning headphones, it's just not includinga headphone 3.5 adapter. Now the reason this phoneis really impressive is that inside it hasthe exact same processor as the iPhone 11 Pro. It's the A13 Bionic. That means this phoneis really fast, sure, but the real reason it matters is that it means this phoneis sure to get OS updates from many years to come. Now there may be other Androidphones that cost the same, $399, but it's not really about that cost, it's about how often you have to spend it. And with this iPhone, you're not gonna have tospend it for a very long time. I was hoping that that modern processor would mean that batterylife would be about as good as on the iPhone 11Pro, but it's not quite.
It's still very good, don't get me wrong. I'm getting through a whole day and it's somewhere in the neighborhood of four to five hours of screen time. It's just not stellar. I am glad it has wireless charging though, which makes the average-ish battery life a little bit easier to deal with. So let's talk camera. There's just one on the back. It's 12 megapixels andthere is a seven megapixel selfie camera on the front. And for a $400 phone,I have zero complaints. In bright lighting conditions,it's kind of lovely. Photos are well detailed, they're color accurate and they're sharp. In good light, it is almosthard to tell the difference between this phone and athousand dollar iPhone 11 Pro. It does some other stuff withnew portrait effects and so on because it has that A13 Bionic chip, but it's still hit andmiss with portrait mode because you know, you lose something when you save this much money. So for example, low light is, it's not great. There's no night mode for one thing and for another, whenit's really dim light, I feel like the softwarejust kind of panics and over corrects andintroduces a bunch of artifacts that didn't need to be there. If you're coming from anOG iPhone SE or an iPhone 6 or even iPhone 7, you're stillgonna see a huge improvement. And I know that the Pixel3a and the upcoming Pixel 4a are probably gonna be able tobeat this thing in low light, but they will not beat itat video where the iPhone SE completely punchesabove it's weight class.
So look, if you took away my iPhone 11 Pro or because I'm a nerd Ialso have a Galaxy S20, and you told me I couldn'thave my multiple camera systems or my fancy face unlock orin screen fingerprint sensor and the big bezelless OLED screens and instead I had to use this iPhone SE, I'd be sad, I'd miss those things, but not as much as you might think. Because other than low light photography, I am able to do all thesame things that I do on those thousand dollarphones on this $400 phone. Now if I were buying the SE, I would probably spend the extra 50 bucks to get a 128 gigs ofstorage instead of 64. I think it's a good upgradeif you want this phone to last three or four or maybe even five years. And that time span is whythe iPhone SE is a big deal. No other phone for less than $500 can promise that it'sgoing to be this good or that it's going to last that long. And beyond that, the iPhone SE, it isn't just a good deal, it's a really good phone. Hi, thank you so much for watching. Let me know what youthink of the iPhone SE down in the comments and if you missed it, I also reviewed the MagicKeyboard for the iPad Pro and there'll be a linksomewhere on your screen. I never know where to point. I do my best.
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