Apple iPhone SE (2020) review

A single 12MP camera

Apple's iPhone SE features the same 12MP single camera found on the iPhone 8. It uses a Sony sensor with 1.22µm pitch behind 28mm f/1.8 lens. Optical stabilization is available, as well as phase-detection autofocus.

The camera lenses are factory-calibrated to provide superior performance in AR.

The quad-LED dual-tone flash from the iPhone 8 is also available on the SE, and it supports slow-sync flash. It keeps the shutter open for a bit longer, letting in some of the ambient light and making the image look more natural and not as contrasty as with regular flash images.

Thanks to the new Apple A13 Bionic chip and its ISP, the camera now supports portrait mode based solely on a depth map created by a machine learning process just like with the selfie camera.

The latest Apple Smart HDR from the iPhone 11 generation is also available on the iPhone SE - it should provide a noticeable boost in image quality, both day and night.

Unfortunately, the new Night Mode from the iPhone 11 series is missing on the SE.

The front-facing camera is the same 7MP unit we saw on the iPhone 7 and 8. It can use the so-called Retina flash, where your screen lights your face up in particular color to provide more pleasing skin tones depending on the color of the available light.

As we said, portraits are supported for selfies, too.

Camera app

The camera app has seen few changes over the years. It has the same interface with swipe-able modes that's been around for quite some time. As usual, all image- and video settings aren't in the camera app itself. Instead, you have to close the camera, open Settings, and then return to the camera. Hardly user-friendly!

You should also know that portrait mode works only on human subjects. Not that the camera is incapable of building a depth map no matter the subject, but because Apple doesn't want it to do it. You can always download a third-party app, like Halide, and make nice portraits of, say, your dog.

Camera app

Image quality

The Apple iPhone SE shoots very natural-looking photos. The dynamic range and the contrast are superb, the colors are simply spot-on, and noise is non-existent.

The detail levels are very good, even excellent at some spots, though elsewhere some more complex areas turn out a challenge for the camera - intricate details on the window blinds, as well as grass and tree branches are smeared and look like oil-painting.

Still, there very few phones capable of making out the entire grass terrain and/or all trees in the vicinity, and they are flagships. For a $400 phone, the iPhone SE shoots excellent daylight photos.

Apple iPhone SE (2020) 12MP daylight samples

The low-light performance has improved since the iPhone 8 by a lot even if the same camera takes the images. They present enough resolved detail, probably a result of a gentler noise reduction. The exposure is balanced on most of the photos, the color saturation is great with true to life colors (neither washed out, nor over-saturated). The dynamic range isn't the best, but a single camera can do only so much.

Apple iPhone SE (2020) 12MP low-light samples

It is a real pity Apple didn't put a bit more effort to bring the Night Mode to the iPhone SE, but they again, knowing Apple's way of things - we were surprised to even find a Portrait mode.

Speaking of portraits, we shot a few with the rear camera and they are okay. The subject separation is far from flawless, but the faux bokeh is quite nice. Those aren't the best portraits we've seen, but for a single camera - they are pretty fine.

Apple iPhone SE (2020) 12MP portraits

You can check out how the iPhone SE 12MP camera perform in our dedicated compare tool.

Apple iPhone SE vs. iPhone 8 vs. iPhone 11 in our photo compare tool

Selfies

The 7MP Apple iPhone SE (2020) selfie photos can put to shame most of the 20MP and 32MP Quad-Bayer shooters we've experienced lately on a variety of Android phones. The iPhone SE 7MP images come out with outstanding detail, contrast, and even dynamic range. The colors are great and overall - this is one of the best selfie cameras we have seen in a while.

Apple iPhone SE (2020) 7MP selfies

The iPhone SE selfie shooter can also do portraits, and it does such with surprising proficiency. Both subject separation and simulated bokeh are remarkable, while nothing was lost on the subject, be it fine detail or body parts.

Apple iPhone SE (2020) 7MP selfie portraits

Video recording

Apple iPhone SE captures videos in all popular resolutions and frame rates, all of them - optically stabilized as usual. All 30fps videos also feature cinematic video stabilization and expanded dynamic range thanks to the Smart HDR. The iPhone SE can do 4K at 60fps and 1080p at 240fps.

The video bitrate is about 45Mbps in 4K at 30fps and 100Mbps for 4K at 60fps, or 15Mbps or 24Mbps in 1080p at 30fps and 60fps. Audio is recorded in wide stereo with a 160Kbps bitrate.

The 4K videos are captured at either 30fps or 60fps are virtually identical in quality. The picture is close to the still images - enough detail outside complex areas, but there is an average foliage presentation at best. The colors are great, and so is the contrast and white balance. There are no focus issues or compression artifacts. And the dynamic range is nothing short of impressive even when Smart HDR (on 60fps) was not involved.

The 1080p videos, 30 or 60 fps, are class-leading. Plenty of detail, great foliage, jaw-dropping, dynamic range. Those are among the best 1080p videos a smartphone can do.

The iPhone SE offers this interesting setting for its videos where it would automatically drop the frame rate of the 4K videos down to 24fps to improve the quality in low-light as this allows the camera to also drop the shutter speed. You can easily notice the brighter 24fps video. Sure, the low-light video quality isn't worthy of a flagship, but the iPhone SE is not one, which means it is fine for its class.

The optical and cinematic stabilization work in all resolution and frame rates, on both the main and the selfie camera.

The Apple iPhone SE (2020) is ready to meet the competition in our Video Compare Tool.

Apple iPhone SE vs. iPhone 8 vs. iPhone 11 in our 4K video compare tool