Apple iPhone SE (2020) review

1 May 2020


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  • Anonymous
  • XRg
  • 06 May 2020

Wily2020, 06 May 2020You propably didn’t knew but iPhone 8 with that tiny screen... moreYou do realize that the Galaxy S2 was best selling Android phone with 4.3 inch screen size way back in 2011-12.
See how that works?

No one wants tiny 4.7" screen after getting accustomed to 6.5 inch screen size.
Only fruit logo brand boys be buying this blindly.
I bet if Apple sh*ts in your mouth, you'd call it yummy!

    Anonymous, 06 May 2020Mega hate is against the tiny 4.7" screen size. Had it bee... moreYou propably didn’t knew but iPhone 8 with that tiny screen was sixth best selling smartphone last year. Selling almost 17 million units. There’s still big market for phone with smaller screen and lot of people are perfectly fine with smaller sceeen. I personally never felt that my 6s screen was too small. I liked how effortless it was to use with one hand. Later Apple ”forced” me to buy bigger phone. The screen isn’t that much bigger with my 11pro than 6s, it’s just longer.

    Why it’s so difficult for Android users to understand that not everyone prefer same things? I could easily go back to SE size phone if i would get all the same hardware my 11 Pro have.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • XRg
      • 06 May 2020

      peter lac, 06 May 2020OK, you are right with the price, my foul ... Those phones... moreMega hate is against the tiny 4.7" screen size.
      Had it been between 5.5"-5.8"(which can be easily fit in that form factor), no one would've hated it.

      No one would buy SD865 Android device with tiny 4.7" screen since everything from content consumption, gaming, web browsing, even normal texting and typing becomes cumbersome on such a tiny display.

      Atleast with battery, you can carry a power bank even though that's inconvenient.
      But You can't just increase the screen size on the go.

        • f
        • farciarz
        • xd$
        • 06 May 2020

        Bought this phone and it's great. I have two phones and one I need to charge. 3x per day, but it's great.

          • R
          • RejZoR
          • M}3
          • 06 May 2020

          Night Mode is overrated feature imo. Just get NeuralCam app and you'll make amazing bright and detailed night photos even in near perfect darkness. I was hoping for Night Mode to come to iPhone XR with iOS 13, given it still has neural processing unit, but it didn't. Then I found NeuralCam and I got night mode on XR. So, I'm not really missing anything on it. And Given hardware specs, NeuralCam should also run on SE easily. Same RAM, faster CPU.

            Refurbished, 05 May 2020Nailed it, Nick. I am SO close to giving up on GSMArena ... moreWhy do you care what anyone says?
            The actual customers will talk with their wallets, what's so bad about it? A class leading sales chart will shut all the naysayers, if this phone has it in it.

            I'm a Symbian fan and I understand that majority is not always right. I was on 360p screen uptill 2015. Now, I'm on 720p, although on Android.
            And no, productivity wise everything is going good.

              Anonymous, 05 May 2020Which one is more expensive or even at equal price point wi... moreOK, you are right with the price, my foul ...
              Those phones are cheaper, but imagine if it would be done by other company, put new cpu (SD865 in a body of older flagship, it would be perfect and it is questionable if the price would be much lower, considering that with apple you buy also the brand it self ...
              Apple SE model is now and also was before very good phone ... I am not apple fan, actualy I dont like apple products (mostly due to price price/funktionality ratio) and see the argutments against, I just dont like the mega hate which is arround it.

                Rk100, 06 May 2020Yes I compared it to my honor, but i did also compare it to... moreSorry but you should compare it with S20 Ultra or Pixel 4XL as their prices and specs suggest.

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                  • lek
                  • PA7
                  • 06 May 2020

                  oh wow, I was wrong about the battery endurance.. maaaaan, that could be a deal breaker to me u_u

                    • R
                    • Rk100
                    • 6v0
                    • 06 May 2020

                    Dominique, 06 May 2020Wow, that's a huge leap from Honor 10 to iPhone 11 PRO max ... moreYes I compared it to my honor, but i did also compare it to girlfriend's phone, a samsung s10e. Now that phone is somewhat recent, but again there were more problems with the android versions of the apps. It is simply just a worse (not bad) experience on android. For example Reddit was just plain bad on the samsung, though it did get a bit better in the recent update, snapchat looks like it takes screen shots of the camera, doesn't even take proper photos. Our Tesla app, is horrible on the s10e, but compared to the iOS it is near flawless. In fairness most, not all, most are near identical on both OS but, dev's simply put more effort into iOS because off apples requirements, unlike on google play store, all you have to do is pay google $25 and boom you can upload your app, with all it's bugs and possible malicious software. To be honest it is a fact that apps on iOS is simply just better than android at this point.

                      Rk100, 05 May 2020Yes, I've been an android user for a good few years, my fir... moreWow, that's a huge leap from Honor 10 to iPhone 11 PRO max which costs 200% more. Sure you should be getting better experience for that huge amount of money. Since you already shifted to iPhone then just enjoy it.
                      BTW, iPhone SE can't be comparable to your current daily driver.

                        • A
                        • A7r3
                        • dZt
                        • 06 May 2020

                        Old Specs, Boring system and same old design... Major Pass

                          • ?
                          • Anonymous
                          • LQw
                          • 06 May 2020

                          Camera was made in 2015.

                            • B
                            • Breen
                            • svt
                            • 05 May 2020

                            peter lac, 05 May 2020https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2020&nDi... moreDont be ridiculous, those phones are not midrangers, these are low end models. Moreover most of them are very cheap.. in my country xperia L4 is about 210 usd, realme c3 costs 150 usd. Iphone se costs 520 euro so.. yup this is Apple premium pricing.

                            And now take a look at new xperia 10 mk II, it has much bigger oled 1080p screen, much bigger battery and costs less than iphone se. Ok the SOC is much slower but it is fast enough for a mid range drvice.

                              Anonymous, 05 May 2020Too bad apple already redefine retina . Iphone 6 resolution... moreNot true

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • PE3
                                • 05 May 2020

                                Findecanor, 05 May 2020Neither your nor my eyes have got higher resolution since 2... moreToo bad apple already redefine retina . Iphone 6 resolution is not longer retina .

                                  Breen, 05 May 2020Apple want everyone to think so.. but if 326 ppi is enough ... more” Apple want everyone to think so.. but if 326 ppi is enough so why i11pro has more? Can you explain it? ”

                                  OLED screen have to be higher in resolution to look as sharp as LCD. It’s how the pixels are build with the OLED.

                                  When iPhone XR came i compared it to My X and both looked very good, i really couldn’t see any noticable difference in sharpness. Maybe if i would really have tried to compare them together, but overall both had great looking screen.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 6vx
                                    • 05 May 2020

                                    To give this phone fair review from Android boy.

                                    What's good:
                                    . CPU
                                    . Apple Support
                                    . low entry to iOS $399 might be a steal for many.
                                    . Metal frame.
                                    . Even if it's bigger than it's predecessor and bigger than what many would like is still shorter than other phones of this year.

                                    What's fair
                                    . Display isn't bad. It's just inferior to what competition has to offer. I mean, you can get Full HD AMOLED for that price.
                                    . Bezels aren't bad. but are bigger than necessary. And many of us want them completely gone.
                                    . I It's fair to call compact. Since it is a whole centimetre shorter than today's flagships. S10e is little bigger, but can't be found in local stores right now (Non US reader here). XS, 11 pro are also little bigger but cost a lot more and everything else is really big for some people.
                                    . 3GB RAM. Regardless OS, Apps will always benefit with more memory to allocate for themselves. But since we know how different strategies iOS and Android have towards memory, I would say 3GB might be on par of 6GB android. I personally wish companies were more generous with RAM, especially when they charge a lot for their products. Apple saved a lot of on this phone design, so more RAM wouldn't hurt their darn profits. But it's their customers, who have to demand that. None of my problems.

                                    What turned me down.
                                    . Glass sandwich. I litteraly hate that . For a record: I thought it had metal back and was gonna get solely for that reason. I understand that it would fuck up wireless charging. But, I do love that darn cold metal feel and for a person with caseless style of phone ownership, metal back is better; glass is fragile.
                                    . Battery life. Even with that small capacity, I expected more than what we get. I mean, it scores lower than iPhone 8. Can GSMA redo battery test ? Might software update improve that? I don't know.

                                    What shouldn't talked about at all.
                                    . The absence of 3.5 jack. First, At this point of spacetime, effectively All major android OEM-s have removed that useful (at least to me) port.
                                    And secondly, Apple removed that jack three and half years ago and knowing apple , they would rather go three and half hour long dance with explanation of why you should move towards wireless , than admit mistake and bring back feature a lot of their customers want. If you haven't made peace with that fact in three and half years, then look somewhere else.


                                    Consider all this, I call this phone a fair offer. And as many apple products , it might eventually sell well. But is hardly a flagship killer. It will be only for people tied to specific OS, small hands or limited budget but still valuing getting proper support. Anybody else would add little extra, say $50 on top of $450 for 128GB model and for $500 and more , you definitely can get better deal.
                                    Also prices in Countries different than US, are many times worse.

                                    We'll see.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • 6vx
                                      • 05 May 2020

                                      peter lac, 05 May 2020https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2020&nDi... moreWhich one is more expensive or even at equal price point with this phone?

                                      >you have more expensive phones with such display resolution.
                                      You clearly stated that.

                                      Name One, which is more expensive. One. You can't . At most, as I checked few of them, they cost half the price. Some cost less than quarter than this phone.

                                      I'm aware that phones with sub-FullHD (and many even less than HD720p) displays are still made.

                                      I actually like this phone, but it has some setbacks for me. And I'm perfectly fine with my current phone and android. They aren't best but satisfy my needs.

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • YQu
                                        • 05 May 2020

                                        Today you find some huge screen mid range Androids for the same price of the SE or cheaper but the truth is that none will be able to outperform and outlive the iPhone SE. For those who don’t mind the small size of screen, there is no better option. It’s money wisely spent. You are smartphone covered for at least 5 years.

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