Review | Full review iPhone SE 2020: daytime photos and video superb for budget price, wireless charging a plus, battery life only average

The year 2020 has flipped the world upside down – including the smartphone scene. In one week we saw previous budget brands Xiaomi and OnePlus release US$1,000 phones, followed by Apple launching a new iPhone starting at US$399. Some compromises had to be made for Apple to meet this price point. Gadget geeks into cutting-edge tech may not be able to accept these compromises, but there are many mainstream consumers who will have no issue with the iPhone SE 2020. Design and hardware If you saw an iPhone anywhere around 2015 to 2017 you’ll have seen the new iPhone SE’s design. It’s virtually identical to the iPhone 8, which itself was very similar to the iPhone 6 and 7. This means a large circular home button; a rectangular (4.7-inch) screen without rounded corners; symmetrical bezels at the top and bottom; and nary a camera bump. New Huawei P40 Pro phone: fast charging, smooth feel It’s a retro design in every way, as phones nowadays have rounded screen corners, large camera bumps housing intricate camera sensors, and no almost no bezels. Inside, however, the SE is as modern as smartphones get. Powering the handset is Apple’s A13 Bionic, a cutting-edge, 7-nanometre processor that helps power complex AI algorithms and pull off computational photography. The latter allows the single 12-megapixel camera to capture shots beyond what the hardware should be capable of. For those with modern smartphones, the iPhone SE will feel downright petite at 138.4mm x 67.3mm x 7.3mm and 148 grams. Software and features The software running here – iOS 13 – is mostly the same as that running on other iPhones, but it behaves slightly differently due to the return to the home button design. On recent notched iPhones, for example, the “Control Centre” is activated by swiping down from the upper right corner; here, it’s a swipe up from the bottom. Because the SE only has one main camera, Apple has turned to software to help make up for the lack of other lenses. The phone uses digital cropping to compensate for the absence of a telephoto lens, producing still respectable zoom shots up to 2-3x (at 5x, the maximum zoom level, details become very murky); and portrait shots are digitally produced via the A13 Bionic’s neural processing engine. Performance and battery life To be honest, I still haven’t got used to pressing the home button after several days’ use and I don’t think I will. Swiping up to exit out of apps is an intuitive and natural movement that just makes sense from a user perspective – the animation of an app flying away at the same speed and trajectory as my thumb swipe adds to the immersion. Pressing into a button, with force, to do the same now feels primitive. Other than getting used to the older hardware, performance has been great. The A13 Bionic is the most powerful chip around, and it shows. Games run more fluidly and at higher consistent frame rates here than on some top Android phones. Even with one camera, Apple’s best-in-class augmented reality applications still work on the SE – again topping anything on the Android front. And the camera is really good at this price point. The hardware here is very close to the main camera of the iPhone 11, and during the day, photos taken by the two phones are virtually identical. When shooting at night or in lowlight environments, the SE’s photos fall short of the 11’s due to its smaller image sensor and the lack of “night mode”, but shots are still serviceable. What truly makes the SE camera stand out at this price point is video performance. While some Android phones have caught up, and arguably surpass, the iPhone in still-photography performance, Apple’s video camera performance has never been topped. The SE also packs other features even some flagship Android phones lack, such as wireless charging, IP67 water resistance and stereo speakers. Battery life, however, is just OK. The SE is a small and thin phone, so the battery inside cannot be that large (Apple has traditionally declined to reveal exact battery size). With my heavy usage, the SE lasts about 12 to 13 hours. Not bad, but not great. Conclusion Much has been made by Western media about the iPhone SE 2020 being “great value”. But in Asia, there is no shortage of good entry-level Chinese phones that have more modern designs at lower prices. What Apple can offer that a Xiaomi or Vivo phone cannot, however, is brand cachet, a far superior video camera, and integration into the Apple ecosystem. Those already integrated into that ecosystem are usually fully entrenched and have no desire to break away. For them, the iPhone SE will be by far the cheapest phone within their consideration. The iPhone SE should have major appeal to two groups: iPhone users who cannot or do not want to pay US$1,000 for a phone, and those who are turned off by the escalating increase in smartphone size. Key specs Dimensions: 138.4mm x 67.3mm x 7.3mm Weight: 148 grams Display: 4.7-inch 750 x 1334 LCD Battery: Not disclosed OS version reviewed: iOS 13 Processor: A13 Bionic Cameras: 12-megapixel main camera; 7-megapixel front-facing selfie camera Memory: 64/128/256GB ROM (RAM not disclosed) Colours: White, black, red Price: US$399 (64GB); US$449 (128GB); US$549 (256GB)