iPHONE SE (2020) REVIEW: EVERYTHING YOU NEED & NOTHING ELSE
The new iPhone SE is tricky to review, not because it incorporates a lot of interesting new technology to test and explain, but because it does the opposite.
Literally nothing here is new. One could write a fairly comprehensive and accurate review in a single short sentence: Apple took an iPhone 8, gave it the iPhone 11’s processor, and is charging only $399 for it.
And yet it’s that last part, the affordable price, that makes it so interesting. For many millions of potential customers, a brand-new iPhone has remained out of reach. For so many others, their years-old iPhone is overdue for an upgrade but the new iPhones give them sticker shock.
This phone offers nothing at all to anyone who has an iPhone released in the last couple years, but for its intended audience of iPhone 6 upgraders and “I got this basically free from my carrier” customers, the new iPhone SE is the most outstanding value since, well, the old iPhone SE.
iPHONE 8 REDUX
At a glance, it’s hard to tell the iPhone SE from an iPhone 8. They’re exactly the same size with precisely the same button placement—iPhone 8 cases work just fine on the iPhone SE. There are small changes, like the way the iPhone SE’s front is all black no matter the back glass color, or the now-centered Apple logo on the back. In essence, though, this is an iPhone 8 on the outside.
It’s just like the iPhone 8 in most other ways, too. Both have IP67 water resistance. Both support wireless charging. The new phone has the same 4.7-inch Retina HD (that’s approximately 720p) LCD display, too.
You won’t really notice that the resolution is a bit limited by today’s standards, but you will notice it’s not quite as bright as newer phones. We measured a
