iPhone SE 2020 Review [Unboxing and First Impressions]

Last Updated on: 25th April 2020, 07:41 pm

Apple just recently released their new second generation iPhone SE 2020 during this coronavirus pandemic. Are you excited to know about the new features and specs available in this iPhone SE?

Apple’s 2nd generation iPhone SE follows the same formula for success as its legendary predecessor: a compact, well-known design, updated specifications and an affordable price but it comes with future-proof hardware and cool functions.

Starting at $399, the new iPhone costs the same as the original, making it the cheapest Apple smartphone currently available. There are three colors to choose from: black, white and red.

This new iPhone looks so much like the iPhone 8 that if I didn’t know what the iPhone 8 looked like, I wouldn’t even know the difference.

• Save

The new SE is a little bit more white, whereas this has a little more of an eggshell type color.

iPhone SE 2020 Key Specs

• A13 Bionic chip with neural motor
• Up to 256 GB of storage space
• 4.7-inch retina display with 326 pixels per inch
• 12 MP camera with optical image stabilization
• Touch the ID fingerprint sensor
• 7 MP front camera
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Fast wired and wireless charging
• Wi-Fi 6 compatible; Dual SIM compatible
• IP67 waterproof

In iPhone SE, the iPhone name has been removed, the logo is now centered but the iPhone 8 is still running iOS 11.

The front bezels on the iPhone SE 2020, the entire screen is black, so I kinda like this because it looks very seamless, so you can’t tell that there are edges around it.

It does look like a full screen until you actually turn it on. Whereas the iPhone 8 has the white bezels to match the white phone.

The iPhone SE 2020 comes in three different colors, white, black and red. The starting price is $399, and that’s actually a really incredible price considering how powerful this little iPhone is.

This is actually running the A13 Bionic chip which is the same chip which is in the iPhone 11. That’s gonna have an amazing impact on the performance of this phone.

The original SE had a starting price also of $399, and that was in 2016, so Apple is keeping that same price, yet giving it that A13 Bionic chip that is in their highest end lineup right now.

This is 2 times faster than the original SE, and it also will give you a four times graphics boost. The display is a 4.7 inch HD retina display, and what’s great about this new iPhone.

This new iPhone has a same size as the iPhone 8, so all of the iPhone cases that you may already have for the iPhone 8, or their out there already, will work with the new SE.

This also has touch and Face ID. It’s also weird, I kinda missed having a home button. Like, just the haptic feedback on this alone, is just so satisfying, like I’ve definitely have missed that.

One thing that I was very excited about though, is this new phone does have wireless charging. A lot of times when companies are trying to cut costs with their devices, that’s the first thing that goes. The fact that this new iPhone does have wireless charging is pretty exciting. 

So the camera is pretty impressive, your still gonna be getting 4K 30 and 4K 60 FPS, from its rear camera. The rear camera is 12 megapixel and the front is a 7 megapixel selfie camera, this also features a cinematic video stabilization, so even if you are shooting at 1080, that extra stabilization will help you shoot way better front-facing videos. That’s pretty stable actually.

You can do all of the things that you normally would be able to do on the higher-end phones, like slow-mo and time-lapses. 

In this new iPhone you can see the stereo audio and I wonder if the next iPhone will record in 360 Reality Audio? I know that’s like a Sony property but, these do have Sony lenses in them. So anything’s possible.

The one thing that I would miss with this is having that ultra-wide lens. This does only have the wide-angle lens, there’s no telephoto. It will shoot portrait mode though on the front and back-facing camera. The newer iPhone 11 Pro‘s do shoot Pet Portrait Mode, this will not, as it does really only have this one lens. This version of portrait mode is mostly reliant on software, but it’s still pretty good.

And the fact that this smartphone can do that is thanks to that A13 bionic chip because it’s doing so many processes, so quickly, that it’s able to give you some pretty incredible features. So this comes in three storage configurations, there’s a 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB but what’s really impressive is the 64 and the 128, there’s only a 50 dollar difference.

So if you are looking to do a slight upgrade, I would recommend just going with the 128 GB. Yes, you really do never know when your gonna fill up the storage on your iPhone. But all that being said, a lot of stuff can be stored in the cloud, you can offload apps, you can keep all of that stored virtually, so if you do opt for the 64 GB, you will be perfectly fine.

Oh, I also have one of the new silicone cases. I’ve had moment cases on my iPhone 6 for so long, that I forgot how great these cases are. Before let’s discuss on iPhone cases now, I wanna show you guys a comparison of this new SE lineup, next to every other white iPhone that I could find, that I have previously owned.

And unfortunately one of the phones that I don’t have, is an original SE. Let’s take a look, it’s always so shocking how beautiful this iPhone is without a case. So here they are side-by-side, I still love the frosted glass of the i11, so pretty.

So you can see the screen difference between the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the iPhone SE 2020. Let’s put these cases back on. I can’t be trusted. I’m gonna put that case on the iPhone 8, just to show you, and to prove to myself that it works.

Let’s discuss iPhone 8 with same phone and same size. So now I’m gonna do a quick little photo and video test. We’re gonna start with the front-facing camera first. I haven’t been outside in over a month, so obviously, feeling and looking fantastic. I’m purposely trying to move around a lot to see how the cinematic stabilization works.

I’ve mentioned you can take portrait photos on the front and the back, so let’s just take a regular photo first. Okay let’s, switch to portrait. This is all the lighting effects that you guys are used to and have seen before. You can also adjust the f-stop which will also adjust how blurred, or not blurred that background is.

So obviously one of the highlights of the iPhone 11 Pro is you can do slow-fees, slow-mo on the front-facing camera, this does not do that. But I think you guys will be okay without having slow-fees on your front-facing camera. But we can do 240 and 120 on the rear-facing camera which I think is pretty good.

It wouldn’t be a slow-mo test without hair flips. Now if I give you photos from the back-facing camera 4K 30 FPS. Let’s test you out. It’s really cool though because this will actually shoot up to 4K 60 FPS, so you can still get 4K and slow down the 60, to get some nice cinematic slow-mo. Let’s try that out now. This is a really bad, this is a bad demo.

Good thing that iPhone SE 2020 is water resistant. Why is this foaming? What is happening? I didn’t like that. Why does my hose look like a space ship? I don’t know. I do plan on doing a way more extensive test with some moment lenses.

Make sure you guys subscribe our blog so you’ll be notified when I post any new blog post related to this new iPhone SE tests but I’m really excited about that.

Thank you guys so much for reading, I hope you guys enjoyed this first little look at the new iPhone SE, I think this is an incredible phone, at such an incredible price. It’s got all the photo and video capabilities, it’s fast enough to play all of the games that you would need to play.

Obviously it doesn’t have the three camera setup, it won’t do night mode. If you’re looking for a fast phone to create some content, stay connected with your friends and family, and do whatever else it is that you’re gonna be doing on your phone. This is the right iPhone for you.

Buy iPhone SE 2020