iPhone SE 2020 review: good battery life but has a tired design and while the camera is good in bright light and great at video, it is noisy in low light
I dug out lots of the old models and compared. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... Nilay Patel / @reckless : Here's @backlon's review of the new iPhone SE - it really is a spectacular phone for the price https://www.theverge.com/... Matthew Panzarino / @panzer : Review: Apple's cheap and cheerful iPhone SE. Apple offers a hit value phone that widens the gate for people to spend on services. https://techcrunch.com/... Dieter Bohn / @backlon : Here is my iPhone SE review! It is not just a good deal, it's a very good phone. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
The VergeDieter Bohn
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has revived the small-phone formula last seen in the iPhone 6s era, putting current-generation performance into a five-year-old body and pricing it as an entry point rather than a flagship. Dieter Bohn's verdict at The Verge is that it is not merely a good deal but a very good phone, with battery life and video as the strengths and the inherited chassis as the compromise.
Matthew Panzarino's framing at TechCrunch supplies the strategic read: this is a value phone that widens the gate for people to spend on services, which means the hardware margin matters less than the install base it recruits.
First-order effects
Budget-conscious buyers get flagship-class performance, strong battery life, and excellent video in a sub-flagship package, with the trade-offs being the dated design and a camera that turns noisy in low light despite holding up well in bright conditions.
Apple gains an affordable on-ramp for customers who would otherwise sit out the upgrade cycle, converting price-sensitive shoppers into App Store and services users.
Second-order effects
Android vendors competing in the mid-range now face an iOS device priced against their flagships-adjacent tiers, forcing them to justify their own value propositions on specs the SE deliberately omits.
The template proves durable enough that Apple repeats it: the iPhone SE (2022) keeps the same tired design while adding 5G, confirming the entry model is a recurring product line rather than a one-off clearance play.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, Apple's lineup settles into a two-tier structure where the premium iPhones (iPhone 12-class and beyond) carry the design and camera innovation while the SE line recycles older industrial designs at lower prices — and the entry tier's job is measured in services revenue per user, not hardware margin.
A persistent low-cost tier also extends the lifespan of old component designs, which pressures the rest of the market to compete on ecosystem lock-in rather than annual spec races.
The trend: Apple is institutionalizing a cheap, recycled-design SE line as a services-recruitment funnel, refreshed roughly every two years while flagship iPhones absorb the innovation budget.
“So, yes, a $400 iPhone SE bests a $3,000 top-of-the-line MacBook Pro in single-core CPU performance”, truly remarkable. https://daringfireball.net/...
That means that yes, it even works with the selfie camera. The iPhone XR did this with its TrueDepth infrared sensor that's used for Face ID. The iPhone SE is the first iPhone to ever enable Portrait mode on a single front facing camera! (image by @backlon on @verge) https://twit…
@thurrott @Daniel_Rubino I think that's correct, though? Most current reviewers are tech-centric and most customers are decidedly more mainstream. I'm always going to buy the highest end but both my parents and my sister are upgrading to SE this year. Reviewers have been... incon…
Apple's lead in mobile processors is just brutal. I really hope that Google's own efforts bear fruit, so we can get the gap closed. Ridiculous that a $399 iPhone is blitzing thousand-plus dollar Androids. https://www.androidcentral.com/ ...
I think @JoannaStern might be going a bit stir crazy in this review, but it seems like the new SE is now a no brainer over the XR https://www.wsj.com/...
uh @JoannaStern told me she was going a little stir-crazy in isolation but her iPhone SE review has an anthropomorphized iPhone with self-esteem issues lifting AirPods as weights https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
These come at a time when the iPhone SE exists, a $400 phone that will be supported for many more years. People are holding onto their devices longer than ever, and I really wish manufacturers took updates more seriously. P.S.: Read @LaurenGoode's review! https://www.wired.com/..…
we've been doing the iPhone camera review for 9 years but only this one stopped me in my tracks. not ready for this to be normal https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
For months, readers with older iPhones have written to me about how they wanted an iPhone SE-like phone. So, I reviewed it with all of them in mind—I dug out lots of the old models and compared. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Review: Apple's cheap and cheerful iPhone SE. Apple offers a hit value phone that widens the gate for people to spend on services. https://techcrunch.com/...