Apple iPhone SE (2020) in for review

The iPhone SE (2020) has been the most talked about phone since it became official a few weeks back. It's among the most popular phones in our database and it's now arrived at our office, which means we've started its detailed review.

We got a PRODUCT(RED) iPhone SE (2020) and it comes in a standard retail box with Lightning headphones, a Lightning cable, a 5W charger, Apple stickers and a SIM ejector tool.

The provided 5W charger is outright insulting by 2020 standards but at least the iPhone SE (2020) supports both wireless charging and faster wired charging - up to 18W. So if you have a Power Delivery fast charger the iPhone SE (2020) can juice up at 18W.

Half of the iPhone SE (2020) charm is its low price (for an iPhone, anyway), the other half is its compactness. You can see how it matches up to the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro and the 4.0-inch original iPhone SE.

It doesn't look that much smaller than the iPhone 11 Pro, but it is 40g lighter, which makes for a significant difference in feel.

Apple iPhone SE (2020) next to iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone SE

Being compact means that the iPhone SE (2020) isn't ideal of media playback - its 4.7-inch 750x1334px display feels tiny by 2020 standards. However the panel is nice and bright and if you don't care about new-fangled tall-aspects and the contrast benefits of OLED, it will be perfectly acceptable to you.

By this point, if you're thinking of buying an iPhone SE (2020), or you've already done so, the presence of a physical home button is likely a Pro and not a Con to you. Touch ID is just as zippy as it was in 2017.

Another thing that's super fast is iOS. Users coming from an older iPhone (like the original SE) will notice a difference. The iPhone SE (2020) is just about as responsive around the OS as an iPhone 11 Pro.

One thing that brings concerns to the table is the iPhone SE (2020)'s small 1,821mAh battery. Will it last long enough? Especially compared to Apple's current lineup of iPhones, all of which are excellent battery performers? We'll answer that question in our full review. We've started work on it and it will come really soon. Stay tuned!