Apple iPhone SE 2020 Review By DXOMARK

Hi I'm Rachel, and I'm Mary from the TO mark. We will be talking about apples later smartphone, the iPhone SE, the second generation of the company's special edition line, which became available in April. We bought a commercially available version of the device and got to work. Furthermore, we put the SE through our series of DXO mark tests to see how this smaller and lower priced phone would perform in what you could call a special edition, video we'll look at the results in all three categories: main camera front, camera and audio all in one video. Now, let's get started by taking a quick look at both the camera and audio specs of the iPhone SE on the outside, the iPhone SE has the same body and look as the iPhone 8 home button included and in this post boat period, it's really a very interesting phone, because the other facial recognition, iPhones don't work well when wearing a mask. But it's what's on the inside that takes this phone to a new level.

The phone runs on Apple's, a 13 flagship chipset of the iPhone 11 Apple has simplified the rear camera structure on this phone. With only one fast 12 megapixel sensor, that has a 5x digital zoom, an optical image stabilization, the camera also offers 4k video capture at 24, 30 and 60 frames per second. The front camera has a 7 megapixel sensor, a fixed focus lens with features like HDR panorama as well as portrait mode, and you can shoot an electronically stabilized selfie video at 1080p and 30 frames per second audio specs are rather straightforward. The SE captures and delivers sound in stereo and there's no headphone jack. Let's start our overview with the iPhone SE s main camera.

In these examples of outdoor indoor and night scenes, the camera does a good job with exposure and color detail is well-preserved on outdoor shots. Indoor shots are also well exposed with accurate white balance and Pleasant color. But exposure drops off noticeably in low-light where detail is low and noise is high in our perceptual analysis. Dynamic range is very wide. In this example, you can see the iPhone SE captures a brighter exposure in the darker areas compared to the iPhone 11 and pixel 3, while still maintaining excellent detail in the sky.

In this indoor backlit portrait scene, the subject is well exposed, but dynamic range is limited. With a very little detail in the sky, the iPhone SE an iPhone 11, achieved a similar result in this test, producing a more satisfactory picture compared to the pixel 3 which under exposes the subject. Color is a nice strength for the iPhone SE, particularly in outdoor images. White balance is slightly warmer and looks a little richer and more pleasing on the SE than on the iPhone 11. Autofocus on the a/c is fast, but high contrast for backlit conditions resulted in some out-of-focus images in our perceptual tactic in lab testing.

However, the iPhone SE showed fast and accurate performance in simulated indoor and outdoor lighting conditions. Results for low-light scenes were a little mixed but acceptable in our perceptual analysis of outdoor images. Detail from the 12 megapixel sensor is acceptable and consistent with the iPhone 11 and the pixel 3. You can see in these examples that edge detail on the railings holds up. Okay, but very fine details in the leaves of the trees are lost.

Some noise is unusually visible in the darker areas, even in outdoor images. Our artifacts' analysis showed some image quality problems, but none were very serious. The main penalties we applied were for visible flare and strongly backlit images. Flare is only really obvious when shooting directly towards a bright light source. Even then, it's pretty well controlled because it manages to avoid those large and unsightly vertical or horizontal streaks of light with no dedicated teller lens.

The iPhone SE applies a digital zoom to the already fairly low resolution.12 megapixel image, resulting in a noticeable deterioration of detail at all magnifications results are best at close range about two times magnification, where details hold up in outdoor lighting conditions. But if you push the magnification farther for a medium range about four times and long range about eight times, zoom shots, a farther loss of detail is evident. The iPhone SE is both reveals some frequent errors in depth. Estimation you can see in this example that, while the eye sees portrait is sharp, the wine glass and the plate are blurred. Just like the background, although not perfect, the pixel three manages to keep these elements sharp on the plus side.

Noise is uniform across blurred and sharp areas and the depth of field effect is pleasant. Blur effects are not the strong gas and bulky spotlights are still a little underwhelming, but the SE does an acceptable job when the portrait is quite large in the frame and not connected to other elements. Options for shooting at night are a bit limited. Results are best using flash for night portraits where flash exposure is fairly good and the level of detail is acceptable. But performance is a bit inconsistent with the flash, occasionally failing to activate when needed.

In auto flash mode and white balance can be slightly cold. The iPhone SE avoids white balance, color casts, but skin tones and color saturation aren't quite as pleasant as on the pixel.3 dynamic range is also very limited, with no dedicated night mode on the iPhone SE 2020 you're, relying on either its auto flash or flash off modes for low-light cityscapes exposure is far from the best we've seen in these tests with slightly low target exposure, and some highlight clipping evident in very bright scenes, we'll get to video performance a bit later. Now, let's take a look at how the front camera performs when taking selfies dual fees and Grew fees, the screen can serve as a color optimized flash in outdoor scenes. The iPhone SE generally exposes well for faces in these photos. All three phones had appropriate exposure and managed contrast on the face properly without blowing out highlights or losing shadow detail in high contrast, indoor scenes' exposure remains accurate and dynamic range is acceptable in these shots.

The SE exposes properly and retains a natural look in the main subject: skin the SE delivers bright and vivid colors under most conditions. White balance is usually accurate, though sometimes a yellowish cast is present visible on the white boat in this sample image, because the lens is focused at a close distance sharpness when using a selfie stick will be reduced and people in a group selfie farther from the camera will be softer than those in the range of optimal focus. In these examples, it's clear that the iPhone Elevens front camera is designed for a wider depth of field with both the near and far subjects. Looking quite sharp, the SE is slightly softer at close to middle distances, but sharpness drops noticeably for the farther subject. The p40 pro renders the closest subject slightly soft, probably because its autofocus system settles on the middle subject.

When it comes to texture. The overall quality of a selfie is often less dependent on detail levels than other factors. Some phones actively smooth out texture on vases, but here the difference between the SE and the reference phones in good light is quite obvious. Even at moderate magnification in the iPhone SE s case, noise remains higher than we like to see. Despite the relatively low detail levels.

Here we see that the iPhone SE s photo is noisier than the iPhone 11 s. The p40 pro's output shows much less noise image. Artifacts are reasonably well controlled in the iPhone SE. The biggest offender here is lens flare, which the photographer has at least some control over, but the SE also loses points for Orphic distortion and general loss of sharpness. The iPhone SE does a decent job of avoiding the worst depth separation.

Artifacts, though, errors are still evident, but the effect is consistent and noise is uniform across background and subject. Out-Of-Focus spotlights are pleasantly rendered. Let's look at the device's video capabilities for both front and rear cameras. The iPhone SE produces videos with accurate white balance and Pleasant colors across a wide range of conditions. Those skin tones can look unnatural, which is obviously not ideal for a selfie camera.

Artifacts are well controlled, though the lens flare, seen in still photography, also turns up in videos. The iPhone SE loses highlight detail in the sky, while the Apple iPhone 11 does a better job of managing the high contrast scene when taking videos with the main camera. The iPhone SE is a capable device we tested and scored at its 4k 30 frames per second setting the iPhone SE s 4k capture offers decent detail, particularly in bright light. Stabilization isn't perfect with some global motion evident in static panning and walking videos, so we've covered images and video. Now, let's focus on the iPhone s.

C's audio performance in playback and recording the film's playback score is mostly driven by its good volume, sub score and remarkable artifacts' performance. The phone indeed suffers from very few artifacts overall and, as always with Apple, allows high dynamic content to express all its nuances at minimum volumes. Although maximum volume is noticeably lower than other high-end, smartphones, mid-range and treble are well-balanced, but tonal balance lacks low-end extension attack is precise and compression is subtle at maximum volume. However, heavy distortion can occasionally appear while left and right channels are curiously inverted when playing music in landscape mode in recording the iPhone. Se was one of the best phones we have tested so far.

Despite a slight lag of low and high-end extension, it delivers excellent tonal balance, good dynamics and immersive spatial reproduction, while compression is noticeable on vocal content. Very few spectral artifacts are noticeable even when recording in loud environments and microphone. Occlusions are well controlled. To sum up, while Apple's special edition delivers a reasonably good playback performance, it ranks second to best in the recording area, thus outshining its siblings in almost every category and now for our final TX 'mark score in each category. The iPhone SE main camera achieved an overall DXO mark score of 101 with 103 in photo and 98.

In video, the front camera got an overall score of 84, with 85 in photo and 83 in video and in audio the iPhone SE scored 70 overall, with 69 in playback and 73, in recording, overall for its size and price. The iPhone SES camera and audio puts in an impressive performance if you're looking for a device with a simple camera setup that delivers consistent exposure as well as vivid and colors instill, as well as video, along with a solid stereo, playback and recording. You won't be disappointed with the iPhone SE, but if your photography and videography demand more features, you'll have to look into multi camera devices that offer specific features like zoom, Y and night mode that wraps up our multi review. Video for the iPhone SE ease camera, selfie and audio performance. To read more about each category, you can find the link in the description below thanks for watching and be sure to hit the subscribe button for new videos.

Source : DXOMARK