iPhone SE (2020) vs. iPhone 11: Camera comparison By CNET

This is the new $399 iPhone SE, it has a single rear camera powered by the same processor. That's in this, the 699 dollar iPhone 11, which has two rear cameras. But how do they compare, let's find out both the front and rear cameras on the iPhone? Se are pretty much the same harder wise as they were on the iPhone 8, but they get a huge improvement in image quality as well as functionality, because of that a 13 processor. Now you get things like smart APR for photography. You get the quick take filming button, I mean if you hold the shutter down in the camera app. You also get portrait mode photos both on the rear camera and on the selfie camera, and that is truly a first on any 4.7 inch. iPhone okay.

I's hard for me to even put into words how impressed I am by what the a13 Bionic chip, along with the iOS 13 software on here and well. Just how much is transformed this iPhone 8 hardware? How will it handle against the iPhone 11, which not only has the best camera system on any iPhone ever, but also one of the best all-around cameras on any phone? Also, I should apologize. You're going to see a lot of photos and videos of me because that's just the result of what happens when you're trying to test phone cameras against each other and these times. Let's talk about camera Hardware on the back of the iPhone. Se is a single rear camera.

It has an F 1.8, 28 millimeter lenses. That sounds familiar it's because it's the same one found on the iPhone 8. Now the back of the iPhone 11 are two cameras. You got a main camera, and it has an F 1.8, 26 millimeter lenses. It also has an ultra wide-angle camera and that has a 13 millimeter F 2.4 limbs. Obviously, since the iPhone 11 has a second rear camera, that's ultra-wide.

It's not fair to compare it to a non-existent camera on the iPhone SE. So instead I've created an ode, a montage of photos and videos that I took with the ultra-wide camera on the iPhone 11 enjoy. Do you do in good light photos from each phone are very similar in terms of image quality I mean look at these pictures of a tree? I took in my backyard, you tell which phone took which picture yeah. Now you see my point, yeah the iPhone SE photo is framed ever so slightly tighter because of that 28 millimeter lens compared to the iPhone 11, with its 26 millimeter, lens and I. Think a lot of that has to do with the fact that whether you're on an iPhone 11 11 of pro or they knew iPhone SE, that smart HDR is optimizing.

Those photos, it's bringing out those details, and it's putting that dynamic range as much as possible without letting the image fall apart. These next photos of a tree and shadows with bright sky behind showcases that rather well and in an extreme scene like this, with dark, shadows and really bright, highlights, we can start to see some room between the two phones check out. The iPhone 11 photo will be zoom in to 100%. You can see the shadows, have more detail and aren't as dark as the iPhone SE, and if we look closely at the sky through the branches, you can see that both phones have blown out highlights, but the iPhone 11 has less. But when we step away from good light and get into medium and low light, we start to see the differences between the two phones.

Even more I took some photos of my bike trainer indoors and medium lighting. The most obvious difference is the framing is tighter on the iPhone SE than the iPhone 11 in terms of image quality. The photo from the 11 has a pinch more detail. Take a look at the wall outlet in the background the photo for the iPhone SE suffers from noise in the shadows. That said, this isn't a huge difference, but I'd say for indoor medium light photos that the iPhone 11 has the edge and that edge comes from deep fusion processing found on the iPhone 11, which is not on the iPhone SE.

And what that does be optimize it the image it minimizes noise and brings out detail and those medium to low light scenes welcome to the darkness. This is the perfect place to show another big difference between these two phones, and that is night mode. The iPhone 11 has it the iPhone SE does not. So what is night mode? Well, it takes a bunch of images, combines them together to make a photo. That's brighter, it's better detail and less image noise.

You could argue that this is not a central thing. You need, but there's going to be people who want it just as much as they want that ultra wide-angle camera. So, let's see what night mode is capable of now here's the photo from the iPhone SE of that tree in my backyard yeah, it's extremely dark. Now here's the same tree taken with night mode on the iPhone 11 I mean it's not even close night mode is amazing, everything's brighter, there's more detail, I mean you can actually see. What's going on now, I'll admit this was a pretty extreme way to test the phones.

So here is a slightly brighter low-light scene of a book, I drop bottle and my computer, even before we zoom in we can see, there's more sharpness to the details and the iPhone 11 photo, and once we zoom in to 100%, we can start to see more differences in regard to the bottle of eye drops again. The iPhone 11 has better details and color accuracy and that's not to say that the photo from the iPhone SE is bad. I, don't think it is. But when we look at the author names on the spine of the book, the text looks softer in the iPhone SE photo and also notice the difference in color of the book between the two photos. So what can we take away in regard to photos? Well, when it's medium and low light shots? The iPhone 11 exceeds because it can get that image, detail and minimize that image noise, but in good lighting, both phones are pretty equal, in fact, I'm here, filming on the iPhone SE right now using the native bikes.

This is my home setup. It's nothing fancy, but here's to see how the iPhone SE handles in this situation. What does it look like what it sounds like, and now I'm filming on the main rear camera on the iPhone 11, using its Dean of mics, just like now on both phones, I filmed it 4k 60 frames per second, at first glance: the videos of me that I just showed you look pretty similar? But if you look closely like at the speaker on the shelf behind me, we notice it's more contrasting on the iPhone SE than the iPhone 11. And let's talk about the lamp over my shoulder in the iPhone 11 video. You can see the light isn't blown out, whereas in the iPhone SE video it is, and that's because the iPhone 11 has extended dynamic range up to 4k 60 frames per second and the iPhone FC's extended range tops out at 4k 30 frames per second.

Now it wouldn't be a factor called a camera, compare without some slow-motion footage, but Before we jump into that. And let's, let's just acknowledge that this is a $399 phone. It can shoot full HD. You know that 720 garbage slow-motion at 240 frames per second, so here are so much of videos from each phone of espresso being pulled. Neither of these videos is perfect effect.

Both suffer from image noise, but if I look closely the iPhone 11 video has more detail and better sharpness and color accuracy, as some of that actually might come down to the camera hardware. We know that the iPhone 11 has newer lenses and a newer sensor, whereas the hardware on the iPhone SE comes from the 2017 iPhone 8. Perhaps the place where there is the biggest difference between the iPhone, 11 and iPhone SE is the selfie camera. The iPhone 11 has a wider front-facing camera, and it's capable of 4k video and slow fees. The iPhone SE can only shoot 1080p, video and no SLO fees.

Both phones have portrait selfie mode and again the image quality is just a tad bit better on the iPhone 11 there's just a little more detail in those photos, but let's just acknowledge that some people might not want to have all that detail on a selfie photo MMM. So let's talk about selfie video. It's a monthly iPhone 11. This is the selfie camera on that just test out the video here and trying to compare it to the iPhone, see the biggest difference for an after. That is the fact that this has a wider feel the views.

You can see a little more of my house yeah and then impressive mercy, all right, all right doing a quick video test here. This is a front-facing camera. There's the one on the iPhone SE, and I'm talking about side, it's kind of a sunny day, but I'm in the shade and yeah how's it sound how's it look. You can really see that difference in resolution, but also the audio, the iPhone 11. The audio sounds more full has a little more clarity to it than that from the iPhone SE.

And that brings me to the end. It's obvious that the iPhone 11 has a better and more versatile camera system, but the iPhone SE was able to go toe-to-toe with it and cost three hundred dollars less. Maybe the iPhone SE is a sign of the times when we should stop counting how many cameras we have on our phone or how many megapixels there are, and it's dead focus on what the processor is, because it seems like that's where it's getting all its magic. You.

Source : CNET