IPhone SE (2nd generation)
The second-generation iPhone SE is a smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the 13th generation of the iPhone, alongside the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro/Pro Max models. Announced on April 15, 2020, the iPhone SE directly replaced the iPhone 8 series, while also being the successor to the smaller and lighter first-generation iPhone SE. Pre-orders began on April 17, 2020, and the phone was subsequently released on April 24, 2020. It was released with a starting price of, and positioned as a budget phone.
Following the pattern made by the first-generation iPhone SE, the second-generation model shares the dimensions and form factor of the iPhone 8, while sharing selected internal hardware components from the iPhone 11 lineup, including the A13 Bionic system-on-chip.
History
A successor to the first-generation iPhone SE had been a source of rumor since 2017, the year after the device was released. The name was also subject to speculation. Guesses included iPhone SE 2, iPhone SE 2020, and iPhone 9 due to design similarities with the iPhone 8.In March 2020, cases for the phone were reportedly being shipped to Best Buy, showing an iPhone with an iPhone 8-sized body and a single camera lens. Belkin screen protectors for the iPhone SE were also listed on the online Apple Store, cross-compatible with the base models of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone 7, and iPhone 8. However, references to the iPhone SE were quickly removed.
On April 15, 2020, the second-generation iPhone SE was announced in a press release note on Apple's website. It was marketed as "A powerful new smartphone in a popular design", and was released worldwide on April 24, 2020.
Specifications
Design
The iPhone SE features an aluminum frame, with glass front and back. It shares the same physical sizes and dimensions as the iPhone 8, except for a centered Apple logo and no iPhone branding. Therefore, phone cases designed to fit the iPhone 8 will also fit the iPhone SE. The second-generation iPhone SE also shares the same top and bottom bezels as the iPhone 8, including the Home button.The iPhone SE is available in three colors: Black, White, and a Product Red edition. Though the offered colors line up with those of the iPhone 8, the iPhone SE uses a noticeably deeper shade of black, a brighter shade of white, and a lighter shade of Product Red. Unlike all prior white and silver iPhones from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 8, the 2020 iPhone SE features black bezels around the display on all models, in line with the color schemes of the iPhone 11 and iPhone XR.
| Color | Name | Bezel |
| Black | Black | |
| White | Black | |
| RED | Black |
Size
With a screen diagonal of, the second generation of the iPhone SE was among the smallest mainstream in-production smartphones at the time of its release. However, it is still thirty percent larger than the first generation variant, whose screen diagonal measures. Dan Seifert from The Verge declared the second-generation SE a "nail in the coffin" for small phones.This was affirmed by CNET, who stated that "Apple's decision to not build a brand-new 4-inch phone is telling. It signals that the company will probably never bring back the tiny iPhone, no matter how badly people crave it."
Hardware
The iPhone SE incorporates the Apple A13 Bionic system on a chip, with the integrated M13 motion coprocessor, and third-generation neural engine. It is available in three internal storage configurations: 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. The SE has the same IP67 rating for dust and water resistance as the iPhone 8. The phone lacks the ultra-wideband features enabled by the U1 chip found in the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. Despite the phone's smaller size which may lead to increased thermal throttling, the SE's A13 SoC runs at the same peak CPU frequencies as the iPhone 11. Unlike the first-generation model, the second-generation iPhone SE doesn't feature a standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack.Display
The iPhone SE features the same Retina HD display found on the iPhone 8, using IPS technology with True Tone and wide color gamut. The display has a resolution of 1334 x 750 pixels, like the previous 4.7" iPhones. The pixel density is 326 PPI, the same as on all iPhones with LCD displays since the introduction of the Retina display on the iPhone 4, excluding the Plus models. The pressure-sensing 3D Touch feature found on the iPhone 8 has been replaced with Haptic Touch on the iPhone SE, which does not work for notifications. It can play HDR10 and Dolby Vision content despite not having an HDR-ready display, done by down-converting the HDR content to fit the display while still having some enhancements to dynamic range, contrast, and wide color gamut compared to standard content.Camera
The iPhone SE has a rear 12 MP camera with a single lens, similar to the single lens camera system of the iPhone 8, capable of recording 4K video, 1080p HD video, or 720p HD video. The camera has an aperture of ƒ/1.8, autofocus, optical image stabilization, and a quad-LED True Tone flash. The phone can also take panoramas up to 63 MP, and shoot photos in burst mode. The front camera is 7 MP with an aperture of f/2.2 and autofocus, capable of shooting 1080p HD video at 30 fps. The camera interface adopts "Quicktake" from the 11 and 11 Pro, which allows the user to long-press the shutter button to take a video. The burst function can now be accessed by swiping the shutter button to the left.The new image signal processor and neural engine of the SE support several camera functions not supported on the iPhone 8. Like the 11 and 11 Pro, the rear camera supports next-generation Smart HDR. The rear camera also supports extended dynamic range video up to 30 fps, stereo recording and cinematic video stabilization. Both the front and rear cameras of the iPhone SE support Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting. Like the 11 and 11 Pro, Portrait mode has depth control and an advanced bokeh effect. However, the usage of older sensor hardware results in some limitations—the iPhone SE does not support the Night Mode or Deep Fusion features of the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. The SE's implementation of Portrait mode only natively supports images of humans, as the hardware does not produce depth maps through the use of focus pixels and instead relies on software-based machine learning.