2020 iPhone SE: Full spec comparison with iPhone 8 and previous generation

On Wednesday, Apple announced the second-generation iPhone SE, with an iPhone 8-like body, Touch ID, an A13 Bionic processor and other major hardware upgrades. It was the first update to the ‘SE’ branded iPhone after the original generation was released in 2016.

We’ve rounded up and made a comparison of the new iPhone SE, iPhone 8 – introduced in 2018 with the iPhone 8 Plus and X – and first-generation SE from 2016.

iPhone SE (2nd-gen)iPhone 8 (2017) iPhone SE (2016)
ProcessorA13 Bionic chip
3rd Gen Neural Engine
A11 Bionic chip
Neural Engine
A9 chip
Display4.7″ Retina HD
TrueTone
P3 Wide Colour
Haptic Touch
4.7″ Retina HD
TrueTone
P3 Wide Colour
3D Touch
4″ Retina
Full sRGB standard
Capacity64GB
128GB
256GB
64GB
128GB
32GB
128GB
CameraSingle 12MP wide
f1.8 aperture
Optical image stabilisation
Portrait Mode (both)
Bokeh & Depth Control
Next-gen Smart HDR
7MP front camera
Single 12MP wide
f1.8 aperture
Optical image stabilisation
Auto HDR
7MP front camera
Single 12MP wide
f2.2 aperture
HDR
1.2MP front camera
VideoHD/4K up to 60 fps
Optical image stabilization
QuickTake video
Slo-mo 1080p at 120/240 fps
Stereo recording
HD/4K up to 60 fps
Optical image stabilization
Slo-mo 1080p at 120/240 fps
4K/HD at 30 fps
Slo-mo 1080p at 120 fps
WirelessGigabit LTE
WiFi 6 802.11ax
Bluetooth 5.0
LTE
802.11ac Wi‑Fi
Bluetooth 5.0
LTE
802.11ac Wi‑Fi
Bluetooth 4.2
ConnectionsLightning port
Dual-SIM
Lightning port
Nano-SIM
Lightning port
3.5mm audio jack
Nano-SIM
Video PlaybackDolby Vision and HDR10 Dolby Vision and HDR10

One area that the 2020 iPhone SE is seemingly quite strong in is the camera area. It borrows features from the iPhone 8 and the XR, which was of the best single camera phones of 2018. Apple also uses the power and machine learning of the A13 Bionic chip to improve the photos taken with the camera, as they’ve done with the iPhone 11 series.

The iPhone SE also has support for Dolby Vision, HDR10 and other display standards. Although it’s on the iPhone 8, Apple’s replaced 3D Touch with Haptic Touch, which reduces the prices and provides the same experience with force touching the display.

9to5Mac also claims that the SE has 3GB of RAM and a 1821 mAh battery, which is surprisingly small and may not be correct (we need to wait for reviews to confirm this). It also runs iOS 13 and will support future software releases until 2025 at least.

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Ben Ward

Senior Editor, discussing everything Apple and supporting other writers and members of Apple TLD's team of volunteers.

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