Anyone who calls the iPhone SE a spare parts store is not wrong. Dressed in the iPhone 8 garb, looking through the glasses of the iPhone XR and doing its work with the heart of the iPhone 11, Apple has rummaged deep in its toolbox and created a powerful iPhone mix that combines not the best, but the...

Powerful processor; Home Button; Bokeh effects for both cameras; Low price

Aged LCD display; Average Portrait Mode; Poor audio; No expandable storage

A couple of years ago the Apple iPhone X restored my joy in smartphones and a lot of that had to do with the small size and extremely responsive performance of the phone. I went through the iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR before choosing to stick with the iPhone XS and then moved onto the iPhone 11 Pro.

High end processor; Low price; Small size for the masses; Solid battery life; Wireless charging; Capable rear and front cameras; Touch ID front sensor; $50 charge for reasonable internal storage

Large top bezel

Value may be subjective, but it’s hard to argue that the new iPhone SE doesn’t shake up what’s reasonable to expect from a smartphone in 2020. Apple’s most affordable phone is recycling refined to art, a blend of old and new with a barely-believable $400 price tag.

Aggressive pricing; Latest processor and Apple's track-record of updating iOS; Premium metal & glass construction

Single camera is solid but lacks features like Night Mode; Display is small compared to other phones; Budget for a better charger

This clearly isn’t Apple’s absolute best iPhone, but it’s the best choice for many millions of users. It is Apple's least interesting iPhone in years, and simultaneously, perhaps, the most important.

Starts at just $399; The A13 is faster than any other mobile processor; Great photos and video in good light

No telephoto or ultrawide camera; Battery life is just okay; No Night Mode or Deep Fusion

The iPhone SE is back, though it's still just called the iPhone SE – there's no model number or "2.0" suffix here. Four years after the first "Special Edition" made its debut, Apple has once again shaken up the market with a cut-price iPhone, and we've been testing it out to see exactly where it…

The 2020 Apple iPhone SE is a petite powerhouse with no-compromise performance for hundreds of dollars less than other recent iPhones.

Affordable; Fast performance; Small; one-hand-friendly form factor

No camera night mode

Back in the spring of 2016 — March 31, to be specific — the original iPhone SE launched. It was a callback to the four-inch iPhone many of us loved but couldn't upgrade to for more than two years.

The 16:9 display works well for watching video and, speaking of that, it’s great to view a screen without a notch.

Amazingly fast processor; Solid camera; Great fit in the hand

What do you look for in a new iPhone? The top of the list likely includes battery life and camera quality. There are a bunch of other specs and features you’d probably put down lower on the list: speed, screen quality, size, extra cameras, and so on.

Good battery life; Software updates for years; Camera good in light and great at video

Tired design with big bezels; Small screen compared to every other phone; Noisy low-light photos

Building a $400 phone is an exercise in compromise, and the iPhone SE certainly has its share. Despite that, Apple's smallest, cheapest smartphone offers tremendous performance for the price.

Incredible value; Flagship-level performance; Surprisingly good camera; A13 chipset gives iOS room to grow

Dated design; Battery life is only OK; Camera doesn't have a Night mode