Mastodon iPhone SE – Josh Hrach

iPhone SE performance versus Android Flagships

Josh on May 12, 2020

Jerry Hildenbrand at AndroidCentral:

Apple has updated the little iPhone SE for 2020, and even an Android fan has to see that it’s a great phone at an even greater price of $399 for the base model. It’s essentially an iPhone 8 with one big difference: it has Apple’s A13 Bionic chip buried inside. And that’s a big deal for a number of reasons.

I expect that some people are going to tell me about single thread versus multi-threaded performance and how the A13 GPU isn’t that great or how iPhones have much lower resolution screens so the chips don’t have to work as hard. All this is true, but another thing is true: the A13 is a stronger chip than the Snapdragon 865 for daily use in every category — we’ve seen this applied in real life in the iPhone 11 already.

Jerry does a nice job summarizing the performance of the A13 Bionic in the iPhone SE against the Snapdragon 865 found in many Android flagship phones. While it’s not been a specs game for many years, in terms of raw specs, the iPhone SE outperforms top-of-the-line Android phones at a third to a half of the price.

What sounds less crazy, and great to consumers, is that by using the A13 Apple can support the iPhone SE for years — and this phone will outlive the iPhone 8 it is slated to replace for a handful of extrayears because of the new chip. Basically, if the iPhone 11 can get updated, so can the iPhone SE. This is cool to hear today, but it will be really important in three years when another version of iOS is released and your $399 iPhone gets it on day one.

Android devices, typically, still get less than 3 years of updates. And it can take months between the time a new version of Android is released and it is made available on supported devices. And many devices, especially lower priced ones, may barely see one major software update.

And yet, the $399 iPhone SE is likely to get 5 years of major software updates, including new features.

John Gruber, at Daring Fireball:

And on the flip side, what do you get for $400 in Androidtown? Amazon sells the Motorola Moto Z4 for $500. Let’s just spot the Android side $100. The Moto Z4’s single-threaded Geekbench 5 score is about 500. That falls short of an iPhone 6S, a phone from 2015.

For the same price, you can buy an Android that performs about as well as a 5 year old iPhone. An iPhone that still supports the latest version of iOS.

Where are the popular Android phones from 2015 now?

  • Samsung Galaxy S6 – Last software update was 2016’s Android 7 Nougat, made available in 2017, with the last security patch in September 2018.
  • Sony Xperia Z5 Compact – Latest supported version is 2016’s Android Nougat.
  • Google Nexus 6P – Google’s flagship for the year, it got its last update at the end of 2017 with Android 8.0 Oreo.
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 5 – Last update, Android 7 Nougat, in 2017

It’s pretty clear to see: If you need a phone on a modest budget, the iPhone SE is the smartest choice. Best performance with the longest support means you’ll get the most for your money.

‘Frolicking around in excess’

Josh on April 24, 2020

Matt Birchler, writing about what matters in a phone:

So when I see the $399 iPhone SE with 5 years of likely updates, with a really good single lens camera, and with it’s processor that’s faster than all 2020 $1,000+ Android phones, and will likely still be faster than all 2021 Android phones…well, it just looks like a good phone, and it makes it look like we’ve been frolicking around in excess for years now.

I’m one of those people with an iPhone 11 Pro. I enjoy Face ID. I like the ways I can interact with my phone without a home button. I like the triple camera system. I don’t regret owning it. But I also know it’s not for everyone.

For everyone else, people that are just looking for the best deal on a smartphone in general, Matt hits it right on the head: The new iPhone SE is likely the best purchase you can make right now. Maybe even the best purchase next year.

Portrait Mode and the Neural Engine on iPhone SE

Josh on April 15, 2020

Apple finally announced the successor to the iPhone SE. Also called the iPhone SE (and from here, the one I am referring to with that name), it built on the expectations that many were thinking: A reuse of an existing design with newer internals. This is exactly how Apple approached the first SE model. So it made since that the new iPhone SE followed suit.

Design wise, the iPhone SE is identical to the iPhone 8 that it replaced. But internally, it contains a lot of technology found in the iPhone 11: A13 Bionic chip with the third generation Neural Engine, support for WiFi 6, Gigabit class LTE, etc. It also made some changes from the iPhone 8 in line with the iPhone 11, such as the removal of 3D Touch.

But there are some camera differences with the iPhone SE, especially when compared to the iPhone 8, that made me really think.

Portrait Mode

The iPhone SE, like the visually identical iPhone 8, has a single camera on the back side. If you compare the specs between the iPhone 8 and iPhone SE, you’ll see no difference:

  • Single 12MP Wide camera
  • Wide: ƒ/1.8 aperture
  • Optical image stabilization
  • Digital zoom up to 5x
  • True Tone flash with Slow Sync

The iPhone 8 camera was really good, so keeping that same sensor, especially to reduce cost, makes sense.

But there’s something the iPhone SE has than its predecessor didn’t have:

  • Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
  • Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)

The iPhone SE adds Portrait mode, something that initially came to the iPhone 7 Plus because of its dual cameras. Bringing this to a 4.7-inch iPhone like the iPhone SE is a first.

Now, this isn’t the first time a single camera iPhone has received Portrait Mode. The iPhone XR, released in 2018, had a single backside camera and supported Portrait Mode. If we compare the stats of the XR’s backside camera against the iPhone 8 and iPhone SE, we’ll see that it’s identical. However, there is a notable difference with the iPhone XR:

  • Portrait Lighting with three effects (Natural, Studio, Contour)

The iPhone XR only supports three effects in Portrait Mode on the single backside camera. What gives?

Apple explains in their press release:

iPhone SE features the best single-camera system ever in an iPhone with a 12-megapixel f/1.8 aperture Wide camera, and uses the image signal processor and Neural Engine of A13 Bionic to unlock even more benefits of computational photography, including Portrait mode, all six Portrait Lighting effects and Depth Control.

The neural engine in the A13 is able to do much better with the single camera sensor input to process all of the available effects for Portrait Mode. So much so that it enables all six effects on the single camera!

But it doesn’t stop there!

A First on an iPhone

Let’s compare the front camera on the iPhone 8, iPhone XR, and iPhone SE.

The iPhone 8 and iPhone SE both have identical specs:

  • FaceTime HD camera
  • 7MP photos
  • ƒ/2.2 aperture
  • Retina Flash
  • Auto HDR for photos
  • 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps

Since it doesn’t include the TrueDepth camera system, which uses a camera and additional sensors to detect facial features and depth, the iPhone SE has Touch ID instead of Face ID for unlocking the device. It also makes sense that it doesn’t have Portrait Mode on the front camera.

Except it does.

  • Portrait mode with advanced bokeh and Depth Control
  • Portrait Lighting with six effects (Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, High‑Key Mono)

Again, from Apple’s press release, just after the earlier quote:

Using machine learning and monocular depth estimation, iPhone SE also takes stunning Portraits with the front camera.

The iPhone SE is the first iPhone without the TrueDepth camera system with front facing Portrait Mode. It’s using a single camera, like the backside, to enable the same level of Portrait Mode, using the same cameras as found in the iPhone 8.

It’s amazing what the A13 Bionic chip is able to enable. It and the third generation Neural Engine definition power the most powerful smartphones in the world. In the words of Apple SVP Phil Schiller: “It’s a big deal.” And to be able to include their fastest chip in their cheapest iPhone? An easy win for Apple.