How the $400 iPhone SE's Camera Stacks Up Against Apple's Priciest Phone
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The new second-gen iPhone SE is the cheapest iPhone you can buy, which means you have to make a few sacrifices, particularly when it comes to the cameras.
But what do you give up by spending $400 instead of $1,000 for a base-model iPhone 11 Pro? Well, you only get one 12-megapixel rear lens instead of three, and a single 7-megapixel selfie lens instead of a 12-megapixel depth-sensing camera. That means no Face ID, but some people prefer unlocking their phones with the fingerprint sensor. (Now that I have to wear a mask in public, I’m one of them.)
The SE’s camera lenses are reportedly lifted straight from the 3-year-old iPhone 8, according to an iFixIt teardown of the new phone. But the SE also has the iPhone 11 Pro’s A13 Bionic processor, which works some behind-the-scenes camera magic.
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I didn’t expect to be wowed when comparing the iPhone SE’s photos to the $1,100 iPhone 11 Pro Max (the only new iPhone I had on hand in these locked down times). But the SE holds its own, particularly when it comes to shooting in Portrait Mode.
Check out the video above to see how the SE stacks up to the 11 Pro Max and to see what you miss out on to save $700.
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Consumer tech editor, Gizmodo.