Apple iPhone SE 2020: 5 major trade-offs you’ll make

Yes, it is an iPhone that is priced at ₹42,500 and someone planning to spend that much on an Android might just go for an iPhone given the option, but there are some major trade-offs that one will make when buying it at this price.

The iPhone SE 2020 costs ₹42,500 in India. (Apple)

Now that Apple's brand-new 'affordable' iPhone SE smartphone is out, many of you might be thinking to get your hands on it. After all, there's finally and iPhone that more people can afford. While there are other options like the iPhone XR and the iPhone 11 all of which we have compared with the new SE, things get even more competitive for the new SE when you talk about its misses in general. Yes, it is an iPhone that is priced at ₹42,500 and someone planning to spend that much on an Android might just go for an iPhone given the option, but there are some major trade-offs that one will make when buying it at this price.

Just to clear it out, we are not talking about the operating system, processor performance or the battery performance here since these are subjective. We are talking about straight-up hardware limitations that you get in a smartphone in general even after spending ₹42,500.

Not the latest design (even in the iOS family)

Yes, the iPhone SE 2020 definitely doesn't have the latest design. It borrows the looks from iPhone 8, which came out more than two years ago. Even the iPhone XR, the 'affordable' iPhone of 2018 comes with an edge-to-edge screen design and FaceID instead of TouchID and massive bezels on the top and bottom. And at the time of writing this, the iPhone XR is listed on Flipkart at ₹48,000. That's just ₹6,000 more than the iPhone SE 2020.

Why LCD screen that is older than a two-year-old iPhone, forget Android

Still a single rear camera at ₹42,500

Another hardware limitation here is the single rear camera in a smartphone that costs ₹42,500. Needless to say, at this price you get smartphones that have three to four rear cameras that are more feature rich and have dedicated lens for performing different tasks. And lets not forget the rear camera in the iPhone SE 2020 has a 12-megapixel sensor, something that less than half of what Android phones at this price have.

No 3.5mm headphone jack

Apple has finally letting go of the 3.5mm headphone jack from its 'most affordable' iPhone of 2020. Although the world is moving towards wireless earphones at a fast pace, if you are someone coming from an Android phone, you will miss it for sure. It's good that the idea falls in line with Apple's philosophy of going wireless, but one might wonder what could've stopped them from putting it in its most affordable smartphone that is likely to do well in emerging markets. That's also the same market where people are still moving from wired to wireless earphones.

 

Unfortunately, same battery capacity as iPhone 8

In a ₹42,500 Android phone you at least get battery capacity of 3000mAh and above. But as mentioned by Apple on the tech specs page, the smartphone performs as good as the iPhone 8. At the time of iPhone 8 launch, from teardowns it was revealed that the device includes around 1800mAh battery. For someone who is looking at specs, this might not be impressive.