iPhone SE 2020

The last iPhone I used was an iPhone 3GS. My company Huawei P20 was just replaced, today, by an iPhone SE 2020 (the management decided that as there were only 3 people using non-iPhones in the company, that it would go all-in on iPhone, no choice any more. I had the option between an iPhone 8 or the SE 2020, so I went with the latter, because it should get updates for longer.

I was surprised by how small it was, compared to even the “small” P20 – my private phone is a Galaxy S20+. Then, I was caught by how little had changed between 2009 and 2020. The design is “almost” the same. The same rounded corners, the same “home” button, the same small screen stuck in the middle of a, relatively speaking, huge case – given that the P20 is only about 1.5cm longer and 0.5cm wider, the whole iPhone SE 2020 is the size of the screen on the P20, with the 1.5cm being the chin for the sensor on the P20. What is really surprising / shocking is the forehead on the SE 2020. I’ve not seen that much space above the screen in several years, on the Android side.

It really gives the SE 202 a retro feel, it really feels like a thinner iPhone 3GS to look at.

Without a power adapter to charge it, the packaging is a lot thinner than it used to be. Luckily, I have a laptop with USB-C at work, so I could charge it up. We have a lot of old Apple power adapters for old iPhones, but they are all USB-A, the cable with the iPhone is USB-C to Lightning. I have USB-C cables and I have USB-A charging adapters – I have a couple of USB-C adapters at home, so charging at home won’t be a problem, but why couldn’t they have just done USB-C to USB-C, like everybody else? That would be so much simpler.

I set up my email easily enough and installed Teams, so now I’m all set, but I couldn’t delete all of the Apple apps I don’t need, but at least you can remove them from the home screen in iOS 14.

For a bit of telephony on the move and checking emails when not at my desk, it should be fine. But it is a real retro design.