New iPhone SE delivers iPhone 13 performance for $270 less

Geekbench test scores for the new iPhone SE show that its performance is in line with that of the 2021 iPhone 13 family.

It's not surprising that the new iPhone SE's performance is on a par with that of the iPhone 13 range, as it sports the same A15 Bionic processor. However, it does mean that the performance is now available in a $429 iPhone, instead of the $699 of the base iPhone 13.

According to the early scores on Geekbench, the iPhone SE has a single-core performance of 1695. Listed under Apple's internal name of "iPhone14,6," it has a multi-core performance of 4021.

For comparison, one Geekbench result for the base iPhone 13 puts its single core score at 1729, with the multi-core one at 4532.

Similarly, scores for the iPhone 13 mini in one testing, show 1739 single-core, and 4711 multi-core. An iPhone 13 Pro test earned 1743 single core, and 4888 multi-core.

And an iPhone 13 Pro Max returned results of 1728 single-core, plus 4715 multi-core.

Geekbench is specifically a processor benchmarking system, so in this case, it solely focuses on the performance of the A15 Bionic. There are other factors affecting the overall speed of a phone, though.

For one, the new iPhone SE has 5G but it is not the same fast, mmWave version in the iPhone 13 range - at least in the US.

Then, too, the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have displays with 120Hz ProMotion, which makes the phones feel considerably more responsive.

10 Comments

DrumHead 10 comments · 5 Years

About 2 years ago

The second sentence in this article is incorrect.

wood1208 2932 comments · 10 Years

But simply does not offer the rest of the specs of iPhone 13 in iPhone SE3, mainly screen size. Can someone shed light why Apple can not offer touchid integrated into power button on lower end iPhone like SE3 ? This change can help increase the screen size in the same frame.

Is it due to the size of power button needed to integrate touchid that cannot be put/fit into the frame of iPhone ? I don't see other reason.

M68000 868 comments · 7 Years

The SE is great for corporations to use for company phones and for price sensitive people. However the 13 mini is well worth the additional cost, really liking it.

muthuk_vanalingam 1367 comments · 8 Years

wood1208 said:

But simply does not offer the rest of the specs of iPhone 13 in iPhone SE3, mainly screen size. Can someone shed light why Apple can not offer touchid integrated into power button on lower end iPhone like SE3 ? This change can help increase the screen size in the same frame.
Is it due to the size of power button needed to integrate touchid that cannot be put/fit into the frame of iPhone ? I don't see other reason.

There is no technical limitations in implementing what you mentioned. But, that would require Apple to spend lot of effort to design a brand new phone from the scratch. Apple's current approach to SE line up is - Take a 3 or 4 year old phone from the main lineup, swap the SOC (no changes to display, battery, camera, dimensions etc) and make minor changes absolutely required (if any) and call it a day. They don't spend lot of effort in the creation of SE phones. And this is not a criticism towards Apple. This is a brilliant approach from Apple to minimize costs and enables them to make the SE lineup relatively cheaper for the end users.

Due to this approach adopted by Apple, it is also somewhat easy to predict what the next iPhone SE will look like when it comes up 2 years later. My guess would be an iPhone 11, with SoC swapped to the latest one.

muthuk_vanalingam said:

wood1208 said:

But simply does not offer the rest of the specs of iPhone 13 in iPhone SE3, mainly screen size. Can someone shed light why Apple can not offer touchid integrated into power button on lower end iPhone like SE3 ? This change can help increase the screen size in the same frame.
Is it due to the size of power button needed to integrate touchid that cannot be put/fit into the frame of iPhone ? I don't see other reason.

There is no technical limitations in implementing what you mentioned. But, that would require Apple to spend lot of effort to design a brand new phone from the scratch. Apple's current approach to SE line up is - Take a 3 or 4 year old phone from the main lineup, swap the SOC (no changes to display, battery, camera, dimensions etc) and make minor changes absolutely required (if any) and call it a day. They don't spend lot of effort in the creation of SE phones. And this is not a criticism towards Apple. This is a brilliant approach from Apple to minimize costs and enables them to make the SE lineup relatively cheaper for the end users.

Due to this approach adopted by Apple, it is also somewhat easy to predict what the next iPhone SE will look like when it comes up 2 years later. My guess would be an iPhone 11, with SoC swapped to the latest one.

Excellent believable argument. But, Apple having 100s of design and support engineers; taking current SE iPhone, integrate touchid to power button, increase end to end screen size, and make necessary modifications and offer lower end, lower cost iPhone SE that can be middle to lower end Android phone switcher. Anyway, I will stick to my iPhone 8 until I have under screen touchid or touchid integrated into power button iPhone.