iPhone SE, iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro: which camera is right for you?
- The cameras are the main difference between the iPhone SE, iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro
- The iPhone SE has a smaller sensor and only one lens, but few people will notice the difference in photo quality
But the most conspicuous difference between each of these handsets are the camera options. What you want to accomplish with a smartphone camera could be the deciding factor for which iPhone you’ll want to pick up. So this guide will go through what you can do with each phone and the camera performance you can expect.
iPhone SE
The iPhone SE camera is suitable for most situations, so many people might not feel like they’re missing much when compared to its more expensive siblings … assuming you’re shooting in well-lit settings. Otherwise, the iPhone SE produces high-quality photos for your typical daily snapshots. And if you’re a typical smartphone user, that’s probably the only thing you really care about.
In low-light situations, the iPhone SE struggles a bit more than the iPhone 11 or 11 Pro. However, they still take very similar pictures, so it’s not something most people should be concerned about.
The main issue is the iPhone SE’s smaller sensor. When looking at photos shot in the same low-light environment, zooming in 200 per cent makes it easy to see that the iPhone SE photo has less detail and more noise compared with the iPhone 11.
When you’re not zooming in that much, though, the photos look almost identical.
Once you get to darker settings, the difference is more noticeable. Night shots on the beach make the loss of detail on the iPhone SE a bit clearer. But the iPhone 11 Pro also has another big advantage: Night Mode.
The iPhone SE doesn’t support Night Mode, which makes a big difference in brightening up dark environments. But if you seldom take pictures in the dark, that’s not going to be an issue.
If you’re just taking casual shots and filming 4K video in the daytime, the iPhone SE’s camera works just fine. And for most situations, you don’t need to worry about a difference in photo quality with more expensive phones.
iPhone 11
For people who need a little more variety in their smartphone camera setup, the iPhone 11 adds a 0.5x ultra wide-angle lens on the back to accompany the 1x camera. This gives you a much greater field of view.
