Apple installed iPhone 8 camera on iPhone SE 2020, not iPhone XR
When Apple first introduced the iPhone SE 2020, many considered it a hodgepodge. Well, what else to call a smartphone that has an iPhone 8 case, an iPhone X RAM, an iPhone 11 processor, and an iPhone XR camera? The hodgepodge is. However, no one was particularly surprised at this, because to assemble a cool device for little money is possible only in this way. Another thing is that there was no real evidence of this information, and many of us, having seen the familiar appearance, thought up the rest ourselves, assigning the new product 3 GB of RAM and a camera from the iPhone XR. But if the information from RAM was confirmed, then a real surprise awaited us with the camera.
As iFixit laboratory engineers found out, most of the iPhone SE 2020 components can be replaced with identical components from the iPhone 8. Display, Taptic Engine feedback sensor, SIM card slot, and even a camera. Yes, it turns out that Apple did not equip the new product with a camera from the iPhone XR, as many thought, but simply left the old module. And information about the iPhone XR camera appeared due to the support of the iPhone SE 2020 portrait shooting mode, which is found only among Apple devices with a single camera.
Camera iPhone SE 2020
But how did Apple manage to train the old camera to create portrait shots? Apparently, the whole point is in software and computing capabilities, and the photographic module itself does not play a decisive role in this matter. Yes, the size of the matrix, the optical stabilizer and the number of lenses in optics are still important, but not as much as software that can pull far from any iron. The iPhone SE 2020 is doing just fine with this. Still, the A13 Bionic processor will obviously pull portrait mode without any problems, but the A11, which was equipped with the original iPhone 8, is unknown.
True, if everything is so simple, then it’s logical to ask Apple, and where, in this case, is the night mode and technology for improving the frame of Deep Fusion in the iPhone SE 2020? Both functions are of a software nature, and the A13 Bionic processor is used as a security base, so it is logical that they should have appeared in the new iPhone SE. The only explanation why the new product does not support either the night shooting mode or Deep Fusion lies in the plane of RAM. After all, if you remember, the devices of the entire line of iPhone 11 have 4 GB of RAM, which is 1 GB more than the iPhone SE 2020.
RAM iPhone SE 2020
But, apparently, an additional gigabyte is crucial, because at first it was even rumored that the iPhone 11 camera has its own RAM, which only serves the process of creating photos and shooting videos. Of course, in the end it turned out that this was not so, but the fourth gigabyte did not go away and, quite possibly, really plays some role in the operation of the flagship camera, ensuring the functioning of advanced shooting modes, while the iPhone SE 2020, perhaps it is him that's not enough. Here are just no guarantees that this is actually so, we do not have. So ...
So, Apple could well cut the capabilities of its smartphones programmatically, especially since in the past the company has already done so. Remember the portrait lighting mode, which creates the feeling of studio photography, dimming or highlighting the background behind the subject. He debuted in 2017, but at the same time became the property of only the iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. Therefore, I fully admit that the “eight” even with the A11 processor could well stretch the portrait mode, and the iPhone SE 2020 - night mode and Deep Fusion. It’s just that Apple, in both cases, most likely considered that it would be too bold and save such functionality only for flagships.