iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 : Which is the more practcal smartphone of the two to consider?

Over the fast years, the battle between Samsung and Apple has been very close. The iPhone SE 2nd generation launched this year has a lot to offer as it gets a powerful Apple A13 Bionic chipset in a smaller display factor and has almost all the flagship features like wireless charging, IP68 rating, etc. 

The price of the iPhone SE 2020 has shaken the world with a starting price of $400 in the U.S and Rs.42500 in India.

  

On the other hand, the Galaxy A51 is a premium mid-range smartphone that has been doing well with a massive display, a larger 4000mAh battery, and a good set of quad cameras. This new smartphone speaks a newer design with a punch-hole display and looks attractive.

Will the iPhone SE 2020 take away the honors or will Samsung make the better practical buy of the two? Let's find out in the full comparison.

iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Design:

The iPhone SE 2020 has a smaller footprint compared to the Galaxy A51. The iPhone SE 2020 has the body of the iPhone 8 with thicker borders on the top and bottom which houses a small 4.7 inches display. This display is very compact and the smartphone feels very compact and easy to hold in the hand or while keeping in a pocket.

Below the screen is a button that acts as a TouchID for the smartphone and has the fingerprint scanner built into it. At the bottom, there is the same Lightning port as seen on all iPhones but misses out on a 3.5mm headphone jack.

However, coming to the build quality, the iPhone SE 2020 speaks premium-ness as the whole body is made of metal and glass.

The Galaxy A51 also has a premium design but the material used at the back is Glastic (which is a combination of glass and plastic). There is a Prism effect on the back that shows different colors when viewed at different angles and does catch a lot of fingerprints. 

The Galaxy A51 has a larger screen at 6.5inches which is much larger than the screen on the iPhone SE 2020. 

There is a punch-hole display on the front with almost no bezels to the sides that defines the excellent display of the Galaxy A51. The Galaxy A51 does have a 3.5mm headphone jack which is good so that you can plug in headsets and stream music/watch videos.

The iPhone SE 2020 has an IP rating which means it is dust and water-resistant and has support for wireless charging which both of them, the Galaxy A51 lacks. But the back of the Galaxy A51 has a P2i coating which means it is splash-proof. 

Both have support for dual SIM, but the implementation of both is different. The iPhone SE 2020 has a single nano-SIM and e-SIM support whereas the Galaxy A51 gets dual nano-SIM card slot and an additional slot for memory expansion. 

Plus the Galaxy A51 base variant ships with 128GB storage which is more than the 64GB storage on the iPhone SE 2020.

Overall, when it comes to displays, both speak different things. The Galaxy A51 provides a larger screen estate with a newer design which will catch a lot of attention whereas the iPhone SE 2020 has a glass and metal design with the IP rating, wireless charging and compactness is also the one that the people would be looking out for. 

Whether you like the larger screen and modern design or the premium build with some flagship features, it all depends on your personal preference.

iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Display:

On the display side, the iPhone SE 2020 has a smaller 4.7 inches LCD HD panel (750 x 1334 pixels) called the Retina Display with a screen to body ratio of 16:9 which makes it one of the smallest displays in this segment. The OLED display would have hit the spot.

This screen supports HDR 10 content and comes with Dolby Vision.

On the other hand, the Galaxy A51 has a larger 6.5 inches full HD+ Super AMOLED (1080 x 2400 pixels) with a screen to body ratio of 20:9. The display has very good viewing angles and the colors on the display look punchier. 

As always, the AMOLED display has better color reproduction and viewing angles when compared to a traditional LCD panel. So here the Samsung's display looks much brighter and has the punchier color of the two.

Both these smartphones lack a higher refresh rate displays which would not be much of a consideration but considering 2020, they do not have. Even the mid-range smartphones have it.

When it comes to streaming video or playing games, the AMOLED display on the Galaxy A51 provides a richer experience and taking both the displays under direct sunlight, the Galaxy A51 shines over the iPhone SE 2020.

Coming to dark or low-light conditions, the iPhone SE 2020 has better lower brightness levels compared to that of the Galaxy A51 but the difference is very negligible.

The iPhone SE 2020 has a physical button at the bottom which acts as Touch ID which was seen on iPhones in the past whereas the Galaxy A51 gets an optical in-display fingerprint scanner which is very convenient and faster than the iPhone SE 2020's touch one. 

Overall, the Galaxy A51 holds the edge as it has an AMOLED display with a larger display over the iPhone SE 2020.

iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Performance:

This is one area where Apple has not compromised with the iPhone SE 2020 and will be the main center of attraction for most buyers. It sports the powerful Apple A13 Bionic chipset which was found on last year's iPhone 11,11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. So the performance and gaming on the smartphone remain unparalleled. 

All games like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty, etc. ran smoothly and Apple's third-generation Neural Engine helps achieve greater efficiency.

The Galaxy A51 is powered by a mid-range chipset, Exynos 9611 which is an octa-core chipset having 4x2.3 GHz Cortex A73 cores and another 4x1.7 GHz Cortex A53 cores (Remember the higher clocked Cortex A73 cores are for achieving performance and the lower clocked Cortex A53 cores for power efficiency). This chipset does the duty on the Galaxy M30s, last year's Galaxy A50s, etc.

The Apple A13 Bionic chipset has a hexacore setup which has 2x2.65 GHz Lightning cores and another 4x1.8 GHz Thunder cores. It is built on a 7nm process which is more efficient compared to the 10nm process on the Exynos 9611.

Both these smartphones run almost all applications smoothly but while playing games like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty, etc, there is a noticeable amount of frame drops and lag noticed on the Galaxy A51. And with heavy multitasking, there is a slight stutter noticed on the Galaxy A51.

Coming to benchmarks, on Geekbench 5.1, the iPhone SE 2020 scores 1330 in single-core and 2456 in multi-core tests which are significantly far greater than the 345 in single-core and 1342 in multi-core test on the Galaxy A51.

In graphics-based benchmarks like Antutu, the iPhone SE 2020 scored 440435 and the Galaxy A51 scored 184126.

So as observed clearly, when it comes to performance, gaming, and synthetic benchmarks, the iPhone SE 2020 holds a clear edge over the Galaxy A51.

 iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Software:

The iPhone SE 2020 comes with iOS 13 whereas the Galaxy A51 ships with OneUI 2.1 built on top of Android 10. Android vs iOS from the past years have been very aggressive where both try to oust each other. The iOS 13 is by far the most streamlined of all its versions.

The iOS 13 brings along some minor improvements to applications and also improves RAM management. The Apple Face ID feels much secured than the regular face-unlock of the Galaxy A51.

The iOS 13 brings a much enhanced dark mode that can be applied to the third-party applications, the notifications can be quickly accessed by swiping from the bottom of the screen and an enhanced Photos application to group photos and videos efficiently. 

The fingerprint reader is fast and accurate but the lack of 3D touch does let it a bit down, though you get the Haptic touch which feels good to use.

The Galaxy A51 has the OneUI 2.1 which provides a good overall software experience as it comes with a dark mode that too applies to all third-party applications like on the iOS 13, Edge lighting is one such feature seen on the flagships which light up the display edges for notifications, Android 10 based navigation gestures, etc.

Both have different payment methods where iPhone SE 2020 has the Apple Pay and the Galaxy A51 comes with Samsung Pay. 

The one advantage that iPhone SE 2020 has over the Galaxy A51 is in terms of software updates where iOS guarantees update for the next 5-6 years whereas, on the Android side, Samsung for all its mid-range smartphones has 2 upgrade cycles.

It all depends on personal opinion whether you like Android or iOS as both provide good overall software experience.

iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Cameras:

This is one area where both smartphones differ a lot. The iPhone SE 2020 comes only with a 12MP f/1.8 main camera with support for OIS. On the other hand, the Galaxy A51 comes with quad cameras: 48MP f/2.0 main camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 5MP macro camera, and a 5MP depth camera.

Looking at the camera specs, the Galaxy A51 provides more functionalities in terms of cameras.

The images taken from the main camera have a good amount of detail with a wider dynamic range. The 48MP images on the Galaxy A51 have a slightly better color reproduction than the 12MP ones on the iPhone SE 2020. The images on the iPhone SE 2020 have more details in the image whereas the Galaxy A51 tends to crop some of them.

                             iPhone SE 2020                                           Samsung Galaxy A51

During the night, things turn up on the Samsung side as the Galaxy A51 gets a dedicated Night Mode which the iPhone SE 2020 lacks. The images taken without the night mode came out good on both the smartphones but the iPhone SE 2020 has a slight edge in terms of details and shadows over the Galaxy A51.

The OIS helps capture more light in the images and the noise is less on the iPhone SE 2020.

Switching on the Night Mode on the Galaxy A51 makes things better. The dynamic range is wider and the details in shadows come out better. The colors look a bit punchier and have better details. 

But when it comes to night or low-light, the iPhone SE 2020 clearly wins.

The Galaxy A51 has a 12MP ultrawide camera that provides better images than the older 8MP ultrawide on the Galaxy A50s. The dynamic range is good and the details in the images look better with good saturation.

The ultrawide camera has support for Night Mode which removes the noise from the images and resulting in good images with improved dynamic range.

There is a 5MP macro camera that takes very good macro shots with a good amount of details. The macro camera can focus as close as 2cm and the colors look punchier. The iPhone SE 2020 can take also macro shots using the main camera and the output is good.

The depth camera takes very good portraits on the Galaxy A51. The iPhone SE 2020 takes some very good portraits but the background blur is not as good as the Galaxy A51.

Since there is a single 12MP camera on the iPhone SE 2020, it struggles to add depth but still, the output is good.

So when it comes to portraits, the Galaxy A51 holds the edge.

On the front, the iPhone SE 2020 comes only with a 7MP camera whereas the Galaxy A51 has a 32MP camera. Comparing both images taken from the front camera, the iPhone SE 2020 has a good dynamic range compared to the Galaxy A51. But the skin tones on the Galaxy A51 look more natural and have more details. 

The Galaxy A51 basically the 32MP images result in 8MP images with a great amount of detail and one of the best selfie cameras in its price range.

The portraits taken on the Galaxy A51 has a slight edge over the portraits taken from the iPhone SE 2020 as the larger camera sensor provides better background blur, but when it comes to human subjects, the iPhone SE 2020 focuses better whereas some skin smoothening is noticed on the Galaxy A51.

On the video side, the iPhone SE 2020 supports up to 4k video capture at 60fps. The Galaxy A51 can take 4K videos at 30fps which is its highest. The videos taken from the iPhone SE 2020 are far better than the Galaxy A51 as the OIS kicks in resulting in some better-stabilized videos. 

The Galaxy A51 4K video footage lacks stabilization and the colors in the videos are not as punchier as on the iPhone SE 2020. The 12MP camera does a stellar job in terms of videos whether it is in any resolution due to the third generation Neural Engine and the after image processing of iOS.

The Galaxy A51 videos lack proper dynamic range and the videos are best used when capped at 1080p because, at that point, EIS kicks in making the video footage stable. 

So, in terms of videos, the iPhone SE 2020 holds the edge over the Galaxy A51 by a large margin. 

Overall, the Galaxy A51 has a better front camera and the extra cameras provide more functionality whereas, on the other hand, the iPhone SE 2020 has a better main camera and video capabilities.

It all depends on personal preference whether the main camera and video performance are important or the extra camera functionality that the Galaxy A51 provides.

iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Battery Life:

The iPhone SE 2020 sports a 1821mAh battery which is very smaller compared to 4000mAh battery on the Galaxy A51. The Galaxy A51 with normal usage can last for a typical day and a half whereas the iPhone SE 2020 can last only till a day.

The screen on time for the Galaxy A51 is around 5-6 hours which is better compared to 4-5 hours on the iPhone SE 2020. But as we see the specifications on paper, the Apple A13 Bionic is built on a 7nm process so the battery should be power efficient.

The Galaxy A51 has a Full HD+ screen which is pushing more pixels than the 720p display on the iPhone SE 2020. The battery life on both is almost equally good but its great to see iPhone SE 2020 perform really well in terms of battery life. 

Both smartphones have support for fast charging where the Galaxy A51 has support for 15W and the iPhone SE 2020 has the support of 18W which is slightly faster. But Apple has provided a 5W charger inside the box which charges the iPhone SE 2020 very slowly which is around 3 hours from 0 to 100 percent. 

With an 18W fast charger, the iPhone SE 2020 can charge 0 to 57 percent in the first half an hour. whereas the Galaxy A51 charges 0 to 40 percent which is slightly slower.

The iPhone SE 2020 has support for wireless charging which is not present on the Galaxy A51.

So overall, with a smaller battery and an efficient processor, the iPhone SE 2020 holds the edge. There is also support for wireless charging on the iPhone SE 2020. But when it comes to charging speeds, the Galaxy A51 holds the edge as it provides a fast charger inside the box.

iPhone SE 2020 vs Samsung Galaxy A51 Audio Quality:

When it comes to audio quality, the iPhone SE 2020 is having the better sound quality of the two. The iPhone SE 2020 gets stereo speakers where the earpiece and loudspeaker combine together to provide a stereo effect. The Galaxy A51 relies only on the loudspeaker at the bottom which acts as a single-firing one.

Talking about output, the loudness levels on the iPhone SE 2020 is better compared to Galaxy A51. The iPhone SE 2020 sound equalizer in the audio and video works really good. The Galaxy A51 also has good sound but the level of bass is not as good as the iPhone SE 2020. 

The one advantage that the Galaxy A51 holds over the iPhone SE 2020 is the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack which is not present on most of the flagships of 2020. The output through the 3.5mm headphone jack is good on the Galaxy A51.

In terms of audio, the iPhone SE 2020 is the clear winner of the two.

Verdict:

The competition between the two has left wondering which is the more practical one to consider. The iPhone SE 2020 is a stellar smartphone made by Apple this year.

The iPhone SE 2020 packs in a flagship chipset Apple A13 Bionic, excellent build quality with glass and aluminum, a 12MP camera that takes excellent photos and videos and a battery (which may be small) provides good battery life and supports wireless charging.

The design feels outdated as now many smartphones have made a transition towards notch-less or punch-hole displays. The screen feels a bit outdated as it has only a 720p resolution and the lack of an ultrawide or telephoto camera does let it down.

The Samsung Galaxy A51 holds a strong point for itself by providing a larger punch-hole display and has an AMOLED screen which is better than the LCD panel. The Galaxy A51 has a 4000mAh battery that provides a good battery life and supports fast charging.

Exynos 9611 does most of the work done such as multi-tasking but struggles when it comes to playing high-end games. The cameras are also good enough and the other three cameras provide more functionality over the single camera of the iPhone SE 2020. 

So overall, as a package, the iPhone SE 2020 holds the edge with a better design, faster processor, better camera performance (leaving the rest 3 cameras of the Galaxy A51), better audio output, and good battery life and also has support for IP rating and wireless charging over the Galaxy A51.

But if you want a larger screen and extra cameras the Galaxy A51 is still a good option to consider.

Overall Winner: iPhone SE 2020.