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I saw a headline on Apple Insider Thursday that made me feel like an idiot: “New iPhone SE delivers iPhone 13 performance for $270 less.”
Boy do I feel like an idiot. No need, though. It turns out what they’re talking about are Geekbench test scores - basically how the processors in the models match up. Since they’re the same processor, they have practically the same performance. The single-core score for iPhone SE is 1695 versus 1729 for the single-core iPhone 13. The SE’s multi-core performance comes in at 4021 versus iPhone 13’s multi-core score of 4532.
Of course, as the piece goes on to point out, Geekbench is a processor benchmarking system specifically. Chances are slim that you’re choosing a phone based simply on how fast it is. The extra dosh for an iPhone 13 gets one a bigger screen, a better camera array, MagSafe, Face ID, more storage to start, a better display, and a bigger display - even if you go with an iPhone 13 mini.
If you’re buying just for the speed of the processor though, the “New iPhone SE delivers iPhone 13 performance for $270 less.”