Being brand new to "smart phones" in general and the SE 2020 in particular, I can say I'm impressed with the technology embedded in so small a unit, but I'm not equipped to do any comparisons in operating systems nor hardware. I must also say, however, that I find most of it useless and/or frivolous. Having come over from a small flip phone, I took to the ads for the SE partly because of size and partly because of price. I was astounded at the price folks are willing to pay for a phone, regardless of it's capabilities. But what astounded me even more was the really terrible support for 'newbies' on the Apple site. If you're here, you probably take for granted the motions of swiping, sliding, tapping, pressing, etc. Apple shouldn't. After 2 calls to tech support to get the simplest of things straightened out, they finally referred me to UTube to get basic skill sets and instructions. That's correct - the corporation that now exceeds the net worth of all major oil companies sells a 400.00 dollar phone, charges 3.99 if you want to download a pdf of the instructions, and has to refer you to UTube to get basic operating instructions. Strikes me as asinine. Is the site slick? yes. It's a marketers dream, but try to wade through all the Madison Ave crap when you need an answer when you're new to the subject. I was within a hairs breath of sending it back for lack of simple, basic written directions on its use.
As I read through comments about what is and isn't an expected, neglected or a desired fixture/feature on these expensive little toys, my conclusion is that if everybody got back to dealing with basics first, all the phones and operating systems would improve greatly. For instance, I have an electric tooth brush, and the on/off switch is precisely where you want to place your thumb when using it - not a criminal offense for a 20 dollar appliance, but I'm finding similar poor design with the 400.00 SE. The buttons to the top left seem to be precisely where one wants to hold the phone. Why? I've already had half a dozen mishaps just holding the phone while trying to operate it.
As for battery life, I left mine sitting "on" overnight after a 100% charge with no apps running and the screen off. It used up 20% of it's battery life just sitting for 7 hours. That's not impressive and makes me wonder what I really need to do to take the phone camping, or to rely on it when wandering about the woods and using the compass or GPS functions. If I'm actually using the phone's apps, how much more would it be eating up and how quickly?
From a Newbie's perspective, these issues are far more pressing, but Apple seems to be preaching to the converted only, and aren't particularly concerned about folks new to the game.