iPhone SE 2020 missing a feature all other iPhones have

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The new iPhone SE has a Haptic touch problem

iPhone SE 2020
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Apple’s iPhone SE 2020 is one of the best budget phones around, but it’s missing a feature that every other iPhone has: the ability to expand notifications using Haptic Touch. 

MacRumors flagged that the iPhone SE can’t bring up more detailed content on the lock screen or within the notification panel through the use of a long press on the display. Normally, doing that would activate the haptic engine in a modern iPhone and allow for more information to be viewed on a locked phone, or within notifications without actually navigating to an app or into the home screen. 

We tested this claim on our own iPhone SE, and can confirm that notifications do not expand with a long press. 

If you want to see more detail from a notification on the iPhone SE, you need to tap on the "view" button by a notification. This effectively adds an extra step into viewing information at a glance, which is slightly frustrating given how otherwise intuitive Apple's new phone is to use. 

This seems like an odd omission from the $399 iPhone SE, which packs the same powerful A13 Bionic chip also found in the iPhone 11 Pro. If you’ve gotten used to using Haptic Touch in previous iPhones and have decided to get an iPhone SE, you might find it a little jarring to not be unable to access additional information through a long press. 

There’s an outside chance that Apple could add in the feature through a software update, as the iPhone SE does have Haptic Touch capabilities. Or Apple might deliberately keep the feature for its higher-end smartphones to nudge people who want a full-fat iPhone experience to opt for an iPhone 11. 

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Roland Moore-Colyer
Roland Moore-Colyer

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.