Even though we all knew it was coming, Apple’s iPhone SE announcement still managed to raise eyebrows . and plenty of questions. Is there still a market for a 4-inch iPhone? Is Apple playing it safe with its design? Arguably, the answer to both these questions is yes, but after a week of using the iPhone SE, I can safely say that none of that matters. Regardless of Apple’s reasons for making this thing, the iPhone SE is a lovely smartphone for iOS newcomers and small-handed users alike.
Engadget Score
Apple
iPhone SE
89
Pros
Great performance
Amazing battery life for an iPhone
Starts at$399
Cons
Screen too small for some
Old front camera, Touch ID sensor
Base model only has 16GB of storage
Summary
Just because the iPhone SE looks like an old device doesn’t mean it acts like one. Apple squeezed flagship-level performance and the best battery life we’ve seen from an iPhone in years into a familiar(and relatively inexpensive) frame. The phone lacks some of the 6s’s niceties and its screen is just too small for some, but the iPhone SE is the best compact phone Apple has ever made.
Hardware
X
It’s an iPhone 6s in the body of an iPhone 5s. Boom, done, see you guys later.
Kidding, kidding. Still, while that sentiment is a little too reductive, it’s mostly right. Nearly all the things that make an iPhone 6s an iPhone 6s are back, just squeezed into a body we thought we had seen the last of. Apple could have gone the cost-conscious route and given us an iPhone 6 in a smaller body, and I’m equal parts surprised and pleased they didn’t. I’ll dig more into performance later, but the A9 chipset(with its M9 motion-tracking processor) found in the SE is a dead ringer for the one in Apple’s current flagship iPhones, from its clock speed to the 2GB of RAM it’s paired with. Long story short, the SE doesn’t feel like a second-class machine.