Thoughts on the iPhone SE

Watching the announcement live, it felt like the iPhone SE was made out of necessity, not because it was the best damn phone that Apple could make at this point in time, but it probably doesn't matter...

The design of the phone should tell you as much. The main differences from the iPhone 5S are; it now has matte chamfered edges instead of shiny ones, there is a "SE" logo on the back, the Apple logo on the back is now an inset, and a new Rose Gold option. That's it. Even cases for the iPhone 5 and 5S would fit just fine on the SE.



So why make the iPhone SE at all if it wasn't the best iPhone Apple could make? I could think of a few reasons.

1. Size

A lot of people still like smaller phones. Apple themselves said in the keynote that they sold 30 million 4" iPhones last year. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for wanting a smaller phone, and I know a few people who love their smaller phone. For example, a while back, a friend's sister even bought a brand new iPhone 5S after the iPhone 6 came out, all because of the size. It fits better in pockets, and it's way easier to use one-handed.

2. Price

For Singapore, at S$658 for 16GB and S$828 for the 64GB, this point might not be applicable though (it is slightly cheaper in US at US$399 and US$499 respectively). Singapore is already a highly smartphone-saturated market, so having a lower price point isn't as important. But the fact is, these are the cheapest "new" iPhone yet, and it is actually cheaper than when the iPhone 5C was announced (US$549 for 16GB, US$649 for 32GB). Which means this could be the phone that helps make the iPhone just a little bit more accessible to people, and a great choice for people who wants a new iPhone with newer specifications at a slightly lower cost.

3. Apple Pay

This is just my conjecture, but having cheaper iPhones with the hardware to push the adoption of Apple Pay is one of the motivation for the iPhone SE too. Prior to this, the cheapest iPhone with Apple Pay support was the iPhone 6, and that costs S$888 from the Singapore Apple Online Store still at the time of this post. With the iPhone SE, the entry to Apple Pay is now S$658. If price was the only factor, they could have just lowered the price of the 5S. For comparison, the cheapest phone that supports Samsung Pay is the Galaxy A5, a phone with a recommended retail price of 598 SGD.

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Whatever motivations brought about the iPhone SE, it is a pretty interesting little device if you ask me. With the Apple A9 processor at its heart, even if it was clocked lower, it is undoubtedly going to be the most powerful compact smartphone, and I love it. I can use a big phone if need be, and I have gotten used to them, but I like small compact devices. Like the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Sony Z3 Compact, both of which I enjoyed using immensely.

The amazing part is that Apple actually rated the iPhone SE to have better battery life when it comes to video playback and internet browser usage compared to the iPhone 6S (and it was already pretty decent when I tested it). I was thinking that despite having less pixels to push with a lower resolution screen, the smaller battery would mean a weaker battery. Of course this still needs to be tested, but Apple has always been pretty reliable with their estimates.

There are of course compromises when it comes to compact smartphones, an inescapable fact is that with less internal room to work with, it's harder to fit all the bell and whistles inside. But whether those compromises are worth it, would be up to individual to decide. As far as I know, these are the main differences between the SE and the 6S based on the comparison chart from Apple.

• No 3D Touch 
• No Taptic Engine (it uses a normal vibrator motor) 
• Older generation display (lower contrast ratio) 
• No Dual-domain pixels display (viewing angles not as good) 
• No Cat 6 LTE 
• No MIMO support for Wifi 
• No barometer 
• Not using the 2nd gen Touch ID 
• Front camera 1.2MP instead of 5MP 

However, if you compare the iPhone SE to the iPhone 6, which is closer in price, the iPhone SE only loses out for the points in red. The iPhone SE even wins out the iPhone 6 in terms of camera capabilities, and most importantly performance since it has the A9 processor instead of the A8.



While the design is old, the 5S' design is still one of my favourites too even when compared to the iPhone 6. The metal shell is definitely better than the plastic one from the 5C (glad they didn't go that route this time round). So all in all, I think this is a pretty nice device. It's not going to be for everyone, but I think it's going to be great for a lot of people. The pre-order for the iPhone SE starts 24th March 2016.