The 4-Inch iPhone SE: From First Unboxing to Everyday Usage

The iPhone SE has been on sale for several days now – and many people who wanted one straight from the off have likely since got hold of one. As for the rest of us… what can we genuinely expect when we first pick up the phone and then avidly use it? Here are some in-depth ideas.

Fifty shades of space gray

Whether you purchase an iPhone SE from a bricks and mortar store or online, you’re going to go through that exciting initial unboxing. In the video below, Cult of Mac writer Ste Smith shows us what to expect. It’s the space gray model that he’s checking out, which leads us nicely onto another point…

If you’re familiar with the space gray iPhone 5S, you may have noticed that the iPhone SE comes in a slightly lighter shade of the color. It’s very much the shade that you can see on many other current generation iOS devices, including the iPhone 6S, iPad Pro and iPad Mini 4 – to the extent that you might almost mistake it for silver. However, the classy black front remains.

Initial impressions

If you were among the many people who regularly bought the iPhone pre-2014, but embraced the change when Apple first brought out larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models, trying out the iPhone SE is going to feel… peculiar. Ever visited your old school and noticed that everything there seems so much smaller than you remember it? It’s that kind of feeling…

Naturally, many people will prefer to stick with the larger iPhones. After all, in recent years, Apple has been happy to release devices in a wide range of form factors in order to meet various preferences. Alternatively, however, you could find that getting used to a 4-inch iPhone again takes no longer than getting used to a larger iPhone did way back when.

How the iPhone SE could change your everyday routine

As the iPhone SE includes many of the new features of the iPhone 6S series in a more pocketable and inexpensive package, the vast majority of people who splash out on it should feel like they are making a step up, not down.

So, if you’re out and about and spot an interesting sight, you can take a snap in gorgeous 12-megapixel glory before sharing it to Facebook. Taking a Live Photo is an option here, too, thanks to support for the feature in both the iPhone SE and the Facebook iOS app.

Then, if you want to quickly buy something to eat or drink, you can use the in-built Apple Pay functionality. You could even find the iPhone SE, in comparison to a larger iPhone, noticeably easier to promptly fish out of your pocket for such usage.

If you enjoyed this article, you can read even more about the iPhone SE in the current issue of AppleMagazine, which can be yours by subscription.

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