If you were disappointed by last week’s report that the iPhone SE is unlikely to be refreshed early next year, you shouldn’t be. In our experience, the SE remains a delightful pocket rocket eight months after it first became available – here are some of the biggest reasons why.
One: it’s still super fast. Having put the device to regular use on both iOS 9, with which it initially shipped, and iOS 10, we can confirm that the latter does not bring noticeable hindrances in speed or performance. The impressive inclusions of the A9 processor and 2GB of RAM are likely big factors here.
Two: as the SE’s physical dimensions match those of 2012’s iPhone 5 and 2013’s iPhone 5S, there’s a huge range of – often inexpensive – compatible cases to choose from. And three: you can use it for both in-store and in-app Apple Pay payments. Making either type of payment is wonderfully smooth with the SE, though we think that the phone’s small size further boosts the typical ease of in-store use.
The iPhone SE is priced at $399 for the 16GB model and $449 for the 64GB alternative, while the color choices are Space Gray, Silver, Gold and Rose Gold.