TECH

The Myths And Legends Of Apple’s iPhone SE

Apple broke its own mould with the first iPhone SE, launching a phone unlike anything else in its portfolio. Can 2025's iPhone SE follow in the footsteps of a legend?

The first iPhone SE was launched in March 2016, some six months after the iPhone 6S family. While the latter sported a new slimline and curved design, the former echoed back to the popular brutalist styling of the iPhone 5.

Even if it felt a touch of a throwback, this was an iPhone that the community was comfortable with. It also had a clear design ethos. This smaller iPhone offered the same A9 chipset and memory as the entry-level iPhone 6S. The single-lens main camera also matched the iPhone 6S, and the results were indistinguishable. As the market moved toward larger-screened phones (including Apple with the introduction of the iPhone Plus format), here was an iPhone answering another call... for a small yet powerful smartphone.

This came with significant compromise. The battery was a miniscule 1624 mAh. It was nigh-on impossible for an iPhone SE to make it through a working day; it demanded a top-up not long after lunch if you were a heavy user. In the days before fast charging, the space saved by carrying an iPhone SE could easily be taken up by a charger and lightning cable.

It was a compromise that many made. Whether it was because they wanted a fashionably small smartphone with the Apple logo proudly on the rear or whether it was the fact that the iPhone SE was significantly cheaper than the main line of iPhones remains an intriguing question. However, in hindsight, price was probably the key factor. It's hard to ignore this iPhone was $399 when the iPhone 6 was $649.

The iPhone SE 2016 Specs...The weak point, which will come as no surprise, is the storage. To get to that $399 sticker price, the entry-level model shipped with an anaemic 16 GB. You were at the limits of the storage once you downloaded a few apps to use social media, synced and cached data for calendars and emails, and added a handful of albums. The higher storage tiers alleviate this problem, but those drawn to the low price would be quickly frustrated.

The iPhone SE 2016 Longevity...The iPhone SE remained on sale until 2020 when it was superseded by 2020’s iPhone SE (based on the iPhone 8 design). Yet the original iPhone SE continued to be updated until September 2024. The Apple of 2016 did not declare how long its support windows were; the community acknowledged them to be long, and certainly much longer than the two or three years the Android-powered competition offered.

That has kept the original SE current until recently and remains of the now today. It’s not a slick and smooth experience; there is a noticeable amount of lag on I/O operations even changing a music track offering a longer-than-expected gap between two tracks.

Neither is 2016’s iPhone SE going to handle the controversial delights of Apple Intelligence, complicated third-party apps, or the convenience of 5G. But ask it to handle your email, work with some gentle web browsing, and run your social media apps, and you will have a capable phone in its old age - and eight years in smartphone age is nearer 96 years in human years.

Apple iPhone SE 2016. Ewan Spence

The iPhone SE 2016 High Points...The iPhone SE was a success. It may not have been the best-selling iPhone, but it had a charm and identity of its own. Consumers who wanted performance in a small and highly portable form factor now had that option.

That performance advantage dropped away in the four years of front-line service as the SE remained on the A9 chipset while the main iPhone line saw the A10, A11 and A12 debut in subsequent years. The iPhone SE moved away from performance towards practical, the iPhone you got for your Gran so she could join you on iMessage, the iPhone your children got for their birthday because of the lower price and need for compatibility with their friends’ phones, and the phone that allowed Apple to advertise lower prices as "iPhones start from $399.

The iPhone SE 2016's Lessons For 2025...How does the original iPhone SE inform the expectations of the 2025's iPhone SE? The first is performance. Just as in 2016, this year’s iPhone SE will match the current iPhone 16 with the A18 chipset. This will allow the SE to run Apple Intelligence alongside the rest of the iPhone 16 family. Moving forward, Apple has a trickier task. Generative AI requires significant processing power,r and the demand for power will keep increasing. This will be delivered by the presumptively named A19, A20 and A21 chipsets over the next three years. The iPhone SE will likely stay with the A18, meaning Apple will need to either limit Apple Intelligence across the platform to retain full capability, reduce the feature set on the SE, or push more of the SE's calculations towards the cloud. All three have advantages and disadvantages

With the Android-powered competition reaching out to seven years of updates and Apple offering the same window for its main lines, I would be surprised if the iPhone SE is not maintained for at least 5 years of software and seven years of security updates. I wonder if Apple will specifically call this out when it is launched?

The Android alternatives are genuine alternatives this time around. The capabilities of phones like the Pixel 8a and Galaxy A57 are no longer seen as weaker or poorer choices than the equivalent flagships. Apple's iOS's benefits over Android in 2016 cannot be cashed in 2025.

In some cases, Android phones’ capabilities visibly exceed the iPhone SE—one obvious example is the single lens on 2025’s iPhone SE has to match up to the competition’s twin- and triple-lens camers.

Pricing remains to be seen, but the expected $479-$499 window is on the high side and will be seen as excessive if Apple sticks with 64 GB as the base level of storage. The current mid-range is incredibly price-conscious, and even a $10 difference can impact global sales. The original SE’s price, relatively high specs and competent performance made it an easy sell in 2016. In 2025, Apple will need to be conscious of the market it is returning to after the third iPhone SE launched in 2022.

What The iPhone SE Can Teach The iPhone SE...The first iPhone SE offered a unique experience in the iPhone line-up of 2016. It came in a unique size different from the current line-up, yet delivered the same performance and potential. It was tailored to a new way of using your iPhone, and it offered value for money compared to both the main line of iPhones and the Android-powered competition

That’s the legacy that any new iPhone SE must meet. 2025’s model is expected to match the power of the iPhone 16, yet it will not lean toward the smaller form factor and the different use cases. It's also likely to be priced higher than similarly specced Android handsets.

Whether that's enough in the market remains to be seen.

Ewan Spence