Review: Apple’s iPhone SE Is a Small Victory

When the first iPhone came out in 2007,

everyone thought it was way too big.

It had a 3.5 inch screen, that was huge.

Now, not even a decade later we're all carrying around

these giant phones with giant screens.

Well, not everyone.

It turns out there's a surprising number of people

who don't want a huge phone.

And this, the iPhone SE, is for those people.

This phone is just like the iPhone 5S,

which came out two years ago.

On the outside, other than a couple of tiny changes,

it's identical.

On the inside, it's the iPhone 6S,

which means it's super fast, has a great camera,

all that good stuff.

Battery life is fantastic,

actually even better than the 6S, which is awesome.

The selfie camera's a lot worse than the 6S,

but that's the only real downside here.

So what's it like carrying around a smaller phone?

There are some upsides.

You won't drop your phone as often,

you won't do that crazy thing

where you keep your phone from sliding out of your hand

by balancing it on your pinkie,

you don't have to deal with Apple's

stupid reachability feature anymore,

you can use it with only one hand,

typing or scrolling without

having to put down your cappuccino.

It makes your phone feel faster and more efficient,

like you're not constantly, clumsily trying to make it work.

No matter who you are,

and especially if you have small hands,

that part's amazing.

There are some bad parts, though.

For a visually oriented person, it sucks.

Movies and pictures just don't look

as impressive on the tiny screen.

Forget dropping this thing into a VR headset,

it's just a blurry mess.

And you'll spend a lot more time scrolling

when all you can see is a couple of tweets

or like three quarters of an Instagram photo.

Our phones are so immersive nowadays

that going back to something this small

feels almost quaint.

But look, for 399 bucks,

or 499 with the much more usable 64 gigs of storage,

the iPhone SE is an awesome phone.

Yeah it's small, who cares?

Small things can be great.