Apple's new iPhone SE will come as welcome news for those who've been hankering after a new 4in iPhone, but how does it compare with Apple's current 4in champion, the iPhone 5S? To help you make the right choice, we've put each phone's specifications head to head to find out what's different and how they stack up against each other, including its design, performance, display, storage options and camera. We'll then update this review with more detailed information such as benchmark scores, battery life and camera test shots once we get an SE in for review.
Design
Materials: The iPhone SE is made from blasted aluminium and has matt-chamfered edges - much like the iPhone 5S. The SE even has the same + and - volume buttons on the side of the phone and the same colour-matching stainless steel Apple logo on the back, making them very difficult to tell apart at first glance - unless, of course, you buy an SE in rose gold, a colour which previously wasn't available in the silver, gold and space grey 5S line-up.
Dimensions: They're also exactly the same size, measuring 124x59x7.6mm, so the SE won't feel any different in the hand when you pick them up side by side. The only difference is that the SE is one gram heavier at 113g, compared to the iPhone 5S's 112g. That's hardly going to make a difference in daily use, so, all things considered, the SE is very much a rebranded 5S in newer, shinier colours.
Display
Screen size and resolution: The key spec for the iPhone SE is its 4in display. After selling over 30 million 4in iPhone devices in 2015 alone, it turns out people really, really like tiny iPhones, hence the SE's return to its traditional 4in form factor. This is the same size as the 5S, and they also have the same 1,134x640'Retina' display, too.
As a result, we'd expect the quality of both screens to be largely identical, especially as Apple barely mentioned anything about the display during its presentation. That means no fancy Force Touch technology like the iPhone 6S, but we'll have to wait and see whether the figures match up once we get one in for review.
Performance & Specs
Processor: The SE really shines in this department, as it has the same dual-core A9 processor as the iPhone 6S. The 5S, on the other hand, only has an A7 chip, which is really getting quite elderly now by comparison. Unsurprisingly, Apple was keen to point out how much faster this makes the SE over the outgoing 5S in its launch presentation, claiming CPU speeds that are up to 50% faster than the 5S, and x3 faster GPU performance.
Essentially, it's the same leap in performance that you'd get by upgrading from a 5S to the 6S, so we'd expect to see similar benchmark scores to the 6S once review samples arrive.
Storage: The iPhone SE will be available in 16GB and 64GB storage options, while the 5S was available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Apple is no longer listing the 5S on its website, implying that it will soon be disappearing from shop shelves around the country, but for those networks still selling them, the 5S does, at least, give you more storage options than the new SE.
Battery: Apple has always been very coy about the size of the batteries that go into its iPhones, but it's claiming you'll be able to get at least 13 hours of video playback on the SE and up to 50 hours of audio playback. We'll have to wait and see how this compares with our own video rundown test, but considering it has a more efficient A9 processor inside it, we should hopefully see battery life scores in excess of the 5S's 14h 31m result.
Camera
The iPhone 5S only had an 8-megapixel sensor, but the iPhone SE has the same 12-megapixel camera as the iPhone 6S. That means higher resolution photos, but otherwise, they both have an f/2.2 aperture lens and a True Tone flash.
However, the iPhone SE has several extra features, including the ability to take panorama shots up to 63 megapixels. It has Live Photos as well, which lets you capture short seconds-long video clips whenever you take a photograph. It can also record video at 4K at 30fps, 1080p video at 30fps or 60fps and slow-mo 1080p video at 120fps and slow-mo 720p video at 240fps. This is a significant upgrade over the 5S's camera capabilities, as this only let you shoot 720p slow-mo video at 120fps.
Price & Conclusion
Unsurprisingly, the iPhone SE is a much more advanced handset than the iPhone 5S, but it does come at a cost. The 16GB version of the iPhone SE will cost £359, while the 64GB version will cost £439. Meanwhile, you can currently still pick up a 16GB iPhone 5S for £279. However, at this stage, we'd say the SE is worth the extra expense, as the number of potential advancements the SE brings means you're getting a lot more for your money, especially when you consider it has the same processor as the iPhone 6S, which still costs £539 for the basic 16GB model.
We'll bring you our full and definitive verdict once we've had a closer look at the iPhone SE, but for now, 4in iPhone fans are in for a real treat when pre-orders open on the 24th March.
