At this point, rumours of a new 4-inch iPhone reach back some 18 months, but following the company’s March 2016 event the iPhone SE is now a reality. Here are our four favourite things about Apple’s latest handset.
Design
Fans of the out-dated 5, 5C and 5S have been crying out for some sort of refresh that retains what they hold dear – a more compact iPhone form, without compromising on performance. In the Android camp, mini phones are a reality, but it’s a relative term that means even the powerful Xperia Z5 Compact still packs a relatively sizeable 4.6-inch display.
Apple’s new iPhone SE is not only smaller than any other high-end smartphone out there right now, it appears to adhere to the exact same dimensions as its metal-clad precursors, the 5 and 5S. As such, owners of Apple’s older flagships may still have cases and accessories lying around that are already primed to accommodate the SE without the need for modification or replacement, and as any long-term iPhone user can attest to, having to buy new accessories every time Apple changes its design gets really tedious – and expensive.
The SE also comes in rose gold and if there’s one thing we love, it’s more pink tech.
Processor
Despite looking like and iPhone 5S, Apple actually cites the performance of the SE as being about twice as powerful and that’s thanks, in part to the company’s A9 chip. The 5S rocked Apple’s A7 processor, whilst the SE uses the same brain as the latest iPhones currently on the market, the 6s and 6S Plus.
That means blistering performance, top-notching gaming and more. Rumour has it that the SE only features 1GB of RAM when the 6S twins both leverage 2GB, but even with this slight drop in performance, the SE promises to be an unquestionably snappy handset – especially for its size.
Apple Pay
The 5S was the first device in Apple’s arsenal to accommodate its Touch ID fingerprint authentication technology, which the company then partnered up with Apple Pay – it’s mobile payment service, come the launch of the iPhone 6.
Right now the Apple Watch is the smallest device with Apple Pay support built in, but a smaller iPhone with the same convenient mobile payment technology is nothing but welcome from where we stand. With Apple still leading the charge in the mobile payment space, one more handset to attract a wider demographic of users to the technology seems like a good move in our books.
Camera
We were worried that a smaller iPhone would come with a lesser camera, but Apple put those fears to rest when it revealed that the SE packs the same excellent 12-megapixel sensor as the iPhone 6s.
Twinned with the top-notch hardware, that makes the SE the smallest handset on the market with a camera capable of shooting 240fps slow-motion video, 4K video and stitching together 63-megapixel panoramas. Not to mention a front-facing Retina Flash for selfie addicts.
If you want a killer compact camera, this might be the most sensible option on the market when it launches at the end of March 2016.
Read next: Apple iPhone SE vs iPhone 5s: Which is best for me?
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