The original and second generation iPhone SE. Last updated 8 hours ago. The new iPhone 16e is surely the right combination of prices and features to be a hit, but the iPhone SE range that it has replaced will always be special. Here's how significant the iPhone SE was — I actually remember what I was doing when it was announced back in 2016.
I wasn't working here yet. I was supposed to be going into a meeting, but instead, I stayed in my car reading AppleInsider for the latest coverage. Oddly, what I don't remember is which iPhone I was reading that on. I just immediately knew, like so many millions of other people, that I was going to buy an iPhone SE.
And, I just asked the AppleInsider staff about it. I'm not the only one here that did so. I wouldn't be buying it for myself, I wouldn't be buying it to replace my iPhone Whatever, I'd be buying one for my wife. As much as she likes iPhones, she's not a heavy user of one and I think at the time she was still rocking an iPhone 5 from 2012.
So many iPhones, so many users, but the original iPhone SE stood out for its combination of features and price. I'm not sure that original model lasted as well as other iPhones though, I don't think it aged well. For by 2020 when the second generation iPhone SE came out, I was more than ready to replace the original.
Again it was the price, that very nice $399, and again it was how this got a light iPhone user what she really needed. Only, if the original version just felt old to us after a few years, the second generation model rather soon started to feel slow. Maybe it was my grumbling about the Home button as I'd put down my iPhone 11 Pro to use it, maybe that helped sour the iPhone SE 2 for my wife.
The speed issue, at least, was doubtlessly solved by the launch of the $429 iPhone SE 3 in 2022 — but I wasn't ever to know. For when I'd moved on to an iPhone 12 Pro, I gave my iPhone 11 Pro to my wife. She's currently using an iPhone 14 Pro while I'm on an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and neither of us would now tolerate the slowness of the iPhone SE 3. Nor the Home button, which just seems prehistoric today.
It follows, then, that neither of us are going to trade in to get the new iPhone 16e. I couldn't — Apple's trade-in offers on that new model do not include the iPhone 16 Pro Max. They do include the iPhone 14 Pro, though, for which Apple offers up to $630 in trade-in. So switching to the new iPhone 16e could be free for her, and she would gain Apple Intelligence.
The original iPhone SE was a gateway drug for users for whom the regular iPhone's price was not justifiable for many. It was the same for the second and third — now seemingly the last — generation of the iPhone SE 2. Not only was it a gateway drug for users, but it was also an effective transition phone for Apple to shift to a Services-heavy company. More users, buying in at a lower price point, means more Services revenue.
Right now, on launch day of the iPhone 16e, it looks like the new phone is delivering Apple Intelligence at the best possible price. It looks like it has a startling array of features, enough so that it doesn't feel as cut-down as the old iPhone SE, or not quite.
But less than being the low-cost on-ramp to the iPhone and iOS that the iPhone SE always was, the iPhone 16e is targeting existing users. It is so clearly being aimed at users who've held on to their old iPhones for years. So in a way, the very spirit of the iPhone SE has gone. Even if the three generations of the iPhone SE had compromised, and even though they sold most only on price, they were a unique part of Apple's lineup.
Long live the iPhone 16e, but let's pay our last respects to the little iPhone SE range. William Gallagher has 30 years of experience between the BBC and AppleInsider discussing Apple technology. Outside of AppleInsider, he's best known for writing Doctor Who radio dramas for BBC/Big Finish, and is the De...
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