By now you’ve probably seen this thing
I mean, assuming your eyes are good enough to see it.
What is that?
Is that an iPhone? It’s so small I can’t tell.
Okay. Enough “small” talk.
This is the new iPhone SE.
It went on sale last week, and the reaction to it has been pretty... surprising.
Some people are really excited by the idea of a smaller, four-inch phone
that also happens to be super fast and takes good photos.
Other people have said it’s basically the iPhone 6S crammed into the small body of an older iPhone 5 or 5S,
and that there’s nothing all that new about it.
But that’s not exactly true.
So what are the differences between last year’s iPhone 6S, and this year’s iPhone SE?
The most obvious difference between the two is, of course, the size.
The iPhone SE has a four-inch display.
And the iPhone 6S has a 4.7-inch display.
And if you want to go really big: The iPhone 6S Plus has a 5.5-inch display.
The second most important difference is the price.
The iPhone SE costs only $399 for a 16-gigabyte phone.
What, wait! “Only” $400?
Really?
Okay so $400 for a phone is still a lot of money for a lot of people.
But I guess it's Apple's lowest starting price point for an iPhone.
Yeah, but can we talk about 16 gigabytes?
Really Apple?
Are we still making 16 gigabyte phones?
Who still gets a 16 gigabyte- who wants a 16 gigabyte phone?
No, I hear you, I feel your pain.
And maybe we'll talk about that in another versus video.
But for now we should probably get back to pricing.
So how much is the iPhone 6S?
Okay so the iPhone 6S is more expensive.
It starts at $649.
Another notable difference is that the iPhone SE does not have 3d Touch…
Whereas the iPhone 6S does.
3D touch means there are pressure sensors integrated directly into the display of the phone,
and when you press on it content pops out of certain apps.
Yeah, not so much on this little phone.
So what are the similarities between the iPhone SE and the iPhone 6S?
Well, both run on Apple’s latest mobile software, iOS 9.3.
Yup and both are running on the same processor as well.
Yup, the iPhone 6S and the SE run on Apple's A9 chip
which is the company's newest processor for iPhones.
It is definitely faster than the A7 chip which was the processor in the iPhone 5S.
The iPhone 6S has a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with true-tone flash,
It shoots 4K video and it also shoots Live Photos which is kind of Apple's attempt to be hip with GIFs.
The iPhone SE has the same rear camera as the one in the iPhone 6S.
But, selfie takers should take note.
The front camera on the iPhone SE is a 1.2 megapixel camera and it's not as good as the one in the iPhone 6S.
You can use your iPhone 6S to pay for things with Apple Pay with stores that support it.
The iPhone SE has Apple Pay now too.
Oh and you can summon Siri by shouting "Hey siri" at your phone.
Yup and you can now shout "Hey siri" at the iPhone SE too assuming that you want to.
Question on everyone's mind: What about battery life?
Yeah what about battery life?
Clearly a bigger phone over here means I get better battery right?
Well, actually no the iPhone SE does have a slightly smaller battery that the iPhone 6S.
But it also has a smaller display which means fewer pixels to power.
It has a faster more efficient processor and it has new software.
So all of those things combined means that this little phone get surprisingly excellent battery life.
In my experience it even lasted longer than the iPhone 6S in some cases.
Well, I mean I still get excellent battery life with a charging brick.
So naturally when you compare the iPhone SE and with the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 6S is going to have a few more advanced features.
Like 3D touch or better camera technology.
And this is intentional because at the end of the day it's Apple's current flagship phone.
We also don't know what kind of technology is going to show up in the next iPhone.
And it's likely that Apple wasn't going to just throw it into the mid-cycle iPhone SE
which is really aimed at first-timers or upgraders.
But overall the iPhone SE is a pretty kickass little phone.
So if you're looking to upgrade from a 4S or a 5S or if you just like small phones you probably won't be disappointed with this one.
Thanks for watching the video.
I'm Lauren Goode with the Verge.