What Using an iPhone SE Is Like in 2019 ⇥ macrumors.com

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Every time Apple restocks the clearance site, available iPhone SE models go quick, suggesting there’s still quite a lot of interest in the 4-inch device. We recently picked up an iPhone SE to see just what it’s like using one in 2019.

[…]

On the plus side, it’s so small and light that it’s easy to use one handed, something you can’t necessarily do with Apple’s biggest iPhones. With its aluminum backing, the iPhone SE is more durable than Apple’s new all-glass smartphones.

[…]

You might think it’d be noticeably slower than newer iPhones, but, surprisingly, for built-in apps it’s speedy. When using Mail, Messages, Calendar, FaceTime, and other similar built-in apps, the iPhone SE is as speedy as 2018 iPhones.

iOS 12 is impressively fast on the iPhone SE. The similar perceptible speed between the SE and late-model iPhones is notable, too. I wonder how much of that is attributable to the much higher-resolution displays of newer iPhones, and how much is simply down to hardcoded animation timing.