Lots to love, less to spend. For the first time in years, an Apple’s tagline finally resonates with me fully. And for the first time in years, I’m completely fine with an Apple product. Many know I’m typically a budget-conscious customer, but the pricing of the 2020 iPhone SE is almost the least aspect that makes me happy. 

What truly makes me happy is that it exists. That it has sort of become a category. When the first iPhone SE was introduced in 2016, I really felt it was a one-off product, especially since it was labelled Special Edition. It felt like Apple’s farewell to a very successful (and very well executed) iPhone design, a last hurrah before retiring it. And I thought that combining the internals of an iPhone 6s with the design of the smaller iPhone 5/5s, and all at a very reasonable price, was a great move that would lead to a substantial demand from people who wanted a more powerful phone than the 5s, but the same compactness.

And the 2016 iPhone SE was indeed successful, to a point that apparently surprised Apple itself. Anecdotally, many friends and acquaintances of mine coming from an iPhone 6 and even 6s were happy to go back to a more manageable device. I was still using an iPhone 5 at the time, I had been using it for barely a year and was still very happy with it: upgrading to an SE would have been nice, but not strictly necessary, and at the time I was more interested in maybe upgrading my iPad or my aging MacBook Pro. But if I had been ready to upgrade, the iPhone SE would have been my first choice. (And when I later got one for my wife — also coming from an iPhone 5 — she was happy to have a better phone with the same design and handling as her 5).

Many people were so happy with the iPhone SE that some hoped Apple could keep doing the magic of offering a 4‑inch iPhone with updated specs and at an affordable price as a recurring spring release. Back then I even heard from people who told me they loved the iPhone 5/5s design so much that they would have been fine with Apple keeping that design unchanged and just updating the internals. I sympathised, but I kept thinking that Special Edition meant exactly that — a one-time thing. 

When spring 2017 and then spring 2018 came and went without iPhone SE news, that reinforced my belief about the uniqueness of the product, despite the occasional rumours talking about a new SE coming again sometime. And when, in early November 2018, it was finally time for me to upgrade from my iPhone 5, I was faced with a little dilemma: get an iPhone SE that was by then two and a half years old, but still a favourite design-wise, or go for something newer but also bigger and more uncomfortable to handle? Given my utter dislike for the iPhone X design, and their size, I ruled out the XS and XR models pretty much right away (although the XR’s colours briefly fascinated me). In the end, I chose the iPhone 8: it had that familiar design of iPhone past I loved so much (no notch, and a Home button with TouchID); and its size, albeit not ideal, was manageable enough. I would have loved an iPhone SE, but its chip was by then three generations old, and even if I typically am not a specs-obsessed guy, the 2016 iPhone SE was simply not a good investment overall. 

Going for an iPhone 8 in late 2018 was still not getting the latest and greatest, specs-wise, but it was such a great compromise for me that it really did not feel like a compromise at all. At the time, a friend commented on my choice by telling me, Aw, but the camera is nothing special. But I don’t really care about camera capabilities in a smartphone — I use it as a pocketable digital instant camera and nothing more. The photos I take that are meaningful to me and that I consider to be more artistic are almost always taken with a traditional camera. 

With time, I’ve grown accustomed to the bigger size of the iPhone 8, though it is the first iPhone that I dropped because of its size. Thankfully nothing happened to it, protected by the very same rubberised case whose excessive friction caused me to drop the phone in the first place, when I was trying to take it out of my front jeans pocket to answer a call.

I’ve written this perhaps long-winded introduction so as to give you a clear idea of where I am now with the iPhone, and as an explanation as to why it is obvious that the 2020 iPhone SE is going to be my next iPhone without any doubt. Even if I upgrade to it later this year, or a year from now, its specs will still be more than enough for how I use an iPhone.

About the ‘Special Edition’ moniker

While in recent times it had become clear that Apple was about to introduce an affordable phone much in the same spirit of the 2016 iPhone SE, and despite the numbering wouldn’t have made complete sense, I was really convinced Apple would name this new phone iPhone 9 or something along those lines. To me, Special Edition means… well, a special edition, something you only find once. I’ve seen it with vinyl records, watches, cars, cameras, where often the lines between ‘Special Edition’ and ‘Limited Edition’ are blurred.

So when I saw that this new iPhone model was called, again, ‘Special Edition’, I was puzzled. There’s nothing ‘special’ about it, was my immediate reaction. But then I read John Gruber’s lengthy explanation and it started to make more sense; this sentence in particular sums it all up nicely:

What makes “special edition” apt for the two iPhones bearing the SE name is the way they differ, strategically, from regular edition iPhones. 

Part of me, however, still doesn’t feel that ‘Special Edition’ is a completely apt moniker for the whole concept that Gruber masterfully explains. Again, taking the cue from the car, watch, or camera world — even from Apple itself with the iPod line — perhaps Classic Edition would be more fitting. It is, after all, the celebration of a design that routinely becomes a classic in Apple’s iPhone line.

But this is idle nitpicking. As I said at the beginning, I frankly have nothing to nitpick about the 2020 iPhone SE. I just hope they keep offering it in PRODUCT(RED) when it’s time for me to upgrade.

There is still one aspect to talk about, though.

4.7‑inch — the new small?

The 2020 iPhone SE, like the iPhone 8 before it, is still Apple’s smallest phone, but it’s not exactly a small phone. I’ve grown accustomed to my iPhone 8’s size over time, and learnt a few tricks to handle it with my relatively small hands, but when it comes to pockets, the iPhone 8’s form factor isn’t as friendly as the iPhone 5’s.

When the iPhone 5 was my daily driver, any pocket was fine. Though I usually prefer putting my iPhone in a jacket pocket, sliding the iPhone 5 in my front jeans pocket was comfortable and the phone ‘disappeared’ after a short while. Since switching to the bigger iPhone 8, I definitely had to change my carrying habits. Not only putting it in any of my trouser pockets brings a certain amount of discomfort (the bulk of the phone makes its presence always felt, it never ‘disappears’ like the iPhone 5 did), I also have to choose which jacket pocket is the best fit, because the bigger size of the iPhone 8 has made certain zippered pockets difficult or impossible to zipper up.

I do understand the frustration of those who had hoped in a new iPhone SE that retained, even redesigned, the old small footprint of the iPhone 5, 5s, and 2016 iPhone SE. In his more recent commentary piece, What Is the Market for Smaller Than 4.7‑Inch Phones?, John Gruber concludes:

But Apple has always done fanatically detailed market research. They don’t talk about it because by any company’s standards for trade secrecy, market research is a trade secret, and Apple is, we all know, more secretive than most companies. I think what makes truly small phones  —  let’s say iPhone 5S-sized phones  —  hard to gauge the demand for is that no one has made one since the original iPhone SE 4 years ago. 

I know my observations are based only on anecdotal data and not on more formal research or surveys but, save for a couple of cases, all the people I know who currently have a 2016 iPhone SE are disappointed that the new SE is bigger and retains the 6s rounded-edge design they always felt too slippery for their taste. There are even a few of them with an iPhone 7 and an iPhone X who were eagerly awaiting a new iPhone SE to be able to go back to a more manageable size and were let down by the new SE.

Another thing I used to do often before this Coronavirus quarantine was to visit my local Apple Store and other big stores with an Apple-dedicated area inside, and listen to the comments made by people browsing the iPhones and asking the Apple staff for advice. One of the most common questions posed by many women and girls when looking at the iPhone 11, XS or XR was, Is there a smaller one? — and when shown the regular iPhone 8 they would often repeat the question. Other would remember the 2016 iPhone SE and ask about it, visibly disappointed when realising it had been discontinued. 

Again, this is based on first-hand observations accumulated over time. I’m not using them to prove anything. It’s simply a minor trend I’ve been noticing… but a trend nonetheless that I’ve personally found hard to dismiss. At least where I live, there are a lot of regular people who still prefer small physical size and handling comfort over sheer display real estate. I believe that if Apple introduced a hypothetical iPhone SE with the same footprint of the 2016 iPhone SE and the internals of, say, the iPhone 8, it would be very well received by a not-insignificant amount of people.