Longevity
Something that’s easily overlooked when buying a new smartphone is how long you think you’ll be able to hold onto it before it starts feeling long in the tooth. This is often one of the ways that both vendors and customers justify higher-priced smartphones — that spending $1,000 or more is worth it as long as you know that you’ll be able to hang onto it for a few years before you need to upgrade again.
It’s an important consideration, so perhaps the most important thing about the new iPhone SE is that you can now buy a $399 iPhone that will last you for just as long as a considerably more expensive flagship model.
The key to this, of course, is Apple’s A13 chip again. Apple has a history of supporting all of their devices for years. The 2016 iPhone SE, which was equipped with an A9 chip, can still run iOS 13, so it’s a safe bet that the new iPhone SE will still be in the running in 2024 when iOS 18 comes out. There’s no reason to assume that the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro will be supported for any longer than this, since they all include the same chip.