iPhone SE first look: nearly identical to 5S, including the first-generation Touch ID
iPhone SE first look: Where 2012 meets 2016 — Apple's latest iPhone brings back memories of the iPhone 5. — I remember the first time I held the iPhone SE in my hand: The year was 2012, and it was called the iPhone 5.
Context & Ripple Effects
The February leaked drawings of the 'iPhone 5se' promised a chassis nearly identical to the 5S, and this hands-on confirms it down to the first-generation Touch ID sensor — the curved edges and relocated power key from those schematics carried through to production. What looked like a nostalgia play ahead of launch is now a shipping product.
First-order effects
- Small-handed and price-sensitive buyers get a current-generation phone in a four-year-old body, trading screen size and design freshness for modern internals at a lower price point.
- Apple is running a parts-bin strategy rather than a clean-sheet design: the subsequent teardown showing a mix of 5s, 6, and 6s components confirms the SE reuses existing silicon and modules instead of introducing new ones.
Second-order effects
- Case and accessory makers can serve the SE with their existing iPhone 5S inventory, since the dimensions carry over — an immediate cost advantage over any new-form-factor launch.
- Android vendors competing in the sub-flagship tier now face an Apple product whose bill of materials is amortized across prior generations, pressuring them on price-to-performance rather than spec sheets.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the SE becomes a recurring budget tier built on recycled designs and components — a structure the 2022 SE review bears out six years later, when the same 'tired design' critique still applies while performance-per-dollar remains the selling point.
The trend: Apple is institutionalizing a two-track iPhone lineup where flagship designs trickle nothing downward and the budget tier is instead assembled from proven, already-amortized parts.