Complete Review Of iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S Lets Talk About It!

One of Apple’s best loved phones ever has just got a spiritual successor. At the Cupertino brand’s ‘Let us loop you in’ event, it showed off the iPhone SE and it looks just like the iPhone 5S.
But, over two years is a long time in tech so how does the the small, yet powerful, iPhone SE stack up against its older brother? Let’s have a look.
iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: Display sizes remain the same
If you're one of the many people that kept on cradling that trusty iPhone 5S because of its manageable 4-inch display, you’re in for a treat with the iPhone SE.
Apple’s latest phone keeps the iPhone 5S' small form, which falls below just about every other device on the market.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 has a 5.1-inch display, the iPhone 6S sits at 4.7-inches and Google’s Nexus 6P looks seriously massive in comparison at 5.7-inches.
Apple didn't mention the resolution of the iPhone SE, so we're going to take a guess and say it's the same Retina display seen on past iPhones. That will give it a 1136 x 640 resolution.

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: They look almost identical

The iPhone 5S was, and still is, a design icon. It’s easily the most beautiful phone Apple has ever produced and it’s aged surprisingly well.
Those chamfered edge are still influencing phones today and the all metal body still feels great. So, many will be happy that even though the iPhone 5S is being discontinued its legacy will live on.
The iPhone SE looks almost indistinguishable from its departing brother; with the flat back, matte sides and lock-switch on the top.

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: A huge camera boost

Similarities are rife on the outside, but underneath its glossy frame there are a lot of changes that make the iPhone SE a rather unique prospect.
Apple has stuck with the same fantastic camera tech that it used in the iPhone 6S into the iPhone SE. That includes a 12-megapixel sensor capable of capturing 4K and 240fps slo-mo video. The iPhone 5S has a lower 8MP sensor and maxed out at 1080p video at 30fps.
The f/2.2 aperture is the same, but Apple now uses larger pixels that let in more light so nighttime shots look much brighter and less muddy. You'll also be able capture moving Live Photos, a feature not available on the iPhone 5S.
Both phones use a dual-tone LED flash for supposedly softer and natural skin tones. Both are still quite rubbish, but that sort of sums up phone flashes in general.

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: Power upgrades everywhere

Just like the camera, the insides of the SE have much more in common with the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus than the iPhone 5S.
Keeping everything ticking along is an A9 processor, as opposed to the older A7. There’s also the M9 co-processor, up from the M7.
The performance upgrades should be noticeable throughout, especially when playing processor-intensive games.
As usual, Apple hasn’t specified how much RAM will be inside the iPhone SE. We don’t usually find this information out until someone gets the phone and tears it apart.
The iPhone 5S has 1GB, the iPhone 6S has 2GB and we really hope the SE follows suit.
One particularly annoying thing about the iPhone SE is that it still has a base storage of 16GB, exactly the same as the 5S when it came out in 2013. Apps, games and media in general has got larger recently and 16GB just isn’t enough.
Apple will sell you a 64GB version of the iPhone SE too, which we’d thoroughly recommend. Upon release the iPhone 5S also came in a 32GB variety.
Both phones have a TouchID fingerprint sensor built into the home button, though hopefully the iPhone SE version will be much faster and use the same sensor as the iPhone 6S.

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: Battery

With smaller phones there’s less space for bigger batteries, but the lower-resolution displays. But as you can see above, there are some big improvements in the battery department for the iPhone SE. It gets 10 extra hours of Audio, three more hours of video and three more for Wi-Fi and LTE browsing.

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: Both run iOS 9.3

One thing no one can doubt that Apple does well is software updates. It constantly keeps older phone updated, while many Android devices barely get one bump in software.
The iPhone 5S might have been released in 2013, but it’s still on the same version of iOS as the iPhone 6S Plus. And we expect it to also be updated to iOS 9.3, the same software that comes running on the iPhone SE.

One thing you do have to look at though is future software updates, will the iPhone 5S run iOS 10 when it launches? Maybe, but it’s probably the last major iteration it’ll get.

iPhone SE vs iPhone 5S: Apple Pay is here

Aside from the obvious internal and camera improvements, another new feature that could prove to be worth the price of upgrade is Apple Pay.
The mobile wallet we first saw with the iPhone 6 is easily the slickest virtual payment solution yet, and it’s convenience and wide-support mean its inclusion here is great.