When I reviewed the iPhone 8 , I questioned the value that phone offered, given that it was not that far off in price from Apple's new flagship at the time, the iPhone X . But the iPhone SE is a superior handset to the iPhone 8, and it costs half as much as the 8 did when I reviewed it in 2017.

This is a highly competitive price for an iPhone; The fastest performance available in a smartphone today at less than half the cost of top-of-the-line iOS and Android flagships; iOS is an effective; secure; and robust mobile operating system that is a great choice for most users; The inclusion of...

The iPhone SE trails behind other iPhones in terms of battery life; The design is looking a bit dated; There's no headphone adapter included in the box; Mediocre low-light camera performance; Folks expecting the return of the hyper-compact; 4-inch iPhone SE will be disappointed

What do you look for in a new iPhone? The top of the list likely includes battery life and camera quality. There are a bunch of other specs and features you’d probably put down lower on the list: speed, screen quality, size, extra cameras, and so on.

Good battery life; Software updates for years; Camera good in light and great at video

Tired design with big bezels; Small screen compared to every other phone; Noisy low-light photos

Anyone who calls the iPhone SE a spare parts store is not wrong. Dressed in the iPhone 8 garb, looking through the glasses of the iPhone XR and doing its work with the heart of the iPhone 11, Apple has rummaged deep in its toolbox and created a powerful iPhone mix that combines not the best, but the...

Powerful processor; Home Button; Bokeh effects for both cameras; Low price

Aged LCD display; Average Portrait Mode; Poor audio; No expandable storage

We're the Android Police, and Google's mobile operating system is our raison d'être, our bread and butter, the most essential and integral part of our site's very existence. Still, it doesn't exist in isolation.

Price $400 for these specs is pretty great; Camera Good (but not great), especially given the price; Performance Very, very quick — flagship fast; Build quality This doesn't feel like a $400 phone; IP rating Not a common feature in mid-range devices (though it should be).

Software We're an Android site, what did you expect? More objectively speaking, long-time Android users won't feel at home, notifications are a bad time, and iOS is still very restrictive; Battery life Varies substantially depending on use, but it can be pretty bad if you're hard on the phone.

Building a $400 phone is an exercise in compromise, and the iPhone SE certainly has its share. Despite that, Apple's smallest, cheapest smartphone offers tremendous performance for the price.

Incredible value; Flagship-level performance; Surprisingly good camera; A13 chipset gives iOS room to grow

Dated design; Battery life is only OK; Camera doesn't have a Night mode

It's a tiny powerhouse of a smartphone

A13 Bionic processor is extremely powerful; Camera improvements over the iPhone SE (2016) and iPhone 8 are significant; $599 price tag is great

Looks exactly like the iPhone 8; No Night mode; Comparable Android smartphones are much better in some ways

“The new iPhone SE is the fastest phone you can buy for $400.”

Light; compact design; Class-leading performance; Loud; enjoyable audio; Great camera; iOS is excellent

Not a great display for $400; Battery life is just OK

This clearly isn’t Apple’s absolute best iPhone, but it’s the best choice for many millions of users. It is Apple's least interesting iPhone in years, and simultaneously, perhaps, the most important.

Starts at just $399; The A13 is faster than any other mobile processor; Great photos and video in good light

No telephoto or ultrawide camera; Battery life is just okay; No Night Mode or Deep Fusion

Back in the spring of 2016 — March 31, to be specific — the original iPhone SE launched. It was a callback to the four-inch iPhone many of us loved but couldn't upgrade to for more than two years.

The iPhone SE is back, though it's still just called the iPhone SE – there's no model number or "2.0" suffix here. Four years after the first "Special Edition" made its debut, Apple has once again shaken up the market with a cut-price iPhone, and we've been testing it out to see exactly where it…