iPhone SE

My Mother's iPhone has gradually become non functional. It was iPhone 6. The hardware was pretty OK. But one after another the apps were refusing to work. In a pretty bad fashion. The apps typically started complaining about the version being too old and forcing to update. But when redirected to the AppStore, there was a message saying the newest one was not compatible with the iOS version (which could not be upgraded) and offering an older version. Which then complained it was too old. A very confusing dead loop.

The reason of course was the old iOS with the newer releases not supporting the "old" hardware. So the question was not so much if we needed a new iPhone, but really which one should we choose.

I initially thought the choices would be limited to the main line iPhones: 14 or 15 or 16. And only when I started checking which was the oldest that would support iOS 18, I found about the "SE" line. And to my surprise I realized the 2020 iPhone SE perfectly supported iOS 18.

Browsing through internet auctions I found a 128GB variant of 2020 iPhone SE listed for $120. In pristine condition, with 80% battery health. The price was too low to pose any serious risk, so I clicked "buy".

When the phone arrived I set it up as my 2nd phone, upgraded to iOS 18 and it automatically restored my entire "iPhone 16 Pro" configuration from the cloud. It took a bit but required very little attention, during the whole process the phone was just lying on a desk.

Once done, I started using it for a couple of days. And to my surprise - the experience barely differed from my 10x more expensive 15 Pro. Of course it did not have the same quality camera - that is obvious. But other than that, everything worked. Same look and feel and barely any performance difference. Which was a surprise. And a lesson - again - it is the software, not the hardware that matters the most. As long as the hardware meets the basic requirements - everything else (the user experience part) is decided by software.

I must say, from the value perspective, a $120 128GB 2020 iPhone SE is probably unbeatable. Go get one if you're shopping for a new value phone.