Apple is hours away from officially announcing the long-rumoured 4-inch iPhone SE during its spring event Monday. The latest launch disrupts the company's tradition of launching iPhone upgrades once every year. But the reintroduction of the popular 4-inch iPhone is creating a lot of buzz, especially after Apple shifted to 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes in 2014.
Several iPhone users who didn't want to upgrade after iPhone 5s due to the change in screen sizes, the new iPhone SE comes as a boon. There are no concrete details about the new iPhone, but rumours outline some possible specs that can be expected. Here's a comparison of iPhone SE against the iPhone 5s to help users compare the changes if they are planning an upgrade.
Design
Apple iPhone 5s sports an aluminium body and measures 128.8 x 58.6 x 7.6mm. The handset comes in silver or space grey colours and weighs 112 grams. As for iPhone SE, there aren't any official reports, but the most recent report said the design would be almost identical to that of the iPhone 5s. The similarities run so deep that any protective case for iPhone 5s would fit iPhone SE with ease, 9to5Mac reported.
Display
Apple iPhone 5S was the last handset to sport a 4-inch display. It offered a screen resolution of 1136x640 pixels with 326ppi. The iPhone SE would feature the same 4-inch display with the same resolution as its predecessor, but chances of seeing 3D Touch, 2D curved glass like in the iPhone 6 and 6s series are highly possible.
Camera
Apple is not popular for packing too many pixels in the camera, but focuses on the other aspects of the camera sensor to deliver great results. The iPhone 5s had an 8MP primary camera and 1.2-megapixel front-facing snapper.
As for the iPhone SE, the camera is expected to be identical to the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 with an f/2.2 aperture for better low-light photography. Add-ons like True Tone flash, auto HDR and automatic face detection could also be seen in the new iPhone.
Under the hood
Apple iPhone 5s was powered by A7 processor and M7 co-processor, which are backed by 1GB RAM. The storage variants were standard with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Apple is expected to improve the performance of the iPhone SE by packing A9 processor and M9 co-processor, which could be supported by a 2GB RAM. The storage options are expected to remain the same as that of the iPhone 5s.
On the software front, the iPhone 5s runs iOS 9, but it has its own limitations such as force touch shortcuts and Live Photos due to lack of necessary hardware. Things could change with the iPhone SE as all iOS 9 features, including Apple Pay, as well could easily be on board.
Battery
Apple integrated a 1560mAh battery in its iPhone 5s and the iPhone SE is likely to have a bigger unit. According to reports, a 1642mAh battery is expected to boost the handset's run-time better than what was seen in the iPhone 5s.
Details about the iPhone SE are not official, but the wait is almost over. It is understood that the new iPhone SE would be faster and feature better specs than the iPhone 5s, giving users reasons to upgrade to a new phone without compromising on the screen size.
