Apple iPhone SE
Apple Vice President Greg Joswiak introduces the iPhone SE during an event at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California March 21, 2016. Reuters/STEPHEN

If you live under a rock, you may not have heard that Apple has introduced a new 4-inch smartphone called the iPhone SE (Special Edition), which comes with a refreshed appeal of the iPhone 5S and contains some of the best features of the iPhone 6S.

Available in first tier countries like the US, the UK and Australia by March 31, the Apple iPhone SE preorders will begin from Mach 24. But should you upgrade or stick with your existing iPhone 5S or 6S? We help you decide with a three-way comparison between the iPhone SE, iPhone 6S and iPhone 5S on the basis of their specifications, features and price.

Design and Display

The iPhone SE and the iPhone 5S measure 123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm and weigh 113 grams, whereas the iPhone 6S measure 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm and weigh 143 grams. All three smartphones feature full aluminum chassis. The iPhone SE and 6S are available in space gray, silver, gold and rose gold. The iPhone 5S is available in similar colours, except for rose gold.

The iPhone SE and 5S sport a 4-inch display that supports a resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels and offer the same screen-to-body ratio of 60.82 percent. The iPhone 6S supports a resolution of 750 x 1134 pixels on its 4.7-inch screen. All three's IPS LCD panels deliver a pixel count of 326 ppi.

Chipset, RAM and Storage

The iPhone 5S features an obsolete Apple A7 chip that is coupled with 1 GB of RAM, while both the iPhone SE and iPhone 6S feature an Apple A9 chipset.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 6S features 2 GB of RAM. However, as of this writing, there is no information available about the amount of RAM featured on the iPhone SE, although rumours suggest that it may feature 1 GB of RAM.

The iPhone 6S comes in three storage options, 16 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB, while the iPhone 5S is available in 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB. However, the newly introduced iPhone SE comes in just two storage editions: 16 GB and 64 GB.

Camera and Other Features

The iPhone SE and 6S both feature a 12 MP rear camera whereas the iPhone SE has an 8 MP rear camera. The Apple iPhone 6S has a front-facing camera of 5 MP whereas the iPhone SE and 5S features a 1.2 MP selfie camera.

All three models feature a fingerprint scanner to support transactions through Apple Pay. The iPhone 5S lacks NFC, but the feature is present on the iPhone SE and 6S.

Battery and Price

The iPhone 6S has a 1715 mAh battery and the older iPhone 5S has a 1560 mAh battery. Apple refrained from revealing the exact capacity of iPhone SE’s battery, but rumours suggest that it features a 1642 mAh battery.

The 16 GB and 64 GB iPhone SE models are priced at AU$679 and AU$829, respectively.

The 16 GB Apple iPhone 5S is now selling for AU$590.

The 16 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB models of the iPhone 6S are priced at AU$1,079, AU$1,229 and AU$1,379, respectively.

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