5.5 Years
Software support for the original iPhone SE began with iOS 9.3 & will continue through 2021 with the release of iOS 14.
Announced on March 21, 2016, & released ten days later on March 31, the original iPhone SE reintroduced the beloved 4” screen-size of the iPhone 5/5S/5S, but with the updated internals of the iPhone 6/6 Plus.
When it was released, the iPhone SE started at $399. The device featured a 1.84 GHz dual-core 64-bit Apple A9 processor, 2GB of RAM, and storage options starting at 16 GB & went all the way up to 128GB. The SE also featured TouchID, an ƒ/2.2 12MP rear camera & ƒ/2.4 1.2MP front-facing camera. At its debut, the iPhone SE came preinstalled with iOS 9.3. It was ultimately discontinued on September 12, 2018.
I was surprised to hear Apple announce at WWDC20 that despite being released over four years ago, the iPhone SE would continue to be supported through iOS 14 when it launches for the iPhone later this year (support includes iPhone 6s and later). What that means is that by the time iOS 15 gets released, and assuming supports ends there, the original iPhone SE would have received over 5.5 years of support across six annual releases of iOS.
There’s unquestionably a premium inherent in entering Apple’s ecosystem. Still, when that premium includes this level of both hardware and feature support across more than half a decade, it is hard not to recommend anything but an iPhone.
External Link
YouTube: iPhone SE introduction
