The iPhone SE can shoot Live Photos and has features like Retina Flash and the option to have Hey Siri activated without the need to be plugged into a power source.

[15] Apple executive Greg Joswiak stated in the Let us loop you in event (held at the Town Hall auditorium in the Apple Campus)[16] on March 21, 2016, that they sold over 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015, further explaining that some people love smaller compact phones.

[20] No affordable successor to iPhone SE was announced during the September 12, 2018, Apple Special Event, and Business Insider stated that "Apple made a big mistake by removing its smallest and most affordable iPhone from its lineup", suggesting that the company was disregarding a significant number of customers who had been worried over the loss of the smaller design.

[22] In relation with the discontinuation of iPhone SE, Quartz mentioned on September 22, 2018, that women and other smartphone users with smaller hands had reported "pain from holding, scrolling, and swiping on phones, and a review of research on the ergonomics of handheld devices concludes that bigger products, like large phones and tablets, often result in overextension of the thumb and wrist", hinting to repetitive strain injury, and that oversized iPhones and smartphones in general can be physically unusable for some users.

[27] On February 20, 2019, TechRadar announced that iPhone SE once again was on sale as a clearance item with a $100 price reduction.

It features a 12 megapixel rear-facing camera with the ability to record 2160p (4K) video at 30 frames per second and slow motion with 1080p at 120fps and 720p at 240fps options.

[45] During the WWDC 2019 Keynote, Apple announced, that iPhone SE, 6s, and 6s Plus would support most of the main features of iOS 13.

CNET considered the iPhone SE to be a "great choice at the small end, with no compromises",[43] and lauded Apple for adapting iPhone 6s's hardware to three different form factors[49][43] while "consumers loved the battery life and that it still had a headphone jack.”[29] The Verge considered iPhone SE to be much-improved and well-designed with great battery life, and its screen size the only hindrance to multitasking and certain apps.

Giving the device 8.7 out of 10, The Verge said the iPhone SE is "today's tech in yesterday's phone body" and warned not to overly praise something just for doing its job.

[52] Tom's Guide acclaimed iPhone SE for being an affordable and compact smartphone with a headphone jack, saying it can be both held comfortably and slipped into a jeans pocket and almost forgotten, unlike a big-screen device however thin.

[53] The Next Web described Apple's iPhone SE as “the best looking phone it's ever made”, citing the beautiful satin finish bead-blasted aluminum body and classy chamfered edges.