Though I love the four-inch form factor, I've always been a bit disappointed in how Apple treats the SE. Its guts and hardware are years old, technologically. Even when it was only a year old, I had already noticed a slowdown in performance.
Running on beta
When I first wrote this editorial, I was running the developer beta of iOS 12. I'd been doing so since June of 2018. With the official launch of iOS 12 on my SE, I can say that the performance is still as stellar as it was when I first installed the beta version.
The test
Even though I've moved onto the iPhone X, I still keep my SE around because I love the size. This year, I decided to turn it into a beta testing device and installed the public beta of iOS 12.
The performance improvement was immediately noticeable.
When Apple unveiled iOS 12 at WWDC 2018, it noted that one of the major new features coming this fall is performance improvements. The latest software update is supposed to make app launching up to 40% faster, the keyboard to appear up to 50% faster, and the camera to launch up to 70% faster.
"Cool," I thought, but didn't really consider it after that.
Not until I started testing iOS 12 on my iPhone SE. Having switched to the iPhone X, the SE really felt like a dinosaur before. I didn't even like using it very much because everything took so much time to load.
I'd been so happy with iOS 12 on my SE since the beta launched that I was happy to update to the official iOS 12 immediately after it launched.
It's not magic
With iOS 12, it feels like the SE is brand new, with a brand new processor chip and extra RAM, even though it's the same exact iPhone I got two years ago.
We like to say things like, "It works like magic," but really it's not magic at all. The development team at Apple worked very hard to make these significant improvements to iOS performance.
iMore Editor-at-Large Rene Ritchie explains in detail how Apple managed this feat with faster processor ramp-ups, improved scrolling, and fetching data in the background.
Most importantly, Apple made changes to how our devices react to memory requests. In iOS 12, an app will 64, 32, or even 8-bits, depending on what the request calls for. This significantly lowers how often large memory demands are active.
These under-the-hood improvements are not so under-the-hood. It's like dropping a Hemi into a classic Impala. You notice it.
What's old is new again
There's no mistaking that iOS 12's performance enhancements help older devices. It's the little things that I noticed first.
When I launch an app, it loads much faster, even third-party apps. Trello is a perfect example. I basically hate using it, but it's the companywide program for tracking what we write about every day. In iOS 11, on my iPhone X, it would take a very long time to load and often froze for nearly a minute before working at all.
Trello on my iPhone SE with iOS 12 loads in seconds and, though it still freezes up on occasion, it gets back on track much faster.
Many other apps load at the exact same speed on my iPhone SE running the iOS 12 as they did on my iPhone X running iOS 11.4 when they've been opened before. They still loaded faster on iPhone X when launching an app that was previously closed in multitasking, but it's definitely faster than before.
The Camera app loads at the exact same speed as it did on my iPhone X in iOS 11. Whether I'm tapping in from the app, loading from Control Center, or swiping left from the Lock screen. There is no hesitation.
You have no idea how good it feels to see my iPhone SE working faster and smoother than ever before. I'm so proud of the little guy.
My iPhone SE finally feels like a pro
People with newer devices aren't as likely to notice the performance improvements. Your iPhone is already speedy! These changes are going to really feel good to iPhone owners that haven't upgraded in a couple of years. I noticed it as soon as I started using my iPhone SE with the iOS 12 public beta 1.
If you're still holding on to the four-inch form factor and your favorite mobile device is the iPhone SE, with iOS 12, your iPhone SE is going to feel new again, which will make you much happier now that we know Apple has killed the 4-inch form factor.
Have you tried it?
Have you updated to iOS 12 on an iPhone SE? Have you noticed the performance improvements? Tell me about your experience in the comments section.
Originally written in July 2018 after the beta launched. Updated and republished for the official launch of iOS 12.
