Mobile phone deal of the week: Cheapest ever iPhone SE is £13.99pm
When it hit £20 a month we were excited. Then we made a big fuss at £17.99. But this latest deal from EE is on another planet – the iPhone SE for effectively £13.99 a month. Incredible.
The low, low price comes courtesy of Mobiles.co.uk, a division of Carphone Warehouse. You don't pay a penny for the handset, and then you get 1GB of data a month together with unlimited texts and calls. As long as you're not someone who constantly streams videos or is always on Facebook away from your Wi-Fi, £335.76 over the two-year contract is a belter of a deal.
What's the catch, we hear you ask? And yes, there is a teeny weeny one. You only get such a low price by claiming £95 cashback. We explain all below, as well as giving you a potted version of our iPhone SE review. And at the bottom of this page you'll find our comparison chart of all the best iPhone SE deals you can get your hands on right now.
How do I claim the cashback?
It's a bit of a faff, but in months 7, 12, 16, 20 and 24 of your contract you'll have to claim a fifth of the £96 cashback sum.
You have to send in each bill from those months to Cashback Claims, PO Box 376, Southhampton, SO30 2PX within 60 days from the date on the bill. The bill must show your name, address, mobile number and tariff. Alternatively, you can submit an online version of the bill via your My Account area on the website.
iPhone SE review
Launched back in March 2016, the 'Special Edition' iPhone SE was a rare example of Apple dropping its entry-level price to allow bargain-hunters a piece of the iPhone pie. It reduced the screen size from the iPhone 6, but kitted it out with the same camera as the iPhone 6S. In short, it's a premium smartphone with a lower price tag – and we like that!
iPhone SE specifications: Screen size: 4 inches | Resolution: 640 x 1136 | Rear camera: 12MP | Weight: 113g | OS: iOS 10.3.2 | RAM: 2GB | Storage: 16/32/64/128GB | Battery: 1624mAh
What we like about the iPhone SE
The power of the iPhone SE is something to behold – it's as powerful as the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus thanks to having the new A9 chip, the M9 co-processor and 2GB of RAM on board. Compare that to the A7 chip with a measly 1GB of RAM in the iPhone 5S, and side by side they're absolutely night and day in terms of speed and battery life management.
Despite the extra power, the iPhone SE somehow manages to not only build in a much better battery than the iPhone 5S, but it does so with no extra chassis space to cram extra electrons.
What we dislike about the iPhone SE
The angled sides seen on the iPhone SE were brilliant in 2010 when they appeared on the iPhone 4, but they're tired now, so the SE will always feel like only a small, if powerful, update.
Like the chassis, the screen is straight out of 2012, coming as it did with the iPhone 5. While you could just think that it's simply a smaller version of what's on the current iPhone duo, in truth it's rather old in terms of spec.
TechRadar's iPhone SE verdict
Apple has given consumers a great budget choice with the iPhone SE. It's a brilliant phone for those who want something smaller in their pocket and don't care about tired design.
Of course, possibly the best thing about the SE is the price, especially now that you can get it for as little as £13.99 a month. But don't take our word for it – check out the up-to-the-minute prices in our comparison chart below.