The original iPhone SE from 2016, one of Apple’s most popular handsets of all time, has finally been declared obsolete.
This is bad news for anyone who still uses the phone because it is no longer eligible to receive repairs and battery replacements from Apple Stores and authorised service partners. “Apple discontinues all hardware service for obsolete products,” the company explains, “and service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products.”
The move isn’t a surprise, however, as Apple follows a simple formula when categorising products as either vintage or obsolete. Five years after a device is discontinued, it’s declared vintage, and after a total of seven years, it graduates to obsolete. The original iPhone SE was removed from sale on September 12, 2018, so the seven-year milestone was reached almost three months ago. Read more about this in our article where we discuss how long Apple supports iPhones for.
The lack of official support isn’t necessarily a death sentence for the SE, since you can still take it to a non-official repair shop using non-official parts. This is slightly riskier than the official route, since the parts may not work optimally. But any worries about voiding the warranty are wildly irrelevant at this point and you haven’t got a great deal to lose other than the (hopefully not excessive) fee charged by the shop.
It’s worth noting that the same page on Apple’s UK site and other countries still lists the iPhone SE as vintage rather than obsolete, but it’s unclear whether Apple is just slow to update those pages.
Nevertheless, anyone still relying on a 1st-gen SE might be well advised to consider this a signal to upgrade to something newer, and considerably better. The SE runs an A9 processor with 2GB of RAM, the screen measures just 4 inches, and the cameras are 12MP and 1.2MP, respectively. It can’t even install iOS 16 from 2022, let alone this year’s iOS 26. Upgrading to the iPhone 16e, the cheapest of the current range, would get you an A18 with 8GB of RAM, a 6.1-inch display, and 48MP/12MP cameras, plus iOS 26 and the promise of many software updates to come.
Better still, look for a killer refurbished deal on one of the models Apple has discontinued in the past couple of years, such as the iPhone 14 or iPhone 15, and you’ll still get a major improvement on the SE without having to spend a fortune.
iPhone 15 deals
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.