Other 2016 iPhone SE vs. iPhone 13 mini

[Silly John Fatty]

32 GB model (SE) with therefore little RAM, vs. 512 GB model with more RAM.

Here's my conclusion after some weeks:

	iPhone SE 2016	iPhone 13 mini
iOS	15	17
Speed	Faster. Definitely faster, super quick.	Slower. Keyboard lag, widget lags and other lags, definitely much slower.
Camera	Bad	A little bit better, but barely any difference
Ergonomics	Perfect to hold in hand, can reach each part of the screen with only one hand	Can't reach each part of the screen with only one hand, a little bit too big in reality
Screen size	Small but okay	Bigger and better
Unlocking	Touch ID, annoying and not always working (dirty fingers, wrong position)	Face ID, much better, always works
Battery	New battery so it works "okay", it doesn't hold the charge very long (one day) but that's the best there is out there I guess	Also new battery because new device, but I have the feeling it's draining faster than the SEs. Probably the bigger screen, etc. And I'm not even using it with mobile data yet (Sim card is still in the SE). So I think battery life is bad on this one.

The iPhone mini is better I'd say, but the most annoying thing is that it's much slower than the SE. I upgraded to get a better phone and got a slower phone instead 😅 Kinda ridiculous to be honest … the camera is a disappointment also (I think they're both 12 MP but the minis is certainly a little bit better).

I may edit this post and add more things to the list.

 

[snipr125]

32 GB model (SE) with therefore little RAM, vs. 512 GB model with more RAM.

Here's my conclusion after some weeks:

	iPhone SE 2016	iPhone 13 mini
iOS	15	17
Speed	Faster. Definitely faster, super quick.	Slower. Keyboard lag, widget lags and other lags, definitely much slower.
Camera	Bad	A little bit better, but barely any difference
Ergonomics	Perfect to hold in hand, can reach each part of the screen with only one hand	Can't reach each part of the screen with only one hand, a little bit too big in reality
Screen size	Small but okay	Bigger and better
Unlocking	Touch ID, annoying and not always working (dirty fingers, wrong position)	Face ID, much better, always works
Battery	New battery so it works "okay", it doesn't hold the charge very long (one day) but that's the best there is out there I guess	Also new battery because new device, but I have the feeling it's draining faster than the SEs. Probably the bigger screen, etc. And I'm not even using it with mobile data yet (Sim card is still in the SE). So I think battery life is bad on this one.

The iPhone mini is better I'd say, but the most annoying thing is that it's much slower than the SE. I upgraded to get a better phone and got a slower phone instead 😅 Kinda ridiculous to be honest … the camera is a disappointment also (I think they're both 12 MP but the minis is certainly a little bit better).

I may edit this post and add more things to the list.

In what way is the 13 mini slower than the SE, that cannot be possible. My 13 mini is just as snappy as my 15 Pro!

 

[headlessmike]

In what way is the 13 mini slower than the SE, that cannot be possible. My 13 mini is just as snappy as my 15 Pro!

It definitely sounds backwards. My wife's 12 mini runs circles around her old 2016 SE.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Back, almost a year ago, I upgraded my my 64GB OG SE to the Mini 13. One of the biggest differences being the screen quality and size, also the huge camera improvement. So whist I did find that iOS 17 has a little more lag than iOS16, it is still much quicker than the SE ever was. And don't forget that with the Mini you can swipe down from the bottom to invoke true one handed use. It appears we've had different experiences.

 

[JPack]

First time I've heard A15-based iPhone 13 mini is slower than A9-based iPhone SE.

 

[Andeddu]

You have a defective 13 Mini if you think it’s slower than your OGSE. I had a 12 Mini on iOS 16 and it provided considerably better performance than my OGSE on iOS 15. My regular 13, which on iOS 17, is so ridiculously quick compared to my OGSE.

I am experiencing zero lag on my regular 13 on iOS 17. It still feels like a new phone.

 

[dan98]

I would try a full erase and re-install on your 13 mini and check the speed again.

The battery life sounds a little off with your SE - mine goes all day with moderate use and sometimes it'll go for 2 days.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Maybe it's a defective iPhone 13 mini, but I bought it new, so I don't know. It's got Apple Care+ also.

The 13 mini is certainly faster in certain areas, like for example unlocking it. Face ID is just so much better than Touch ID. And login to websites and all kinds of stuff is therefore much faster as well.

But when doing things like opening apps, browsing the home screen, typing text, the iPhone 13 mini is definitely slower than the old SE. Apple has installed a new battery in my SE not long ago, so maybe this has an impact. Your SE's batteries are maybe older and maybe this plays a role. But with a new battery, the old SE on iOS 15 is definitely faster than the mini on iOS 17.

The nightmare is mainly the keyboard lag. But clicking on buttons, browsing through apps, settings, etc. is also slower and it's annoying as hell!

I'll send it in and we'll see. The annoying this is that it's such a long and annoying process and they make it so complicated. You have to call, they want you to reset your phone, etc. etc., and at the end it doesn't change anything and you did it all for nothing.

Apple is way too slow for my taste.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

This is a troll thread. Phone slower and camera almost the same? Yeah, sure. In wonderland perhaps.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

This is a troll thread. Phone slower and camera almost the same? Yeah, sure. In wonderland perhaps.

It's absolutely not a troll thread. When I updated my SE to iOS 15 I was very scared it would be slowed down, but I did a lot of research and most people said it had become faster. This is very rarely the case with iOS updates, but it seemed like it was the case here and so I dared the update and in fact it's been running very well on it.

Most updates however slow down the phone and that is the case with iOS 17 on the 13 mini. Many other people have reported it here.

The mini might have a better processor, but iOS 17 is so bloated that in the end, the new processor doesn't bring any additional advantages. It just stays on approximately the same level (in my case even below it) to support the bloated features. There's no forward moving here in my eyes …

And the camera is almost the same and it's definitely not a surprise as both cameras are only 12 MP. The improvements of the minis camera are therefore obviously limited to some software tricks and maybe a few hardware pieces in order to get a better picture in certain light and things like these, but most of the improvement is on the software side if you ask me.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I also disagree that this is a troll thread. I find that iOS 17.2 especially, has introduced a typing delay on my 13 Mini at least, can't speak for anyone else but the OP's point is valid.

I do however disagree with the camera as my 2016 SE is just a hot, pixelated and grainy mess when compared to the Mini's camera. Huge difference.

I'm (as usual) annoyed with myself for not having stayed on iOS16. I say this all the time lol.

Edit: Aside from the now KB lag creeping in, I till find that the overall speed of the Mini far surpasses that of the SE.

Edit 2: I don't subscribe to the theory that Apple purposefully slows older models down, but they do absolutely nothing to still then optimize Models that are only a couple of years old. It's up to us to not update and take a chance on some security updates. I also realize that I bought my Mini 13 one year ago (to me new) and still on Apple 1 year warranty. Yes, its tech is now from late 2021 but still. The KB lag shouldn't be a thing now.

 

[snipr125]

It's absolutely not a troll thread. When I updated my SE to iOS 15 I was very scared it would be slowed down, but I did a lot of research and most people said it had become faster. This is very rarely the case with iOS updates, but it seemed like it was the case here and so I dared the update and in fact it's been running very well on it.

Most updates however slow down the phone and that is the case with iOS 17 on the 13 mini. Many other people have reported it here.

The mini might have a better processor, but iOS 17 is so bloated that in the end, the new processor doesn't bring any additional advantages. It just stays on approximately the same level (in my case even below it) to support the bloated features. There's no forward moving here in my eyes …

And the camera is almost the same and it's definitely not a surprise as both cameras are only 12 MP. The improvements of the minis camera are therefore obviously limited to some software tricks and maybe a few hardware pieces in order to get a better picture in certain light and things like these, but most of the improvement is on the software side if you ask me.

Even on IOS 17, the 13 Mini will open apps and web sites (especially the heavy sites), edit videos/photos etc significantly faster than the iPhone SE on IOS 15 that's for sure.

Also my iPhone 13 Mini takes noticeably better pictures, especially in terms of HDR and low light (like you said), than my iPhone 6S+ (has the same processor and camera as the Iphone SE). The software side of things is computational photography, which uses the processing power of the A15 to render better images.

 

[HackMacDaddy]

32 GB model (SE) with therefore little RAM, vs. 512 GB model with more RAM.

Here's my conclusion after some weeks:

	iPhone SE 2016	iPhone 13 mini
iOS	15	17
Speed	Faster. Definitely faster, super quick.	Slower. Keyboard lag, widget lags and other lags, definitely much slower.
Camera	Bad	A little bit better, but barely any difference
Ergonomics	Perfect to hold in hand, can reach each part of the screen with only one hand	Can't reach each part of the screen with only one hand, a little bit too big in reality
Screen size	Small but okay	Bigger and better
Unlocking	Touch ID, annoying and not always working (dirty fingers, wrong position)	Face ID, much better, always works
Battery	New battery so it works "okay", it doesn't hold the charge very long (one day) but that's the best there is out there I guess	Also new battery because new device, but I have the feeling it's draining faster than the SEs. Probably the bigger screen, etc. And I'm not even using it with mobile data yet (Sim card is still in the SE). So I think battery life is bad on this one.

The iPhone mini is better I'd say, but the most annoying thing is that it's much slower than the SE. I upgraded to get a better phone and got a slower phone instead 😅 Kinda ridiculous to be honest … the camera is a disappointment also (I think they're both 12 MP but the minis is certainly a little bit better).

I may edit this post and add more things to the list.

bro you capping fo real real, mini be straight up bussin bro. I'd yeet dat SE dawg, you sus af

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I have an SE sitting on my desk that I use for dev work. It's not slow.

I also have an iPhone 13 mini, that's my main phone. It was speedy on 17.0, slow as anything on 17.1, and 17.2 seems mostly OK, but I can definitely see an SE with all of the services turned off being as usable as a 13 mini trying to run all of the ML stuff that Apple is including in iOS these days.

 

[IJBrekke]

If both were on the same iOS I believe your experience would be very different. iOS17 introduced some lag into my 13 Mini, it is a problem. 17.2 is a little bit better, but it’s still there.

So unfortunately, your comparison of hardware is mostly moot. This is a software issue. It drives me nuts that we cannot downgrade, I wish it were different.

 

[Andeddu]

My regular 13, which uses the same A15 chipset as the 13 Mini, is as quick and snappy as ever on iOS 17. I think there’s a bug in your software because the OGSE should NEVER be faster than these phones. I have an OGSE on iOS 15 with a new battery and it does not perform anywhere near as well as my 13.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

My regular 13, which uses the same A15 chipset as the 13 Mini, is as quick and snappy as ever on iOS 17. I think there’s a bug in your software because the OGSE should NEVER be faster than these phones. I have an OGSE on iOS 15 with a new battery and it does not perform anywhere near as well as my 13.

Maybe it also depends what you use it for. It’s not faster in absolutely everything, but in most cases. For example it has absolutely no keyboard lag ever whereas the mini does almost all the time.

The animation of opening and closing apps or switching between them also lags on the mini, which never happens on the SE.

 

[Andeddu]

Maybe it also depends what you use it for. It’s not faster in absolutely everything, but in most cases. For example it has absolutely no keyboard lag ever whereas the mini does almost all the time.

The animation of opening and closing all or switching between them also lags on the mini, which never happens on the SE.

That’s what I am meaning. There definitely is no discernible keyboard lag using my iPhone 13 whereas there is minor keyboard lag with my OGSE and 6S on iOS 15.

 

[FeliApple]

That’s what I am meaning. There definitely is no discernible keyboard lag using my iPhone 13 whereas there is minor keyboard lag with my OGSE and 6S on iOS 15.

I have no iPhone 13, but the keyboard lags on my iPhone 6s on iOS 13, not even 15.

Now… I’d love to understand. Why is this always the case? Why is it that, invariably, the first thing that breaks a couple of major versions in is the keyboard? Performance can otherwise be perfect, but it seems like for every device, the first issue software updates bring about is keyboard lag. Why can’t they make it work?

My 9.7-inch iPad Pro was forced by Apple from iOS 9 into iOS 12. Performance? Almost perfect. Why? Of course, sporadic keyboard lag. No other issues. Keyboard lag wasn’t there on iOS 9. Why do they always break this? Is it so difficult not to?

 

[dan98]

My regular 13, which uses the same A15 chipset as the 13 Mini, is as quick and snappy as ever on iOS 17. I think there’s a bug in your software because the OGSE should NEVER be faster than these phones. I have an OGSE on iOS 15 with a new battery and it does not perform anywhere near as well as my 13.

The words 'should' and 'NEVER' basically cancel each other out in this context.

If either of these phones is poorly set up or running a badly optimised iOS, they'll lag.

I have several SE 2016 phones - one is completely slick and flawless moving around iOS15, even though large apps will inevitably slow it down due to it's 8 year old CPU.

I've also seen a 13 mini running poorly due to a crappy sub-version of iOS and too many background apps.

As someone mentioned, it also depends what you use it for. For basic every day use, SE 2016 is still brilliant. If you really need heavy use of social media, browsing, and all the other bla, neither of these phones is ideal IMO.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

The words 'should' and 'NEVER' basically cancel each other out in this context.

If either of these phones is poorly set up or running a badly optimised iOS, they'll lag.

I have several SE 2016 phones - one is completely slick and flawless moving around iOS15, even though large apps will inevitably slow it down due to it's 8 year old CPU.

I've also seen a 13 mini running poorly due to a crappy sub-version of iOS and too many background apps.

As someone mentioned, it also depends what you use it for. For basic every day use, SE 2016 is still brilliant. If you really need heavy use of social media, browsing, and all the other bla, neither of these phones is ideal IMO.

My mini was brand new and I updated it to the latest version of iOS 17 right after activating it.

It’s still a great phone and it’s a good size for me. I’m just sad there’s no other new phone of that size, knowing that the mini is at the end of its lifespan - even though I just bought it.

From now, everyone update will be worse. The minis end is near.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I have no iPhone 13, but the keyboard lags on my iPhone 6s on iOS 13, not even 15.

Now… I’d love to understand. Why is this always the case? Why is it that, invariably, the first thing that breaks a couple of major versions in is the keyboard? Performance can otherwise be perfect, but it seems like for every device, the first issue software updates bring about is keyboard lag. Why can’t they make it work?

My 9.7-inch iPad Pro was forced by Apple from iOS 9 into iOS 12. Performance? Almost perfect. Why? Of course, sporadic keyboard lag. No other issues. Keyboard lag wasn’t there on iOS 9. Why do they always break this? Is it so difficult not to?

I’m wondering the same. Especially because you’d think it shouldn’t consume more CPU power. Maybe it does. But you’d think it’s the most basic thing, the last thing that would lag.

 

[ibookemo]

It's absolutely not a troll thread. When I updated my SE to iOS 15 I was very scared it would be slowed down, but I did a lot of research and most people said it had become faster. This is very rarely the case with iOS updates, but it seemed like it was the case here and so I dared the update and in fact it's been running very well on it.

Most updates however slow down the phone and that is the case with iOS 17 on the 13 mini. Many other people have reported it here.

The mini might have a better processor, but iOS 17 is so bloated that in the end, the new processor doesn't bring any additional advantages. It just stays on approximately the same level (in my case even below it) to support the bloated features. There's no forward moving here in my eyes …

And the camera is almost the same and it's definitely not a surprise as both cameras are only 12 MP. The improvements of the minis camera are therefore obviously limited to some software tricks and maybe a few hardware pieces in order to get a better picture in certain light and things like these, but most of the improvement is on the software side if you ask me.

I find it funny that so many people refuse to accept your findings.

I also think that iOS 17 is a little heavy on the 13 mini. I run the OS on a 13 mini, a 13 Pro Max and a 15 Pro Max. The mini suffers from too little RAM as it only had 4GB...the others have 6GB and 8GB for the 15 Pro Max.

4GB is too little for great performance on iOS 17 I think. It works, yeah, but the phones with the larger amounts of RAM seem much better suited.

I know what you mean about the cameras too. In good light the pics are surprisingly decent on iPhones going back years. I think the newer ones are a bit better in low light but for some photographers that might be an edge case so may not be observed.

Overall though, I hear where you're coming from and think that your observations are completely valid. I wish I had kept my 13 mini on iOS 16.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

I find it funny that so many people refuse to accept your findings.

I also think that iOS 17 is a little heavy on the 13 mini. I run the OS on a 13 mini, a 13 Pro Max and a 15 Pro Max. The mini suffers from too little RAM as it only had 4GB...the others have 6GB and 8GB for the 15 Pro Max.

4GB is too little for great performance on iOS 17 I think. It works, yeah, but the phones with the larger amounts of RAM seem much better suited.

I know what you mean about the cameras too. In good light the pics are surprisingly decent on iPhones going back years. I think the newer ones are a bit better in low light but for some photographers that might be an edge case so may not be observed.

Overall though, I hear where you're coming from and think that your observations are completely valid. I wish I had kept my 13 mini on iOS 16.

I totally agree with you! That’s why I think this is the minis slow end. It’s crazy because I just bought it, it’s brand new. And already unusable in my case (I type a lot, do a lot of multitasking, I need it for work basically and it needs 100% functionality). A brand new device, unusable, and no alternatives. 😕

 

[FeliApple]

Edit 2: I don't subscribe to the theory that Apple purposefully slows older models down, but they do absolutely nothing to still then optimize Models that are only a couple of years old. It's up to us to not update and take a chance on some security updates. I also realize that I bought my Mini 13 one year ago (to me new) and still on Apple 1 year warranty. Yes, its tech is now from late 2021 but still. The KB lag shouldn't be a thing now.

I don’t think intentionality matters. Apple may or may not do it on purpose, but the facts are that performance and battery life have been, are, and will continue to be degraded on every iPhone by iOS updates.

The 13 Mini isn’t old, it’s two models behind the current one, and even then, I strongly disagree with many people’s opinion when they say “well, it’s old, do you really expect it to work like a new phone?”... yes? I do?

My iPhone Xʀ would be considered an old iPhone in technological terms, five years old. It runs iOS 12. Keyboard lag? What is that? I don’t know. No lag, no crashes, as fast as an iPhone 15 in terms of OS responsiveness. That’s how it should be, and the only thing you can do for that, is to never hit that update button.

It is utterly and completely ridiculous that iOS is on its 17th iteration and they keep breaking the keyboard on every iPhone and iPad a couple of major versions in. It’s hard for me to believe that that isn’t intentional. Can’t you really make it work? Every single device, processors that are immensely powerful, yet... one or two major versions in, done, keyboard lag forever.

They clearly can make smooth keyboards, considering that devices on original iOS versions don’t lag. Come on, my iPhone Xʀ on iOS 12 hasn’t lagged in five years and a 13 Mini is a disaster as soon as a couple of major versions hit? How in the world am I supposed to think it isn’t intentional?