Hands-on: Sizing up the 4-inch iPhone SE and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro

CUPERTINO, Calif.—Have you ever held an iPhone 5? How 'bout an iPhone 5S? If you have, you likely don't need me to tell you what it's like to hold an iPhone SE. They're close enough that you'll have trouble telling them apart if you don't know what you're looking for.

There are a few physical differences: the chamfered edges of the phone, previously shiny, are now matte. Those shiny edges were prone to getting scratched and losing their finish in extended use, so a change to a matte finish may help out a bit. Also, the Apple logo on the back is now a separate, inset piece of metal rather than a shiny patch of finish as it is on the 5 and 5S. That, however, is the end of the physical change list.

This isn't really a bad thing. By sticking with an iPhone 5-era design, Apple has avoided some of the common complaints about the 6 and 6S design. There are no awkward visible antenna cutouts, because the wireless signals can escape through the glass cutouts at the top and bottom of the rear case. There’s no camera bump, since the phone is a little thicker. There are no slippery rounded edges, making the phone a bit easier to hold.

One happy side effect of the design is that cases fitting the iPhone 5 and 5S will also fit the SE. If you have an old case, it’ll fit. If you keep an old phone, companies (including Apple) will make new cases for you.

All the most interesting stuff about the SE is on the inside, and even then it’s mostly stuff we’ve already seen. This includes the Apple A9 SoC (no word on how much RAM it includes; hopefully the same 2GB as the 6S and 6S Plus), always-on Hey Siri, and the 12MP camera with 4K video recording capabilities. The only major thing missing is the pressure-sensitive 3D Touch display, either because it won't fit in the SE's smaller chassis or because it adds too much cost to make sense at the lower price point.

The iPhone SE will cost $399 for a 16GB version and $499 for a 64GB version, and with these components it’s actually fairly compelling competition for all the Android flagships that are flirting with the ~$400-ish price point. It’s not exciting, but it’s pretty much exactly what people have been asking for—a fully modern iPhone 5S.

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro

If the iPhone SE is a tweaked iPhone 5S, the smaller iPad Pro is a beefed up iPad Air 2. The dimensions, weight, screen size, and resolution are the same, but a few things have changed around the edges. The new speaker system, Smart Connector, and that unfortunate camera bump and dual-LED flash all give the new iPad away.

The accessories are hit-and-miss—I was immediately frustrated by the size of the smaller Smart Keyboard, which is too small to fit the full-size keyboard layout that the big version uses. The key switches and the canvas covering those keys feels exactly the same, but you’ll definitely need time to adjust. I use my iPad Air 2 with a Smart Cover (iPad Air and Air 2 Smart Covers should continue to work with the new Pro) and a full-size external keyboard, and I would probably continue to do the same with the iPad Pro. Like the regular Smart Keyboard, the smaller version also looks awkward when closed and folded over the iPad’s screen.

The Apple Pencil support is another thing entirely. I’m not an artist, but I have found myself needing to sketch out things, whether it’s a map for a D&D campaign I’m running or a rough mock-up of a logo or design I’d like a contractor to work from. The larger iPad Pro is overkill for this kind of quick-and-dirty work, but the 9.7-inch iPad seems like it would be an ideal sketchpad. Palm rejection, pressure sensitivity, and tilt support all work exactly the way as they do in the larger iPad Pro (and yes, that means the Pencil still sticks out awkwardly from the bottom of the iPad as it charges).

That camera is also a significant change for the people who use their iPads as cameras, and Apple tells us that it’s using exactly the same sensor as the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Past iPads, including the big iPad Pro, have used a more basic camera sensor that isn’t as good as what ships in the iPhones. This is the first time an iPad has had a camera that was identical to the contemporaneous flagship iPhone.

The other changes to the iPad Pro are all on the inside, but once again most of this is stuff we’ve already seen before thanks to the large-screened version. The Apple A9X promises fast CPU and GPU performance (though we’ll need to confirm whether it has the same 4GB of RAM as the big Pro), and the screen tech, Smart Connector, and Apple Pencil support are all known quantities.

Update: The smaller iPad Pro only has 2GB of RAM. Apple also says that Smart Covers and accessories designed to attach magnetically to the iPad Air and Air 2 won't work with the new Pro because of a different magnet configuration.

The price increase of the base model, from $499 to $599, is unfortunate, though eventually refurbished models should help take the edge off (one could also argue that the $499 16GB base iPad Air 2 didn’t have enough storage in the first place; at least the 32GB iPad Pro has enough storage that you won’t want to run screaming from the base model). The 128GB and 256GB models will set you back $749 and $899, respectively, and you can add $130 to the price of any of these iPads to add cellular connectivity (something Phil Schiler didn’t explicitly mention onstage today). Those cellular iPads include an "embedded Apple SIM" to avoid having to use SIM cards for some carriers, but there's also a standard nano SIM tray you can use if you'd like to use a carrier that doesn't work with the Apple SIM.

Apple Watch bands

Finally, we’ve got a few new Apple Watch bands, visible in the pictures above. There’s no word on an actual hardware upgrade for the Watch itself (rumors suggest we may see something in September), but Apple seems content to use new bands and color options to keep the Watch feeling “fresh” and to keep it in the news during these big announcements.

Most of the new bands are just expanded color options for bands that already exist, but the woven nylon bands are entirely new and they look nice in a casual kind of way. The leather bands are still a better match for dressier outfits, but the nylon versions will be good alternatives for people who don’t want to spend a ton of money but don’t like the look of the normal fluoroelastomer Sport bands. You can pair either Sport or Nylon bands with the Apple Watch for the new $299 and $349 (for 38mm and 42mm, respectively) base prices.

Listing image by Andrew Cunningham