I'm reminded of Star Trek and the way technology is depicted on the show. Most episodes are about people (human or alien) and their relationships to one another. Technology is only a means to an end on Star Trek.
One episode stands out, however: The Game [1]. In this episode, nearly the entire Enterprise comes under the thrall of an addictive video game. The ship would've been lost if not for the efforts of an intrepid pair of youngsters. It's an interesting inversion of the usual trope that the older generation is the one warning against the dangers of a new form of entertainment.
But I digress. I brought up Star Trek because I think the show makes a very important point: humans matter, technology is just a tool. When technology starts to matter too much, humans suffer.
I know a simple upvote would suffice but just wanted to tell you that, on my iPhone SE, of course :)
When I first saw the iPhone 6 the design struck me as lousy. It feels great in the hand and the hardware is top-notch, but it definitely felt like a phone they could build easily, while knowing you're most likely going to put a case on it-- quite utilitarian. On the other hand, after the iPhone 4 I had no idea how Apple would outdo its hardware design, but the iPhone 5 with its chamfered edges and unibody enclosure is, IMO one of if not the best Apple ever had. I'm happy that design was inherited in the SE.
In the sense of usability though, in spite of the utilitarian design new iPhones have lost both the headphone jack and TouchID! Moreover, they're too big to use with one hand. In that sense, the SE still feels more "useful", and it's why I keep mine around.
The next logical steps up for screen-size feel like 8 inches for a small tablet and about 12-13 for a full tablet or small laptop, and are both too big for mobiles; I feel like having an input mode that allows one-handed use would serve most of the market that does want a smaller device. The hold outs would prefer the smaller device for a combination of fit inside of other things and weight.
To Steve Jobs, it was absolutely essential that all of the core functions of the iPhone could be performed with one hand. That requirement dictated large parts of the iPhone's design and the UX principles of iOS. One-handed operation formed a key part of the marketing of the iPhone 5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99m7lebirE
The one-handed phone represents the phone as a means to an end rather than an end itself. You make a quick call to your partner while holding the baby, you check your shopping list while pushing a grocery cart, you send a text while holding a beer. The one-handed phone does a job, then gets out of your way. It's never the total focus of your attention.
Bigger phones are obviously better for intensive use. If you sit an iPhone SE and an iPhone X side-by-side, the iPhone 5 seems comically tiny. It's lousy for web browsing, it's lousy for reading e-books, it's lousy for watching movies. It seems like a relic from a different age. That's because it is - it's a relic from an age when a smartphone was a smart phone, rather than a pocket computer. Rightly or wrongly, there's no turning back from here.