I rocked the previous iteration of the SE for just over a year since my previous phone was in dire need of a battery replacement and I didn’t want to figure out

I rocked the previous iteration of the SE for just over a year since my previous phone was in dire need of a battery replacement and I didn’t want to figure out how Apple was handling that mid-pandemic. I reasoned at the time that I needed a phone with Touch ID because I didn’t yet have an Apple Watch, and I was using my phone as my wallet. It was a good phone that served me well primarily as 1. A wallet 2. An Overcast player and 3. A phone in approximately that order whose shortcomings became immediately apparent the moment I started going outside and socializing without a mask again in the Summer of 2021. The screen and battery for example were both downgrades from my 6s+. I’m rocking an iPhone 13 Pro Max now primarily because I demand a lot more of my phone when I’m actually not living in a cave, and I fully appreciate having a giant screen, an enormous battery, a bunch of power saving tech like the variable refresh rate screen and a very fancy triple-lens camera. All things that are irrelevant when your phone lives in a dock for a year. The magnetic wallet attachments are a nice touch that carry a few cards but also serve to round out the back of the phone in such a way as to provide a better grip and stabilize the phone on a surface. The iPhone SE is a very good phone and a very good value, but “best” changes depending on your circumstances and lifestyle. I couldn’t rock an SE without constantly managing the battery, something which was an issue when I wanted to record some video at my best friend’s wedding reception after carefully micromanaging the battery all day. With the 13 Pro Max I can walk out early in the morning and not even think about the battery at any point in the day, letting the phone do all the background tasks it wants to make my life easier, downloading anything at all in the background over 5G and have plenty of charge left when I get home in the evening. It feels like a phone without compromises, but all of that can be mooted by a change in life circumstances.