What to upgrade to

[lilac jungle]

I have an iPhone SE 2 gen and I'm wondering what I should upgrade to, the most price worthy iPhone

[austere pawn]

How much money?

[lilac jungle]

i dont wanna spend more than 1k, lets say 700 dollars

[native aspen]

Maybe the 16e ?

[austere pawn]

15pro refurb?

Or used

[kindred garden]

Assuming your in the US;
The best option I can recommend is a refurbished iPhone 15 pro.

If you want something brand new consider the 16e.

It's a big upgrade from the SE2 but it still has the notch, 60hZ, and no pro camera system.

[winter falcon]

You have two options: the iPhone 16e, or a refurbished 15 Pro. It just depends on what you want in an iPhone.

[lilac jungle]

how does iphone 14 pro 256GB compare?

[winter falcon]

I would not recommend it, I would just get a 15 Pro. You can also get the 16e if you don't need and of the extra stuff.

[lilac jungle]

thanks👍

[crimson pollen]

16e, or base 16 if it fits the budget

[native aspen]

Maybe quickly to don’t pay the future taxes on the 16e

[paper roost]

definately 16e

and you could go for a storage bump with the extra 100

iphone se2 upgraders are the core target audience of 16e

i feel that coming from se, pro is not the best option

[verbal mirage]

only if people understood this and would not bash it as hard

[clever sundial]

Yeah

People are like “this phone is so bad for 2025” but like it’s not meant to be amazing

It’s just the newest SE really

[winter falcon]

I wouldn't say this phone is bad, if anything it's better than the iPhone 15 in many ways. you're mostly losing out on stuff like dynamic island, 0.5x camera, ultra wideband, magsafe. stuff that most people might not care too much about.

[clever sundial]

Yeah it’s not bad

[humble ledge]

If you want Apple intelligence 15 pro or 16e great phones! @lilac jungle

[winter falcon]

Anything without Apple Intelligence is hard to recommend right now.

• The iPhone 15 standard/plus and 14 Pro series are not recommendable anymore
• standard 14 has the specs of a 13 Pro with barely any meaningful changes compared to the 13 (excluding satellite and car crash detection)
• standard 13 is decent but the 4GB RAM could be limiting in a couple years, so also hard to recommend
• 13 Pro is a solid device but it's lacking Apple Intelligence and other features you'll want and use now and in the future
• iPhone 12 series and older are too old and nearly impossible to recommend now, unless it's an emergency and you need a new phone asap
• iPhone SE3 is hard to recommend because it's an iPhone 8 with the specs of a regular iPhone 13, with poor battery, 2017 cameras, etc.
• iPhone SE2 is literally impossible to recommend as the 3GB of RAM is already showing its age considerably, as you'll notice some framedrops, lag, and apps not staying open as iOS 18 has taken a performance toll on 3GB devices. The SE2 might not even get iOS 19, and even if it did it would probably perform horribly

so unless it's an emergency and need a new phone asap, I would not recommend anything without Apple Intelligence. I'd recommend getting something with Apple Intelligence, so 15 Pro and entire 16 series (including 16e and 16 Pro) would be worth it