If you’re feeling a little sense of déjà vu when looking at the iPhone SE, you’re not alone. Essentially, it’s a blast from the past with new internals and a smaller form factor. But is it enough to warrant the premium price?

If any other manufacturer decided to take a chassis from the 2013 iPhone 5, shoehorn in the internals of an iPhone 6 and call it a new phone, they would be laughed out of the marketplace. Yet because it’s Apple they get away with it.

The increase in size and heft of smartphones has been steady but considerable and some people feel that these larger screens are harder to use. This is exactly what the SE is designed to tackle. An accidental bonus of this smaller screen size is better battery life. It’s the first iPhone that could last longer than a day with moderate use.

The SE has a four-inch retina screen that runs at 640 x 1136px resolution at 326ppi and is the usual Apple quality screen – quality from 2013, that is. Put an SE next to an iPhone 6 and you’ll quickly notice the difference.

The SE uses the Apple A9 processor, M9 co-processor like the iPhone 6. It also has 2GB of RAM in support. Other hardware features include a 12MP camera, iOS 9, 16GB or 64GB storage, touch ID fingerprint sensor, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the usual connections. What you don’t get with the SE is 3D Touch that was recently introduced in the latest breed of devices. Of course other more useful features such as microSD and wireless charging are still nowhere to be seen in Apple devices.

Despite the fact that inspiration for the design came from a three-year-old iPhone 5 design, the SE chassis looks clunky and uncomfortable. It may sit nicely in the hand due to its small size, but considering how far smartphone design has come, it looks either like a compromise or lazy product design.

The iPhone SE is for those who lament the days of smaller phones. Aside that that, there’s very little new to see here.

Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.