Submitted by Fred Straker on
Smartphones keep getting bigger. The iPhone is no exception, with the iPhone 6 Plus ushering in a new era of large Apple handsets offering premium features. Despite this trend, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has found the 4-inch iPhone SE leading the pack when it comes to owner satisfaction.
According to the report from ACSI, the iPhone SE took top honors with a score of 87 out of 100. The SE barely surpassed the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and the iPhone 7 Plus, both of which were tied for second place at 86 points. Coming in close behind was the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge with 85 out of 100.
Overall, twenty smartphones received scores of 85 or above, with Apple's iPhone 6 Plus, 6s Plus and the iPhone 7 all scoring 83 points. The results were based on over 36,000 email interviews with randomly selected customers across the US. Respondents were contacted between May 2016 and April 2017. ASCI uses a proprietary model to estimate customer satisfaction based on the survey data.
Apple launched the upgraded 4-inch iPhone SE in March 2016, taking a slightly refined iPhone 5s body and stuffing it with internal components such as the A9 processor and 12 megapixel camera from the iPhone 6s. The SE comes in four colors including silver, gold, space gray and rose gold, as well as two storage capacities: 32GB and 128GB. In addition to Touch ID, the iPhone SE boasts Apple Pay, Wi-Fi calling, 4K video recording, and a standard headphone jack.
The iPhone SE starts at $399.00, which also boosts its popularity. Time will tell if Apple continues to offer a 4-inch iPhone as part of its hardware lineup.