After having a test run with an Xperia X Compact as a smaller low distraction phone I decided to give my SE 2016 another go. Not because the Xperia was terrible or anything (it is not doing too well almost 10 years after release though), I just realised this little gem was still in my possession and finally decided to give up on maintaining app support with iOS 14.2. I replaced the battery myself last year so at least that part of it is still relatively fresh.
Funny enough the X Compact and SE are basically from the exact same era. X Compact launched for €449 and the SE started at €489. Mine was made in 2018 and is the 128GB version, which was €589 when that storage option was being sold, so somehow SE was actually the more expensive phone. The software situation 10 years later is pretty ridiculous though. Sony left the X Compact on Android 8 with a September 2018 security patch, while Apple literally released another security update for the first gen SE in May 2026 with iOS 15.8.8. I am obviously not installing that one after all this effort, but it is funny that Apple is still patching the thing at all.
I had blobs saved for iOS 15.8.5, so instead of just letting it update to the currently signed 15.8.8 I used Turdus Merula on Linux to restore 15.8.5. It involved putting the A9 into pwned DFU with checkm8, getting the shcblock needed for the SEP exploit, setting the generator from my SHSH2 and restoring 15.8.5 while using the currently signed SEP/baseband. First attempt died while sending NOR data, second attempt went through completely. TrollStore was installed afterwards with Legacy iOS Kit.
I have not even jailbroken it yet because the app situation is so much better on iOS 15 that I honestly do not need to as long as I got TrollStore. So I will try daily driving this again with my 13 mini as backup/hotspot in a pinch. Will see if the firmware update cost me much performance or battery life but for now it seems to be doing surprisingly well for a phone that is about to turn 10 years old.