Defective iPhone SE

From the time I purchased this phone last November, I found the home button was hard to press (didn’t depress, no clicking) compared with my iPad and the iPhone it replaced. I’ve just come to realize it’s just not working correctly. A friend has the same iPhone, and hers works so much better. Her iPhone works the way my iPhone and iPad home buttons do; the buttons depress enough to function easily. Whereas, my iPhone SE I have to press repeatedly until it actually will do what I need it to do. Because this iPhone was defective from the start, is there a chance Apple will allow me to return this iPhone and replace it with one that works correctly?