Apple just announced the refresh of their wildly popular and most affordable iPhone, the iPhone SE. The third generation of the iPhone SE maintains the iconic glass and aluminum design, but now features the A15 Bionic, 5G connectivity support, and a couple new colors.
Visually, the new iPhone SE has remained the same, keeping the smaller form factor, large top and bottom bezels, 4.7-inch display, and the home button with TouchID. Durability wise, the iPhone SE is now rated IP67 for dust and water resistance, and uses what Apple claims to be the “toughest glass in a smartphone.” Lastly, 5G connectivity is now available on the iPhone SE.
The most notable change is the addition of the A15 Bionic, the same processor that is currently found in the iPhone 13 lineup which features a 6-core CPU (2 high-performance cores and 4 high-efficiency cores), 4-core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine. Apple claims that the A15 Bionic offers CPU performance that is 1.8x faster than the iPhone 8, GPU performance that is 2.2x faster than the iPhone 8, and the Neural Engine allows for 26x more operations than that of the iPhone 8. The inclusion of the A15 Bionic should also improve the battery life of the iPhone SE, which was one of the main drawbacks of the smaller form factor.
The camera system of the iPhone SE also receives some improvements with the inclusion of the A15 Bionic, allowing computational photography benefits such as Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles, and Portrait Mode. The Image Signal Processor (ISP) enables better video quality and reduced noise, especially in low light situations.
Starting at $429, the iPhone SE will be available in Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED, and will be offered in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage options Pre-orders will open on March 11th with availability beginning on March 18th.