Apple Store Goes Down Ahead of iPhone SE Pre-Orders

Friday April 17, 2020 3:37 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple has taken down its online store in preparation for iPhone SE pre-orders, due to start today at 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

apple store down iphone se 2020
The original iPhone SE was a budget 4-inch iPhone before being discontinued in 2018, but Apple has revived the name in with a new 4.7-inch model announced earlier this week that looks like an iPhone 8 with internals similar to those of the iPhone 11.

There's a single-lens 12-megapixel rear camera in the iPhone SE with an f/1.8 aperture, optical image stabilization, and support for Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting. Night Mode is not supported, but there is Smart HDR, Wide color support, and more, plus an LED True Tone flash with Slow Sync capabilities.

Because the iPhone SE is physically identical to an iPhone 8, it continues to feature thick top and bottom bezels. The top bezel houses the 7-megapixel front-facing camera and microphone while the bottom bezel includes a Touch ID Home button for fingerprint-based biometric authentication.

Like the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, the iPhone SE features support for Haptic Touch instead of 3D Touch. That means ‌‌3D Touch‌‌ has officially been eliminated from Apple's ‌iPhone‌ lineup as the now-discontinued ‌iPhone‌ 8 was the last ‌iPhone‌ Apple sold that supported ‌‌3D Touch‌‌.

The UK Apple Store shows a different placeholder

The second-generation iPhone SE features an A13 Bionic chip, 3GB RAM, and a low starting price of $399. Comes in white, black, and red, and comes with 64, 128, or 256GB of storage. First pre-orders are expected to ship in one week.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

Apple Launching Five New Products Today

Thursday November 5, 2026 12:59 am PST by Tim Hardwick

Apple is launching five new products on Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models. The following new products will be available from today: iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip iMac with M6 chip 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip 14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen 16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...

• 27 comments

More Fun iPhone Duo Apps: 30 New Picks to Try

Friday November 6, 2026 3:27 pm PST by Juli Clover

When the iPhone Duo launched, we shared a list of some of the fun apps developers created for the new form factor. Two weeks out, developers are continuing to come up with fresh ideas, so we thought we'd share some of our favorites. Games Marbles Unhinged ($2.99) - Marbles Unhinged is a marble maze designed for the Duo. When you fold it, the floor turns into a ramp. If you stand the top...

• 59 comments

Apple Rumored to Drop the iPhone's Action Button Next Year

Friday November 6, 2026 6:07 am PST by Hartley Charlton

Apple plans to merge the iPhone's Action button with the Camera Control starting next year, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker claimed that a single press of the combined button would open the camera, while a long press would trigger the function assigned to the Action button. They explicitly clarified that the dedicated Action button would ...

• 184 comments

Top Rated Comments

bernoulli

86 months ago

Not for me, thank you.
I find it amazing that somehow there is a lot of buzz, even for underwhelming products like this one.

cool story.
I’m sorry that people have different opinions and needs.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

I7guy

86 months ago

Lol, you could wait until tomorrow to order this phone and you won't have any trouble getting it. I don't know why but it annoys me that Apple treats the launch of a retread phone like this like its some massive event that people are going to be rushing to buy.

Because people will rush to buy this phone and it is a big event for Apple and people who want this phone.

Apple, you are releasing a phone that has been out for 3 years and have put new components in it that are already outdated. Let's not overthink this one.

Apple did their homework and knows not everyone cares about the latest camera and OLED. Other than Touch ID everything else is current. There’s not much to overthink.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

44267547

86 months ago

Now they have released a phone that's been out since 2017 and stuck in last years components. Same camera with portrait mode added.

Just based off your comments in this thread, you have a very severe misunderstanding of this phone and it’s market. The fact that you’re so fixated on ‘last year‘s components’ shows that consumers don’t even pay attention (Let alone understand or care to), they see the price point and familiarized form factor, that’s it. You’re taking the simplicity of something so straightforward and over complicating it.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Emanuel Rodriguez

86 months ago

No I'm not suggesting that and no where did my earlier statement imply that. I just don't think that anyone using an iPhone 7 that is working fine for them is going to spend $400+ for nearly the exact same phone.

Store is back up.

better CPU, better gpu, more camera features (because of the better ISP in that CPU, mostly), better wifi, better cellular speeds, also that nice express card power save feature (useful if you're in certain cities). Enough to warrant an upgrade to what likely will be the last model of iPhone in that form factor. I thought the iPhone 8 was it, but I'm glad to be wrong.

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)