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

Crackgate? iPhone Duo Owners Report Screens Breaking Along the Hinge

Friday October 23, 2026 11:05 am PDT by Juli Clover

Some iPhone Duos are already experiencing hinge issues that cause display cracks, based on photos shared on Reddit and the MacRumors forums. Almost all of the display faults are right along the hinge, and most result in a line of bright pixels across one side of the screen. An iPhone Duo owner in Australia said his device cracked after being opened fewer than 20 times, and there was no...

• 588 comments

Apple Music Has a Hidden iPod You Can Play With

Friday October 23, 2026 7:11 am PDT by Joe Rossignol

Apple Music has a 404 page easter egg on the web: a functional iPod that appears when you load a page that does not exist, such as music.apple.com/macrumors. "Page Not Found," says Apple. "Give this a spin instead." Apple is clever with this. If you navigate to music.apple.com/ipod instead, the page says "Looking for something?" instead of "Page Not Found." The easter egg is only...

• 82 comments

iPhone Duo Fails JerryRigEverything's Dusty Durability Test

Saturday October 24, 2026 11:27 am PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple's iPhone Duo has failed JerryRigEverything's latest durability test. Despite its IP68 dust-resistance rating, dust entered the hinge through several ingress points, overwhelming the magnets that hold the phone shut. The bend test then left a permanent green line across the inner display, before the screen became unresponsive. The outer screen with Ceramic Shield 2 scratched at level 7...

• 195 comments

Top Rated Comments

bernoulli

85 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

85 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

85 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

85 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)