Apple Announces New iPhone SE With A15 Bionic and 5G Connectivity

At its "Peek Performance" event, Apple today announced the third-generation iPhone SE, featuring the A15 Bionic chip, improved battery life, 5G connectivity, a new camera system, and more, all for a starting price of $429.

iPhone SE 3 stacked
The new iPhone SE features the same 4.7-inch display as the current model, but now offers the toughest glass in a smartphone on the front and back — the same as on the back of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro.

The device's new 12MP Wide camera system offers a range of improvements and computational photography features including Deep Fusion, Photographic Styles, Portrait Mode, and Smart HDR 4.

The new iPhone SE contains the same A15 Bionic chip from the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro. With a 6-core CPU, the A15 Bionic means that the iPhone SE is 1.8x faster than the iPhone 8. The 16-core Neural Engine, aimed at machine learning tasks, performs 15.8 trillion operations per second, making it 26x faster than iPhone 8. The 4-core GPU delivers 2.2x faster speed than the iPhone 8.

iPhone SE 3
The A15 Bionic also gives the new iPhone SE longer battery life than the previous-generation and older 4.7-inch iPhone models despite having a compact form-factor and 5G connectivity. It continues to support fast charging and be compatible with Qi-certified chargers for wireless charging.

The new iPhone SE is available in two new colors, Midnight and Starlight, alongside PRODUCT(RED). The new iPhone SE starts at $429, up from $399 on the 2020 model, and is available with 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB of storage. Preorders begin on Friday, March 11, with the first devices shipping on March 18.

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Top Rated Comments

sw1tcher Avatar
48 months ago

Well, this is a bit disappointing.
What were you expecting though?

An "SE" is never revolutionary. It's always used an older iPhone's body design but with an updated A series processor.

We won't see an "SE" with the newer iPhone notch body until the next (4th?) iteration.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AmazeSE Avatar
48 months ago
Apple told better battery life. But how much better is it? That they didn't tell :(
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
erikkfi Avatar
48 months ago
Why would anyone buy an iPhone that doesn't include the revolutionary, definitely-not-a-gimmick Cinematic mode for video?
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
highvoltage12v Avatar
48 months ago
So this is the new new new (3x) iPhone SE? How much faster is it then the 2nd gen iPhone SE? Why compare it to the iPhone 8.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scaramoosh Avatar
48 months ago
I thought they'd at least just make the XR the new SE.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gbynum Avatar
48 months ago

Is 5G really important to SE users? I thought a refreshed design full screen with TouchID on the power button (like the iPad Air) would have been better.
I happen to be a <cough cough> T-Mobile subscriber. Their low-band (600 MHz) 5G is very important to coverage. FWIW, we are with them because my wife travels overseas and the free data without a local SIM is very nice.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)