Apple has announced its most affordable smartphone – the second generation iPhone SE – but with a top-of-the-line A13 Bionic processor, the fastest chip in a smartphone onboard.
The device has a 4.7-inch Retina HD display, Touch ID built into the home button and a single-lens camera systems that can produce stunning images.
Starting at $749, the iPhone SE puts the same processing power as the iPhone 11 Pro in yours hands to handle the most demanding tasks and the latest games.
“The first iPhone SE was a hit with many customers who loved its unique combination of small size, high-end performance and affordable price; the new second-generation iPhone SE builds on that great idea and improves on it in every way — including our best-ever single-camera system for great photos and videos — while still being very affordable,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“iPhone SE features the industry-leading performance of A13 Bionic that enables great battery life, takes stunning Portrait mode and Smart HDR photos, shoots amazing videos with stereo audio, is great for games and super-fast web surfing, and is built with the same industry-leading security features our customers expect. We can’t wait to get iPhone SE into customers’ hands.”
The new iPhone SE is made from aero-space grade aluminium and durable glass and will be available in three colours – black, white and red.
The rear glass panel has a seven-layer finish to deliver a rich colour with a colour-matched aluminium band.
iPhone SE has an IP67 rating which makes it water and dust resistant. It can handle being submerged in up to a metre of water for 30 minutes.
The 4.7-inch Retina HD display also supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 content.
The screen has Haptic Touch so it offers feedback when performing quick actions like animating Live Photos, previewing messages, rearranging apps and going through contextual menus.
Under the display is the familiar home button which is covered with sapphire crystal for added protection and a steel ring to detect your fingerprint for Touch ID.
Touch ID keeps the iPhone SE secure and can also authorise App Store purchases and Apple Pay transactions.
On the camera side, the iPhone SE has a single 12-megapixel f/1.8 aperture lens wide-angle camera and utilises the image signal processor of the Neural Engine aboard the A13 Bionic chip.
Even though it has one lens, the iPhone SE is still capable of producing exceptional images which is unlocked through the computational photography capabilities.
It includes Portrait mode with six Portrait lighting effects and Depth Control.
Users can also capture 4K video at up to 60 frames per second.
The front 7-megapixel camera can also take portrait images and shoot full high definition at 30fps.
With the Apple A13 Bionic processor onboard, the iPhone SE also enables improved battery performance.
iPhone SE is Qi-certified which means it can be charged wirelessly and supports fast charging so it can achieve a 50 per cent charge in just 30 minutes.
Users will find the latest iOS 13 software running on the iPhone SE.
Apple’s iPhone SE will be available to pre-order from 10pm on April 17 and will go on sale on April 24 from Apple’s online stores, telcos and authorised resellers as the Apple Stores are still all closed.
Pricing starts at $749 (64GB) and goes up to $829 (128GB) and $999 (256GB).
