Apple announces the new iPhone SE: a powerful smartphone in an iconic design

March 8, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

Apple announces the new iPhone SE: a powerful smartphone in an iconic design

The most affordable iPhone features the powerful A15 Bionic, 5G, better battery life, improved durability, and a new camera system with advanced features like Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles, and Deep Fusion

Cupertino, California Apple today announced iPhone SE, a powerful new iPhone in an iconic design, with exceptional capabilities and performance at an incredible price. iPhone SE comes in a compact and durable design, and together with iOS 15, delivers a seamless user experience. The new iPhone SE features impressive upgrades including the performance of A15 Bionic, which powers advanced camera capabilities and makes nearly every experience better, from photo editing to power-intensive operations like gaming and augmented reality. Along with 5G, longer battery life, and improved durability, iPhone SE comes in three stunning colors — midnight, starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED.¹ iPhone SE will be available for pre-order this Friday, March 11, with availability beginning Friday, March 18.

“iPhone SE has been an incredibly popular choice with our existing users and for new iPhone customers, thanks to its iconic design, exceptional performance, and affordable price. This year we’ve built the most powerful and durable iPhone SE yet, with better battery life thanks to A15 Bionic, the same chip as our iPhone 13 lineup that also unlocks advanced camera features like Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles, and Deep Fusion,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing. “And with 5G, iPhone SE gives users faster downloads and uploads, higher quality video streaming, real-time interactivity in apps, and much more. Delivering the latest generation of technology and performance at this price is something only Apple can do.”

Iconic Design with a 4.7-inch Display

iPhone SE is as durable as it is beautiful, and features an aerospace-grade aluminum and glass design, now with the toughest glass in a smartphone on the front and back — the same as on the back of iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13. Rated IP67 for water and dust resistance, iPhone SE is designed to protect against spills.² iPhone SE features the familiar Home button with Touch ID — an easy, private, and secure alternative for logging in to apps, authorizing App Store purchases, making Apple Pay transactions, and more.

A15 Bionic: The Ultimate Smartphone Chip

The power of Apple silicon delivers industry-leading performance and cutting-edge capabilities to iPhone. The lightning-fast A15 Bionic — introduced with iPhone 13 — comes to iPhone SE and makes nearly every experience better, from launching apps to handling demanding tasks with ease. A15 Bionic packs a powerful 6-core CPU, the fastest CPU in a smartphone, with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, making iPhone SE up to 1.8x faster than iPhone 8, and even faster compared to older models. The 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second, enabling faster machine learning computations for third-party applications, as well as unlocking features for iPhone SE like Live Text in the Camera app with iOS 15 and on-device dictation. Perfect for photography, gaming, and augmented reality experiences, A15 Bionic makes every action feel fluid.

Built for efficiency, A15 Bionic works in conjunction with the latest-generation battery chemistry and tight integration with iOS 15 to enable better battery life on iPhone SE. Even with its compact form factor and new technologies like 5G, iPhone SE has longer battery life than the previous-generation and older 4.7-inch iPhone models. iPhone SE is compatible with Qi-certified chargers for wireless charging, and also supports fast charging.³

New Camera Experience Powered by A15 Bionic

iPhone SE features an all-new camera system powered by A15 Bionic, with a 12-megapixel ƒ/1.8 aperture Wide camera that offers incredible computational photography benefits, including Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles, Deep Fusion, and Portrait mode.⁴ Introduced with iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13, Smart HDR 4 uses intelligent segmentation to apply different adjustments for color, contrast, and noise to the subject versus the background. This ensures faces are properly exposed in challenging lighting, and renders people in the same photo individually, with different adjustments optimized for lighting and skin tone for each person. Photographic Styles allows users to bring their personal photo preferences to every image while still benefitting from Apple’s multiframe image processing. Preset and customized preferences work across scenes and subjects, and unlike a simple filter, intelligently apply the right adjustments to different parts of the photo to ensure the important elements, like skin tones, are preserved. Deep Fusion uses advanced machine learning to do pixel-by-pixel processing, optimizing for texture, details, and noise in every part of the photo. The image signal processor in A15 Bionic delivers significantly improved videos with reduced noise, particularly in low light, with better white balance and truer skin tone.

5G Comes to iPhone SE

5G allows users to take advantage of the latest generation of wireless technology, with faster uploads and downloads, lower latency, and better experiences in more places — like seeing family with higher-quality HD FaceTime calls, even when on cellular data and not on Wi-Fi.⁵ With iOS 15, SharePlay on 5G unlocks powerful shared experiences such as watching HDR movies or TV shows in sync with friends while on a FaceTime call. And Smart Data mode will intelligently conserve battery life by automatically shifting iPhone to LTE when 5G speeds are not needed. Support for 5G worldwide is growing, with more than 200 carriers in over 70 markets and regions supporting it by the end of the year.

Featuring iOS 15

iOS 15 enhances the iPhone experience with more ways to stay connected, powerful updates that help users focus and explore, and intelligent features to get more done with iPhone. Now FaceTime calls feel more natural with spatial audio and a new Portrait mode, SharePlay delivers a way for users to share experiences with friends and family while on a FaceTime call, Focus helps users reduce distraction, notifications have been redesigned, and Live Text uses on-device intelligence to recognize text in a photo and allows users to take action. Apple Maps brings beautiful ways to navigate and explore the world with a three-dimensional city-driving experience and walking directions in augmented reality. Weather is redesigned with full-screen maps and more graphical displays of data, Wallet adds support for home keys and state IDs, and privacy controls in Siri, Mail, and more places across the system further protect user information.⁶

iPhone SE and the Environment

Like iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13, iPhone SE is designed to minimize its impact on the environment. iPhone SE is made with recycled materials, including 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in the Taptic Engine and audio magnets, 100 percent recycled tungsten in the Taptic Engine, and 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board. Redesigned packaging eliminates the outer plastic wrap, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025. iPhone SE meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency and remains free of numerous harmful substances.

Today, Apple is carbon neutral for global corporate operations, and by 2030, plans to have net-zero climate impact across the entire business, which includes manufacturing supply chains and all product life cycles. This means that every Apple device sold, from component manufacturing, assembly, transport, customer use, charging, all the way through recycling and material recovery, will be 100 percent carbon neutral.

Pricing and Availability

• iPhone SE will be available in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB models in midnight, starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED starting at $429 (US).

• Customers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, the US, and more than 30 other countries and regions will be able to pre-order iPhone SE beginning at 5 a.m. PST on Friday, March 11, with availability beginning Friday, March 18.

• Customers can get iPhone SE for $17.87 (US) a month before trade-in from apple.com/store, in the Apple Store app, and at Apple Store locations.⁷

• iPhone SE is also available through Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers.

• Apple provides customers with a number of services in store and online. From personalized support and advice from Apple Specialists to convenient delivery and pickup options, Apple ensures the best way to buy Apple products is from Apple Store locations and apple.com/store.

About Apple

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apple’s five software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apple’s more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

1. Every iPhone SE (PRODUCT)RED purchase contributes directly to the Global Fund to combat pandemics like COVID‑19 and AIDS.
2. iPhone SE is splash-, water-, and dust-resistant, and was tested under controlled laboratory conditions with a rating of IP67 under IEC standard 60529 (maximum depth of 1 meter up to 30 minutes). Splash, water, and dust resistance are not permanent conditions. Resistance might decrease as a result of normal wear. Do not attempt to charge a wet iPhone; refer to the user guide for cleaning and drying instructions. Liquid damage is not covered under warranty.
3. Up to 50 percent charge in 30 minutes with 20W adapter or higher (sold separately).
4. Portrait mode on iPhone SE has the ability to recognize people.
5. A data plan is required. 5G, Gigabit LTE, VoLTE, and Wi-Fi calling are available in select markets and through select carriers. Speeds are based on theoretical throughput and vary based on site conditions and carrier. For details on 5G and LTE support, customers can contact their carrier or visit apple.com/iphone/cellular.
6. Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages. For more information on iOS 15, visit apple.com/ios/ios-15/features.
7. This option is available to qualified customers and requires a 24‑month installment loan when selecting Citizens One or Apple Card Monthly Installments (ACMI) as payment type at checkout at Apple. iPhone activation required with AT&T, T‑Mobile/Sprint, or Verizon for purchases made with ACMI at an Apple Store. Taxes and shipping are not included in ACMI and are subject to the cardholder’s variable APR. Additional ACMI terms are in the Customer Agreement. Additional iPhone Payments terms are at apple.com/legal/sales-support/iphoneinstallments_us.

Press Contacts

Stephanie Ng

Apple

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(669) 276-0496

Alex Kirschner

Apple

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(408) 974-2479

Apple Media Helpline

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