iPhone SE: Apple reveals its cheapest ever smartphone

iPhone SE view of inside

Latest iPhone SE news

31/03/16

iPhone SE ships today

The iPhone SE goes on sale in the UK and worldwide today.

Meanwhile, a report suggests that more pre-orders of the device are being made by current Android phone users than iPhone owners.

The research carried out by Slice Intelligence says and reported here by IT Pro says: “Only 35 percent of iPhone SE buyers purchased an iPhone online in the past two years, and 16 percent of them were previously Android users. By comparison, 49 percent of iPhone 6s buyers upgraded from a previous iPhone, and 10 percent replaced an Android device they bought online within the past two years.”

23/03/16

iPhone SE: More details

According to reports from Ars Technica, the iPhone SE sports 2GB of RAM, better than the iPhone 5s and on par with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus and, surprisingly, the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

It has also been confirmed that the “SE” in iPhone SE stands for “Special Edition”. According to the Independent the name was confirmed to a journalist by Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing. This is possibly the first time that the initials on an Apple product has been disclosed. In the past, Apple never went on record to disclose the “C” in the iPhone 5c or the “S” that marks out every other iPhone release.

According to BGR, the iPhone SE is just as powerful as the iPhone 6s and the Galaxy S7, both of the latter cost considerably more than Apple’s latest creation.

It said that aside from screen size and resolution, the iPhone 5SE and iPhone 6S are almost exactly the same. It said in tests between the iPhone 6s and Galaxy S7, the former blew the latter out of the water, and expected the iPhone SE to do likewise.

21/03/16

Apple launches the iPhone SE

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has revealed its latest iPhone, the iPhone SE, which serves as a replacement for the iPhone 5S.

The smartphone will also be the cheapest, going on sales on 31 March for $399. UK pricing is yet to be announced.

Sources recently told Channel Pro sister title IT Pro that large enterprises are struggling to source bulk orders of the iPhone 5s from carriers including Vodafone.

The 4-inch iPhone SE sees Apple come back to the 4-inch form factor first seen with the iPhone 5 in 2012. However, the innards are more in line with the iPhone 6s, boasting an A9 64-bit processor and M9 motion co-processor. This will allow the phone to feature always-on Siri functionality.

It also sports a 12-megapixel camera capable of taking 4K video and 1080p video up to 60fps and slo-motion video up to 240fps. There is also an HD front-facing camera with a new type of flash, called True Tone, which claims to take better selfies.

The new iPhone SE also features Apple Pay, faster Wi-Fi (802.11ac) and Voice over LTE. Apple claims that 4G on the iPhone SE is 50 percent faster than on the iPhone 5s.

Battery life is also got a boost with the new phone having 12 hours of video and 50 hours of audio. The one thing that appears to be missing from the spec sheets for the latest iPhone SE is 3D Touch.

The iPhone SE will come in capacities of 16GB and 64GB will come in space grey, silver, gold and rose gold, the latter being available on a 4-inch iPhone for the first time.

Apple also announced the release of iOS 9.3. This will be a free update to the iPhone and promises updates to CarPlay system for in-car entertainment connectivity, secured notes and Night Shift, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted by the screen at night, thus reducing the impact of reading the display at night. There is also better visualisation of health data collected by the Health app. This includes more information on sleep, weight and workout tracking.

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