Apple Just Surprise Dropped a New Low-Cost iPhone. Here’s Everything You Need to Know

The all-new iPhone is both new and familiar.

Published April 15, 2020

Updated August 26, 2022

Apple just announced the small, affordable iPhone that tiny-phone fans have been waiting for. The all-new iPhone SE shares the same name as the iPhone SE that was released in 2016, but it looks more like 2017’s iPhone 8. It has a 4.7-inch display (instead of the original iPhone SE’s 4-inch display), which Apple claims is the most popular size for an iPhone, and adopts many high-end performance capabilities of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. The iPhone also comes in three finishes — white, black and red — and starts at $399. It will be available for pre-order this Friday (April 17), and everywhere by April 24. Here’s what else you need to know:

It’s a throwback design. The second-generation iPhone SE shares the same design as the iPhone 8, but with an upgraded feature list. It has a Retina display with True Tone, a Home button with Touch ID (with haptic touch instead of physical operation), and a glass-and-aluminum body that’s water-resistant (IP67). There’s no Face ID.

It has the same A13 Bionic chip that’s in Apple’s flagship iPhones. Apple claims that the new iPhone SE has four times the performance over the 2016 model. The A13 Bionic chip also means that the new iPhone SE will be able to easily handle games on Apple Arcade and movies or shows on Apple TV Plus.

It has Portrait Mode. The iPhone SE has a single rear-camera system with a similar 12-megapixel wide-angle lens that’s on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. But even though the iPhone SE doesn’t have a telephoto or ultra-wide lens, it’s still able to take Portrait Mode photos — on both front and back camera systems. Depth control (for background blur) and all of Portrait Mode’s different lighting effects are also available.

It shoots 4K video up to 60fps. The rear camera of the iPhone SE is able to record high-quality 4K videos up to 60fps. And 4K videos with extended dynamic range (to capture more detail) can be captured at up to 30fps. It also has QuickTake video capabilities on the front and rear cameras, which allows you to quickly shoot videos without switching out of Photo mode.

Apple’s current iPhone models (from left to right): iPhone SE, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro Max and iPhone 11 Pro. Apple also sells the iPhone XR, which is essentially the previous-gen model of the iPhone 11.

There’s no headphone jack, still. Unlike the original iPhone SE, the new iPhone SE omits the classic 3.5mm headphone jack. Instead, there’s a single Lightning port to connect your wired headphones. The iPhone 8, which the new SE borrows its form factor, also did not have a headphones jack. (As of writing, it’s unclear if Apple plans to include a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter with the new iPhone SE. Our guess is no.)

Yes, it supports wireless charging. The iPhone SE supports wireless charging like all of Apple’s current iPhones. It also supports fast charging if you use an 18-watt (or greater) wall adapter. The iPhone SE comes with Apple’s 5-watt wall adapter, so if you want the fast charge capabilities you’ll have to upgrade.

It costs the same as the original iPhone SE, but with way more storage. The new iPhone SE starts at $399, which is exactly what its predecessor went for in 2016. The big difference is that the new iPhone SE starts with four times the storage, 64GB instead of 16GB. Apple will sell the new iPhone SE in 128GB ($449) and 256GB ($549) models, too.

You can trade-in your old iPhone to get a better deal. As part of Apple’s trade-in program, credit for your older iPhone can go towards the purchase of your new iPhone SE. It likely won’t be much, however, but it’ll drop the SE’s $399 starting price a little bit.

It comes with a year subscription to Apple TV+ for free. With any new Apple purchase, customers will get a year subscription to Apple’s streaming service, Apple TV+, for free.

The new iPhone SE isn’t as small as a lot of people were hoping for, but that’s far from a deal-breaker. Apple claims that the 4.7-inch model is still the most popular size for an iPhone, even though it’s been three years since the iPhone 8 has been released — that means that a heck of a lot of people have been holding out on buying a new iPhone. Well, this new iPhone SE is the perfect upgrade for those people. Or for people who just want a smaller iPhone. Or for people who just want the Home button back. And at $399, it could just be Apple’s new most popular iPhone.

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