TL;DR
- Apple introduced a new version of its entry-level iPhone SE (2022).
- The new phone adds advanced features such as 5G and Smart HDR4.
- Apple increased the low-cost iPhone SE’s base price by $30 to $429.
Apple today at its Peek Performance spring event announced a handful of new products, the Apple iPhone SE (2022) among them. While spring is often the time for brand new things, Apple fans will see plenty about the device that is familiar.
Of the things that are new, iPhone buyers should be most excited about the new processor. Apple gave the iPhone SE (2022) its blazing fast A15 Bionic chip, the same that powers the speedy iPhone 13 family. This chip competes well with the best from Qualcomm and Samsung and ensures top performance for the phone for years. Critically, it enables new camera features, such as Smart HDR4 and live text translation. Apple didn’t spell out how much memory is available to the new iPhone SE, but the storage allotments are 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB.
Apple says the front and rear glass has been improved on the iPhone SE (2022), though it stopped short of calling it Ceramic Shield, which is what it uses on the front of the iPhone 13.
Crucially, the iPhone SE (2022) upgrades its cellular wireless connectivity to 5G. Though it is limited to sub-6GHz (2×2 MIMO) 5G, the iPhone SE is still able to connect to many of the world’s 5G networks.
iPhone SE (2022): New, but the same
Features that are carried over from the old iPhone SE (2020) are numerous, starting with the 4.7-inch Retina Display and a Touch ID home button for fingerprint-based security. You’ll find a single 12MP camera on the rear and a 7MP selfie camera on the front. These resolutions are the same, though the phone has the new advanced shooting modes you’ll find on the iPhone 13, including Photographic Styles, Deep Fusion, and Portrait Mode. The iPhone SE (2022) also carries over the IP67 rating, which is lower than the IP68 rating available to the top iPhones and Android flagships.
As with the pricier iPhones, the iPhone SE (2022) also still relies on Apple’s proprietary Lightning connector for data transfer and wired charging. The new iPhone SE does support wireless charging at an unknown rate, though Apple says it is faster than the 2020 iPhone SE.
Apple says the iPhone SE (2022) will be available for pre-order starting March 11 and it should reach retail stores on March 18. It comes in three new colors: Midnight, Starlight, and Product(Red).
