At its March 2016 event, Apple has unveiled its most interesting iPhone yet: a 4-inch entry called the iPhone SE. Impressively, it’s powered by virtually the same internal hardware as the iPhone 6s, but at a lower price.
At a time when phablets are the rage, Apple has done the exact opposite with the iPhone SE. According to Apple, there is a significant amount of iOS users whose first iPhone is a 4-inch iPhone – and these same users prefer to continue using a 4-inch smartphone.
The iPhone SE is the result of this feedback. With a screen of just four inches across, Apple has actually pulled off a surprising move with the iPhone SE’s hardware: it’s virtually the same as the iPhone 6s.
Powered by same the A9 chipset with M9 co-processor as the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the iPhone SE also packs the 12MP iSight camera from Apple’s current crop of flagships smartphones.
As such, what you can do on an iPhone 6s, you can do on the iPhone SE. There’s the always-on “Hey Siri” command, TouchID, Live Photos, Retina Flash for selfies, 4K video recording, and up to 240fps slow-motion recording.
The iPhone 5S successor naturally has better battery life, and current-gen LTE and WiFi support is of course supported on the iPhone SE. Apple Pay makes an appearance here, too.
It’s no surprise, then, that Apple is stating this smartphone as “the most powerful 4-inch smartphone ever created”.
The latest iterative update to iOS also makes its debut on the iPhone SE. iOS 9.3 introduces Night Shift, a software feature that reduces blue light output on the backlight display based on the location and local time. When it’s close to bedtime, the display shifts to a warmer tone with reduced blue light, making it easier for the user to fall asleep later on.
Perhaps the most interesting factor is in the price. The iPhone SE will retail for $399 (about RM1611) for the 16GB model, while the 64GB version will cost $499 (about RM2015). These prices are even lower than what the iPhone 5S was going for in Malaysia earlier today (RM1999 and RM2199 for the 16GB and 32GB models respectively). And let’s not forget, besides the display this is essentially an iPhone 6s for RM1000 less.
The iPhone SE will be available from 31 March in its first-wave countries, before rolling out to over 110 countries in May. It will come in four colours, namely Space Grey, Silver, Gold and Rose Gold.