In 2020, Apple will release the new, $399 iPhone SE.

 

The new iPhone SE, a less expensive iPhone with a starting price of $399 for a 64GB variant, has been formally unveiled by Apple. It sports a 4.7-inch screen, thick bezels on the top and bottom, and a home button with Touch ID, giving it the same basic form and appearance as the iPhone 8. The iPhone SE is effectively the fifth iteration of the same design, which hasn't changed much since the iPhone 6. Apple is familiar with this layout.

This Friday, April 17, is the last day to preorder it; it will ship on April 24. A 128GB variant will cost $449, and a 256GB model will cost $549. It will include a complimentary year of Apple TV Plus, much like other iPhones. It will be available in Product Red, White, and Black.

In essence, the iPhone SE is an iPhone 8 with a better camera, a faster processor, and more affordable pricing. This iPhone SE has Apple's A13 Bionic chip, which is also found in the most recent iPhone 11 and 11 Pro models, despite having a rather ancient design.

With an A11 chip from 2017, the $449 iPhone 8 model it replaces in Apple's portfolio could have a substantially shorter lifespan as a result. The iPhone 8 Plus will still be offered in some areas, but there won't be a plus-sized version of the second-generation iPhone SE.

The chip also enables some new photographic features for the upcoming iPhone SE. On the back, there is a single 12-megapixel camera lens (along with a flash). Apple claims that it is enhancing its Smart HDR photography, which combines numerous pictures into a single image to boost lighting and detail, using the A13 Bionic's chips.

Additionally, it has a portrait mode with a feature called "monocular depth detection" by Apple. It use machine learning to recognize faces and depth, which, regrettably, means that it can only be used on humans and not on animals. It has optical image stabilization, and according to Apple, it supports 4K video at 60 frames per second and can do "cinematic" stabilization on video. The 7-megapixel front-facing selfie camera has portrait mode features as well.