It’s not the flashiest smartphone Apple makes, but it’s one of the cheapest.
On Tuesday, Apple announced a new $429 iPhone SE during a prerecorded announcement it streamed online. It was one of a handful of new updates the company was rolling out.
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The new iPhone SE will have 5G capabilities and a faster chip inside and is still the last iPhone with a home button and fingerprint sensor.
The company shifted its in-person events to video during the pandemic and despite offices slowly opening, is sticking with the format for now. The predictably polished and scripted announcement comes at an odd time for Apple and the U.S. tech industry. The company stopped sales of its products in Russia last week and has limited its Apple Pay service in the country in response to international pressure. Apple is the third largest smartphone manufacturer in the country behind Samsung and Xiaomi, according to data from market research firm IDC.
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Apple hit play on the a prerecorded video live-streaming on its website starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time (10 a.m. Pacific time.)
The Help Desk has distilled the most important things you should know about what Apple unveiled today.
iPhone SE: Apple’s cheapest phone gets faster
It might not look all that exciting, but Apple’s low-cost iPhone SE just got some interesting internal upgrades. For the first time, the company’s cheapest smartphone comes with support for 5G networks including the ones that prompted p
roblems for aviation officials in January. (Most of those issues have been worked out, though.)
Perhaps more important is Apple’s choice of the chip inside the smartphone — the SE model which stands for “special edition” uses the same speedy A15 Bionic processor found in the company’s most expensive smartphones. That’s a rarity for a phone that costs less than $500, though it certainly comes with its share of trade-offs.
For one, the iPhone SE is a little more expensive than before — its price starts at $429, or $30 more than the model it replaces. The SE also has a smaller, less detailed screen than the Galaxy S21 FE and the Pixel 6, two ostensibly affordable models from Samsung and Google, respectively. And perhaps to the chagrin of photographers, it has just one rear camera — something you’d be hard-pressed to find among even the cheapest smartphones out there. So why should shoppers pay attention to this thing?
Apple’s latest phone costs hundreds of dollars less than either of those other devices, and it features enough computing to potentially outperform them both. And that matters, if not today then over the next few years.
Some analysts say the iPhone SE’s relatively retro look won’t stand in the way of sales. In a note to investors, Wedbush Securities managing director Daniel Ives suggests that 30 million iPhones SEs sold in the coming year would be a “conservative” estimate.
People still love Apple’s small iPhone SE, even as the company moves on to bigger things
The iPad Air inherits some Pro features
Apple also announced a new version of the iPad Air which, like the iPhone SE, was last updated in 2020, according to Ives and other industry analysts. Starting at $599, the iPad Air is expected to hold onto its status as the company’s midrange tablet option, and may use the same processor found in the new budget iPhone.
The last time Apple introduced a refreshed iPad Air, the company took a slightly different approach. Instead of recycling a processor from an older product, Apple teased a brand new chipset that would later go on to be used in the following year’s iPhones. It’s possible the company may follow suit this year.
We’ll update this story as more new products are announced.
