Today, after weeks and weeks of rumours and months of leaks and ideas from notable leakers the new iPhone SE 2nd generation has finally launched. The last generation was launched just over four years ago back in 2016, which was based n the current flagship of the time, the iPhone 6s and shared the same body with the iPhone 5/5s from two generation previous.

What is an iPhone SE?

The idea of the iPhone SE was that Apple had gone to larger screen sizes with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, after years of 3.5-inch screen sizes and 4-inch screen sizes. The iPhone 6 had a 4.7-inch screen and the iPhone 6 Plus had a 5.5-inch screen, but due to the bezels the body of the phone was pretty huge. With the iPhone SE, Apple had acknowledged that maybe not everyone wanted a bigger phone.

“The first iPhone SE was a hit with many customers who loved its unique combination of small size, high-end performance and affordable price; the new second-generation iPhone SE builds on that great idea and improves on it in every way.”

Phil Schiller – Apple Marketing Chief

The new iPhone SE

With the new second generation iPhone SE, Apple has taken the same body from the iPhone 8 and updated the specs to bring it bang up to date with the rest of the line up.

The iPhone SE is glass on the back and on the front, with aerospace-grade aluminium on the sides, and one major change for the design is the front colour. With the iPhone 8, if you picked a white version, the back and the front were white, and if you picked a black or red iPhone the front bezels were black. With the iPhone SE, the front bezels are now always black, regardless of the colour of phone you pick, which is exactly the same as the iPhone 11 choices work.

The display is 4.7-inches and only comes in the small size, so no larger Plus model is offered.

What has remained from the older iPhones, is Touch ID – so if for any reason you don’t get on with Face ID from the newer iPhones, you can now get a new phone with Touch ID.

Inside the iPhone SE, is the same system on a chip (SoC) from the current iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models, the A13 Bionic.

Like the iPhone 8, the new iPhone SE has integrated wireless charging, which is rated at Qi. iPhone SE also supports fast charging, like the iPhone 11 does but you do need an optional charging brick to get the benefit of the speed improvements. It can charge from 0-50% charge in 30 minutes.

Like the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, 802.11ax (WiFi 6) is here too.

In terms of the cameras, on the back is a single 12MP camera which on the face of it looks very similar to the iPhone 8 lens, in terms of the specs. The only difference seems to be the addition of Portrait Mode.

“iPhone SE also takes stunning Portraits with the front camera. Next-generation Smart HDR comes to iPhone SE, intelligently re-lighting recognised subjects in a frame for more natural-looking images with stunning highlight and shadow details.”

Apple

On the iPhone 11, the front facing camera is 12MP, on the iPhone SE it is a 7MP offering.

Pricing and shipping

The new iPhone SE will be up for pre-orders starting the 17th April 2020, which is this Friday. 1PM here in the UK (BST) and 5am PDT.

Availability date is the 24th April.

The iPhone SE starts at £419 for the 64GB model, which is £16.99 per month on the iPhone Upgrade Program. £469 for 128GB and £569 for 256GB.

iPhone SE comes in White, Black and (Product) Red.