Apple announces new iPhone SE, the 'most affordable' iPhone yet

Apple has today announced its newest iPhone offering, the second-generation iPhone SE.

Starting at RRP NZD$799, Apple says its latest product is the most affordable iPhone.

The phone features a 4.7-inch Retina HD display, and comes with Touch ID for industry-leading security.

It is powered by the Apple-designed A13 Bionic to handle the most demanding tasks, and features the best single-camera system ever in an iPhone, according to Apple, which unlocks the benefits of computational photography including Portrait mode, and is designed to withstand the elements with dust and water resistance.

iPhone SE comes in three colours — black, white and (PRODUCT)RED, can come with 64GB, 128GB and 256GB and will be available for pre-order beginning Saturday, 18 April in New Zealand.

iPhone SE features an aerospace-grade aluminium and durable glass design. The phone is water- and dust-resistant with an IP67 rating for water resistance up to 1 metre for 30 minutes.

Apple says its 4.7-inch Retina HD display with True Tone adjusts the white balance to match the ambient light for a more paper-like viewing experience.

The vibrant wide colour gamut Retina HD display offers incredible colour accuracy, and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 playback. 

iPhone SE also brings back the familiar Home button designed with sapphire crystal to be durable and to protect the sensor, and a steel ring to detect a user's fingerprint for Touch ID. 

Introduced with iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, Apple says the A13 Bionic is the fastest chip ever in a smartphone.

A13 Bionic was built with a focus on machine learning, with a dedicated 8-core Neural Engine capable of 5 trillion operations per second, two Machine learning Accelerators on the CPU and a new Machine learning Controller.

Together, A13 Bionic and iOS 13 enable new intelligent apps that make use of machine learning and Core ML. 

iPhone SE is wireless-charging capable with Qi-certified chargers and also supports fast-charging, giving customers up to 50% charge in just 30 minutes.

Lightning-fast download speeds are available with Wi-Fi 6 and 4G LTE Advanced. Dual SIM with eSIM provides the flexibility for users to have two separate phone numbers on a single device while traveling abroad or for use as a business line.

The camera is a 12-megapixel f/1.8 aperture Wide camera, and uses the image signal processor and Neural Engine of A13 Bionic to unlock even more benefits of computational photography, including Portrait mode, all six Portrait Lighting effects and Depth Control.

Using machine learning and monocular depth estimation, iPhone SE also takes Portraits with the front camera.

Next-generation Smart HDR comes to iPhone SE, with the ability to re-light recognised subjects in a frame for more natural-looking images with stunning highlight and shadow details.

Videos are even more immersive with stereo audio recording and cinematic video stabilisation on the front and rear cameras.

The rear camera supports high-quality video capture at 4K up to 60fps, and extended dynamic range comes to iPhone SE for more highlight details up to 30fps.