Apple debuts new low-cost iPhone SE with 5G

Apple (AAPL) debuted its newest iPhone SE on Tuesday, bringing high-speed 5G connectivity to the company’s least expensive smartphone. Announced during a virtual event held at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters, the third-generation iPhone SE goes on sale March 18 and starts at $429. That’s a jump up from the prior generation SE, which cost just $399.

Apple’s iPhone SE is the company’s entry-level smartphone and features the same look and design as the company’s old iPhone 8. Yep, we’re talking about everything from a 4.7-inch Retina display to the old school Touch ID fingerprint sensor. This time around, however, Apple says the exterior of the SE gets the same kind of hardened material to make it as durable as the iPhone 13.

Inside, the iPhone SE gets Apple’s latest A15 processor; the same available in the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, a new camera system; and, most notably, 5G connectivity. Those are major improvements over the current iPhone SE, which was released back in 2020.

Apple’s decision to add 5G to the SE means that all of the company’s current iPhones support the high speed connectivity standard. That means SE users will be able to download movies and music faster on the go, and play games via cloud streaming services like Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox Game Pass and Amazon’s (AMZN) Luna.

That said, 5G connectivity isn’t a necessity just yet. As much as the country’s three major carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon) push the technology, apps and services that truly require 5G network speeds are few and far between. In other words, if you’re still happy with your current iPhone SE, or another older iPhone, there’s no harm in holding on to it a bit longer.

According to Apple, the iPhone SE’s 6-core chip is 1.8 times faster than the iPhone 8 and features a built in neural engine that allows the phone’s camera to see and translate text on the fly.

The SE’s new camera system is certainly a welcome upgrade thanks to its inclusion of computational photography, which helps improve color and contrast and sharpness. That said, there’s still only one camera lens on the SE, unlike the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro, which get two and three lenses, respectively.