Renowned smart devices maker, Apple, has officially unveiled the Apple iPhone SE (Special Edition) at its showcase event in California.
The new device was launched in a bid to address both the demand for a smaller screen iPhone, as well as the demand for a cheaper iPhone.
In addition, Apple says the iPhone SE has the same processing power as the iPhone 6S, which was launched last year, and is twice as powerful as the iPhone 5s, which was launched in 2013.
Apple has priced the iPhone SE 16GB at $399 (that’s about 80,000 naira), while the 64GB variant is priced at $499 (that’s roughly 100,000 naira).
The new iPhone will go on sale on March 31, and will be in 100 countries by May. It will be made available in space gray, silver, gold or rose gold color options.
The device comes in a 4-inch (640 x 1136 pixels) screen and looks identical to the iPhone 5s. It however sports more rounded edges on the top and bottom panels, like the iPhone 6.
In addition, the iPhone SE retains the TouchID fingerprint sensor from the 5s and Apple claims to have improved its network performance by about three times on Wi-Fi and about 50% on LTE speeds as compared to 5s. It also comes with new microphones, and Apple Pay support.
The iPhone SE is fuelled by the iPhone 6s’ Apple A9 SoC and M9 motion coprocessor. It contains 16GB of internal storage which cannot be expanded and only supports single SIM (Nano-SIM).
It runs iOS 9.3 operating system out of the box and sports a 12 megapixel iSight (rear) camera with 4K video support. There’s also a 1.2-megapixel front camera for taking selfies and making video calls.
Connectivity options on the device include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC and 4G support. Sensors on the phone include proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope.
The iPhone SE is seen as an upgraded version of the 5s and it’s expected that it will replace the old flagship’s positioning. This means that the 5s will be discontinued permanently.
