2022 iPhone SE tidbits: What Apple didn’t tell you

The news: At a busy Apple event on March 8, Apple announced a new, third-generation iPhone SE. Here are the deep cuts that Apple didn’t highlight.

  • According to MacRumors, there is now 4GB RAM (was 3GB prior)
  • The flagship feature is 5G…but it only supports the slower sub-6 GHz standard (not the ultra-fast mmWave)
  • Apple promises an extra 2 hours of battery life thanks to the efficient A15 Bionic chip: they claim 15 hours of video playback compared to 13 on the iPhone SE 2
  • While the camera hardware hasn’t improved at all, there are new computational photography features like Deep Fusion, Smart HDR 4 and Photographic Styles like on iPhone 13
  • There’s no Ceramic Shield here…but Apple does say this iPhone SE has “the toughest glass in a smartphone on the front and back”
  • This iPhone SE now starts at $429, which is $30 more expensive than the iPhone SE 2
  • IP67 water (maximum depth of 1 meter up to 30 minutes) and dust resistance is identical to the previous model
  • The new iPhone SE is lighter than the last generation: it weighs just 5.09 ounces, which is 0.13 ounces lighter than the iPhone SE 2

Sam’s take: There’s actually quite a lot here that surprised me. The new iPhone SE doesn’t support the fastest 5G, has the exact same camera hardware as before and is more expensive…but they made it weigh less. I guess that’s a fair trade off, right? Joking aside, this will still be an incredibly good value for most people. My only concern here remains the battery life, of which I’m still not convinced will be good enough.