Earlier this week, Apple hosted its first major hardware reveal event of the year. During the Peek Performance event on Tuesday, Apple announced a number of new devices, including the latest iPhone SE. The new budget iPhone looks virtually identical to the prior model, but there are two key differences. For one, the new iPhone SE is the first SE model to feature 5G connectivity. But just as importantly, the 2022 iPhone SE is also equipped with an A15 Bionic chip, which has major implications for the device’s performance.
iPhone SE performance revealed
On Thursday, MacRumors uncovered scores for an “iPhone14,6” on the Geekbench Browser. As the site notes, that is the model identifier for the new 2022 iPhone SE. The 2022 iPhone SE apparently has a single-core score of 1695 and a multi-core score of 4021. Last year’s iPhone 13, which features the same A15 chip, recorded a single-core score of 1672 and a multi-core score of 4481. In other words, the iPhone SE should almost match Apple’s 2021 flagship in terms of performance. That’s great news for Apple fans on a budget.
Furthermore, the benchmark also confirms that the third-generation iPhone SE has 4GB of RAM, also matching the iPhone 13. The 2020 model had just 3GB of RAM.
None of this is especially surprising, but it all does make the newest iPhone SE an even more compelling option in the affordable 5G phone wars. During the event, Apple claimed that the CPU performance of the iPhone SE would be 1.8x faster than the iPhone 8. Furthermore, the GPU is 2.2x faster, and the A15 can perform 26x more operations per second.
Other upgrades on the iPhone SE 3 include the Ceramic Shield that debuted on the iPhone 13, better battery life, and a new camera system.
Release date, price, and more details
Apple announced that the third-generation iPhone SE will start at $429. Preorders opened on Friday, March 11th, and the iPhone officially launches on Friday, March 18th. The new iPhone SE comes in three colors: Midnight, Starlight, and PRODUCT(RED).
For the first time, iPhone SE will be available in three sizes as well: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. The 256GB model costs $579, which is still more than $100 less than the cheapest iPhone 13 mini. Even if you shell out for the extra storage, you are still saving a significant amount of money. That said, the third-gen iPhone SE is still pricer than gen 2.
Other announcements from Apple’s March event
If you want to know more about the new products that Apple revealed this week, be sure to check out our roundup. Other than the iPhone SE, the highlight of the event was probably the Mac Studio, which looks to be the most powerful computer that Apple has ever released. We also dug the new green iPhone 13 models, and the iPad Air 5 has many of the same upgrades as the new iPhone SE.
