Apple have announced an update to the iPhone SE, their slightly more affordable model of their phone line, but this time it features 5G network support, new cameras, better battery support and all contained within a new and more durable case.

Given that the phone is on the cheaper end of the pricing spectrum, at least for an Apple product, the quality of the build is going to be the first thing many are going to question. The new iPhone SE features an aerospace-grade aluminium and glass design, now with the toughest glass in a smartphone on the front and back — the same as on the back of iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13, so it should do well enough, even in younger hands.

“iPhone SE has been an incredibly popular choice with our existing users and for new iPhone customers, thanks to its iconic design, exceptional performance and affordable price. This year we’ve built the most powerful and durable iPhone SE yet, with better battery life thanks to A15 Bionic, the same chip as our iPhone 13 line-up that also unlocks advanced camera features like Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles and Deep Fusion,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing. “And with 5G, iPhone SE gives users faster downloads and uploads, higher-quality video streaming, real-time interactivity in apps and much more. Delivering the latest generation of technology and performance at this price is something only Apple can do.”

The phone will come in three colours, midnight, starlight and (PRODUCT)RED, the latter one having proceeds contribute directly to the Global Fund to combat pandemics like COVID‑19 and AIDS.

The power of Apple silicon delivers industry-leading performance and cutting-edge capabilities to iPhone. The lightning-fast A15 Bionic — introduced with iPhone 13 — comes to iPhone SE and makes nearly every experience better, from launching apps to handling demanding tasks with ease. A15 Bionic packs a powerful 6-core CPU, the fastest CPU in a smartphone, with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, making iPhone SE up to 1.8x faster than iPhone 8, and even faster compared to older models. The 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second, enabling faster machine learning computations for third-party applications, as well as unlocking features for iPhone SE like Live Text in the Camera app with iOS 15, and on-device dictation. Perfect for photography, gaming and augmented reality experiences, A15 Bionic makes every action feel fluid.

iPhone SE features an all-new camera system powered by A15 Bionic, with a 12-megapixel ƒ/1.8 aperture Wide camera that offers incredible computational photography benefits, including Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles, Deep Fusion and Portrait mode.4 Introduced with iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13, Smart HDR 4 uses intelligent segmentation to apply different adjustments for colour, contrast and noise to the subject versus the background. This ensures faces are properly exposed in challenging lighting, and renders people in the same photo individually, with different adjustments optimised for lighting and skin tone for each person. Photographic Styles allows users to bring their personal photo preferences to every image while still benefitting from Apple’s multiframe image processing. Preset and customised preferences work across scenes and subjects, and unlike a simple filter, intelligently apply the right adjustments to parts of the photo to ensure the important elements, like different skin tones, are preserved. Deep Fusion uses advanced machine learning to do pixel-by-pixel processing, optimising for texture, details and noise in every part of the photo. The image signal processor in A15 Bionic delivers significantly improved videos with reduced noise, particularly in low light, with better white balance and truer skin tone.

iPhone SE will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models in midnight, starlight and (PRODUCT)RED starting at $719, with orders opening up this weekend and general availability happening on March 18.