Apple's new 4-inch iPhone SE is as powerful as iPhone 6S, has 12MP iSight camera and Apple Pay but no 3D Touch; available March 31 starting at $399 for 16GB
The Most Powerful Phone with a Four-inch Display Kris Naudus / Engadget : How iPhone SE stacks up against smaller-handset lines: Nexus 5X, Moto G (2015), OnePlus X Reuters : Apple hopes small is big again as iPhone SE debuts John Callaham / iMore : The 9.7-inch iPad Pro will be priced starting at $599 for 32GB, orders start March 24 Zack Whittaker / ZDNet : Apple's iPhone, iPad event: By the numbers Kif Leswing / Business Insider : Here's everything Apple just announced Chris Welch / The Verge : Apple's new iPhone SE is just as powerful as iPhone 6S and has the same camera Daniel Rubino / Windows Central : No Microsoft news? Tune in to see what Apple is up to at their March event right now Tweets: Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Shifting the release of the SE to 6 months after the larger model is a way to reduce cannibalisation. Also smooths out the supply chain. Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : Before, Apple's mid-range strategy was older models. But actually, the ~$400 model didn't really sell - just 13% of units last year. @darth : “an iphone for every hand” #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/V2Ql5vGY9z Benedict Evans / @benedictevans : So, Apple is having a new run at the mid-range smartphone market, with a new strategy, and potentially could do much better.
Context & Ripple Effects
The March 21st event preview had already flagged the SE alongside a 9.7-inch iPad Pro and new Watch models; today's announcement confirms the phone itself: iPhone 6S-class performance, a 12MP iSight camera, and Apple Pay in a 4-inch body starting at $399 for 16GB, shipping March 31. The trade-off is the dropped 3D Touch, which keeps the bill of materials down without gutting the spec sheet.
What makes this more than a one-off refresh is how the SE name has persisted in the coverage arc: Apple revived it in 2020 with an A13-powered 4.7-inch model at the same $399 price, and by 2023 Ming-Chi Kuo reported work on an iPhone SE 4 with a 6.1-inch OLED screen and an Apple-designed 5G modem. The 2016 launch is the founding data point of what became Apple's standing second-tier line.
First-order effects
- Buyers still holding 4-inch iPhones get a same-size upgrade path with 6S-level speed, camera, and Apple Pay at $399 — half the flagship price of the era.
- Budget Android handsets named in the coverage — Nexus 5X, Moto G (2015), OnePlus X — now compete directly against Apple's cheapest new iPhone on price.
Second-order effects
- Android vendors in the $300-500 band are forced to justify their pricing against Apple's brand and resale value rather than raw specs, since the SE matches the 6S where it counts.
- Apple gains a funnel into its services and accessory ecosystem at a lower entry cost, pulling first-time and upgrader customers who would otherwise stay on Android.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — and the coverage shows it did — the SE hardens into a permanent product tier: the 2020 A13 revival kept the $399 anchor, and the rumored SE 4 turns the line into the delivery vehicle for Apple's in-house 5G modem.
- A recurring ~$400 iPhone pressures the whole mid-range market structurally, since Apple can amortize flagship silicon across a cheaper chassis in a way single-line Android makers cannot.
The trend: Apple is institutionalizing a ~$400 second-tier iPhone line that starts as a small-screen niche play and evolves into the entry point for its ecosystem and, eventually, its own modem silicon.