Apple launches much-anticipated iPhone SE

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple on Monday, March 21 unveiled its iPhone SE, the company’s first concerted effort at building a small phone in the age of big smartphones, Engadget said.

It looks pretty much the same as the iPhone 5s, but it packs in the more powerful A9 and M9 chips from Apple's current flagship, the iPhone 6s. There's also an upgraded 12-megapixel camera with Live Photos and 4K video, as well as Apple Pay support. The iPhone SE starts at $399 for the 16GB model -- Apple's cheapest iPhone pricing ever -- and there's also a 64GB model for $499.

With all of that additional hardware comes several other features from the 6s: a "Retina" front-facing flash; hands-free Siri commands; and support for faster LTE and 802.11 AC Wi-Fi speeds. There's no 3D Touch support in the SE, according to Engadget.

Apple says the iPhone SE's hardware upgrades make it twice as fast as the 5s when it comes to CPU performance, and its GPU speeds are three times faster. Also, Apple says it has "improved" battery performance compared to the 5s, Engadget says.

While rumors suggested that the iPhone SE might get a curved-edge design similar to the iPhone 6, Apple really didn't change much from the 5s. The only noticeable difference now is that the edges are matte instead of polished.