Apple iPhone SE, iPhone Goes Mini

Apple unveils 4-inch iPhone starting at $399 - Apple has just announced the iPhone SE, a new 4-inch smartphone that offers a smaller and cheaper option to the company's flagship iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. It's like a mix between the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 generations of devices, taking the size and design of one and the latest specs and capabilities of the other. Apple calls the iPhone SE "the most powerful 4-inch smartphone ever."
At the heart of the iPhone SE is the 64-bit Apple A9 processor together with the embedded M9 motion co-processor, the same as the iPhone 6S. That means it can play games just as brilliantly as Apple's current flagship, plus it supports hands-free "Hey Siri" prompting. The camera is also carried over from the 6S, it's the same 12-megapixel iSight camera with a dual-tone flash and the ability to shoot Live Photos and 4K video.

Compared with the iPhone 5S that precedes the new SE at the 4-inch size, Apple's new smartphone has faster LTE, faster Wi-Fi (802.11ac), better battery life, new microphones, and the significant addition of Apple Pay support. Having sold 30 million 4-inch iPhones in 2015, Apple clearly considers this an important market that it needed to address with its latest specs and capabilities and that's what the iPhone SE aims to achieve.

"Many, many customers have asked for this," said Apple CEO Tim Cook during Apple's launch event. "And I think they're going to love it."

The new iPhone SE starts at $399 with 16GB of storage and maxes out at $499 with 64GB. It'll be available in gold and rose gold colors alongside more traditional light and dark options. Preorders begin on March 24 and the phone will be available on March 31. The iPhone SE will be in more than 100 countries by the end of May.

Apple also announced a new iPad Pro, a smaller version of its iPad Pro tablet released last year. The new iPad Pro has a 9.7-inch display and weighs less than one pound. The new Pro is the same size as the iPad Air 2, which Apple says is the most popular size of iPad use.

The display on the new iPad Pro is said to be 40 percent less reflective than the iPad Air 2's screen, and Apple claims that it has the lowest reflectivity of any tablet screen. Apple also claims that the 9.7-inch display is the brightest tablet screen on the market. It also features a new technology called "True Tone Display", which measures the color temperature of ambient light and adjusts the display to match. The Pro also takes advantage of iOS 9.3's new blue-light reduction feature for late-night use.

The new iPad Pro will be available in four colors — space grey, silver, gold, and rose gold — and three size capacities, ranging from 32GB on up to 256GB. The 32GB model will cost $599, while a 128GB version will be available for $749 and the 256GB top of the line for $899. Apple says preorders will start March 24, with availability set for March 31.