Photo: Toad40 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons · source
iPhone SE (3rd generation)
The A15 Bionic and 5G in the classic home-button body.
Overview
The third SE took a very predictable path: the same compact body, the same Touch ID home button and the same 4.7-inch Retina HD display as its predecessor, but with the latest silicon. The A15 Bionic chip was the same one used in the iPhone 13 family, and it made the phone about as fast as phones costing twice as much.
The biggest functional addition was 5G, which brought the SE into the modern era of cellular networks. The 12-megapixel camera used Smart HDR 4, Deep Fusion and Photographic Styles, thanks to the more powerful image pipeline. Battery life was improved by about two hours over the previous SE.
The price rose by $30 to $429 for 64GB. Some features of recent iPhones, such as MagSafe, were absent. Colors were limited to midnight, starlight and (PRODUCT)RED, and the phone was retired in early 2025, when the iPhone 16e replaced it.
Why it mattered
It was the last iPhone built around Touch ID and a home button.
At a glance
- Announced
- March 8, 2022
- Released
- March 18, 2022
- Discontinued
- February 19, 2025
- Launch price
- $429
- Chip
- Apple A15 Bionic
- Display
- 4.7"
- Storage
- 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
- Status
- Discontinued
Highlights
- A15 Bionic chip
- 5G support
- Touch ID and classic home button
- Smart HDR 4 and Deep Fusion
- Starts at $429
Tech specs
Specifications as published at launch. Some values (like battery life) are manufacturer estimates.
Display
- Size
- 4.7-inch
- Type
- Retina HD IPS LCD, True Tone
- Resolution
- 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi)
- Refresh rate
- 60 Hz
Chip
- Chip
- Apple A15 Bionic (5nm, six cores)
- GPU
- 4-core
- Neural Engine
- 16-core
Memory
- RAM
- 4GB
- Storage options
- 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
Camera
- Rear cameras
- 12MP wide, f/1.8, OIS
- Front camera
- 7MP, f/2.2
- Video recording
- 4K at up to 60 fps; 1080p slo-mo at 240 fps
Battery
- Video playback
- Up to 15 hours
- Charging
- Qi wireless, fast charge to 50% in 30 minutes with 20W adapter
Connectivity
- Cellular
- 5G (sub-6 GHz), Gigabit LTE
- Wi-Fi
- Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
- Connector
- Lightning
- Bluetooth
- Bluetooth 5.0
- SIM
- Dual SIM (nano-SIM and eSIM)
Design
- Dimensions
- 138.4 x 67.3 x 7.3 mm
- Weight
- 144 g
- Materials
- Aluminum frame, glass front and back
- Water resistance
- IP67 (up to 1 m for 30 minutes)
Security
- Authentication
- Touch ID (second generation)
Software
- Launch OS
- iOS 15.4
