The third-generation iPhone SE (also known as the iPhone SE 3 or the iPhone SE 2022) is a

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

designed and developed by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

It is part of the 15th generation of the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

, alongside the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini and iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max models. Apple announced the third-generation iPhone SE on March 8, 2022, as the successor to the second-generation iPhone SE of 2020. Pre-orders began on March 11, 2022, and the phone was released afterwards on March 18, 2022. It was released with a starting price of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

429, a $30 increase over its predecessor. The third-generation iPhone SE has the same dimensions and form factor as the second-generation iPhone SE. The third-generation iPhone SE has a similar design to the

iPhone 8 The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are smartphones developed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the eleventh generation of the iPhone. The iPhone 8 was released on September 22, 2017, succeeding the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, respectively. T ...

and similar internal hardware components to the iPhone 13 series, including the A15 Bionic system-on-chip and 5G connectivity. The third-generation iPhone SE is the last iPhone to feature 4 GB of RAM, as well as 64 GB of internal storage, a Home Button with Touch ID, and an LCD Screen. To comply with European Union mandates, the iPhone SE (third generation), as well as all the iPhone 14 models, were discontinued in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(as well as

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and Northern Ireland) on December 28, 2024 and the rest of the world on February 19, 2025, completing the iPhone's transition from the

Lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

connector to

USB-C USB-C, or USB Type-C, is a 24-pin reversible Electrical connector, connector (not a Communication protocol, protocol) that supersedes previous USB hardware#Connectors, USB connectors (also supersedes Mini DisplayPort and Lightning (connector) ...

. On February 19, 2025, Apple unveiled the

iPhone 16e The iPhone 16e is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. as part of its iPhone series. It is part of the List of iPhone models, eighteenth-generation iPhone line-up, together with the iPhone 16, the IPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, and t ...

as the spiritual successor to the iPhone SE (third-generation).

Design

The iPhone SE features an aluminum frame, paired with a glass front and back. It also shares the same physical sizes and dimensions as the

and is externally identical, except for a centered Apple logo and the removal of the iPhone branding in the lower midsection. The iPhone SE is available in three colors: Midnight, Starlight, and a Product Red edition. Midnight and Starlight replace Black and White respectively. The Product Red color is darker than it was on the predecessor. The colors correspond to those of the

iPhone 13 The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Mini (stylized as iPhone 13 mini) are smartphones developed and marketed by Apple. They are the fifteenth generation of iPhones, succeeding the iPhone 12 and 12 Mini. They were unveiled at an Apple Event in Apple ...

. It is the final entry-level iPhone to retain the Product Red edition color option since the launch of the

on February 28, 2025.

Specifications

Hardware

The iPhone SE incorporates the Apple A15 Bionic

system on a chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or Electronics, electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with computer memory, ...

(SoC), with an integrated motion coprocessor and fifth-generation

Neural Engine Neural Engine is a series of AI accelerators designed for machine learning by Apple. The first SoC including Neural Engine is Apple A11 Bionic for iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X introduced in 2017. Since then, all Apple A series SoCs have Neura ...

. It is available in three internal storage configurations: 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB. It has 4 GB of RAM, an increase over the second-generation model's 3 GB of RAM. The third-generation iPhone SE has the same

IP67 The IP code or International Protection code indicates how well a device is protected against water and dust. It is defined by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) under the international standard IEC 60529 which classifies ...

rating for dust and water resistance as its predecessor. The phone lacks the

ultra-wideband Ultra-wideband (UWB, ultra wideband, ultra-wide band and ultraband) is a radio technology that can use a very low energy level for short-range, high-bandwidth communications over a large portion of the radio spectrum. UWB has traditional applicat ...

features enabled by the U1 chip found in the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro. Despite the phone's smaller size, which may lead to increased thermal throttling, the SE's A15 SoC runs at the same peak CPU frequencies as the iPhone 13. Like its predecessor, the third-generation iPhone SE does not feature a standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack and keeps a home button.

Display

The iPhone SE 3 features the same HD

Retina display Retina display is a branded series of LCDs and OLED displays by Apple Inc. that have a higher pixel density than their traditional displays. Apple has registered the term "Retina" as a trademark with regard to computers and mobile devices with t ...

found on its predecessor, using IPS technology with True Tone and wide color gamut ( Display P3). The display has a resolution of 1334 × 750 pixels, like the previous iPhones. The pixel density is 326 PPI, the same as on all iPhones with LCDs since the introduction of the Retina display on the

iPhone 4 The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the iPhone 4s. Following a number of notable leaks, ...

, excluding the Plus models. It can play

HDR10 HDR10 Media Profile, more commonly known as 'HDR10'', is an open high-dynamic-range video (HDR) standard announced on 27 August 2015, by the Consumer Electronics Association. It is the most widespread HDR format. HDR10 is not Backward compatibil ...

and

Dolby Vision Dolby Vision is a set of technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories for high dynamic range (HDR) video. It covers content creation, distribution, and playback. It includes dynamic metadata that define the aspect ratio and adjust the picture ...

content despite not having an HDR-ready display, done by down-converting the HDR content to fit the display while still having some enhancements to

dynamic range Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' " power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics), the study of forces and their effect on motion Brands and ent ...

, contrast, and wide

color gamut In color reproduction and colorimetry, a gamut, or color gamut , is a convex set containing the colors that can be accurately represented, i.e. reproduced by an output device (e.g. printer or display) or measured by an input device (e.g. ...

compared to

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

content.

Camera

The iPhone SE has a rear 12 MP camera with a single lens, similar to the single lens camera system of its predecessor, capable of recording 4K video at 24, 25, 30, or 60 fps, 1080p HD video at 25, 30 or 60 fps, or 720p HD video at 30 fps. The camera has an aperture of ƒ/1.8,

autofocus An autofocus (AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system h ...

optical image stabilization Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques that reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera or other imaging device during exposure. Generally, it compensates for pan and tilt (angular movement, equivalent to yaw and pi ...

, and a quad-LED True Tone flash. The phone can also take panoramas up to 63 MP, and shoot photos in burst mode. The front camera is 7 MP with an

aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

of f/2.2 and autofocus, capable of shooting 1080p HD video at 25 or 30 fps and slow-motion video at 120 fps. The third-generation SE adds several camera functions enabled by the A15 Bionic. Like the 13 and 13 Pro, the rear camera supports Smart HDR 4. The rear camera also supports extended dynamic range video up to 30 fps, stereo recording and cinematic video stabilization. Both the front and rear cameras of the iPhone SE support Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting. The SE's implementation of Portrait mode only natively supports images of humans, as the hardware does not produce depth maps through the use of focus pixels and instead relies on software-based machine learning. Like the 13 and 13 Pro, Portrait mode has depth control and an advanced bokeh effect (blurring effect of the out-of-focus background around the portrait). The third-generation SE supports Deep Fusion and Photographic Styles, but lacks support for some features such as Night Mode and Cinematic mode due to older sensor hardware.

Battery

The third generation of the iPhone SE features a 2,018 mAh battery, up from 1,821 mAh on its predecessor. According to Apple, this enables an offline video playback time of 15 hours, up from 13 hours. This brings it up to par with the older but more expensive iPhone 12 Mini.

Software

The iPhone SE (3rd generation) was originally supplied with iOS 15.4 at release, and was eligible to update to

iOS 16 iOS 16 is the iOS version history, sixteenth major release of Apple Inc., Apple's iOS mobile operating system for the iPhone. It is the successor of iOS 15, and was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 202 ...

beginning in September 2022. The latest version of iOS compatible with the third-generation iPhone SE, as of September 2024, is

iOS 18 iOS 18 is the eighteenth and current major release of Apple's iOS operating system for the iPhone. It was announced on June 10, 2024, at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It was made publicly available on September 16, 2024, as ...

. The navigation gestures are the same as they were on iPhone models prior to the iPhone X.

References

External links

* – official website * {{Apple hardware since 1998 SE (3rd generation) Mobile phones introduced in 2022 Mobile phones with 4K video recording