Apple's 4-inch iPhone SE gets official

Apple is bringing back the 4-inch iPhone with the iPhone SE. As expected the new iPhone packs many features that of iPhone 6s, while the body is similar to the iPhone 5s. 

The iPhone SE is Apple's first 4-inch iPhone since the iPhone 5s, that was launched in 2013, and will take iPhone 5s' slot at the bottom of Apple's handset lineup, which means that the iPhone 5s will be discontinued permanently. Despite the small screen size the iPhone SE has high-end hardware inside.

The iPhone SE sports a compact 4-inch 1136 x 640 display with curved 2.5D glass and is powered by an Apple A9 processor aided by an M9 motion processor, just like iPhone 6s. For storage it comes in two variants 16GB or 64GB. It runs iOS 9.3 and comes with always-on Siri integration.

It gets a 12-megapixel iSight camera with Focus Pixels, True Tone flash and 4K video recording. The selfie shooter is 8-megapixel and comes with Retina Flash.

The iPhone SE packs Touch ID fingerprint sensor with NFC, so that it can be used for Apple Pay. It also supports VoLTE, WiFI 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity.  It also comes with Live Photos feature, which records a few seconds of video before and after a photo is captured, but misses out on the 3D Touch functionality.

The Apple iPhone SE comes in Gray, Silver, Gold and Rose Gold colors. The 16GB storage model is priced at $399 (Rs. 26,00), while the 64GB storage model costs $499 (Rs. 33,000). The iPhone SE will go on pre-order starting March 24 and will be available starting March 31. The handset will be shipped in over 100 countries by May.