Apple has released the latest incarnation of its affordable iPhone SE, powered by the A15 Bionic chip that debuted in the iPhone 13 lineup.

The SE comes with a 4.7-inch display, with aerospace-grade aluminium and glass design, the same as in the iPhone 13 range.

It also features the Touch ID home button, a nice throwback to the iPhone.

A15 Bionic packs a 6-core CPU, making it the fastest CPU in a smartphone, with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores.

The camera is where the A15 Bionic shines, with a 12-megapixel ƒ/1.8 aperture wide camera that offers “incredible computational photography benefits”, such as the much touted Smart HDR 4.

Smart HDR 4 segments a photo to apply different touch ups for colour, contrast and noise to the subject versus the background, making sure each person in the same photo is renders according to the lighting and their skin tone. This technology was introduced with the iPhone 13, and similar tech is a huge selling point for Google’s Pixel 6 range.

The image signal processor in A15 Bionic delivers “significantly improved videos with reduced noise, particularly in low light, with better white balance and truer skin tone.”

“iPhone SE has been an incredibly popular choice with our existing users and for new iPhone customers, thanks to its iconic design, exceptional performance and affordable price,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing.

“This year we’ve built the most powerful and durable iPhone SE yet, with better battery life thanks to A15 Bionic, the same chip as our iPhone 13 line-up that also unlocks advanced camera features like Smart HDR 4, Photographic Styles and Deep Fusion.

“And with 5G, iPhone SE gives users faster downloads and uploads, higher-quality video streaming, real-time interactivity in apps and much more. Delivering the latest generation of technology and performance at this price is something only Apple can do.”

iPhone SE will be available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB models in three colours: midnight, starlight and red, starting at A$719.

Pre-order begins on Saturday, March 12, with phones hitting stores from Friday, March 18.