“iPhone SE” (Special Edition) was launched last month with a 4-year-old design and today's hardware. Even if you a fan of Apple products, the Indian pricing of the iPhone SE is just plain bizarre.
At the launch of the phone Apple did announced the US pricing starting at $399 which comes to a little over INR 28,000. But the iPhone SE will be sold in India for Rs. 39000 for the base 16GB variant.
The same thing happened with the launch of iPhone 6s/Plus in India late last year, the phones prices started form INR 62,000 and went up to INR 92,000 (About USD $150 more compared to US Pricing) but now the 6s/Plus can easily be bought starting at INR 42,000. Apple had to drastically cut the prices of the 6s/Plus and we expect similar thing happening with the iPhone SE.
Now, coming to the matter at hand, for those who do want a more compact smartphone which has all the power minus some features of the iPhone 6s flagship, the 64GB variant of the iPhone SE has been priced at Rs. 49,000 and will be available this on April 8th as well.
But there are some points to consider before you want to splurge on the new/old iPhone SE:
16GB Storage:
It really pains me to see Apple still stuck on a 16GB base model, and when compared to other OEM’s in the android space. 16GB is just not enough and there is absolutely no point of buying that model, you will definitely have to go for the 64GB model which comes in at INR 49,000.
Design:
Although there are many that prefer smaller iPhones, which is quite evident from the 30 Million 4-inch iPhones sold last year, the design could have done with a refresh. The iPhone SE looks boring to say the least. Plainly put, Apple didn't spend any time in changing the design of the iPhone 5s but is still charging a premium for a 4-year old design. People wanted a new smaller iPhone from Apple, but one with a refreshed design akin to the iPhone 6s/plus. There's atleast one thing different here from the iPhone 5s, you are getting a Rose Gold color option.
Apple iPhone SE Specs and Photos
Specs:
This is actually quite interesting as with Android smartphones smaller variants tend to be not as powerful as their larger siblings, but Apple has gone with pretty much the same internals as the iPhone 6s on the iPhone SE. They have practically made the iPhone SE as powerful as iPhone 6s, excluding the new touch ID used in iPhone 6s and the 3D Touch. There's the same new great 12MP rear camera but the front-facing camera still remains at just 1.2MP. As the iPhone SE is not actually made from scratch, that’s the reason Apple didn’t have much space to add some of these features.
It will be wrong to compare the iPhone 6s pricing with the iPhone SE as both are sort of for different masses, but we expect the pricing of the iPhone SE to drop by quite a margin in coming months.
