iPhone SE 3 price INCREASED! Shocking! Is it worth buying over iPhone 12?

iPhone SE 3 price hiked after its launch. At almost Rs. 50000, is it worth buying over the iPhone 12 now?

iPhone SE 3rd Gen price increased in India after its launch in March. (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

The iPhone SE 3 is now a shocking phone by all means! No, not because of its dated design, but it is down to its price tag. The iPhone SE has always been the most affordable iPhone one can buy, with certain compromises to attain the price. Those compromises usually come in the form of a small display, small battery, single camera, and limited colours, but you get the latest chipset. Hence, most buyers have it in their minds to buy an iPhone only if it costs just as much as a midrange Android phone. With the iPhone SE 3 though, things have changed.

Back in March 2022, Apple announced the iPhone SE 3rd Gen in India with a starting price of Rs. 43,999. It was expensive by all means, especially for an iPhone 8 with a iPhone 13 chip, and that too for its base 64GB storage variant. From there on, we only assumed that the price would drop, as was the norm with previous variants of the iPhone SE. Sadly, the opposite has happened – the iPhone SE 3 is more expensive than ever.

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iPhone SE 3 new prices: Take a look

Here are the prices of the iPhone SE 3 listed on the Apple Online Store.

64GB variant: Rs. 49,900

128GB variant: Rs. 54,900

256GB variant: Rs. 64,900

These prices are much higher than the ones that were here when the phone launched.

If you go over to Flipkart, you get slightly reduced prices in comparison.

64GB variant: Rs. 47,990

128GB variant: Rs. 52,990

256GB variant: Not available

Is the iPhone SE 3 worth buying at this price?

No, not at all, especially since you can buy the new iPhone 12 for more or less the same price, if not lesser. Amazon is selling the 64GB variant of the iPhone 12 at a price of Rs. 47,990, and the 128GB variant at a price of Rs. 52,990.

Compared to the iPhone SE 3, the iPhone 12 is undoubtedly a superior phone in ways that matter to buyers. You get a larger 6.1-inch OLED display, which is much better than the 4.7-inch LCD display on the iPhone SE. You also get a pair of two 12MP rear cameras on the iPhone 12 as opposed to the single camera on the iPhone SE.

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The iPhone 12 also supports 5G networks and while its A14 Bionic chip might be inferior on paper to the A15 Bionic on iPhone SE 3, the performance gains are mostly negligible for buyers. Another area where the iPhone 12 is a winner is its battery life. The iPhone 12 can easily last an entire day while the iPhone SE 3 can barely make it. With 5G coming in, good battery life is a requisite on these iPhones, and it is the iPhone 12 that will be a more comfortable buy.

Unless you seek a compact phone and the familiarity of the iPhone 6 generation of iPhones, only then the iPhone SE can be chosen. For everything else, the iPhone 12 is just better.