Apple debuts smaller iPhone and iPad Pro

Apple today launched a 4-inch iPhone and a 9.7-inch iPad Pro tablet, reversing its approach of recent years to grow the size of its devices.

The iPhone SE is a replacement for the old 5s, and features mostly the same hardware as the newer iPhone 6s but in a smaller package. 

That means the SE gets an Apple-designed A9 64-bit system-on-a-chip with dual-core 1.84 processor, M9 motion co-processor, six-core PowerVR GT7600 graphics unit and 1 gigabyte of system memory onboard. 

Other features such as the 12 megapixel camera with 4K video, 433 megabit/s 802.11ac wi-fi and 150Mbps LTE are also carried over from the iPhone 6s, giving the SE the edge over the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, both of which have older hardware.

However, the larger 6-series iPhones have superior displays: the 4-inch 1136x640 pixel screen on the iPhone SE has an 800:1 contrast ratio compared to 1400:1 for the iPhone 6s, and doesn't have Apple's dual-domain pixels that enable wider viewing angles.

The fingerprint sensor in the new iPhone is also first-generation hardware, not the faster biometric authentication system found in the newer 6s and 6s Plus.

Apple has removed the barometer sensor and Taptic Engine haptic feedback from the iPhone SE feature list, along with the Display Zoom and Reachability features which arrived in the larger phones for people with small hands.

iPhone SE will be available in two models - 16GB and 64GB - for $679 and $829 in either silver, space grey, gold or rose gold from the end of March.

Smaller iPad Pro 

A 9-7-inch variant of the iPad Pro also broke cover today, offering some hardware improvements over its larger predecessor.

The smaller iPad Pro gets the 12 megapixel camera seen in the iPhone 6s, with 4K video, 240 frames per second slow motion, cinematic video stabilisation, 63 Mpixel panorama photos and Focus Pixels.

Apple marketing boss Phil Schiller touted the 2048x1536 pixel Retina True Tone wide colour gamut display in the 9.7-inch iPad Pro as appealing to creatives.

Not available in the existing 12.9-inch tablet, the True Tone display adjusts colour tone warmer and colder, according to the ambient light in a setting.

iPad Pro 9.7 and 12.9-inch.

Cellular + wi-fi 9.7-inch iPad Pros also get improved LTE 4G support, with 23 bands supported compared to 20 in the earlier tablet.

The A9X SOC that powers the iPad Pro 9.7-inch is the same as in the 12.9-inch tablet, but clocked lower: Apple said the A9X chipset is 2.4 times faster than the older A7 silicon on processor performance, and 4.3 times faster for graphics operations. This compares to 2.5 times and five times speed ups respectively over A7 in the larger model.

A 256GB storage model is now available for both the 9.7 and 12.9-inch models, along with 32GB and 128GB variants.

iPad Pro 9.7-inch also comes in rose gold, which is not available for the 12.9-inch model, and is substantially less expensive, starting at $899 for the 32GB model, compared to $1249 for the 12.9-incher for wi-fi only.

The mid-range 128GB iPad Pro costs $1149 ($1349 with LTE) with 9.7-inch screen, whereas the 12.9-inch device retails for $1499 ($1699 with LTE support)

With 256GB storage, expect to fork out $1399 and $1599 for the wi-fi only and LTE models of the 9.7-inch iPad Pro respectively, with the older 12.9-inch tablet costing $350 more in each configuration. It will also go on sale at the end of March.