It has hardly been two days since Apple confirmed rumors about the upcoming iPhone SE with 2GB of RAM and we can now see the test results on AnTuTu's score-sheet. It seems like some people already have access to the SE even before its official release in the US next week. If these results are to be believed, then the iPhone SE is miles ahead of its mid-range competition. In fact, the results are so spectacular, that they are actually ahead of even the much more expensive iPhone 6s and 6s Plus!

The iPhone 6s scored around 132,620 and Samsung's latest flagship (Galaxy S7) with Snapdragon 820 scored somewhere around 125,288. The Exynos 8890 version of the S7 however, managed to score only about 105,000. The iPhone SE puts all of these flagships to shame with a whopping score of 134,358! This extremely impressive score was made possible, thanks to the Apple A9 chip, which was the most powerful mobile SoC on the market in 2015. If you are wondering how it managed to score more than the 6s which has the same chip as well, it is due to the fact that the smaller 4-inch display of the SE has fewer pixels to process for the A9 SoC when compared to the 4.7-inch panel of the 6s.

These scores may give one an impression that the A9 chip is still faster when compared with the latest Snapdragon 820 chipset from Qualcomm, but it may not actually be the case. The SD 820 is pushing significantly more pixels on the S7, which has a 5.1-inch display with a resolution of 1440p! The A9 chip on the other hand, only has to work with a 640p HD display that's 4-inch in size. Nonetheless, the scores are very impressive and we are inclined to think that at this point, if you must buy an iPhone, the iPhone SE is probably the best choice, provided you can live without the 3D Touch.

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The iPhone SE has just been announced, confirming what rumors had been saying for months. The good news is, the rumors were spot on and Apple is indeed blessing its latest smartphone iteration with the mighty A9 chip. The 64-bit A9 chip is a combination of the dual core Twister processor clocked at 1.85 GHz and the PowerVR GT7600 hexa-core GPU. In case you did not know already, this is the same chip that powers the iPhone 6s.

The iPhone SE looks very similar to the iPhone 5 and 5s, while sporting a resolution of 1136x640 pixels on its 4-inch display. The 326 ppi is not very impressive but on a 4-inch display, it should be enough. Apple seems to have gone to great lengths to ensure that the SE remains as similar to the 6s as possible in terms of features. They have fitted the same 12-megapixel iSight camera on the SE that is being used by the 6s and the 1.2-megapixel front camera actually has a retina flash to assist the user while taking selfies in particularly dim lighting conditions. If you are wondering what the retina flash actually is, then let us inform you that it's when the display itself acts like a LED flash by becoming three times brighter than its maximum allowed brightness.

The in-built fingerprint scanner within the Home button now supports Apple Pay and Touch ID, but there is no 3D Touch and unfortunately, you will feel the difference if you are already used to it on the 6s. This is a mid-range device and Apple has kept the pricing somewhat affordable at $399 and $499 for the 16GB version and the 64GB version respectively. If you want one, get ready to pre-order it on March 24. You can also wait a week and buy one from the stores on March 31, when it officially goes on sale. There will be four color variants for customers to choose from; Rose Gold, Gold, Silver and Space Grey. Depending on where you live, you can also buy the iPhone SE with a monthly instalment scheme or get into a contract with one of the network providers.

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Reports from Nikkei suggests that Apple might be striking deals with the two Korean giants, Samsung and LG. Apparently, Apple is looking to buy OLED panels on a massive scale and as a result, they are looking to these manufacturers for providing them with that. If Nikkei is to be believed, then the deals could amount to a total of $12 billion and we could be seeing the first OLED iPhones by 2017.

Provided Apple does not break its previous streak of releasing iPhones that they have followed for the last eight iterations, then we will see the iPhone 7 later in 2016. This would ideally make the iPhone 7s the first Apple phone to sport an OLED panel according to the information we have now. However, this is a prediction made by taking a lot of things for granted and things do not always pan out that way.

Although OLED panels are more expensive than regular LCD panels used in most smartphones nowadays, Samsung had been using their own brand of AMOLED screens for years now. OLED displays offer inky blacks and punchier colors that just look more vivid than even the best of the IPS panels. It is too early to tell for sure, but it seems like after Apple's sales failed to show a significant improvement in 2015, the company is looking for ways to renovate their iPhones.

Samsung and Apple make odd bedfellows with them fighting it out over market share for smartphones and tablets, but the Korean company often will to make device components for Apple that can be found inside its iPhones that go head to head with Samsung's smartphones.

Most recently, Samsung shared production on the A9 processors that powered the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus so impressively. News coming directly from Korea suggest now that the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has penned a deal to provide microprocessors for the upcoming iPhone 7.

TSMC may even have been able to become the sole manufacturer of processors for the iPhone 7 using its 10nm manufacturing process. TSMC is likely to start mass production of the A10 processor starting in June 2016, based on the typical release pattern used by Apple to debut new iPhones in the fall.

If true, this change would be a move away from Samsung who shared the manufacturing of the A9 processor with TSMC while still benefiting from an attractive manufacturing deal with Apple. However, it is not a complete loss. Qualcomm has chosen Samsung as the manufacturer for its Snapdragon 820 processor which is expected to be used in upcoming flagship Samsung handsets.

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Rumors have had it since last year that the next iPhone will come equipped with wireless charging capabilities, but it seems like Apple is going to take it a step further. Honestly, Apple has not exactly been a pioneer when it comes to features in their smartphones for quite a while now. That being said, they do put a new twist to every tech they implement and that is why Apple products usually stand out from the crowd.

One might wonder, what is so "cutting edge" about wireless charging? It's something that we have seen being implemented in plenty of Android smartphones in the past. Apparently, the answer to that question is distance. The new wireless charging technology will allegedly make it possible to charge your iPhone 7 from a significantly longer distance than it is possible now in any phone that supports wireless charging. If the reports are correct, development of this technology is ongoing as Apple continues to work on it in collaboration with their Asian associates.

Reports were neither very clear nor very specific because they do not tell us how this new tech would actually work as wireless/inductive charging as we know it, requires the phone to be placed on the charging pad. In fact, they even indicate that there is a possibility that the iPhone 7 may not have this piece of technology.

The good news is that we do have one established fact that supports the rumors. In 2012, an application for patenting something related to Near-Field Magnetic Resonance (NFMR) was submitted by Apple and it involves charging devices from about a meter away. If anything, we at least know that the technology is in development for quite a few years, which makes it all the more likely to be implemented in the upcoming iPhone 7.

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