The new iPhone SE is seen on display during an event at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California March 21, 2016.
The new iPhone SE is seen on display during an event at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California March 21, 2016. Reuters/Stephen Lam

The iPhone SE (Special Edition), the 4-inch smartphone from Apple unveiled last month, has been spotted on the AnTuTu benchmarking app, where it scores an impressive 134,358.

Signalling the delivery of impressive performance, the device's AnTuTu benchmark score is slightly lower than the iPhone 6S Plus' recorded score of 1377,420. However, the iPhone 6S' AnTuTu score of 129,990 is lower than that of the iPhone SE, GSM Arena reported.

Apple's new smartphone is powered by Apple A9 SoC and 2 GB of RAM, and is able to deliver impressive performance on AnTuTu because it is packed with a smaller and low resolution display and is powered by the fastest chipset from Apple.

This is compared to the iPhone 6S, which features a 4.7-inch screen that supports a resolution of 750 x 1134 pixels, while the iPhone 6S Plus has a 5.5-inch display that supports full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus smartphones both feature an Apple A9 chipset and 2 GB of RAM. However, the iPhone SE comes with a 4-inch display that produces a resolution of 640 x 1136 pixels.

In addition, the newly launched iPhone SE sports the form factor of the iPhone 5S and offers features of the iPhone 6S. It comes in two internal storage options of 16 GB and 64 GB, and is enabled with features like Live Photos and dual LED flash. The rear side of the smartphone features a 12 MP camera, while the frontal camera is of 1.2 MP.

The iPhone SE is also equipped with a Touch ID fingerprint scanner embedded under its Home button. Other specs of the iPhone SE include Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC and 1642 mAh battery. Rumours are rife that Samsung and Xiaomi are working on smaller-sized smartphones like the Galaxy S7 Mini and Xiaomi Mi 5 Mini to rival against the iPhone SE.