Apple's iPhone SE event will take place on March 8

Apple’s first event of 2022 will take place next Tuesday, March 8th at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET. The event will be held virtually, viewable on Apple’s website and YouTube, assuming things run as they have previously.

Apple is expected to focus on a new version of the iPhone SE (last updated in 2020), iPad Air (also refreshed in 2020), and updates to the few Mac stragglers that have yet to be refreshed with Apple’s custom silicon. The company started the process of moving away from Intel chips in 2020 with new M1 versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini and continued the shift in 2021 with updated designs for the M1 iMac and MacBook Pro.

Below is the invite Apple sent to Input:

Peek performance, eh?

Budget-friendly — While there’s definitely hope we’ll be surprised by a dramatically different design for Apple’s only “budget” iPhone, Nikkei Asia now reports the major updates will be support for 5G and the inclusion of the newer A15 chip from the company’s previous flagships. Another year with the iPhone 8 body isn’t terrible, especially if Apple does abandon the smaller iPhone mini design. But it’s hard to say it isn’t boring.

Minor improvements — The iPad Air is also expected to join the 5G family and get updated to the A15 chip, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, essentially bringing the larger tablet in line with last year’s iPad mini 6.

Design trickledown — Apple still has several Macs to bring into the custom silicon fold, but it’s not entirely clear what could be introduced at the start of the year. Some reporters, leakers, and analysts think this March event could feature a higher-end Mac mini or iMac, while others speculate the entry-level MacBook Pro could receive an update to the new design language of its more powerful siblings.