Time is an interesting concept: humans have lived on Earth for about six million years, but the planet is 4.5 billion years old. It’s not far off that it’s been 20 years since the first iPhone was introduced, and the first phone was invented 148 years ago. So time is relative. But one thing is for sure: It feels like a long time since we’ve had a new iPhone SE.
There have been three generations of Apple’s cheapest iPhone. The first came out in 2016 and attracted attention as one of the best cheap phones at the time. Four years passed before the year of the COVID-19 pandemic came and a second SE generation was also released. The current iPhone SE was released in 2022.
Therefore, there is no real set cadence for the release of the iPhone SE. But given that the current version has a design that would have felt dated six years ago, let alone two years ago, I think it’s high time for an update and a makeover of Apple’s rather cheap phone.
Nevertheless, there are hardly any rumors about the so-called iPhone SE 4. The closer September and a likely phone-centric Apple event come, the more unofficial information about the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models circulates.
However, very little is known about a new SE that would be a good fit as “one more thing” for the next Apple presentation.
We want SE changes
According to the rumors so far, however limited they may be, we can expect the design of the next-generation iPhone SE to be much more similar to that of the iPhone 14 than other models. It’s safe to assume that the home button will go the way of the dodo and that a dynamic island could be added to the screen to make Apple’s phone design language widespread across all of its smartphones.
You can also expect a decent chip, but how powerful it might be is a bit of a guessing game. And I would expect USB-C charging to be a given.
Still, since there are no solid rumors about the iPhone SE, I wonder when we can expect one. Or if Apple even plans to launch another affordable iPhone – after all, when new models are introduced, some older models are still offered, albeit at reduced prices.
Part of me believes Apple will wait until 2025 when work on AI-centric Apple Intelligence is mature and can be integrated into other devices.
And next year, there could be enough A17 Pro or similar chips in circulation for Apple to build an iPhone SE powerful enough to handle the AI workloads, thus encouraging the spread of Apple intelligence. Reserving it only for the high-end Pro iPhones could stall the spread of the next-generation intelligent tools and software.
Alternatively, Apple could simply offer a powerful and affordable iPhone that does not have Apple Intelligence features – especially since some people may not care one bit about artificial intelligence.
Of course, this is all just educated speculation and I can’t say for sure when we’ll see a new iPhone SE. But I believe there’s still hope for an affordable iPhone for everyone.
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