Compared to the best budget 5G phones with Android today, Apple's third-gen iPhone SE looks, well, pretty cringeworthy. That's in part because we're talking about a handset that's more than two years old already, and perhaps in larger part because the 4.7-incher was essentially outdated right off the bat, with a set of screen bezels that screamed 2016.
As the most affordable iPhone still sold officially by its manufacturer, this model remains surprisingly popular, but that's obviously going to change when its sequel inevitably comes out. Unfortunately, the latest expectations from the most trusted industry sources are that the iPhone SE 4 will not be released this year.
On the bright side, that gives Apple a little extra time to work on more improvements than some of you may have imagined, and according to a new rumor, these impressive upgrades will somehow not jack up the price too much.
Game over for Android mid-rangers?
While it's certainly far too early to proclaim the death of budget-friendly Android handsets, a $429 iPhone SE (2025) with an iPhone 14-inspired design sounds almost impossible to rival in terms of value for money.
$429, mind you, is exactly how much a 64GB iPhone SE (2022) normally costs in 2024, and while Apple could fail in its goal of keeping the price point of this bad boy's follow-up unchanged, an increase of more than 10 percent is purportedly unlikely. That's at least according to a social media tipster known as Revegnus, whose main X account was recently suspended, losing all their followers before starting from scratch under a new handle.
With the iPhone SE 3 (pictured here) still selling pretty well in 2024, we can only imagine how popular the iPhone SE 4 will become.
This is definitely not as reliable an industry insider as someone like Mark Gurman, Ming-Chi Kuo, or Evan Blass, but a lot of reputable publications seem to (cautiously) trust this prediction, as well as others like it from the now-deleted account.
Returning to the rumor itself, it appears that the worst case scenario right now calls for a starting price of around $499 for the iPhone SE 4 next year. That would still be deliciously affordable for a significantly larger and better-looking device than the iPhone SE 3, making it rather difficult for the likes of Google's Pixel 8a (and presumably Pixel 9a) to compete for your love and hard-earned money.
Like the "vanilla" iPhone 14, this is tipped as a 6.1-inch affair with a relatively generous notch by multiple insiders, although under the hood, everyone expects a newer than A15 Bionic processor to take care of your day-to-day tasks and operations. Of course, Apple is likely to keep its latest Pro devices separate from its next-gen mid-ranger, which almost certainly means an A16 Bionic SoC will be employed here.
o, the iPhone SE 4 is unlikely to borrow the iPhone 14's dual rear-facing cameras (pictured here).
Incredibly enough, the iPhone SE 4 is also rumored to embrace top-notch (see what we did there?) OLED display technology rather than continuing to settle for an inferior LCD panel. Unsurprisingly (given what year we are in), a USB Type-C port is expected to be part of the budget-friendly 2025 package, along with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, Bluetooth 5.3 support, and alas, no headphone jack or microSD card slot.
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Because Apple has to cut some corners in order to fit the next big iPhone SE somewhere between $429 and $499, that 6.1-inch OLED screen is likely to stick to 60Hz refresh rate capabilities, and the rear-facing camera could once again be a 12MP single affair. The battery size and charging speeds should largely coincide with what the iPhone 14 offers in the same departments, although it's a little premature to take such details for granted.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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