iPhone SE 4th Gen: The true heir to iPhone XR could be a grave threat to iPhone 16
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
We are just a month or so away from the arrival of Apple's iPhone 16 series. We know mostly everything there is to know about the next crop of iPhones, including what's coming (and what's NOT coming) to the heavy-hitter and the usual bestseller, the regular 6.1-inch iPhone.
This year's iPhone 16 flavor is scoring a faster chipset, more RAM, likely Apple Intelligence, new Action and Capture Buttons, and a slightly larger battery. Overall, minor changes in comparison with last year's iPhone 15, and not as exciting as the rumored changes to next year's iPhone 17 (ProMotion and new ultra-wide camera). Business as usual on the regular iPhone front.
However, there's one Apple device that's shrouded in slightly more mystery than the upcoming iPhone 16 and could easily be an existential threat to the regular iPhone. That device is the upcoming iPhone SE 4th Gen, which could be just as good as the regular iPhone 16, just much, much more affordable.
How the iPhone SE 4 might eat the iPhone 16's lunch
- iPhone 14-like flat design with a tiny notch (no Dynamic Island here, but who cares);
- A 6.1-inch display, reportedly matching the iPhone 13's screen properties, so OLED, 60Hz refresh rate, and relatively low (by today's standards) peak brightness;
- Face ID, so Touch ID on the iPhone lineup is essentially dead and gone;
- Apple A16 Bionic inside (the same chip you'll find in the iPhone 14 Pro/Max, as well as iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus), so no Apple Intelligence but plenty of performance reserves;
- A single 48MP wide-angle camera, but optical-grade 2X digital zoom could make it on deck;
- Killer $499 price tag that will make it a bestseller
All of that is, undoubtedly, an extremely appealing combination of hardware and software that could make the iPhone SE 4th Gen a very likely threat to the iPhone 16.
But wait, those specs really remind of something, something iconic and undoubtedly a future classic––the legendary iPhone XR. Released nearly six years ago, the iPhone XR is still the iPhone that had the best value for money among all iPhone models in the past decade or so.
From the looks of it, the iPhone SE 4th Gen could very well be perceived as the modern and one true successor to the iPhone XR, which might certainly spell bad news for the iPhone 16 next year.
Those who don't really care about having a dual camera at the back or access to the Apple Intelligence features could very well be swayed by a relatively compact but still decently sized iPhone with decent performance and a very affordable price tag.
Surely sounds appealing to me, and I can't be the only one who'd enjoy using a simple phone with seemingly no super-premium but largely unnecessary features.
Compact phones are a thing of the past
That's right, they are. And I don't really feel disappointed that the iPhone SE 4th Gen is moving away from the compact form factor of previous iPhone SE devices.
Before you ready the pitchforks, let's come to an objective understanding that however convenient to use with a single hand, small phones are now a thing of the past.
Larger displays have become the norm, and so has decent battery life, which you can't really get on a small iPhone, no matter how efficient the chipset on board.
The iPhone SE 4th Gen will be a product of its time, and at the same time, an outlier that will miss most of the bells and whistles we've come to expect out of a premium flagship iPhone.
That said, most of these are largely irrelevant to regular users. Features like a triple camera with 5X telephoto, 120Hz ProMotion display with super-high brightness, and all fancy AI features are certainly nice to have, but they aren't vital to the overall experience.
An affordable price tag is important, and at the end of the day, that's what will eventually make the iPhone SE 4th Gen a winner.
How will Apple prevent that?
Surely, Apple has taken that into account. While there might not be that much leeway to make the iPhone 16 a more appealing package, it will still sell well, similarly to most of its predecessors. It will still have the appeal of access to the Apple Intelligence suite of features, or at least we are hoping it would, as well as a newer processor, the Dynamic Island, and an extra camera.
On the other hand, the iPhone 16 will have the benefit of being first to the market, and not just by a month or two. If the rumors about the iPhone SE 4th Gen getting released in H1 2025, then the iPhone 16 will have a healthy half-year advantage on the market.
Finally, we are all still dealing with uncertainties here, so we should consider the possibility that the rumors about the iPhone SE 4th Gen could be misleading. The iPhone SE 4th Gen that we get might be vastly different from the one we've been hearing about, so there's that.
Ironically as it may sound in the context of the previous sentence, next year's iPhone 17 could turn out to be a more appealing package than this year's iPhone 16 and the iPhone Se 4th Gen. Apple will finally be ditching the 60Hz display in favor of a ProMotion one across the full range. What's more, we might get dual 48MP cameras on the iPhone 17.
For now, however, the iPhone SE 4th Gen sounds like it could be a blockbuster.
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