Apple Might Release a Powerful New iPhone SE Next Week

Thinking about getting a new iPhone? You certainly have options: Apple’s latest generation of smartphones, the iPhone 16 series, offers four different models, each with their own pluses and minuses. If you’re not set on having the latest and greatest, you could consider last year’s iPhone 15, or even 2022’s iPhone 14. They’re all great.

However, there’s one iPhone that stands out from the rest: the iPhone SE. Unlike every other iPhone Apple currently sells, this one has a Home button. In fact, the phone looks nearly identical to the iPhone 8 Apple released back in 2017, which itself borrows the design from 2014’s iPhone 6. That means it has a smaller, lower quality display than many might be used to these days, a single camera that isn’t as capable as those on newer iPhones, and poor battery life for its size. In short, the current SE is a bit of a black sheep, and is probably not the iPhone I’d recommend you buy in 2024—even if it only costs $429.

That price is the main selling point of the SE brand, especially when this particular model launched back in 2022. Apple takes the design from the last generation (in this case, the iPhone 8 style), packs a modern chip inside, and slashes the MSRP. In effect, you get an iPhone that can keep up with the performance of the flagship Apple phones, but at half the cost, if not more. Sure, the cameras aren’t as good and the device looks a bit dated, but again, you get a lot of iPhone for the price.

To be frank, if you’re eyeing a mid-range device at a good price, I wouldn’t recommend buying an iPhone at all right now. But if you can wait until next week, Apple might just have exactly what you’re looking for in a brand-new SE (which, according to rumors, might even have a different name).

2025 could be the year of the SE

The new SE looks like it’s dropping soon. Apple CEO Tim Cook posted on X on Thursday, announcing a Feb. 19 launch of “the newest member of the family.” While Cook didn’t elaborate, it seems like this could be the time to reveal the new SE.

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The iPhone SE rumor mill has been churning for some time now, but Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman summed up what’s new with the 2025 iPhone SE quite succinctly. Gurman said you can expect Apple’s latest “budget” iPhone to look a lot like the iPhone 14, which means a 6.1-inch edge-to-edge OLED display booting the Home button in favor of Face ID. Apple is shipping the SE with the A18 chip, the same SoC found on the latest iPhone 16 series. It’ll also have an Apple-made cellular modem, ditching the usual models from Qualcomm, though it’s not clear whether that will have any meaningful gains in cellular performance. It will also come with a USB-C port, which will let Apple sell the phone in the EU.

Other rumors suggest the SE 4 will have a single 48 MP rear camera, and 8GB of RAM. That extra RAM would allow the SE 4 to run Apple Intelligence, which is obviously important to Apple, but perhaps not to anyone who has already turned it off.

If those features come to pass, this would be quite the upgrade over the current iPhone SE. The SE 3 is rocking a 4.7-inch 750p LCD, a much smaller and lower resolution display than what’s rumored. It also uses the A15 Bionic chip, which is still powerful enough in 2024 (it’s the same chip used in the iPhone 14), has a Lightning port, a 12 MP rear camera, 4GB of RAM, and, of course, a Qualcomm 5G modem.

The SE always borrows from the previous generation of iPhone, and right now, that’s likely the iPhone 14. Based on these rumors, the new SE would have some edge over the iPhone 14: The 14 has 12 MP rear cameras, 6GB of RAM, a Lightning port, and doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, all of which the rumored SE improves upon. And while the 14’s A15 Bionic chip is plenty powerful for iOS 18, the A18 would be a noticeable upgrade for the SE 4. The A15 was the newest iPhone chip at the time when the SE 3 came out, so it’d make sense for the SE 4 could get the iPhone 16’s A18 chip.

There’s also a potential name change in store for the iPhone SE 4, as noted leaker Majin Bu (don’t you have Saiyans to fight?) has said Apple is considering naming it the iPhone 16E, pushing it as a budget version of its most recent model rather than a separate line altogether. Bu’s report follows a similar statement from popular Chinese account Fixed Focus Digital.

What would a new iPhone SE look like?

Aside from the internals, leakers have also now gotten their hands on supposed dummy units of the iPhone SE 4. As expected, these look a lot like the iPhone 14, but with two noticeable changes.

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The biggest changes here, at least according to a video from also coming from Majin Bu, are the swap to a USB-C port and the move to a single camera lens. As previously noted, the former is necessary for the phone to be sold in the EU and constitutes a modest upgrade over the 14, while the latter is likely a cost-cutting measure, but could still be considered an upgrade if the single lens is more powerful than the prior dual lenses, as rumored. Notably, while the move to a single camera lens is a change from the iPhone 14, the current iPhone SE also only uses a single camera lens, and it does provide for a less noticeable camera bump.

Over the old SE, the Home button is also now gone, and noticeably, a notch is here in place of the Dynamic Island Apple made standard on all new iPhones starting with the iPhone 15. That’s not wholly a surprise, given the base iPhone 14 had a notch too, but anyone who was hoping Apple would leave notches entirely in the past after the iPhone 15 announcement will likely need to wait for the SE 5 (or whatever it’s called) to see that wish come true.

Bu isn’t the first leaker to come forward with an iPhone SE 4 dummy, although their post is certainly clearer than prior looks, especially regarding the notch.

Will Apple keep the price low?

Of course, the value of a rumored SE all hinges on the price. Ideally, Apple would keep the same $429 price point for the SE 4—which, itself, was a hike from the $399 starting price for past SE models. These rumors point to a excellent all-around iPhone that omits certain modern or “Pro” features like a Camera button, Action button, zoom lens, titanium build, 120Hz ProMotion display, Always-On display, Dynamic Island, and a brightness maximum of 2,000 nits. Hopefully, scrapping these features most users don’t want or need can motivate Apple to price the SE accordingly. As of this writing, rumors don’t suggest what Apple will do, one way or another.

At the end of the day, most people looking to buy an iPhone want something that can handle iMessage and FaceTime, run their favorite apps, and take great photos and videos. The SE traditionally handles these tasks without issue, so if the fourth-generation iPhone SE does indeed deliver on these rumors and is priced appropriately, it might be the best iPhone for most of us.