The eagerly awaited iPhone SE 4 could be unveiled next week, as soon as February 11th according to Bloomberg. While the so-called “budget model” could be introduced in days, it might not be released until later in the month according to sources who are familiar with the matter. The iPhone SE 4 will be the first iPhone SE model to do away with the old-school design. Instead of holding a new product event for the new iPhone. Apple will reportedly announce its arrival on its website.
The iPhone SE 4 will be the first budget model with Face ID.
The iPhone se 4codenamed V59, is expected to replace Touch ID with Face ID and feature the edge-to-edge display that debuted with the iPhone X in 2017. To help it run Apple Intelligence, even though the phone’s design is based on the iPhone 14, the phone will be powered by the 3nm A18 application processor that runs the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. It also will be equipped with 8GB of RAM, the minimum amount of memory required to run Apple Intelligence.
DSCC CEO Ross Young says that the iPhone SE 4 will sport a notch as the iPhone 14 did. | Image credit-X
In another first for the iPhone se 4the device will reportedly feature the brand new in-house designed and developed Apple 5G modem chip replacing the Snapdragon 5G modem that Apple has been using. If things go well, Apple’s modem chip might be used on all of the new iPhone 17 models expected to be released next September.
Inventory of the current iPhone SE 3 model, released in 2022, has been drying up at U.S. Apple Stores which is typically an indication that a new model is on the way. Customers coming into Apple’s retail locations seeking a certain configuration of the device have been turned away because of the lack of inventory. To show how hard it is to find the iPhone se 3 in the U.S., Bloomberg says that the iPhone se 3 in red with 256GB of storage isn’t shipping in the U.S. until March. However, it appeared to us that February 8th is the shipping date for all such variants of the device for orders placed in Apple’s online store.
The iPhone se 3 starts at $429 for the 64GB model, rises to $479 for the model with 128GB of storage, and tops out at $579 for the unit with 256GB of storage. Considering the new changes to the iPhone se 4 and the recent 10% tariff on imports from China to the U.S., pricing for the iPhone se 4 in the states could be higher than the cost of the currently available model.
Besides unveiling the iPhone se 4 on February 11th, we could see Apple also introduce the PowerBeats Pro 2 earbuds. The big news here is that they could be the first earbuds from an Apple brand to include a heart rate monitor, a feature Apple wants to include with future AirPods.
Will the iPhone SE 4 sport a notch or the Dynamic Island?
Returning to the rumored specs for the iPhone se 4Apple plans on relying heavily on computational image processing by equipping the phone with only one rear camera backed by a 12 MP sensor. This is also what Apple is supposedly planning for the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air model that could be released this coming September. Google got away with doing something similar for years on its early Pixel models. Despite using just one 12 MP camera on the back of the Pixel 2 XL, for example, Google’s computational photo capabilities helped to give Pixel devices a reputation for taking great photographs.
The iPhone se 4 will reportedly have an aluminum build, an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, and a 3279 mAh capacity battery. The latter is the same capacity battery used to keep the lights on the iPhone 14. The latest word on the notch vs. Dynamic Island battle for the iPhone se 4 comes from the co-founder and CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants Ross Young. With a very high mark for accuracy, Young says that the iPhone SE 4 will feature the notch.
In case you were wondering, the OG iPhone se was released on March 31, 2016 with a 4-inch display, 2 GB of RAM, and it carried the Samsung built A9 application processor. The latter was built on Samsung’s 14 nm FinFET process. The price of the device started at $399 for the 16 GB model and rose to $499 for the 64 GB version.
