Apple is predicted to announce a brand new iPhone SE as early as subsequent week, and it may mark a significant shakeup to the corporate’s inexpensive iPhone, including in Face ID and killing off the basic residence button. We’ve a fairly good concept of what’s coming after months of leaks and rumors, so right here’s every part we anticipate to see subsequent week.
There gained’t be a house button…
The most important change is that Apple is upending the iPhone SE’s design, after leaving it broadly unchanged because the sequence’ inception in 2016. The 2022 SE is the final iPhone nonetheless utilizing a house button, with a thick bezel across the high and backside of the display screen. However rumors say Apple will now ditch the button, slim the bezel, and add Face ID.
The outcome might be a cellphone that appears just like the iPhone 14 from the entrance. Like that cellphone, it’s anticipated to put its Face ID sensors in a notch, reasonably than utilizing the much less obtrusive Dynamic Island design that was launched within the 14 Professional and has been utilized in each iPhone since then. Apple can’t resist conserving its SE sequence just a bit behind the occasions.
We’ve seen the notched design in a video shared by the leaker Majin Bu, which reveals them dealing with what is probably going a non-functional dummy unit, utilized by case producers to design and check their equipment.
…however there might be an Motion button
Bu’s video means that the SE 4 will embrace a customizable Motion button, however not the Digital camera Management launched on the iPhone 16.
Like different SE fashions it seems to stay to a single rear digital camera. One leaked spec record means that the SE will use a 48 megapixel sensor on the rear, with a 12 megapixel selfie digital camera on the entrance, however that is an space the place there have been few stories to this point.
It’s not going to be a small cellphone
The redesign will permit the 2025 SE to have a bigger display screen than the 4.7-inch panel utilized by the 2022 mannequin. It’s anticipated to as an alternative use a 6.1-inch show, the identical measurement as the usual iPhone 16, and also will improve to OLED.
The larger display screen means the cellphone as a complete might be bigger than any earlier iPhone SE, and there’ll now not be any iPhone smaller than the usual mannequin. If we assume the brand new cellphone could have comparable dimensions to the iPhone 16 then it may very well be 9mm taller than the 2022 SE, and weigh about 25g extra.
Lightning is out, USB-C is in
It’s just about sure that the cellphone could have a USB-C port reasonably than Lightning, permitting it to as soon as once more be bought within the EU. The earlier SE mannequin was discontinued in EU markets together with each different iPhone utilizing a Lightning port.
It’ll be one of the vital highly effective iPhones round
On the within, Bloomberg stories that the cellphone will use the identical A18 chip because the iPhone 16 and 16 Professional fashions. That’s the identical method Apple has used for its final two SE telephones, which have paired the newest silicon with extra dated designs. The A18 is predicted to be mixed with a rise to 8GB of RAM, the minimal required to run Apple Intelligence, the corporate’s AI instruments that present notification summaries and different performance, and are actually enabled by default. That may all make it extra highly effective than 2023’s iPhone 15.
It’s going to even beat this 12 months’s iPhone 17 sequence to function Apple’s first in-house 5G modem, changing the Qualcomm elements that iPhones have used up to now. Apple has been growing its personal modems for over half a decade, however Bloomberg warns that the primary iteration is a “downgrade” from the modem within the newest flagship iPhones, and gained’t assist mmWave 5G, solely sub-6 — although that was true of the final iPhone SE too.
Whereas earlier rumors have pointed to a launch in March or April, Bloomberg stories that Apple will announce the cellphone subsequent week, although doesn’t anticipate it to go on sale till later within the month. It predicts a worth of “roughly $500,” larger than the 2022 mannequin’s beginning worth of $429. Which may be offset by a default storage spec of 128GB, that means there would now not be any 64GB iPhone available on the market.
There’s additionally a risk that it gained’t be referred to as the iPhone SE in spite of everything. Two leakers have predicted that it’s going to as an alternative be referred to as the iPhone 16E, although because the SE identify has popped up extra usually we expect that’s nonetheless extra seemingly.
If Bloomberg is true, we don’t have lengthy to attend to search out out for positive. The SE can be the primary of a number of large iPhone launches this 12 months, with Apple tipped to disclose a slimmer iPhone 17 Air in addition to “main updates” to the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Professional.
