Apple may be reviving the iPhone SE 4 by taking a new approach for development
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The iPhone SE4 alive…maybe. In a recent Twitter thread, renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that the tech giant has restarted development of the iPhone SE 4 — two months after it was reportedly canceled.
The reason why the project was stopped in the first place, according to Kuo’s post on Medium (opens in new tab), was because Apple wanted its mid-range device to include its first internal 5G baseband chip, so the company wouldn’t be dependent on Qualcomm. However, the hardware just didn’t live up to Qualcomm’s [tech]So the whole thing was scrapped in early January. But now it turns out Apple has a solution (opens in new tab). Instead of making everything from scratch, the iPhone SE 4 is now reportedly going to be a modified version of the 6.1-inch iPhone 14.
Kuo claims the device will be equipped with the aforementioned “baseband chip produced by a 4nm process”; however, it only supports sub-6GHz 5G and not the faster mmWave spectrum, just like the previous model. The biggest change, as Kuo points out, is that the phone will have an “OLED display instead of an LCD”. Ross Young (opens in new tab), another renowned industry analyst, claims that the screen will be supplied by Chinese manufacturer BOE Technology. Mass production, assuming development goes smoothly, will begin sometime in the first half of 2024.
Apple’s plans for the future
The rest of the Twitter thread hints at Apple’s future endeavors. He continues that it’s still up in the air whether the inevitable iPhone 16 lineup will use the new chipset. Apparently the company is facing some “technical hurdles [relating] to mmWave and satellite communications.” But if successful, Kuo predicts the gap between Apple and Qualcomm will widen as the latter’s hardware will no longer be needed. He even speculates that if mass production goes well, we could see iPads and Apple Watches ditching Qualcomm chipsets in favor of the baseband.
And that’s about all that can be gleaned from the thread as it directly relates to the iPhone SE 4 or Apple’s plans. It is not known how many features of the iPhone 14, such as Emergency SOS via Satellite, or hardware will be present in the upcoming phone. Price also remains a mystery. By comparison, the iPhone SE 3 launched in March 2022 with a starting price of $429 in the United States.
If you’re in the market for a new phone, be sure to check out TechRadar’s latest rundown of the best iPhone deals before the end of the month.