iPhone SE 4 is tipped as a controversial but powerful upgrade coming in early 2025
The iPhone SE 4 rumors have been quiet for a while, but now they’re back in full swing. Speculation is that Apple’s successor to the iPhone SE 3 will feature major changes when it hits the market early next year.
This latest leak from the largely reliable Ice Universe on Weibo (through MacRumors) can be interpreted as good or bad news depending on what you want from a future iPhone SE model. It claims that the iPhone SE 4 will be the first in the series to feature an OLED display, and that it will also get a “significant increase in size.”
Rumored specs for the SE 4 suggest it will sport a 6.06-inch display, a significant jump up from the 4.7-inch display on the current iPhone SE and would effectively put the phone in iPhone 16 territory, while rumors suggest it will also feature an A18 chip.
These rumors confirm some similar rumors we saw a few days ago from Fixed focus digital on Weibo, claiming that Apple’s most affordable model could use the same manufacturing process for the rear chassis as the iPhone 16. That could mean the phone will get the same vertical dual-lens camera setup as Apple’s 2024 flagship phone.
Despite the similarities, it’s almost certainly the launch dates of these two phones that will make the difference. It would be a huge surprise if the iPhone 16 didn’t come out in September, but this latest iPhone SE 4 leak suggests the model will arrive later, between March and May 2025.
That would largely fall in line with the series’ previous launches, with the iPhone SE 3 coming in March 2022 and the iPhone SE 2 in April 2020. Naturally, the iPhone SE 4 is expected to get a price bump – from $429 to somewhere between $499 and $549, according to this latest leak – but perhaps not as significant a hike as you might think given the upgrades.
A change for the SE series?
The iPhone SE series is mainly characterized by lower prices and smaller screens. If the rumors are true, this fourth-generation model would be quite a change.
For some, it would take away some of the iPhone SE’s key appeal. In addition to a small screen, the current model also has a Touch ID home button, which is a familiar feature to many.
That feature is likely to disappear from iPhones for good with the arrival of the iPhone SE 4, which will instead get Face ID, a USB-C port and possibly even the Dynamic Island system from the more expensive iPhones.
Now that the iPhone mini is almost certainly retired, Apple is reportedly not going to offer a smaller-screened smartphone in its lineup. That’s a trend that’s entirely based on demand, but it would still make the iPhone lineup look a bit more homogeneous than it does today.
The arrival of a powerful iPhone SE 4 would undoubtedly be welcomed by many, especially considering the existence of the series itself has often been called into question in recent months. And if you can resist the temptation to upgrade to an iPhone 16 in September, it could offer a viable alternative some six months later.