Rumors about the iPhone SE 4: What surprises await us? 🤔

💡 Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone SE as early as next week, which could mark a major shake-up for the budget iPhone lineup, bringing Face ID and ditching the classic home button. After months of leaks and rumors, we have a good idea of what's coming, so here's everything we expect to see next week.

There will be no home button…

🔄 The most significant change is that Apple is revolutionizing the design of the iPhone SE, which has remained largely unchanged since its launch in 2016. The SE 2022 was the last model to feature a home button, with thick bezels on the top and bottom of the screen. But rumors indicate that Apple will leave the button behind, reduce the frame and add Face ID.

The result will be a phone that resembles the front of the iPhone 14. Like that model, it is expected to place the Face ID sensors in a notch, rather than using the less intrusive Dynamic Island design introduced on the 14 Pro and present on all iPhones since. Apple seems not to want the SE series to be at the forefront.

We've seen the notch-equipped design in a video shared by leaker Majin Bu, which shows what is likely a non-functional test unit, used by the manufacturers of covers to design and test your accessories.

…but there will be an action button

🔘 Bu's video suggests that the SE 4 will include a sleep button customizable action, although not the Camera Control introduced in the iPhone 16.

Like other SE models, it seems it will maintain a single rear camera. A leaked specifications list suggests the SE will use a 48-megapixel sensor on the back, with a 12-megapixel selfie camera on the front, although this is an area where there have been few reports so far. 📷

It won't be a small phone

📱 Reinvention will allow SE 2025 to have a larger screen than the 4.7 inch panel used by the 2022 model. This time it is expected to use a 6.1-inch screen, the same size as the standard iPhone 16, and will also upgrade to OLED.

The increase in screen means that the phone as a whole will be larger than any previous iPhone SE, and there will no longer be iPhones smaller than the standard model. If we assume that the new phone will have similar dimensions to the iPhone 16, it could be 9mm taller than the SE 2022 and weigh around 25g more. ⚖️

Goodbye Lightning, hello USB-C

🔌 It is quite likely that the phone has a USB-C port instead of Lightning, allowing it to be marketed again in the EU. The previous SE model was discontinued in EU markets along with all other iPhones that used a Lightning port.

It will be one of the most powerful iPhones

🔋 Inside, Bloomberg reports that the phone will use the same A18 chip as the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models. This is the same approach that Apple has used for its last two phones SE, combining the latest silicon with older designs. The A18 is expected to be paired with an increase to 8GB of RAM, the minimum required to run Apple Intelligence, the company's AI tools that provide notification summaries and other features, now enabled by default. This would make it more powerful than the 2023 iPhone 15! 🚀

It will even surpass this year's iPhone 17 series, featuring Apple's first self-made 5G modem, replacing the Qualcomm components that iPhones have used in the past. Apple has been developing its own modems for over half a decade, but Bloomberg warns that the first iteration is a «downgrade» compared to the modem in recent high-end iPhones, and will not support 5G mmWave, only sub-6, although that was also true for the last iPhone SE.

Although previous rumors pointed to a launch in March or April, Bloomberg reports that Apple will announce the phone next week, though it is not expected to go on sale until later in the month. A price of “around $500” is predicted, more higher than the initial price of the model 2022 of $429. This could be offset by a base storage specification of 128 GB, meaning there will no longer be any 64 GB iPhones on the market. 💵

There's also a chance it won't be called the iPhone SE after all. Two leakers have predicted it will be called the iPhone 16E, though since the SE name has been popping up more often, we think that's still more likely. 🤔

And Bloomberg is right, we won't have to wait long to find out. The SE would be the first of several major iPhone launches this year, as Apple is expected to reveal a thinner iPhone 17 Air, as well as “major updates” for the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro. 📅✨