iPhone SE 4: everything you need to know about Apple's next affordable smartphone
After the iPhone 16, 16 More, 16 Pro And 16 Pro Maxand before the formalization of the highly anticipated iPhone 17 at the start of the next school year, Apple is preparing to unveil a new generation of products. Indeed, the iPhone SE 4 is on track to take its first steps in early 2025, and the good news is that it should benefit from a multitude of advantages compared to its predecessor, which is about to blow out its third candle. It would also constitute a nice alternative to theiPhone 16with even a little extra something.
Design
The design of the iPhone SE 4 probably has nothing to do with that of the iPhone SE 3. The smartphone should in fact borrow everything from another model marketed by Apple: theiPhone 14.
The rumors are indeed counting on using the same chassis than this model released in 2022 and featuring flat edges. As a bonus, the same front panel would be there, with a 6.1-inch Oled panel, a notch and Face ID technology.
The iPhone SE 4 would thus gain a much larger and better quality screen, would abandon the black bands at the top and bottom of the screen, and would replace the Touch ID fingerprint sensor with facial recognition.
But this future model would not only be inspired by the iPhone 14. The back of the terminal would in fact be inspired by theiPhone 7 Plusthe photo module sporting a horizontal format, and containing a single sensor with wide-angle optics.
Performance
It is now time to tackle power, an area that Apple has undoubtedly mastered with its A chips. With the iPhone SE 4, Apple would stay up to date by adopting the chipset of iPhone 16 and 16 Plus: theA18.
To this would be added 8 GB of RAM, the same amount of RAM as that included in the two 2024 flagships. And all this would be justified by a very good reason: the compatibility of the iPhone SE 4 with Apple Intelligence.
The Apple firm intends to make its artificial intelligence-boosted tools a solid selling point (although they are not yet available in France…). We also expect Apple to hit hard when the iPhone SE 4 is made official with a potential opening of Apple Intelligence to European languagesincluding French.
Compared to all other iPhones, this future model would have an exclusive component: a 5G modem made by Apple. Thanks to the latter, Apple would move away from its dependence on Qualcomm for this component, and would notably gain an advantage in terms of energy consumption.
Photo
Developments will also take place on the photo side for the iPhone SE 4, with the main new feature: a 48 Mpx main sensor at the back. The smartphone would thus accommodate the lens made available in 2023 on theiPhone 15bringing the technology of pixel-binning and the equivalent of a x2 zoom via cropping the image.
We would thus say goodbye to the 12 Mpx sensor used on the iPhone SE 2 and SE 3and which came from the iPhone 8. Enough to obtain more detailed shots, zoom without loss of quality and have better results in low light.
Battery
In terms of autonomy, the iPhone SE 4 would have very good promises. Knowing that it would have the body of the iPhone 14, we expect a similar battery: the A2863. With a capacity of 3,279 mAh, it simply has a capacity 60% higher than that of 2,018 mAh on board the iPhone SE 3.
Our aim tests of these two models also show a diametrically different autonomy between the two models: 12 hours and 34 minutes for the iPhone SE 3 and 24 hours and 38 minutes for the iPhone 14.
The iPhone SE 4 would thus gain at least 12 hours of additional battery life compared to the current SE model. As a bonus, the better energy efficiency of the A18 chip could further improve the endurance of this new model.
In addition to this drastically improved autonomy, this next Apple smartphone would benefit from something new in terms of charging: MagSafe wireless charging technology. It would also be limited to a power of 15 W, as on the iPhone 14 and 15 (which is much better than the 7.5 W of Qi wireless charging on the iPhone SE 3).
Price
Faced with this slew of new features compared to the iPhone SE 3, we expect a price increase for this fourth generation. However, little information has come out on this subject.
The latest news, 9to5Mac estimated in September 2024 that all of the new features would result in a price of $499 for the iPhone SE 4, an increase of $70 compared to the model currently on sale. This would nevertheless make it one of the most attractive devices compared to the iPhone 16, with a selling price $300 lower.
It now remains to be seen how this increase will impact the European market, and particularly the French one. In the best of all worlds, we can expect a selling price of €599, or €70 more compared to the iPhone SE 3 and €370 less compared to the iPhone 16.
Release date
Four months is the time that remains before the announcement of the iPhone SE 4. The various informants actually agree on the same launch period : March 2025.
In itself, this is not very surprising if we follow Apple's usual strategy for announcing its affordable smartphones, which usually takes place at the beginning of spring. The first generation of iPhone SE actually arrived on March 21, 2016, compared to April 15, 2020 for the second and March 8, 2022 for the third.
