iPhone SE 4 Could Include A18 Chip, All-in-One Apple-Designed 5G Modem With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS

[Wagbh]

What they ought to be doing from a naming perspective is the exact opposite. Align iPhone versions with the A chip they contain.
Skip the iPhone 18&19 in 2026 and go straight to iPhone XX with the A20 chip...

 

[sublunar]

What they ought to be doing from a naming perspective is the exact opposite. Align iPhone versions with the A chip they contain.
Skip the iPhone 18&19 in 2026 and go straight to iPhone XX with the A20 chip...

Doesn’t really work if they go back to holding back CPUs again like they did for the iPhone 14-16

 

[sublunar]

Comparing the $599 14 to a possible $429 to $488 SE 4, isn't a 1 for 1 comparison, as SE 3 starts at 64 Gb and 14 starts at 128 Gb.

If you compared the the same capacity of each with 128 Gb, the SE increases to $479 vs 14's $599.

With the big upgrade to SE, I'd bet we see the starting price increase to least $479 for 64 Gb, and $529 for a 128 Gb, meaning it will only be $70 cheaper than 14 at the same capacity, but lacking ultra wide rear camera, probably mmWave 5G, maybe no U1 chip, and no 512 Gb option.

Presence of U1 chip for air tag might be a factor - could it trip people up who own one and try to downsize to the SE?

I think restricting capacities to 64/128/256 like the other SE phones might be another sales factor although it’s high time the 64 sku was killed off. A small price increase due to bigger screen would be expected / making it even bigger due to a base 128gb sku would make sense too.

 

[Thehangmn]

I'm eager to see how the apple designed Modems will perform. I would remain happy with slightly lower performance than Qualcomm, but same/similar performance would be impressive, will be interesting to see where they take things.

If they pull this off it would be pretty amazing.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I don't understand who buys the SE.

1 word.

"Cheap"

 

[BoredTechEnthusiast]

1 word.

"Cheap"

*inexpensive.

 

[BoredTechEnthusiast]

I'm eager to see how the apple designed Modems will perform. I would remain happy with slightly lower performance than Qualcomm, but same/similar performance would be impressive, will be interesting to see where they take things.

If they pull this off it would be pretty amazing.

Modem game is tough. But if any OEM can ace it (other than Qualcomm) then it's Apple + TSMC Partnership. Pretty confident that they can pull this off.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

*inexpensive.

I was describing the buyer - not the product! /s

 

[BoredTechEnthusiast]

I was describing the buyer - not the product! /s

Oh! I think you misspelt "Smart" when you were describing the buyer.

 

[Chuckeee]

I think Apple has found a breakthrough or else they would not be aggressively going forward with there own custom 5G modem

If this new Apple modem really provided any sort of performance breakthrough (Sensitivity or power consumption) I would have thought that it would debut in an iPhone Pro model not an iPhone SE model. I suspect it’s more likely that it’s sacrifices some performance for a lower cost

 

[cdsapplefan]

If this new Apple modem really provided any sort of performance breakthrough (Sensitivity or power consumption) I would have thought that it would debut in an iPhone Pro model not an iPhone SE model. I suspect it’s more likely that it’s sacrifices some performance for a lower cost

What I mean about breakthrough is that they won’t have to pay Qualcomm for any patent royalty fees. Apple could care less about outperforming Qualcomm modems. Just as long as the modem performs sufficiently without overheating. There modem will get better over time. If you want quality I would veer away from the first generation as there could be software bugs that they have to iron out over time.

 

[taliz]

Seeing that they support Apple intelligence on the new iPad mini with the A17 makes me think the SE might also get the A17(or even A16).
The SE is all hyped up now but I think Apple will do something like this to soften demand a bit and steer people towards iPhone 16.