iPhone SE 4 Dummies Feature iPhone 14-Style Design With No Action Button or Camera Control

[iGüey]

Touch ID on the power/wake button seems more likely to me given that's partly how Apple market engineers iPads.

Hope they keep Touch ID, as the SE is the perfect model for visually impaired folks / anyone who might struggle with Face ID.

As a motorcyclist, TouchID is perfect. Face ID is erratic due to the helmet etc.

I'm really not ready for the home button not to be a thing anymore. It's one of the main reasons I buy SEs.

Honestly I don’t think Apple will implement TouchID in anyway in this SE. The reason to keep the FaceID as we currently know it is, that if Apple give TouchID to the SE, they would be forced to get rid of the Dynamic Island thus having the first all screen iPhone of all times.

Obviously Apple is not going to give an all screen and to ride of Dynamic Island (giving just a punch hole) to its budget iPhone, because then the regulars (15, 16) and Pro iPhones would look antique at the instant.

So I think Apple will give Dynamic Island (or notch) and FaceID to this new SE, thus using old inner parts and screens from discontinued models.

 

[macdaddy43]

Am I the only one who actually would prefer no action button or camera control?

 

[RinkDinkus]

Welcome back, iPhone 4 🥹

 

[NT1440]

Which iPhone is a showcase of innovation since iPhone X?

I’m not sure why everyone expects a mature market segment to have breakthroughs anymore. Everything from DEX to air gestures have proven to be just gimmicks that regular people don’t adopt.

Smartphones have reached maturity, it’s not a market that is going to be revolutionized ever again. That’s just the reality of the situation 🤷‍♂️

For the record, I consider what’s under the hood to be innovative, but I understand that regular people don’t care about the specifics of things like the tetraprism (I don’t have the right name there) and full sensor OIS, they just like having good pictures and the best video recording in the industry 🤷‍♂️

 

[ss2cire]

based on the article title, I thought it was a new "For Dummies" book XD

in all seriousness, nifty but sometimes, just sometimes I wish we wouldn't get info like this, though my fault for checking a rumors site daily....

 

[9081094]

I’m not sure why everyone expects a mature market segment to have breakthroughs anymore. Everything from DEX to air gestures have proven to be just gimmicks that regular people don’t adopt.

Smartphones have reached maturity, it’s not a market that is going to be revolutionized ever again. That’s just the reality of the situation 🤷‍♂️

For the record, I consider what’s under the hood to be innovative, but I understand that regular people don’t care about the specifics of things like the tetraprism (I don’t have the right name there) and full sensor OIS, they just like having good pictures and the best video recording in the industry 🤷‍♂️

Ah, you’re talking about this phone?
Best photo and video capabilities on a mobile phone:

vivo X200 Pro-200MP ZEISS Camera & 6000mAh Battery | vivo Global

Experience the vivo X200 Pro with a 200MP ZEISS camera, 3nm Dimensity 9400 chip, and 6000mAh battery, designed for extreme conditions and vibrant photography.

www.vivo.com

Innovation isn’t dead on mobile phones and they haven’t matured already. Development is still in full swing. You only don’t see it coming from Apple.

 

[9081094]

Yeah I was sort of joking

It’s all sort of ludicrous….the effort they go to in order to protect the pricing scheme and tiers

To me, all iPhones should have the same interaction options and anything “pro” at this point should just be about higher end materials, faster internals and more/better camera stuff.

All could benefit from an action button folks could decide to use as they see fit … should be on all models IMO

If the rumors are true and they’ll go from titanium to aluminum for the pro models, it’s definitely a downgrade of premium.

 

[9081094]

Everything from DEX to air gestures have proven to be just gimmicks that regular people don’t adopt.

DEX has proven to be very successful. Imagine when you had the possibility of using macOS capabilities with your iPhone. Plug in your iPhone to a usb c monitor and power up your work on a big screen. That would be innovation.

Apple won’t allow it because it will cannabalize their computer business for easy word processing, mail and internet.

 

[9081094]

Welcome back, iPhone 4 🥹

To be honest, I personally love the design of the IPhone 4. If it’s all screen on the front, I’ll buy 😊 (without the Timmy tax of course)

 

[NT1440]

DEX has proven to be very successful. Imagine when you had the possibility of using macOS capabilities with your iPhone. Plug in your iPhone to a usb c monitor and power up your work on a big screen. That would be innovation.

Apple won’t allow it because it will cannabalize their computer business for easy word processing, mail and internet.

Can you qualify your statements? If your average person not only doesn’t use it, but doesn’t even know what it is, how is that success?

I’m curious to what you think “innovation” in the mobile space currently entails?

 

[9081094]

Can you qualify your statements? If your average person not only doesn’t use it, but doesn’t even know what it is, how is that success?

I’m curious to what you think “innovation” in the mobile space currently entails?

Well, Dex can be very helpful when you don’t have to to graphic intensive tasks.
What if your iPhone was able to only use your monitor for internet, mail, wordprocessing?

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Honestly I don’t think Apple will implement TouchID in anyway in this SE. The reason to keep the FaceID as we currently know it is, that if Apple give TouchID to the SE, they would be forced to get rid of the Dynamic Island thus having the first all screen iPhone of all times.

Obviously Apple is not going to give an all screen and to ride of Dynamic Island (giving just a punch hole) to its budget iPhone, because then the regulars (15, 16) and Pro iPhones would look antique at the instant.

So I think Apple will give Dynamic Island (or notch) and FaceID to this new SE, thus using old inner parts and screens from discontinued models.

You are right and will be proven right due to a few facts:

Apple has never given us an SE that offered a new product design to any extent. SE has only ever been an older iPhone with a decent but limited selection of internal upgrades, strategically picked to not steal sales of the mid-tier and high-end iPhones.

Reworking the old iPhone 14 design to get Touch ID on the side/Home button combined with a notch-less display would require sizable r&d costs that just add to production costs where they might not be necessary.

Why would Apple do more than what's necessary to entice the SE demographic? Why would it risk sales of 16 and 16 Pro by making SE 4 look like a completely new and exciting iPhone if SE 4 sells for <$799 and the 16 sells for >$799?

If anyone is expecting SE 4 to be more than iPhone 14 with A18 with 128GB storage, 8GB RAM and USB-C and sell for less than $799 then they are expecting way too much.

 

[9081094]

Can you qualify your statements? If your average person not only doesn’t use it, but doesn’t even know what it is, how is that success?

I’m curious to what you think “innovation” in the mobile space currently entails?

Here are some:

 

[hans1972]

So much innovation it hurts!

Found an early leak of the dummy for iPhone 72

Apple customers have to pay for innovation.

This is a product which serves two other purposes:
1. For customers: Cheaper than other iPhones for those who can't or won't spend a lot of money
2. For Apple: Extract money from #1

To achieve this, Apple needs the phone to be good enough for common usage, but not so good it lures people from regular iPhones to it. And it can't be so bad that people move to android.

It's a real balancing act and I envy those at Apple who needs to grapple with these kind of problems.

 

[hans1972]

An extra button blows the budget?

It's not about cost but to protect income from the other models.

Apple doesn't exist to provide customers with the most hardware and features for the lowest price possible. It's almost the opposite.

 

[9081094]

Apple customers have to pay for innovation.

This is a product which serves two other purposes:
1. For customers: Cheaper than other iPhones for those who can't or won't spend a lot of money
2. For Apple: Extract money from #1

To achieve this, Apple needs the phone to be good enough for common usage, but not so good it lures people from regular iPhones to it.

Well… there are enough other choices who already offer the same for half the rumored SE prices. Only when you’ve never looked outside the wallet garden this will be a great release 😂

 

[hans1972]

If so I suspect it in the $ 399 range because otherwise it has no features to compete with competitors.

This phone offers two unique features absent from Android devices: iOS and seamless integration with Apple’s ecosystem.

If it ran Android and connected to Samsung’s ecosystem, no one would justify purchasing it at Apple’s prices.

For millions, the idea of abandoning the familiar iOS is so unsettling that they are willing to endure considerable inconvenience and expense to avoid it. If this weren’t the case, they would already have switched to Android.

 

[9081094]

This phone offers two unique features absent from Android devices: iOS and seamless integration with Apple’s ecosystem.

If it ran Android and connected to Samsung’s ecosystem, no one would justify purchasing it at Apple’s prices.

For millions, the idea of abandoning the familiar iOS is so unsettling that they are willing to endure considerable inconvenience and expense to avoid it. If this weren’t the case, they would already have switched to Android.

Apple better ups the ante big time because they’ve sold 25% less iPhones in quarter 4 2024 than they did in quarter 4 2023.

Together with their pale updates year after year and their buggy release of iOS 18, failure of Siri and lack of new software futures, it’s quite understandable why.

 

[surferfb]

Apple better ups the ante big time because they’ve sold 25% less iPhones in quarter 4 2024 than they did in quarter 4 2023.

Together with their pale updates year after year and their buggy release of iOS 18, failure of Siri and lack of new software futures, it’s quite understandable why.

For those of us who have been around for a while, we've been hearing "the iPhone killer is here" since Google switched Android from being a Blackberry rip off to an iPhone rip off. The Nexus was going to kill iPhone, then the Galaxy, the HTC One, the the Nokia Lumia with its 41 megapixel camera (in 2013); now it's foldable phones and Chinese manufacturers. So pardon us if we roll our eyes. iPhone will be fine.

There are cycles when it is the "it" phone in China, and then cycles when it isn't. Looking from a long term view, the business continues to grow. I am sure one day it will stop; but given we've heard it literally five times a year since 2007, linking to a random YouTuber with two clearly clickbait videos isn't going to change our minds. Apple's target customers don't care about having the best technical specs and are ok paying more to get an Apple device because of the integration with the ecosystem and iOS, as @hans1972 pointed out.

It's clear the way Apple does business isn't for you. That's fine - there are some great Android devices out there. I suspect you'll be happier over there. But coming on here and telling everyone the sky is falling, Apple is doomed, calling Apple's CEO a belittling nickname in every post (and your signature) isn't going to change hearts and minds - we've literally heard it hundreds of times from hundreds of posters over decades.

 

[d686546s]

Honestly I don’t think Apple will implement TouchID in anyway in this SE. The reason to keep the FaceID as we currently know it is, that if Apple give TouchID to the SE, they would be forced to get rid of the Dynamic Island thus having the first all screen iPhone of all times.

Obviously Apple is not going to give an all screen and to ride of Dynamic Island (giving just a punch hole) to its budget iPhone, because then the regulars (15, 16) and Pro iPhones would look antique at the instant.

So I think Apple will give Dynamic Island (or notch) and FaceID to this new SE, thus using old inner parts and screens from discontinued models.

My MacBook Air has a notch with nothing else than a camera in it without supporting FaceID, so if Apple wanted they could do TouchID without getting rid of the notch or the Dynamic Island.

That being said, there's plenty of other reasons why they might not want to engineer TouchID into an existing design and I'm pretty sure the next SE will not come with it.

 

[hans1972]

Well… there are enough other choices who already offer the same for half the rumored SE prices. Only when you’ve never looked outside the wallet garden this will be a great release 😂

They don't offer iOS and access to Apple's ecosystem. It's two of the most important features of an iPhone.

You don't understand why customers buy Apple's products and services.

 

[hans1972]

Apple better ups the ante big time because they’ve sold 25% less iPhones in quarter 4 2024 than they did in quarter 4 2023.

Together with their pale updates year after year and their buggy release of iOS 18, failure of Siri and lack of new software futures, it’s quite understandable why.

You lack an understanding of the Chinese smartphone market.

Canalys reported a 25% YoY decline in sales in mainland China not worldwide. And that's not the first time either. Just two years ago Canalys reported a 24% YoY decline in China for Apple.

It has been extremely difficult for non-Chinese companies to compete. Samsung used to be the largest player with up to 30% market share. Now it's less than 1%. Why was Samsung outcompeted in China by Apple, even though Samsung had more features, more hardware and cheaper phones? Not even DEX could make Samsung a comeback in China.

Here are Apple's iPhone sales (in millions) in mainland China according to Canalys:
Q4 2024: 13.1
Q4 2023: 17.5
Q4 2022: 16.4
Q4 2021: 21.5
Q4 2020: 15.3
Q4 2019: 12.7

There is no pattern here year to year.

The reason is that the China smartphone market has had other effects which are equally important as features and price:

2019: US sanctions against Huawei, the biggest smartphone maker in China at that time
2020-2022: Covid-19 lockdowns which affected the Chinese manufacturers more than Apple/Foxconn
Q4 2023->Today: Restrictions on foreign devices for government users and generally a anti-western sentiment also

Apple being the third largest phone maker in China is fantastic and I wouldn't be surprised at all if Apple's share continues to decline for several years.

 

[9081094]

They don't offer iOS and access to Apple's ecosystem. It's two of the most important features of an iPhone.

You don't understand why customers buy Apple's products and services.

Because I don’t agree with your way of thinking doesn’t mean I don’t understand.

I’ll understand that the biggest part of Apple customers just buy Apple because they’re accustomed to it and don’t even bother to look somewhere else.

You think iOS and MacOS are the only ones offering an ecosystem where devices work seemingly together. That’s thinking of a decade ago.

All big tech companies offer the same ecosystem possibilities as Apple does and many more advanced.

Welcome to 2025!

 

[NT1440]

Well, Dex can be very helpful when you don’t have to to graphic intensive tasks.
What if your iPhone was able to only use your monitor for internet, mail, wordprocessing?

Listen, I clearly understand what Dex is. But that’s not the conversation at hand. Is it really “innovation” worth talking about when next to no one actually uses it?

 

[9081094]

Listen, I clearly understand what Dex is. But that’s not the conversation at hand. Is it really “innovation” worth talking about when next to no one actually uses it?

It has tons of more users than the Apple Vision Pro 😂

In case you don’t use it, doesn’t mean nobody uses it. What is it with those Apple fanatics?