Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone SE 4 Launch is Imminent - What to Expect
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The 14 is the smallest high class smartphone on the market right now. There are smaller, cheaper ones from mostly chinese manufacturers.
Not wanting to cater to the "cheap" market is something else than simply not selling a device class.
If you include the iPad line Apple is selling everything from a rather compact digital assitant (iPad mini) to full blown workstation laptops. None of them are cheap, but they cover pretty much the entire range. Same for desktops, where they offer everything from the Mac mini, which is considerably inexpensive even for PC standards, up to a (currently a bit lacking) Workstation PC.
If you consequently applied your R&D, support and supply chain centric logic .... Apple should only sell the iPhone and maybe the Pro Max, since every other model they offer pales in comparison, especially the Plus, which sells almost (if not) as bad as the mini. Even more so: with this logic applied selling the SE doesn't make a hint of sense. Even if most of the hardware is basically old parts: since you actively cater to a market that is not willing to buy your high priced options you willingly compromise on margin, while still having to manage an albeit mostly existing supply chain and support an additional device 5 years down the line - plus there is some R&D even in the SE.
So, no, I respectfully reject that logic as flawed. There is a market for smaller phones, and I believe if the new SE really is basically the 14 all over again this will become very much apparent. The one thing I am willing to concede is that there is no room in Apples lineup for both the SE and the mini. Since it's inception the SE basically functioned as the "small" phone. The SE1 was the small alternative to the 6 to 10 era, and the SE2 and 3 filled that role since then. Cramming in a high priced flagship mini was the problem.
People that prefer a smaller phone are more utility centric. You want a portable device that works for communication and organisation, allows some basic time killer games or basic video consumption, works for navigation and to look up the next restaurant in a yiffy, and that has a camera to capture a nice moment, scan documents or document a car crash. They are the same crowd of people that are fine with buying basically a 3-4 years old phone with reduced features if it only does those things, has a decent few years of software support and costs a good bit less.
The SE crowd IS the mini crowd. And yes, two devices for one demographic .... that really ain't the way Apple does things.
Owned the Touch ID SE twice and was always very happy with it.
The thing I’m going to miss is the soap bar rounded edges. Still much prefer those over the uncomfortable square edges.
The thing I’m going to miss is the soap bar rounded edges. Still much prefer those over the uncomfortable square edges.
Dear Apple,
please keep the old design, add a headphone jack and give me a Plus version.
Thanks! 💖
please keep the old design, add a headphone jack and give me a Plus version.
Thanks! 💖
Luckily I stopped wearing watches before the first Apple Watch had been released. They always annoyed me somehow.
I wanted to look at the price and they are not sold anymore here, same for 14 and 15, because of Lighning...
I bought a refurbished (not by Apple) 256GB SE2 for less than €250 and a 256GB SE3 for less than €400 last year in April. Hope I can get one or two SE3 for the same price as the SE2. At the end of the year the prices were still similar.
I only remember there were refurbished SE3 in the Apple Store at the same time and even the 64GB was more expensive.
Not really. They want to monetize AI 💰
If the AI cannot be turned off (I don't know), it could be permanently allocated to the AI. So the available RAM for other tasks could be small, or even worse than before. Something to keep in mind.
And if the AI can be turned off, I think it will not be in the future. Apple will consider it an integral feature of the iPhone, totally embedded.
Really? So lots of people are going to go from a secure iPhone to a Chinese spyware device with inferior cameras, processors, screens and no OS upgrades?
6GB RAM is effectively obsolete thanks to AI. They're highly unlikely to put it in a product that's designed to stay in the lineup for several years.
The first SE also had better internal specs and camera than the iPhone 6 it was sold next to. This SE reminds me more of that idea than the souped-up iPhone 8 variants.
Xiaomi Mix Flip & Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6.
Try Xiaomi Mix Flip. It's HyperOS 2 is based on clean Android 15 which is smoother, faster and more stable than iOS 18. It looks just the same as iOS, so no need to adapt.
It won’t.
SE 4 will be 6GB RAM.
-Ain’t no way Apple is killing all iPhone 15 sales and a good chunk of iPhone 16/16 Plus sales just for a new <$499-$599 iPhone SE.
That is even bigger/heavier than the iPhones. I just don't see foldable or flip phones as an answer for those of us who just want a smaller phone.
will stay w/ my current iphone till they bring back iphone mini hopefully !