Also will likely be the smallest phone capable of running Apple AI
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iPhone SE 4 to Complete Apple's Switch to OLED Across iPhone Lineup
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If this ends up with the Apple 5g modem I wonder if they will use their own modem it in the 17 series next year.
Well, it depends on our “new” interpretation, like new (never used before) or a new model (never produced before). Considering Apple switched their iPhone 15 line to USB-C last year, I get a feeling it might be the former.
I just wish they'd make a SE+. Preferably with the current design, because home button + Touch ID is better than idiotic notch without a home button.
OLED is stupid, LCD is better. The "less power" nonsense is a lie when you run in normal mode at full brightness, and since dim dark mode is hard to read, people who like their eyeballs don't save any power with a display that degrades over time.
OLED is stupid, LCD is better. The "less power" nonsense is a lie when you run in normal mode at full brightness, and since dim dark mode is hard to read, people who like their eyeballs don't save any power with a display that degrades over time.
I don't have a specific opinion on OLED vs LCD, but you run your OLED iPhone at full brightness? Unless I'm in direct sun, full brightness on my 13 Pro blows my eyes out. I usually keep it around 50% and that is more than bright enough.
I keep my work-issued SE 2022 screen brightness about the same.
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That's my biggest concern. The SE as it is, is the phone of choice for many of the visually impaired. It's much easier for a blind person to use the home button, than it is for them to guess if Face ID worked. The home button is a nice confirmation of actions, especially for the older visually impaired.
I guess I'll be looking at the current SE after all, for visually handicapped older relative.
Was really hoping the home button would stay. Obviously fancier or nicer screens mean little to them. Just have access to Siri to help & be in the Apple ecosystem for other things.
Yep. Unless it's on the dashboard running Waze when I'm driving at night, it's at full brightness. At 50% it's WAY too dim.
My current phone is an XS Max, since it runs iOS 18 I'll be keeping it at least another year. But I've touched the 15 Pro Max, first thing I did was set it to full brightness so I could see it better, it wasn't noticeably brighter to me.
Just use the ActionButton and assign that as a home button.
Many older have issues with the touch ID as fingerprints doesn't work as well with older peoples fingers as well.
- Go to shortcuts and click all shortcuts
- and press + to create a short cut
- type in “Go to homescreen”
- Go to settings>action button>shortcuts>type in “go to Home Screen”.
Wow, I'm not terribly light sensitive, but I couldn't handle that. In the dark, my brightness slider is just barely above minimum.
You’re stuck in the believe that there will be an iPhone 14 to compete with an iPhone SE 4.
It’s more likely that there is no iPhone 14 to compete with at all. You’ll have a (max) $599 iPhone SE 4 that replaces the iPhone 14. It makes sense both for customers and Apple: for customers, this will be the base model much like the iPad 10 is in the iPad line-up. For Apple it also makes sense: they’re harmonizing production lines by using the same chassis, reducing the sprawl of A-series chips (as, by the time the SE4 will come out with A18, they’ll be able to phase out production for the A14, A15, A16 and A17 Pro chip) - basically, improved profit margins all around.
I bet the iPhone line-up is going to look something like this (maybe some $100 deviations in price here and there):
$4-599 iPhone SE 4
$799 iPhone 16
$999 iPhone 16 Pro
It will also be very easy to market: if you’ve got 10 people, 1 of them just wants the cheapest, 8 of them want the newest without splurging and 1 of them is a tech enthusiast, ‘influencer’, whatever who want the absolute best.
iPhone SE 4
Apple’s best value for money proposition, like the iPad 10. You know you’re not getting everything, but what you’re getting is good. Sure, it’s only got 1 camera: but the one you’ve got, takes fantastic HDR shots. The display is OLED… and sure it’s not 120 Hz, sure it’s not as bright as the more expensive models and sure it’s got a notch instead of a dynamic island but it’s still very good. You’re getting longevity and ‘world class performance’ (A18).
You’re getting a good deal. Apple as well: they’ve been buying these camera modules for years now, so costs have gone quite a bit. That display? Basically the same as the one in iPhone 13. The A18 chip? Yeah, a good deal for the customer, but surely a good deal for Apple as well… because they buy A LOT OF THEM, because they are putting them in ALL their new iPhones - which means much better margins per chip per device.
And make no mistake: the same base chassis, the same chip across the entire iPhone line-up, it might cost al little more short term, but it all improves margins compared to the iPhone 14 in just a few months. Surely, they’ll also leave some things out compared to iPhone 14. Maybe no satellite connectivity. Or no MagSafe. Instead of 2 cameras it might have just 1. They might use the iPhone 13’s front camera module to improve margins even more. Maybe it starts at 64 GB instead of 128 GB. Or whatever. They’ll drop some stuff which customers won’t even notice. Regardless what they’re going to do, this device will be cheaper to produce than the iPhone 14. iPhone 14 will be $599 next month, so that’s going to be the max. They’ll probably, though, push for $499, but that will be based on how final margins turn out. So we’ll see, somewhere between $499-$599.
iPhone 16
This will be marketed as the new iPhone. This is iPhone. You get an awesome display with dynamic island. You get multiple cameras, because why not! You get the action button. Oh, and talking about photos and cameras… did you know we’ve now got a capture button ’which is build specifically for the iPhone camera’.
iPhone 16 Pro
For the real enthusiasts. Influencers. Pros. You get a third camera with a lot of zoom! You get more premium materials! You get faster frame rates. Etcetera!
Or alternatively, they reserve their AI features for their more expensive models in order to differentiate them, although personally I couldn’t care less about AI.
The chassis is not decided by display size or something like that. It’s the underlying platform which is the foundation of how a device is engineered. In a sense, you could compare it to cars: on first sight, we see so many different cars from the same manufacturer on the road. In reality, the chassis or engineering foundations of these cars are often identical.
For what’s it worth: how the display fits in a device has got more to do with the type of technologies surrounding the front panel rather than the chassis.
Rumours have also pointed to the SE 4 (=6.1” notch), 16 (=6.1” dynamic) and 16 Pro (=6.3” dynamic) all being build on the same engineering foundations. (Remember the cars: that does not necessarily mean equal design).
Blind person here, and you absolutely do not speak for us all.
Just like sited people, some of us get used to it and the rest will eventually get used to it.
And, especially for VoiceOver users, FaceID and TouchID are identified by the exact same unlocking sound, so it absolutely isn’t any more or less difficult to know if it worked or not because it literally will tell you if it worked or not.
The new phones only get brighter in certain lighting conditions.
When manually adjusting the brightness I believe it still maxes out around 1000 Nits.
Doesn't make sense because the SE have the same chip as the regular iPhone when launched and with the SE rumoured to be have FaceID, full screen OLED and Apple Intelligence support I don't think it would be seen as "cheaping out."
SE has always been a budget minded device utilizing older components to keep costs down and the latest SoC to provide excellent performance. It wouldn't make sense for Apple to manufacture a new chassis for the SE when the new style easily reparable front/rear design is available in the iPhone 14 chassis.. If Apple goes your route, I don't see how they can avoid raising the price point which would put the base SE in the $599 category.
Good/Better/Best has been part of product development for an age. Apple have for too long kept their lines muddied with multiple models that serve no purpose. I actually hope the 14 does get binned. I could see the 15 staying around though, at least until the SE4 is ready for primetime.
What you'll probably think is even weirder is that my eyes are very sunlight sensitive. I don't walk outside without sunglasses most days, the full wraparound kind that almost seal around the edges. Full sunlight is painful.
They haven’t developed a new chassis for the SE. According to the rumours, they have developed a universal chassis across all new iPhone models. Remember, they update the SE only once every 2 or 3 years. Would it be more economical to, for a period of 3 years, maintain 2 production lines… or just 1?
Remember. Chassis != design. You must see it as the engineering foundations, around which a device is build.
This SE 4 will in many ways look just like an iPhone 14. It will have the same display - even more likely: the display assembly’s probably identical to the one in the iPhone 14 (with the same ‘ease of reparability’). It might share exactly the same battery with the same amount of mAh.
No worries. They’ll certainly recycle iPhone 14 components.
The areas where they save additional money compared to iPhone 14 is:
- using the same ‘chassis’ (= engineering foundations) as the rest of the iPhone line-up (= scale of economics)
- maybe even using components older than the one in iPhone 14 (like, for example, iPad 9, iPad 10, iPhone 12 or iPhone 13 components)
- dropping some features/making different decisions (for example binned A18 chips which didn‘t make the cut for the regular 16 or 16 Pro models, or dropping MagSafe support, dropping satellite connectivity support, maybe not starting with 128 GB, etc.)
The SE 4 is not an upgraded iPhone 14. The SE 4 is a mix of upgrades (like A18 chip), downgrades (dropping features) and (what we don’t see but what Apple will notice: ) a similar engineering foundation (chassis) across all new iPhone models (benefit: scale of economics). For all intents and purposes, the SE 4 will be cheaper to produce than the iPhone 14.
And remember, even the upgrade to the A18 chip is not something that necessarily means Apple makes less profit. In fact, it’s probably cheaper than keeping the A15 or A16 chip. If they move all new iPhones (and the iPad 11 & iPad mini) to the A18 chip, than:
1) the cost of a single A18 chip will go down across the entire product line-up (scale of economics)
2) they no longer need to maintain production lines for A14, A15, A16 and A17 Pro chips (which they’ve still got to do today as the line-up is a mess) <— this will reduce costs and increase profits
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It made sense for years. You had the newest iPhone, for $100 last year’s, and for $100 less again the model from the year before.
Now it’s a combination of ‘standard’, mini, Pro, Plus, SE models (across multiple introduction years…).
Obviously they won’t drop iPhone 14 or iPhone 15 until SE 4 is ready. That would leave them with just 2 models in the holiday season and that’s a bit too much of a risk.
Maybe iPhone 15 will stick around after the SE 4‘s launch, we’ll see - maybe through carriers, third party retailers, etc. Or something like that.
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This is also possible, yet I would expect Apple to want it on as many devices as possible, so it can learn and develop faster?
rational or not, I don't have to worry about accidentally burning in the screen if I accidentally fall asleep with a long video or static screen displaying with LCDs
they also likely perceive AI search as a very good potential revenue generator, like what they get from Google being default search engine.