Other iPhone SE 4 - too good to be true?

[ls1dreams]

Seeing rumors of this $500 iPhone SE and it almost seems too good to be true.

What exactly would we be losing compared to an iPhone 16/17?

- A18 cpu is plenty
- OLED screen
- I actually prefer smaller (have an 13 mini right now)
- Rumors of it including SOS satellite messaging

Camera is prob good enough. I mean I'm tired of paying $1000 for a 256gb base iphone after tax.

What's the catch outside of worse camera and slightly smaller size? Maybe just screen won't be 120hz and no top tier cpu? (or maybe they'll just keep the SE4 one gen behind so like iPhone 17 will be on A19 while SE4 is on A18)

 

[Andeddu]

The SE4 will be an amazing phone for the price. It’ll probably have everything a standard 16 has minus the camera modules. If it turns out to be as good as we think it’ll be, I might even get one to relegate my 13 into a secondary device!

 

[JPack]

Front and rear camera sensors, Dynamic Island, Camera Control, base storage. Probably also MagSafe and AOD.

 

[ls1dreams]

Front and rear camera sensors, Dynamic Island, Camera Control, base storage. Probably also MagSafe and AOD.

Ya don't really care about any of those as long as rear camera is reasonably good.

No magsafe though might be annoying... do the SE's today not have it?

 

[adhdboy411]

If it's even just an iPhone 14 without the ultrawide but with an A18 or an A19, then it'll be an absolute steal for most people. Most people don't even care about the ultrawide. I know I just use it for weird perspective pictures.

 

[adhdboy411]

No FaceID but a side-mounted TouchID sensor, no ultrawide, no 120hz, no Dynamic Island, not even a 48 MP main camera - iPhone SE 4 would be a killer comeback to all the midrange Android phones of the world. Personally, this would get me 90% of the way there. Apple OLED is pretty good, the notch is... acceptable..., and with an A18 or A19? Pixel 8a be quakin' in its boots. Tensor G3 is a pretty weak chip. And Exynos? Forget it.

 

[JPack]

Ya don't really care about any of those as long as rear camera is reasonably good.

No magsafe though might be annoying... do the SE's today not have it?

Most consumers care about the camera - that's basically what Apple sells each year.

SE3 doesn't have MagSafe, but it was designed before iPhone 12.

 

[janeauburn]

People need a smartphone they can carry comfortably. Period.

Not this:

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Most consumers care about the camera - that's basically what Apple sells each year.

SE3 doesn't have MagSafe, but it was designed before iPhone 12.

They don't have magsafe, but they do have wireless charging. You can buy 3rd party SE cases with magsafe and then it works, more or less, the same.

Never owned or used a magsafe charging puck, so don't know if they work said cases or not.

 

[1rottenapple]

Seeing rumors of this $500 iPhone SE and it almost seems too good to be true.

What exactly would we be losing compared to an iPhone 16/17?

- A18 cpu is plenty
- OLED screen
- I actually prefer smaller (have an 13 mini right now)
- Rumors of it including SOS satellite messaging

Camera is prob good enough. I mean I'm tired of paying $1000 for a 256gb base iphone after tax.

What's the catch outside of worse camera and slightly smaller size? Maybe just screen won't be 120hz and no top tier cpu? (or maybe they'll just keep the SE4 one gen behind so like iPhone 17 will be on A19 while SE4 is on A18)

It seems like a great deal. If they have satellite calling damn I think I may ditch my 13 mini. I’d need the satellite for off road adventures. Pricing the iPhone 16 comes out to nearly 1k which is crazy!

Plus the current gen chipset are super efficient compared to the iPhone 15, it’s definitely a keep.

Don’t care about action button (don’t use it on my watch ultra) or camera button so don’t care if it’s not on the se.

One camera lens is fine I can live with that. I have a point in shoot for zooming into shots when I travels. And if the camera quality is on par as my 13… it’d great already!

 

[ab2c4]

Will it be possible for this phone, with only one camera, to do night mode?

 

[JPack]

Will it be possible for this phone, with only one camera, to do night mode?

Night mode doesn’t use more than one camera. It depends on the sensor.

 

[ab2c4]

Night mode doesn’t use more than one camera. It depends on the sensor.

Ah ok, for some reason I thought it required at least 2 lenses.

 

[ls1dreams]

They don't have magsafe, but they do have wireless charging. You can buy 3rd party SE cases with magsafe and then it works, more or less, the same.

Never owned or used a magsafe charging puck, so don't know if they work said cases or not.

What's the difference between magsafe and general wireless charging?
Same charging spec but just no magnet to have it stick to the charger?

 

[ls1dreams]

If it's even just an iPhone 14 without the ultrawide but with an A18 or an A19, then it'll be an absolute steal for most people. Most people don't even care about the ultrawide. I know I just use it for weird perspective pictures.

Ah forgot about ultrawide. I use that 0.5x quite a lot for travel/backpacking photos

 

[JPack]

Ah forgot about ultrawide. I use that 0.5x quite a lot for travel/backpacking photos

The UW lens is also for macro photos. The SE4 will be enough for those who don't need the best photos for everything, but anyone who's used macro or ultrawide will notice.

 

[limo79]

They do need to buy Qualcomm modems so cost is much lower and they can spend it on FaceID. One single camera can be better in some cases than camera in iP16 and 16 Pro. With an old iPhone 6S you can take photos from close distance and some details look much better because Apple f…d up totally picture quality in iPhone 16 and 16 Pro. I suppose that Apple collect camera metadata from users and since most of youngsters make selfies they do not take care about rest population using iPhones for more serious tasks. Data analysis and statistics have lost them. Possibly with the new SE4 they want to finish with:
- high quality japanese IPS displays (brightness in 6S was excellent) that can cost a lot today,
- small size iPhones (after finishing iPhone 12/13 Mini models),
- iPhone 14 and 15 models that offer better picture quality than iPhone 16 and cost is low.

I regret that they do not release SE4 with 5.7” screen (using 6.1” iPhone with one hand is difficult for me while I do not have any problem to stretch my fingers using complex chords so something is not right here in 6.1” models.

Please also keep in mind that Apple marketing directors put a lot of effort to make SE4 touch and feel experience much worse than iPhone 16 which is drastically worse then Pro models. Pro is miles away from non Pro model.