MacDailyNews: "iPhone SE 4 to sport Apple’s first 5G modem, A18 chip, 48MP wide camera"

I’ve always been a fan of the underdog, as far as the iPhone goes. Even owned an iPhone 5c once.
*Shudder*

I currently own an iPhone SE3 and enjoy every minute of it. These SE models do not get a whole lot of love from iPhone “purists”, but I have always enjoyed them, and I am very much looking forward to this new iPhone SE4. 🙂✌️

Hi! I've been using a second-generation iPhone SE for the last four-and-a-half years, so I know that by next year it will be time for me to do an iPhone upgrade. It sounds like the fourth-generation SE is likely to be pretty impressive compared to the first three generations of this model, so I hope that less people will look down on the SE 4 when it's released. As the upcoming SE 4 is likely to look a bit like an iPhone 14, I wonder if it will have a Lightning port like the 14, or get a USB-C connection like the 15 and 16 models: changing connection won't put me off upgrading, of course, but it's something I'm curious about.

We already get 5g hear in the UK and the wrest of the world, does America not have access to 5g or something?

That can't be the case so what's this modem thing for?

Sounds like a nice phone, especially compared with my non-Apple AI 13 mini, but I still want lidar, I most likely won't get one.

I wouldn't expect people to need a dongle to get 5G on the upcoming SE 4, as I've never heard of needing dongles to get 5G on any other iPhone models that can use it. Therefore, my theory is that maybe the modem is a new component within the SE 4, made by Apple instead of by someone else.

It's an in house 5g chip that apple have been working on for years. In the long term, it will bring down cost for manufacturing and integration with existing hardware. In terms of user experience, nothing will change in the short term, though it might mean that future phone's internal components can be shrunk.

How much do you think this will all cost? My bet is on at least £599/$599. It can't come in too cheap with such a similar feature set to the 16 or it will cannibalise more profitable sales.... Unless they are planning to suck up the loss over time as, they'll have this one on sale for another three years where it will lose relative value compared with 17/18 even 19.

Also, on the idea of downgrading the iPhone 15 pro, I don't see the point. By that point it is likely to be a like for like swap on price but you end up with a worse phone.

It's true that the iPhone 15 Pro will always have more features than any SE model has ever had, but that doesn't make the SE a bad phone. We don't all feel the need to have the latest and greatest, nor do we all want the extra features the pro models offer, plus the SE models are cheaper, those are good reasons to buy an SE model. I'm not saying that pro models are over-rated, far from it, I simply feel that people should buy the phone that suits them best, whether it has less features than other models or not.

My point was more for Denis, if he sells his iPhone 15 pro, it will probably be for the same amount as the SE4 will be, producing a net loss of features.

I completely understand others looking for phones with less of the bells and whistles that we really don't care about, but I'd suggest holding on to the iPhone 15 pro might be a better choice than the downgrade, even if there are features on the iPhone 15 pro which aren't useful.

Agree. If you want to use the camera features the pro is your baby.

I won't be upgrading then.

I'll be keeping my Iphone until apple stops supporting it.

It's the 13 so that will be another 2 to 4 years.

Apples AI would have to do something amazing to have me upgrade at this point.

Let's see how things go.

I understand why it is getting bigger, but one of the reasons I've most loved the SE line is that they have always been smaller than other phones. If I've researched correctly, I don't think this will be the case anymore. So I will likely keep my SE 3 until I am forced to upgrade. I also admit to having a fondness for Touch ID, and while that alone wouldn't stop me from upgrading, that plus the size difference isn't a win in my book.

I'm not interested in this phone, but when I read this post, the first thing I wondered about was battery life. They seem to be packing a lot of features into the new SE, but hopefully they also give it a bigger battery. Otherwise, I can see battery life being an issue.