Earlier this year, they were rumours that Apple culled their plans to for a next generation iPhone SE. It seems like while they were true, Apple has decided to restart the project again with plans of a 2024 launch.
According to Apple analyst Ming Chi Kuo, Cupertino is revisiting the iPhone SE 4th Gen project and will finally be using their own in-house version of a 5G baseband chip. This was reportedly a pain point for Apple, with their own 5G chips unable to match Qualcomm’s in quality prior to this. However, Kuo believes that not only will the iPhone SE adopt this in-house 5G chip, it will also lead to a decline of 5G chip sales from Qualcomm to Apple in the near future.
This new 5G chip by Apple is believed to be built on the 4nm process and only supports the sub-6GHz band for now. Cupertino isn’t sure just yet though if it’ll be good enough to be used in the main iPhone 16 series, but if it works well in the iPhone SE they could use it in the iPad and Watch lineup too.
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— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) February 27, 2023
2. The new iPhone SE 4 will equip with Apple's 5G baseband chip produced by a 4nm process (similar to 5nm) and will only support Sub-6GHz as the current plan.
Other than that, another surprise from Kuo is that the new iPhone SE could be based on the iPhone 14, instead of the iPhone XR as previously speculated. This means that the entry-level iPhone should finally have an OLED display rather than an LCD one. We should expect some minor modifications to the base design of the iPhone 14 though when the SE debuts.
The current iPhone SE launched just last year of course, but you might not believe it considering it’s dated design based on the iPhone 8. While it’s still one of the cheapest iPhones you can buy from Apple brand new at RM2,249 for a 64GB model, it’s a tough sell considering the design and a tiny 4.7-inch HD display. It does however pack the same Apple A15 Bionic processor that’s found under the hood of the iPhone 13. Perhaps with a makeover, Apple can breathe some new life into the iPhone SE next year.
