If you have been holding onto an older iPhone 7 or 8 or the latest iPhone SE, because you love the Home Button design and don’t want to switch to a newer iPhone with Face ID, then it looks like you may be out of luck when you come to upgrade to your next iPhone.
The most recent iPhone SE came out in 2022 and retained the classic design that Apple started with the iPhone 6 way back in 2014 with a Home Button and 4.7-inch 16:9 LCD screen. Despite the eight year gap between these devices – and now nearly a full decade since it was introduced – Apple has kept the iPhone SE in its line up both as a familiar design for those who don’t want to change, and also as the most affordable iPhone available at £479 (it actually cost £419 at launch – thanks a lot, economy).
But according to a rumour from trusted phone leaker Ice Universe, Apple is working on a new iPhone SE 4 that will see it get a larger screen that will also be a better quality OLED for the first time on the SE line, rather than LCD. A bigger display, according to previous rumours, means the new iPhone SE will use Face ID, gaining the notch design introduced on the iPhone X and found on the iPhone 13 and 14 – the SE is unlikely to get the Dynamic Island widget design of the iPhone 15.
According to Macrumors, leaks suggest the iPhone SE 4’s screen will be 6.06-inches, which makes it basically the same size as the regular iPhone 14. For all intents and purposes, we could well see the iPhone 14 retired and changed slightly to be remarketed as the iPhone SE, with a newer chipset to keep it up to date.
In all three previous models of the iPhone SE, Apple has used an older design but the latest processor inside to give buyers a cheaper but still technologically capable iPhone option. It looks like that trend is set to continue.
We’re excited for this, as it means Apple will be selling a modern design iPhone for cheaper than the iPhone 14, which currently costs £699. But at the same time, we have pangs of nostalgia for the Home Button, and it is still a useful way to navigate a phone, even in 2024 when the majority of smartphones now work via swipe gestures.
One downgrade could be the camera, with rumours pointing to a single 48MP camera rather than the dual lenses found on the iPhone 14. The new iPhone SE is expected to launch between March and May of 2025, which is about six months after the expected September 2024 launch of the iPhone 16 series.
If these rumours prove accurate and Apple can keep the new SE at the same £479 price of the current model while updating the tech, it could prove one of the best-value iPhones ever made.
