Apple’s 4th-Gen iPhone SE Could Be Revealed Next Week

Apple’s 4th-gen iPhone SE may come sooner than expected. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman just reported that the new “low-cost” iPhone may be announced “as early as next week,” with shipments starting later this month.

The usually well-informed reporter believes that Apple will announce this new iPhone SE via a simple press release, just as it did with its first M4-based Macs in October. If Apple launched the 3rd-gen iPhone SE a bit later in the year in March 2022, the company has now stopped selling this model in the EU due to a new local law requiring phones sold in the region to use a USB-C port.

The 4th gen iPhone SE is expected to use the same design as the iPhone 14 from 2022, with a simpler camera system on the back with just one sensor. Under the hood, the device should feature the same A18 chip as the new iPhone 16 and 8GB of RAM to enable Apple Intelligence features. Additionally, the new iPhone SE should be the first iPhone to use a new in-house modem, marking the beginning of a multi-year effort from Apple to replace Qualcomm modems in its mobile devices.

With this new iPhone SE potentially being just as powerful as the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, it will likely be more expensive than the 3rd-gen model, which started at $429 in the US. The iPhone 16, in comparison, currently starts at $799.

Gurman reported that Apple may also launch new PowerBeats Pro 2 earbuds alongside the 4th gen iPhone SE next week. The new earbuds could be the first Apple-branded earbuds to feature a built-in heart rate monitor, a technology Apple is reportedly planning to bring to its more mainstream AirPods as well.