Apple's most inexpensive iPhone has been out for over two years now and still commands a place on our best cheap phones list, so that's why there's been a lot of interest around an iPhone SE 4. The latest leak makes the purported fourth generation iPhone SE more compelling with key upgrades, despite it being tipped for release in 2025.
On Twitter, a new leak surfaced purporting to be the specs of the iPhone SE 4. Leaker Nguyen Phi Hung reveals how the specs will be quite the upgrade over the current iPhone SE (2022). Considering how the mid-range space has been defined by newer phones like the Nothing Phone 2a, OnePlus 12R, and Pixel 7A, Apple can't afford to fall behind the curve against key rivals.
Supposedly, the new iPhone SE 4 will feature an OLED screen that will vastly improve the look of the display. It's mentioned to be a 6.1-inch LTPS OLED display with 60Hz refresh rate. While this bumps the size of the iPhone up slightly based on current specs, the 60Hz refresh rate is somewhat disappointing. Other phones in this budget price range have better refresh rates, like the Galaxy A35 and its 120Hz refresh rate.
The device is expected to have front and rear glass, eschewing the Ceramic Shield that Apple uses on other iPhones. For comparison, Hung says the front looks more like the iPhone 13 that has been previously rumored. Although, the rear of the iPhone SE 4 would look more like an iPhone XR because of the single camera.
Speaking of the camera, it would support 1080p cinematic mode, which is rather interesting because of its single camera. The current iPhone SE (2022) can't do this, but other iPhones do this by using the main and ultrawide cameras to discern people from backgrounds — resulting in the background becoming out of focus. We suspect it'll lean into new techniques and AI-assistance for this, which is expected to be a huge part of iOS 18. Hung goes on to reveal that the iPhone SE 4 will feature smart HDR, AI photography and portrait mode, but it won’t support night mode for some reason.
Internally, the new SE 4 will use an upgraded A16 Bionic chipset with a Snapdragon X70 modem. The processing power should be a big boost for the phone, but it also helps that the RAM is getting a big upgrade as well. In fact, the leaked specs reveals it getting 6GB of LPDDR5 RAM, which is up over the current SE's 4GB of RAM.
As for storage options, you'll have your choice between 128GB and 512GB. The base option is a much-needed jump over the pitiful 64GB of storage offered by the current iPhone SE (2022) — while the 512GB will serve storage hungry users well. For some reason, a 256GB version is omitted, so we're curious to find out the price disparity between the two storage options.
Look, if all of this is true, then the SE will be quite the upgrade on the current third generation iPhone SE. Hung has previously leaked benchmark scores purportedly for Apple's A18 Pro chip. The OLED screen and extra RAM alone makes it a nice budget phone. We would expect a new model to be priced similarly to the current edition, which start at $429 and go up to $579. Although, there's still always a chance for a price hike.
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