Apple iPhone SE 4 will get a surprise name and new design, report says

Updated January 4 with more details on the supposed thinking behind the possible new name.

Apple doesn’t like to be predictable, the company has said in the past. So it should not be assumed that the name of the next version of the most affordable iPhone, likely to arrive in March 2025, would be iPhone SE 4.^th generation. That’s what we expected until now, but a new report says we were wrong all along. And another report gives weight to this surprising new name.

I mean, the phone in the works definitely appears to be an iPhone SE, with specifications scaled down to achieve a lower price than any other iPhone. But a new report suggests we need to call the next phone an entirely different name and, perhaps, think about it another way.

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“SE4 may be gone… The name may be completely changed to ’16th’,” according to a Weibo report from Fixed Focus Digital. And there are two sources of agreement here. “From what my source reported, it appears that the new iPhone that Apple will unveil in 2025 will not be called iPhone SE4, but iPhone 16E. It is expected to feature a similar design to the iPhone 14, with an OLED screen and an action button. The colors available will be white and black,” according to an article on X by frequent leaker Majin Bu.

So why on earth would Apple abandon a very recognizable sub-brand, one that says, “yes, I’m an iPhone but I have enormous value”? At first glance, this seems silly.

But perhaps there is some logic here. After all, every previous iPhone SE has slavishly copied the design of an earlier iPhone. The first version looked almost identical to the iPhone 5s, the second generation was a dead ringer for the iPhone 8, and the third, well, it looked like the iPhone 8 too.

The differences were all internal, each time inserting the latest generation chip into the hardware.

But this new phone seems to be taking a different path. It is believed to resemble the iPhone 14, which is no different from the iPhone 16 design, at least from the front.

However, this handset will only have one camera, not the two found on the iPhone 14, it seems. It will definitely have a USB-C charging port, something the iPhone 14 didn’t have, and the single camera could have a 48-megapixel sensor, again something the iPhone 14 didn’t match. A new design therefore.

In this case, a completely new name may be needed. Something that associates it with the latest model might also make it appealing. And if, as previously thought, it is capable of Apple Intelligence, that might be reason enough for the new naming convention.

At 9to5 Mac, Michael Burkhardt convincingly explained why he thinks the iPhone 16E could be Apple’s way forward, noting that “it would definitely be the biggest upgrade in iPhone SE history.” , mentioning the introduction of an OLED screen with Face ID, USB-C port and internal modem from Apple.

But the reason he thinks the new branding might appear has to do with price. “Apple currently sells the iPhone 14 for $599 and the iPhone 15 for $699. Yet somehow a newer phone with components from both (plus an even newer chipset) is apparently supposed to cost a lot less? »

His reasoning is that changing the name to 16E could mean there would be less backlash if the price increased significantly.

I see that, although I suspect Apple will still want the next phone to be much cheaper than the $799 iPhone 16 and, I would say, the iPhone 15. The SE or whatever it’s called, still needs to be clear blue water between it and other available iPhones. The SE line has always had the latest chip in a less capable body and that will apply here. I guess we can expect a price of $599 or less.

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