If you’ve been waiting for a new iPhone SE to come along, your patience might soon be rewarded. According to a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is looking to launch a new version of the budget phone early next year, but it might not be all you hoped for.
In a new analyst note, Kuo predicts that the iPhone SE 2 will have a similar “form factor design and hardware spec” to the iPhone 8, which Apple currently sells for $449. That means it will have a home button with Touch ID and a 4.7-inch display. Kuo doesn’t specifically say whether the phone will phone will include wireless charging like the current model, nor does he make mention of the camera. Also unclear is whether there will be an XL version of the iPhone SE 2.
Like the original iPhone SE (which was essentially an iPhone 5s), the changes to the iPhone SE 2 will be largely internal. As Kuo writes, The most significant hardware spec upgrade will be the adoption of the A13 processor and 3GB LPDDR4X, a significant jump from the A11 processor and 2GB of RAM that’s in the iPhone 8.
However, where the iPhone SE was both a lower-cost and a smaller-sized alternative to the iPhone, the iPhone SE 2 will be very similar in size to the iPhone 11 Pro. Granted, if Apple sticks to the original $399 price of the iPhone SE, it will be $600 cheaper than that phone, but the lack of a new form factor could dampen enthusiasm. Nevertheless, Kuo predicts that the iPhone SE 2 “will likely increase iPhone’s market share and benefit Apple’s promotions for service and content. We expect that the iPhone SE 2 shipment will reach 30 million to 40 million units in 2020.”
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.