Has Apple changed its mind about changing its mind about the iPhone SE 4 5G?

(Image credit: Apple)

published 28 February 2023

I really rate the iPhone SE: for many people it's the best iPhone, and it's a particularly good option for budget buyers and for parents too. Apple was rumoured to be working on a fourth generation iPhone SE last year, but that was reportedly scrapped in January. But now it appears to be back. Back! BACK!

The new report comes from analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, which is a bit inconvenient: Kuo was the source of the stories about the iPhone SE 4 being scrapped just a few weeks back. So I'm pinching more salt than usual this time. But if the story is correct then either Kuo's previous sources were wrong or Apple has changed its mind. Either way, Kuo says the fourth-generation iPhone SE is on track for a 2024 release.

What to expect from the iPhone SE 4 5G?

The headline upgrade here is an OLED display, a first for the SE, and a design that Kuo says is "a minor modification of the 6.1-inch iPhone 14". Kuo doesn't say what's going to be canned in order to hit the SE's budget price point, but I wouldn't expect the latest Apple processor or the best of Apple's cameras.

If Kuo is correct this time around, it's bad news for iPhone fans with small hands: the current iPhone SE 2022 may well be too small for many, but jumping to the full 6.1 inches rather than the iPhone 13 mini's 5.4 inches, which feels massive by comparison while still being much more finger-friendly than the bigger iPhones seems like a missed opportunity to fill a gap that the current SE fills very well.

Then again, with more than a year to wait before the next iPhone SE appears there's plenty of time for Apple to change its mind again. So maybe an iPhone mini-style SE isn't completely out of the question just yet.

In the meantime, the iPhone SE remains a great budget buy – so if you want an affordable iPhone check out our iPhone SE 2022 review here.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).