So the Great Mentioner has ramped up talk of the iPhone SE4 again, with a predicted date of next spring. It would be three years since the SE3, which was only a couple of years after the SE2 but was necessary because of the coming of 5G. Similarly, the notional SE4 is necessary because of Apple Intelligence and the need for 8 GB of RAM and a chipset to match, and the repurposing of the iPhone 14 body style recapitulates the use of the 5 form factor for the original SE and the 8 for the SE 2 and 3.
The thing is, I have been thinking for a while that next year might have to be the year. Four years is a good run for a phone, and I don’t regret replacing the battery and pushing on through, but at some point you need to get new hardware just to stay ahead of the OS, and there’s only so much you can get out of a physically smaller battery without counting on a battery pack. In fact, that’s probably the main inducement of four in considering the 16 series at all:
- Sufficient battery life to make a full day possible without ever resorting to low power mode, similar to the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
- Larger size means a larger battery, but it also means a bigger display for aging eyes. And there are some advantages to the new always-on wide-brightness-range high-framerate displays, assuming the battery can keep pace. Of course, it also means it’s not really a one-handed device, but it also means it’s capable of the kind of gaming and reading and viewing I normally rely on the iPad for on the road.
- The physical camera button is a nice thing to have, especially when traveling and looking at things that pop up quickly without warning. It’s a nice-to-have.
- The satellite SOS and texting function – because after seeing the aftermath of Helene, it seems that it would be useful to be able to contact someone after the Big One so they can spread the word we’re all right.
So what of these are you likely to get from the iPhone 14?
1 is almost a given because of 2. The 6.1” size means bigger battery than before, and if it’s using the same 3nm processors as the iPhone 16 series for Apple Intelligence, the battery life should be similarly improved. But will it be a 120hz display, or an always-on, or have the ability to dim down to 1 nit at night? Unlikely, one would think. It won’t have the camera button, for sure, and may not even have multiple cameras. And while the satellite SOS was present on the 14, is it something that could get dumped to save cost?
The whole point of the SE is to use last generation’s body type and less impressive cameras to put current processing power in a phone that’s cheaper enough to bring down the threshold of iPhone ownership. It’s meant to be perfectly good, or good enough. And it was, originally, and might be again depending. But I don’t want to give up night mode on the camera. Absolute dealbreaker, especially to get less in a larger package.
But the 16, and the 16 Pro, mean no compromises that way, and a guaranteed 35% or 50% battery bump depending on which. Plus the likelihood of another four year device. The only question, at this point, is whether the prospect of Apple Intelligence is something worth buying into or something worth avoiding even if it means squeezing a fifth year out of a one-handed phone.
The other noteworthy thing is that when I was using the work-provided iPhone X from 2017-2020, my use of the iPad mini dropped to practically nothing. I suspect something similar would happen for travel, although the iPad at home would still be the ideal reading device on pub nights and shutdown times when I wanted to lose myself without the temptation of social media or input from the wider world. There’s a certain appeal to one device to rule them all, but there’s also a certain appeal to horses for courses.
The only loophole would be if the iPhone SE4, so-called, comes with the elimination of the older non-16 phones, in which case the SE4 is the cheapest thing going – and then might be possible to swindle out of an employer that hasn’t updated my work-provided phone in seven years and counting. You gotta make your own bonus in this life. Otherwise, I guess we’ll wait and see.