An apparent leak on the Apple Store suggests that a new phone carrying the iPhone SE name is coming soon.
A product title for a Belkin screen protector in Apple’s online store listed the supported devices as iPhone 7, 8, and SE. This seems to indicate that a new SE would be the same size as an iPhone 7 or 8, making the new SE bigger than its 4-inch predecessor from 2016. The product page has since been updated to remove the iPhone SE name; it just says 7 and 8 now.
This leak corroborates a vaguely sourced rumor from 9to5Mac published only a short time earlier, which cited a “tip from a highly trusted reader” that Apple is days away from announcing a new low-cost iPhone and that the phone would be called the iPhone SE, not the iPhone 9 or iPhone SE 2. Like so many other Apple products, it would be distinguished from its predecessors by its year of release (2020).
That report also claims that the phone will be available in white, black, and Product Red colors and that it will come in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB configurations. Users who don’t download many games or rich media files would probably be served just fine by the 128GB configuration, though 64GB is on the small side for most.
The first iPhone SE was introduced in 2016, shortly after the launch of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus. While those two phones had 4.7- and 5.5-inch screens, respectively, the iPhone SE kept the 4-inch size from the iPhone 5 a couple of generations prior.
This made it attractive to users who were turned off by large phones that can be more difficult to type on with just one hand. The iPhone SE was also relatively cheap; it combined the A9 processor from the flagship iPhone 6S with the form factor and features of the older iPhones.
The iPhone SE was popular until it was discontinued in 2018 alongside the launch of the iPhone XS.
While the new SE would likely be cheaper and smaller than the current top-tier iPhones (iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max), it appears this one would share its size and design with the iPhone 8, which is roughly approximate to the iPhone 6S in size.
In other words, consumers who liked the iPhone SE because they felt the iPhone 6S was too big will be disappointed, but they’ll still probably get a modern Apple processor in a phone that is markedly smaller than the current flagships.
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1665558