Sources: theguardian.com,forbes.com, macrumors.com
Approximately two months (unless otherwise) before its release, the next iPhone SE4 will most likely surpass in sales its ancestor, the iPhone 16, which has yet to be introduced to the public.
Apple is said to have ordered next-generation chips from TSMC to between 90 million and 100 million units, following sales expectations for its iPhone 16 series. The arrival of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 is expected to boost sales of the 16 series since Apple Intelligence requires at least an iPhone 15 Pro to run. All four models in the iPhone 16 lineup are expected to use A18-branded chips manufactured using the N3E process.
Even though the iPhone 16 series will exploit the TSMC’s N3E process and enhance power efficiency while maintaining logic cell density critical for performance, which aligns with Apple’s goal of delivering high performance in thin devices with passive cooling, the A18 chip for the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus is likely to adopt the A17 Pro design used in the iPhone 15 Pro models. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, though, will probably utilize a chip branded as an “A18 Pro” and offer 8GB of RAM, which Apple suggests is a minimum requirement for running large-language models that could feature an upgraded Neural Engine with more cores enabling improved AI/machine learning performance.
On the other hand, we have the upcoming launch of the iPhone SE 4, which will be the first in the series to include an OLED screen and a significant increase in size. Some of its leaked specs suggest the SE 4 will have a 6.06-inch screen, compared to the 4.7-inch screen on the current iPhone SE. It is such a push towards the iPhone 16 specs, with the rumors suggesting it’ll similarly pack an A18 chip, which means that Apple’s most affordable model could use the same rear-chassis manufacturing process as the iPhone 16; that quickly implies that the phone will get the same vertical dual-lens camera setup as Apple’s flagship phone for 2024.
Again, the SE is set to match the iPhone 16 specification. Assuming a similar competitive price to previous SE models compared to the vanilla iPhone, it will take a lot of work to recommend the iPhone 16, knowing there is better value for money arriving a few months later.
