Apple is expected to release the iPhone 16 lineup at its “Glowtime” event on September 9 and though we don’t know the prices yet, it’s already too expensive for a lot of people. The iPhone SE is a pretty good deal for its price and next year’s iPhone SE is looking to be an even more attractive choice.
On Tuesday, Nikkei reported that Apple is that starting next year, every iPhone in Apple’s lineup will have an OLED display. That applies to the iPhone SE, which has been rumored to get an upgrade in the spring of 2025. The current model, which was released in 2022 (it’s the 3rd generation, though Apple doesn’t call it the iPhone SE 3), has the same LCD display as the 2020 model–Apple brands it as a Retina HD display. The switch to OLED will bring better color quality and contrast to the iPhone SE. Apple already uses OLEDs in its higher-end phones, both the non-pro and Pro models.
Nikki doesn’t address if the switch will affect the iPhone SE’s price, but considering that LCD is an older technology that’s being phased out or used in cheap phones by many phone manufacturers, the new display technology probably won’t affect the price much. The current iPhone SE 3 with 64GB of storage is $429; we could see Apple increase the base storage configuration to 128GB. Apple will likely offer a 128GB iPhone for under $500.
Other changes to the iPhone SE 4 include an increase to 8GB of RAM to accommodate Apple Intelligence, and it may have Face ID instead of Touch ID. For more on what the iPhone SE 4 could be like when it is released next spring, check out our iPhone SE 4 superguide.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He's also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.