Like so many people, the iPhone SE peaked a number of years in the past.

The excessive level got here in 2020, when its second-gen mannequin secured the uncommon distinction, right here and right here, of being given gushing 4.5-star critiques by two separate Macworld editors. It was a easy and compelling deal: compromise on an older design, and in return, you get very good efficiency at a discount value. With its mildly retro appears the 2020 SE wasn’t for everybody, however for these on a funds, it was effectively value a advice. “Not Apple’s greatest iPhone,” wrote my colleague Jason Cross, “however its greatest worth by a mile.”

As is commonly the case with later entries in in style sequence, the issue is that the maker forgot what made it in style. Prospects favored the mix of up-to-date parts with a low value and have been blissful to simply accept a two-year-old design because the payoff. Final yr’s uneven and disappointing Third-gen SE, against this, examined patrons’ endurance by providing up a 4-year-old design with the identical single digital camera that also doesn’t have night time mode, and added insult to harm by mountaineering the value by $30. Apple additionally didn’t do sufficient to deal with the earlier mannequin’s greatest failing, its mediocre battery life. The iPhone SE had dropped the ball and missed the mark.

Nonetheless, there’s all the time subsequent time, proper? Yeah, about that.

The iPhone SE 4 would possibly put proper what as soon as went mistaken, however the omens counsel Apple will as an alternative go too far in the other way. Intriguingly, sources counsel the following SE could possibly be primarily based on the present iPhone 14, which is able to nonetheless be pretty new. Until Apple overhauls its iPhone technique, the iPhone 14 will promote for $699 and the iPhone 13 will value $599 subsequent yr. And if Apple retains the iPhone 13 mini round, it’ll slide in at $499.

That doesn’t depart a lot area for the iPhone SE, which is able to virtually definitely incur a giant value hike. OLED screens don’t come low cost, and Apple costs are trending upward anyway, notably exterior the U.S. The aged design shall be gone, however so will any remaining worth. Perhaps Apple can preserve the brand new mannequin underneath $500, nevertheless it feels extra like a $549 telephone no less than. And just like the Tenth-gen iPad, that’s the mistaken value level for a telephone that’s positive to have compromises.

Nothing particular

It’s tempting at this level to surprise why Apple would trouble to maintain making the iPhone SE when there doesn’t appear to be an apparent method of bringing collectively worth and energy in the way in which it achieved in 2020. A mixture of energy with the then-top-of-the-line A13 processor, retro attraction, and value made a implausible telephone that really felt like a particular version.

However that was through the small window when the iPhone SE made sense—after Apple had switched to all-screen telephone designs, however earlier than the earlier design grew to become insultingly old style. For some time, the corporate may re-use its pre-iPhone X chassis to enchantment to these with a small funds and a hankering for a Dwelling button, however that point has handed. The transition was cemented way back, and curiosity in house buttons has dwindled simply as demand for all-screen designs has exploded.

Foundry

After all, the circumstances for the SE to thrive might come up once more sooner or later. If we finally get a folding iPhone, as an example, it’s attainable {that a} non-folding design will come to be marketed and offered as an iPhone SE 7, say. (I’m pessimistic concerning the timescale.) Then once more, that case feels muddier. Non-folding telephones received’t be merely a distinct segment providing for eccentric Luddites, however will co-exist alongside folding gadgets till we’re all positive they’re not going to snap in half. A major market will nonetheless need to purchase a flagship iPhone within the conventional type and be keen to pay high greenback for the privilege.

Perhaps an easier instance can be the Dynamic Island, the dearth of which can be used to distinguish the following SE mannequin (though my very own experiences with the iPhone 14 Professional counsel the Dynamic Island has some strategy to go earlier than it turns into anyplace close to as vital an improve because the swap from the Dwelling button to the Dwelling indicator in 2017). Or the iPhone mini type issue, which may simply be resurrected in 2024 as an iPhone SE. The iPhone 13 mini, for instance, has the identical A13 chip as the present SE, a bigger display screen, twice the storage, a twin digital camera, an OLED show, and Face ID for $599. Apple may drop it by $100 subsequent yr and slap SE branding on it, and it might in all probability be simply nearly as good, if not higher than the SE 4 Apple is allegedly engaged on.

For now, the SE merely doesn’t make sense. If somebody is on the lookout for a lower-priced iPhone, the most suitable choice is sort of all the time to purchase a mannequin from a few years in the past, fairly than a quasi-new Frankenstein telephone with a 2020 processor, 2018 digital camera, and 2015 design. Apple silicon has a great shelf life, and your day-to-day expertise is way extra more likely to be marred by an outdated digital camera or a small display screen than by an older processor.

In any case, one doesn’t get the sense that Apple is particularly within the funds marketplace for which the SE was initially designed. Don’t power it, Apple. Quit the SE, and deal with the flagship telephones you actually imagine in.