The launch of Apple’s first iPhone SE in three years is generating a lot of buzz. The latest details on Apple’s mid-range challenge to the Google Pixel 8a concern the camera and the upgraded hardware Tim Cook and his team will bring to the table.
The iPhone SE Camera Upgrade
ET News reports that LG Inotek’s camera division will supply Apple with the front and rear cameras for the iPhone SE.
The rear camera will see a significant boost over 2022’s iPhone SE, with a move from 12 megapixels to 48 megapixels. Coupled with Apple’s software advances in image processing, capturing more light data through the lens should improve the image quality, low light performance, and digital zoom. The selfie camera will also see a bump up in pixel count from 7 megapixels to 12 megapixels. It also reported that the selfie camera will offer Night Mode support to improve the image quality in low light conditions.
iPhone SE Pricing
More than any other iPhone, the iPhone SE has to make some hard decisions over the build cost to keep the retail price in the budget range. Pricing on the current iPhone SE is $429 for the 64GB version and $479 for the 128GB version. I expect these prices to stay the same for the new handset, although the storage could bump up to 128GB and 256GB, respectively.
Apple is forecast to ship around 20 million iPhone SE units once the handset reaches the market, a relatively small number in terms of iPhone sales, but numbers that I am sure other manufacturers would love their ‘smaller models’ to have.
AI Benefits For The iPhone SE
Yet the biggest update to the iPhone SE may not be in the camera department. Apple is on a quest to catch up with the Android-powered compeappletition regarding generative AI. The first generation of Apple Intelligence is expected to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2025, which is the same window as the iPhone SE, which is expected to launch. It is unlikely that Apple will want to push Apple Intelligence and not have it supported on the iPhone SE.
Support will require not only the latest A18 Apple Silicon chipset, but also a significant increase in memory to accomplish the volume of on-device processing that Apple is striving for. The benefits of this will be felt throughout the smartphone, not just in generative AI.
Now read the latest details on the new modem technology Apple will test in the iPhone SE…
