Apple tipped to launch iPhone SE 4 alongside iPad Air refresh in 2025

The iPhone SE 4 will launch early next year alongside a series of refreshed iPad products.

That’s the claim that’s being reiterated by Mark Gurman, the journalist at Bloomberg who has a solid record with these kinds of things.

We’ve heard much of what Gurman has to say in his latest report before, but it’s a neat and persuasive summary of where we’re at with Apple’s next entry-level phone.

It confirms that Apple is looking to launch the iPhone SE 4 in early 2025, as previously rumoured. Gurman also throws in the tidbit that this launch will take place at the same event that Apple will announce new iPad Air models, along with fresh keyboards.

As the report notes, this will be the first new SE model since 2022, and it’s expected to be quite the radical overhaul. It will apparently see Apple ditching the old iPhone 6/iPhone 8 design and adopting a more modern look akin to the iPhone 14.

This will also mean the end of the beloved (by some) Home button and the adoption of the beloved (by some) Face ID authentication system, albeit not the sleek Dynamic Island notch. Buyers will have to put up with the classic notch that Apple appeared to ditch with this year’s regular iPhone 16 model.

Gurman adds the detail that Apple is now chasing a mid-range smartphone market that has gotten away from it in China, where Huawei and Xiaomi run rampant with well-specced cheaper phones.

He also mentions that the iPhone SE 4 will be the cheapest device in Apple’s range to support Apple Intelligence, its still-forthcoming step into AI.

Those new iPad Air models will apparently represent much less of an overhaul, with reconfigured internals and updated Magic Keyboard accessories standing as the key updates.