The iPhone SE 4 is expected to launch in the Spring, and the rumor mill is in full swing. However, not all of the leaks and speculations are positive.

Reported by Phone Arena, a leaker known as Revegnus1 has stated that the iPhone SE, which is Apple's "budget" handset, may be sold at $499. This would be a fair bump in price over the iPhone SE 3, which sold for $429 when it launched in 2022. While this may not seem that expensive, keep in mind that in the past, the iPhone SE was designed for those that both wanted older features of the iPhone (such as a smaller form factor or a physical home button) and those that were price-conscious. As such, $70 is not inconsequential.

That said, the iPhone SE 4 may still represent a great value, especially if other rumors are to be believed. For one, some analysts (like Bloomberg's Mark Gurman) have claimed the SE 4 will use the iPhone 14's body style. This would mean the official end of a physical home button and Touch ID (at least for the iPhone). It would also bring Face ID and an OLED panel to the iPhone SE line for the first time, bringing it in line with modern iPhones.

Gurman has also claimed the iPhone SE will probably get some form of Apple Intelligence. While it likely won't be the same implementation of Apple's AI software that will be seen on the iPhone 15 Pro line and iPhone 16 family, it would mean the iPhone SE 4 would need some beefy internals to power the feature. Some think this means the SE 4 will ship with Apple's A17 Pro and 8 GB of RAM (which are the minimum specs needed for on-device Apple Intelligence).

Of course, these are all rumors and should be taken as such. Apple's trend is to launch the iPhone SE in the Spring (typically in March or April), so we will have to wait until then to see what the iPhone SE 4 has ticking inside it.

Buy a refurbished iPhone SE 3 at Amazon for $197.