A few months ago, we learned, always through anecdotal voices, because Apple keeps the internal development of its products completely secret, that the iPhone SE 4 was canceled. And it was important because we were talking about a new generation the cheapest mobile phone (not cheap) from the factory in Cupertino.

Now, from renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, we get the opposite information: iPhone SE 4 is in development and should arrive with proprietary 5G baseband chipmade by neutral foundry TSMC.

It should be explained that Apple has been producing the main SoC to power all of its mobile devices for years and is completing the transition to Macs as part of its silicon program. Both with great success, as these chips outperform other competitors, including Qualcomm, the largest third-party mobile chip supplier.

However, Apple continues to use Qualcomm chips for radio communication. According to rumors, Apple was not satisfied with the performance of its own solutions. So far, it seems to have solved its problems with making its own baseband chip, although it only supports sub-6 5G, the set of mid-band 5G frequencies that most carriers around the world use for their networks. fifth generation.

According to the analyst, this 5G baseband chip was key for Apple to resume development of the iPhone SE 4, as well as to plan to use its own modem in other products such as the iPad or Watch.

The so-called “cheap iPhone” would release more news. The main one is that it would abandon the compact mobile design that has characterized the SE range so far and increase the screen to a diagonal of over 6 inches. The panel would also be of better quality, LCD would be left aside in favor of OLED. Apple has been using them in the rest of its mobiles for the sixth year.

As for the main engines, Apple has several series that it could reuse. Another important change would be permanent disappearance of the physical home button which also includes a TouchID fingerprint sensor. We’ll see. According to Kuo, the iPhone SE 4 should arrive in 2024 to bolster the catalog in its entry-level lineup.