A $400 iPhone SE 2 could be the highlight of an early 2020 Apple event

By Andy Boxall October 14, 2019

Rumors continue to dance around the iPhone SE 2, with further talk of the next affordable iPhone costing $400, being based on the iPhone 8, and arriving early next year. This time it’s noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealing more details about the unofficial phone, which may be a late sequel to the old iPhone SE that ceased production in 2017.

According to the latest information, Apple will use an event held in early 2020 to show the iPhone SE 2. Over the last few years Apple has showed new products in March, and it was during the 2016 March event the original iPhone SE was revealed. Apple has never had a particular product focus for its March gatherings, unlike its late-year events that center around the iPhone.

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Kuo predicts the iPhone SE 2 will cost $400, the same price Apple sold the first SE model for, and come with either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage space. The phone will use the same A13 Bionic chip found in the iPhone 11 range, but cut the amount of RAM down to 3GB, and will also forego the 3D Touch pressure-sensitive screen technology also removed from the iPhone 11 models. A choice of three colors will apparently be offered — silver, space grey, and a red version.

The design will be similar to the iPhone 8, Apple’s flagship phone in 2017, and the last iPhone to be released with bezels around the top and bottom of the screen. The iPhone X debuted in the same year, and has since become the template for Apple’s top model designs. Apple also still sells the iPhone 8, and you could pick one up today for $450, or $550 if you want the bigger 5.5-inch iPhone 8 Plus.

If Kuo’s predictions, which match others we’ve heard recently, above are correct, Apple’s low-cost iPhone could prove popular, especially with people looking to update from older iPhone models that don’t want the high costs associated with the iPhone 11. Additionally, Google highlighted a gap in the U.S. market for reasonably priced and capable phones with the Pixel 3a, a hole previously filled with the iPhone SE before it was discontinued.

Kuo says Apple could sell more than 30 million iPhone SE 2 phones in 2020, close to the total amount of iPhones it sold during the first quarter of 2019.

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