View Single Post
psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2021-12-01, 03:47

Quote:
Originally Posted by PB PM View Post
They’ll likely slap a previous gen chip in there, no way they’ll offer current gen at SE price point.
But that’s exactly what they’ve done in 2016 and 2020, upon the introduction of the new models.

The original 2016 SE (the one I have) came with the A9 that powered the then-flagship 6s introduced 4-5 months earlier.

In 2020, the current SE debuted in the early part of that year, using the same A13 that was in the then-flagship iPhone 11 lineup that came out in September 2019.

So, on two occasions, the iPhone SE has indeed shared the same processors used in the flagship models introduced a few months earlier in fall of the previous year.

But there are a few things/unknowns in the mix to keep in mind as well:

- The original SE (2016) was discontinued in September 2018, so we didn’t not know what Apple would’ve done with it had it stuck around throughout the remainder of 2018 and all through 2019 and up through the SE 2’s release in 2020.

- The only thing Apple did with the original SE was a capacity bump a year after its release in March 2017. But it kept the same guts (A9, etc.) until it was discotinued in September 2018, two-and-a-half years after its introduction

- The current SE (2020) has seen a slightly different life. In its year-and-a-half existence it has seen no updates/upgrades of any kind. The version available for purchase today is the exact same model (processor, capacities and other specs) that it had on its April 2020 introduction

- So we’ve got precedent on the 2016 and 2020 models sporting the same processors as the then-current flagships introduced the previous fall. But, due to the original model being discontinued after two-and-a-half years (and receiving only a capacity bump one year into its existence) and the current SE receiving no upgrades of any kind a year-and-a-half into its existence, we don’t have any precedent/pattern to go by on what Apple considers a true Rev. B of a particular SE model. We’re flying blind on this…

- if a new SE comes in Q1 2022, still with the iPhone 8 design it currently has, they could very well go with the flagship A15 as the did in 2016 and 2020. However we don’t know what Apple is considering a mid-cycle bump. We’ve never seen one for an SE. I don’t think they’ll leave a two-year-old (which would be three-years-old come September 2022) A13 in it. Precedent says A15, but two years, instead of four) between an update might mean A14.

- The current 2020 SE is already playing out differently in that it’ll have gone two full years, come March 2022, of no updates. Will Apple choose to make up for that and put the A15 n it to give it “legs” for another two years of going untouched? Or will they go with a processor from a year earlier (A14), giving it only a one-generation bump after two entire years? My gut says, due to the length of time it’s gone untouched, it gets the A15. And then nothing else for another couple of years, at which time (spring 2024) maybe a true third-generation full-face model SE is introduced.

- I wouldn’t mind if that became the established, predictable cycle for the SE…released in the spring of an even year, following the previous autumn’s introduction of the flagship line. At the two year mark (2022), it gets a two-generation processor bump. At the four year mark (2024), it gets a redesign, based on the flagship from two cycles prior.

- There already is precedent/pattern for that: The original SE was a 5s (released in fall 2013) with better guts, the 2020 SE was an iPhone 8 (released in fall 2017) with better guts. If that pattern continues/holds, a 2024 third-generation iPhone SE could/should be an iPhone 13 (released in fall 2021), mini or otherwise, with updated, “better” (2023-2024) guts.

Somewhere in all this is a bitchin’ timeline infographic that puts all the above jibber-jabber into a attractive, easily-digested visual.
  quote