Sorry Apple, but I don't want the iPhone SE 4

The iPhone SE has always been something of an outlier in the Apple line up. Sticking rigidly to an older design, the budget phone carries an air of nostalgia, particularly for a time when phones didn't require at least three hands to hold. But if all of the design rumours about the SE 4, reportedly due to be announced next week, are true, I'll be bitterly disappointed.

The days of the 'small phone' have been spluttering to an end for a while now. After reportedly low sales, Apple unceremoniously ditched the 'iPhone mini' line up after just two years in 2022, replacing it with just the opposite – the enormous 'iPhone Plus'. In that landscape, the only option for those who prefer something truly pocketable was the iPhone SE 3, with its iPhone 8-inspired design. But the reported adoption of an iPhone 14-inspired body for this month's SE 4 suggests Apple will be slamming the door on several features; the Home Button, Lightning port and, most devastatingly for the short-fingered among us, a small size.

If the iPhone SE does adopt a 6.1-inch display, and every rumour suggests it will, then the era of small phones will well and truly be over. The budget phone is rumoured to feature a single camera lens, 60hz display and USB-C port, bringing several contemporary features to the SE model (although it reportedly won't get a Dynamic Island, just a notch).

But while the need to refresh the internals of the SE make sense, particularly with the advent of Apple Intelligence, I still don't want the SE 4 to happen. Or at least this version of it. In a perfect world (by which I mean my own very specific perfect world), Apple would use the body of the iPhone 13 mini for the SE 4. It's no secret that phones have become increasingly addictive, and in my own deeply unscientific opinion, those immersive screens probably aren't helping. The mini was perfect for those of us who see the phone as a tool rather than a portable IMAX display; something to be whipped out of a pocket when needed, then stowed away and forgotten about. Something that isn't a bright, shiny brick.

Alas, it seems I'm almost alone in my views. The sales figures for the iPhone 13 mini speak for themselves – that is, they were apparently dire. The people simply don't want small phones. So before the era of small devices finally ends, you might want to snap up the iPhone SE 3 while stocks last. Because in the words of D:Ream, things can only get bigger.