All the way back in 2024 – I’m talking a whole six-ish days ago at the time of writing – freelance tech journalist Gareth Beavis wrote an article for TechRadar detailing why he feels the rumored iPhone SE 4 could break new ground for Apple. Mr Hall’s thesis was that Apple could use a next-generation budget iPhone as a way to get Apple Intelligence AI tools to a wider market.
It’s a sound idea and one that I agree with. Yet as I stomped across the frost-covered ground of a frozen London park, letting my mind chew over the state of the smartphone market, I came up with the idea of the iPhone SE 4 being an anti-artificial intelligence phone.
Now, machine learning is almost inescapable in phones, given many use smart algorithms to balance battery life and process images. However, the rise of so-called AI phones is a rather new aspect of the mobile world, arguably spearheaded by the Google Pixel 8.
We now have phones with clever tools to rewrite emails for you in a desired tone, help you reshape a photograph into almost a new image altogether, take notes, and do all sorts of other smart things. Some of these tools are very useful, but in my time with the iPhone 16 Pro Max – a phone I very much like – I’ve not found Apple’s take on generative AI use particularly great or compelling. And I’m not alone, as my colleague Philip Berne feels the same.
There’s also the worry of privacy, smartphones already suck up a whole load of personal data if you allow them to; add AI into the mix and you’ve got a device that can almost feel like it’s monitoring you. However, like Thanos in the MCU, generative AI in phones is inevitable, at least in flagships, such as the hotly tipped Samsung Galaxy S25 series that I expect will come stuffed with AI tools. And if these tools are useful and intuitive, I’m all for them.
Equally, it’s got me thinking there’s an opportunity for phones, particularly budget models, to shun the AI smarts and embrace pure tool-like functionality with privacy enshrined at their core. Add in the intuitiveness and ecosystem of iOS and Apple’s propensity to tout privacy, and your mind’s eye could picture a next-gen iPhone SE. At least that’s what mine did when I was a’wandering.
An anti-AI phone
With an increased desire to digitally detox and limit phone screen time to shut off and extract oneself from the constant ding of notifications and the influx of online content, I think there could be a real refreshed market for phones that avoid all the fancy AI bits and simply work as a phone, camera, web browser and casual games machine (it’s odd getting nostalgic for the phones of the 2010s but here we are).
Add in a phone that comes out of the box with a whole host of privacy-centric settings switched on, and you could be looking at a device that appeals to people who don’t want to bark at a phone to make a Van Gogh-style painting out of their dog or create a new emoji by smashing two other ones together.
I could fully see Apple taking this approach with the iPhone SE 4 if it is indeed in the works. Yet I think Cupertino will probably use the next SE as an entry-level route into Apple Intelligence, as it seems like the tech world is embracing AI, whether we like it or not.
My hope is that if Apple does lean into this, then it makes sure Apple Intelligence is fully loaded and ready to deliver properly handy AI tools rather than drip feed features the way it did with the iPhone 16.