iPhone SE 2 Wish List: 7 Things We Want

With a launch rumored for 2019, we want to highlight a few features we want from Apple’s oft-rumored iPhone SE 2.

The iPhone SE 2 rumor mill has been churning for quite some time now, but we’re still without a successor to the company’s popular 4-inch flagship from 2016.

The original iPhone SE is still an excellent budget option and the only serious iPhone option for those that don’t want a huge display. The iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 are still around, but we don’t recommend buying either one of them in 2019.

Apple’s iPhone SE is still a solid device, but many people are hoping for an upgraded model in 2019. Apple’s spring event (the event Apple used to announce the original iPhone SE) came and went without an announcement, but all eyes are now on the summer and the fall.

Some iPhone SE 2 rumors claim the next-gen device will include a new design and Face ID. Other iPhone SE 2 rumors portray it as a more modest upgrade with an affordable price point.

We don’t have a confirmed iPhone SE 2 spec sheet to share with you, but here are a few things we’d like to see on board the iPhone SE 2 if and when it arrives.

Lots of Storage

If you go to buy the iPhone SE today you’ve got two storage options to choose from: A 32GB model or a larger 128GB model. That’s enough for some people, but we’d love to see the iPhone SE fall in line with newer iPhones.

If Apple can manage it, we’d be delighted to see a 256GB iPhone SE 2 option offered at launch with the base moving up to 64GB’s of internal storage.

256GB of internal storage space is plenty of space, even for people that like to go wild shooting 4K photos and videos.

4-inch True Tone Display

One of our favorite features from newer iPhone models is the True Tone display. The technology made its debut way back in 2016 on the company’s 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

If you’re unfamiliar with the tech, devices utilizing True Tone technology automatically adjust the screen’s color temperature to match up with the ambient light from the environment. It reduces eye strain, makes images appear more natural, and can help make content easier to view in direct sunlight.

The original iPhone SE’s 4-inch display doesn’t come with a True Tone display so we’d love to see Apple tack this upgrade onto a small screen model.

Face ID

iPhone SE 2 rumors have gone back and forth about biometrics. Some claim the company will stick with a home button and Touch ID while others suggest the phone will come with the Face ID feature found on the iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.

We’re expecting the former, but we’re hoping for the latter.

We’ve been using Face ID since November, 2017 and it’s one of the flagship phones best features. Face ID is accurate and it’s fast and its caused us to forget all about Touch ID and the iPhone’s physical home button.

If the iPhone SE 2 comes with Face ID it’ll need Apple’s fancy, and expensive, TrueDepth camera system. Not that we’d complain.

The current iPhone SE model comes with a 1.2MP camera and an upgrade to TrueDepth system would mean an upgrade to a 7MP camera.

Better Speakers

Newer iPhone models come with stereo speakers that make watching content and playing games without nice headphones bearable. We’d love to see Apple put big sound into a small package.

Fast Charging

We’ve fallen in love with the fast charging capabilities on newer iPhone models and we’d love to see Apple include something similar on the iPhone SE 2.

The iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max are all capable of fast charging which means a 0-50% charge in under 30 minutes while you drive to work or watch paint dry.

You do need to buy a special cable to fast charge an iPhone, but it’s worth the extra cash in the long run.

Affordable Price Point

We realize that packing high-end features from the iPhone X into a 4-inch iPhone would require some incredible engineering. It would also force an increase to the iPhone SE price.

In a perfect world we’d love to see all of these features on board the iPhone SE 2, but if Apple wants to keep the price down that’s probably not going to happen.

We’d love to see Apple include fast charging, a new processor, improved speakers, and some camera upgrades in a package that sits in and around the iPhone SE’s $350 price point.

Wireless Charging

The iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus are the first iPhones to offer wireless charging capabilities and we’d like to see this extended to the four inch iPhone model.

Install iOS 13.7 for Better Security

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If security is important to you, think about installing the iOS 13.7 update. iOS 13.7 doesn't have any known security patches on board. That said, if you skipped iOS 13.6 or an older version of iOS, you'll get security patches with your upgrade.  iOS 13.6 had more than 20 patches for security issues on board which made it an extremely important update. If you skipped iOS 13.6, you get the patches with iOS 13.7.  If you want to learn more about iOS 13.6's security patches, head on over to Apple's security site for more information. If you skipped iOS 13.5.1, you get its security patch with your upgrade to iOS 13.7. You can read more about it on Apple's website. The patch is for an exploit used by jailbreak developers.  If you skipped iOS 13.5, iOS 13.7 brings iOS 13.5's 41 new security patches with it. Apple's posted the details on its website and you can dig into the particulars if you're interested.  Among them, patches for the company's Mail app, Wi-Fi, AirDrop, Bluetooth, FaceTime, Messages, and Notifications.   If you skipped the iOS 13.4 update, you'll get iOS 13.4's 28 security patches with your upgrade. You can read about all of them on Apple's website right here.  iOS 13.4 also brought several improvements to Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention. Apple's John Wilander outlined them in a blog post and it's worth checking out.  Reports have outlined a vulnerability in Wi-Fi chips made by Broadcom and Cypress Semiconductor that left billions of devices susceptible to attack. Dubbed Kr00k, the vulnerability allows nearby attackers to decrypt sensitive information that's relayed over-the-air.  Fortunately, it looks like the issue was patched up with the release of iOS 13.2, an update that arrived all the way back in October.  So if you're running a really old version of iOS 13, you'll really want to move your device up to the newest version of iOS 13.  If you skipped iOS 13.3.1, you get its patches with iOS 13.7. The iOS 13.3.1 update included 21 new security patches that will help protect your device from harm. The company's outlined those patches in detail if you want to dig in.  If you skipped iOS 13.3, you get its patches with iOS 13.7. iOS 13.3 brought 12 new security patches to the iPhone and you can read about each one over on Apple's security page.  The iOS 13.3 update also added support for NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in the Safari browser.  If you missed iOS 13.2, it had 16 new security patches on board. You can read about all of them on Apple's website right here.  iOS 13.1.1 brought a security patch for a third-party keyboard issue to your iPhone. If you're interested in the particulars, you can read about them over on Apple's website. If you passed on installing iOS 13.1, you get an additional patch with your iOS 13.7 update. You can learn more right here.  If you're moving up from iOS 12, you'll get iOS 13.0's nine security patches with your upgrade to iOS 13.7. Read about those here.   If you skipped iOS 12.4.1 or any older versions of iOS 12, you'll get their security patches with your iOS 13.7 update.  iOS 12.4.1 only had one patch on board, but Apple's iOS 12.4 update brought 19 security patches to the iPhone. If you're interested in the specifics, you can read about them on right here. In addition to those patches, iOS 13 itself comes with some security and privacy upgrades including improved anti-tracking features in Safari and the ability to get rid of location metadata in your photos. You also now have the ability to block apps from using Bluetooth and the ability to allow apps to access your location just once. iOS 13 will also send you reminders about applications that track your data.

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