iPhone SE 2 release date, price & tech specs

Lots of rumours point to a new version of the iPhone SE being launched early or relatively early in 2018. The latest report, by the Japanese blog Macotakara, points to a May 2018 launch - the site bases this on conversation with a case maker who is apparently in the know.

A FocusTaiwan report in August 2017 suggested that a new iPhone SE would launch in the first quarter of 2018, while another report, this time by the Taiwanese market research company TrendForce, believes a new iPhone SE 2 is coming in the first half of 2018.

It's possible that the iPhone SE 2 could launch at Apple's WWDC event in June, and this theory was backed up by the discovery by the French site Consomac that the company has just registered a bunch of new phone models with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).

Model numbers A1920, A1921, A1984, A2097, A2098, A2099, A2101, A2103, A2104, A2105 and A2106 have all been added to the EEC database, and none apply to currently available iPhones. They are listed as devices running iOS 11.

Furthermore, a report from a Chinese website at the end of February 2018 suggested that the iPhone SE 2 (with a 4.2in screen - more on that below) will launch at WWDC. There are a few reasons why this may not happen, however:

Apple hasn't introduced an iPhone at WWDC since June 2010.
Apple is said to be working on three new full-screen phones due to launch in September - one of which is rumoured to be a lower-cost option (read more about that below), making it unlikely that an even cheaper iPhone SE would be introduced a couple of months sooner.
WWDC is a developer conference with a particular focus on software and high-end products rather than entry-level devices.
The real update to the iPhone SE may not come until September, if analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is correct. He believes that along with updates to the iPhone X and a bigger version of that full-screen iPhone with an OLED screen, Apple will launch a cheaper full-screen iPhone with a 6.1in LCD screen. This may be the true successor to the iPhone SE.

However, this rumoured LCD handset is larger than the iPhone SE, which would suggest that Apple may not continue to sell a smaller handset...