iPhone 9 Plus could offer a larger but still affordable option

The iPhone SE 2 or iPhone 9 may soon be announced, despite all the uncertainty surrounding its production and supply due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether there will be enough people around to drive sales is a different question. But when Apple's second "cheaper" iPhone comes out, it might not be alone as code hidden in iOS 14 beta apparently points to the existence of a larger variant that could very well be called the iPhone 9 Plus.

This, of course, cements the name of the iPhone SE 2 as the iPhone 9 instead. Not unless the larger variant will be called the iPhone SE 2 Plus, which is even less likely. As they will be replacing the iPhone 8 series, it's a pretty logical naming convention.

Based on 9to5Mac's iOS 14 digging, the iPhone 9 Plus will have the same Apple A13 Bionic chip that powers the current iPhone 11 generation. Just like the iPhone 8, they will supposedly succeed, they will have "solid-state" Home buttons for Touch ID, the non-movable touch-sensitive kind that began with the iPhone 7. Unlike the iPhone 8, however, these two cheaper phones will have NFC support as well.

What's still unknown is the size of this Plus version, though it could be a 5.5-incher just like the iPhone 8 Plus. The site also notes that the names are still subject to verification, though, again, it may be logical to name them that way.

Apple might launch more than just new iPhones soon if conditions permit. Four new iPad Pros have also been discovered, a Wi-Fi and LTE version for the 11 and 12.9-inch models. The highlight of this early 2020 table update will be the presence of a 3D time-of-flight sensor that could mean introducing the iPhone 11's square bump to the iPad line.