Will iPhone SE2 (or iPhone 9) be a good, cheap upgrade?

Today we're taking a look at what's likely with the next major low-cost iPhone, the device rumored to be called iPhone SE2. If you put iPhone devices in two camps, this is going to be the newest iPhone with the home button – not the sort with the notch. The screen will be a traditional rectangle rather than a rounded-corner rectangle-like sort of thing with a bump at the top. The most important question here is the following: Will the iPhone SE2 be both cheap and worthy?

If I've got an iPhone 7, I've got a 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with 750 x 1334 pixels and a home button. I'm able to upgrade to iOS 13.3 and I've got an Apple A10 Fusion (16mm) chip inside. There's a 12-megapixel camera on the back of this device with a 28mm lens (wide), and a 7MP camera up front.

The biggest changes we'll see to all of this is in the processor, the RAM, and the release date. These are all very important things to SOME people. Most people should pay heed to the release date, as it's indicative of how long they'll get guaranteed software updates from Apple. Having the latest features isn't always important, but having the latest security updates is vital.

It's rumored that the iPhone SE2 will be released in the first half of the year 2020. It's been estimated that the cheapest version of the iPhone SE 2 will have 64GB internal storage, 3GB RAM, and an A13 chip for around $399 USD.

It's also been rumored that this phone may go by the name iPhone 9, which would be appropriate, given its placement in the grand scheme of Apple's iPhone collection. The iPhone 8 looks like and acts like the iPhone 7, and the iPhone 7 was a modified take on the design of the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 6 (and 6S, etc) had a look very similar to that of the iPhone 7 and 8 up front, but around back, the iPhone 6 (and 6S, etc) was the last phone to be released with the antenna lines that cut the phone's backside into sections. There was no "iPhone SE" iteration of device.

SEE TOO: iPhone SE 2 renders show how the name iPhone 9 fits

The iPhone 9 will not necessarily be the phone an iPhone 7 user runs to if they want to "upgrade." Instead, the iPhone 9 will be the device that's used to achieve maximum profit for Apple for users who want to replace their old iPhone, but do not necessarily care if they're getting an iPhone that looks and acts pretty much the same as their old phone did.

At $399, an iPhone 9 would be approximately $50 cheaper than the current cheapest iPhone at the Apple Store: the iPhone 8. It'd allow Apple to take a role in the "cheap" phone arena (even though it's still significantly more expensive than the low-end leaders out of China, like Xiaomi and Huawei.)

With Samsung's increasingly wide range of "Galaxy" brand smartphones at ALL sorts of different prices, it's time for Apple to act. We'll almost certainly see an iPhone 9 (aka iPhone SE 2) by the end of March. Let's cross our fingers that Apple's ready to offer said phone in the color I've been waiting for since the beginning: slime green!