Could Apple build a $300 iPhone? Yes, and here's what the tech spec might look like

Apple's cheapest iPhone currently on sale is the 32GB iPhone 7, which retails for $449. While this seems like a reasonable deal -- especially when you consider that Apple's priciest iPhone is $1.449 -- it's a lot of money for old hardware. What Apple needs is a budget iPhone designed from the ground-up to be cheap yet functional.

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What we need is an iPhone SE 2. And there are plenty of rumors circulating to suggest that Apple has an updated version of the diminutive iPhone SE in the works.

The original iPhone SE dates back to the spring of 2016, and retailed for $399 for 16GB of storage. That was back when Apple could get away with asking for $400 for a phone with such a dismal amount of storage. It's 2019 now, and times have changed, and that's a good thing for consumers because Apple will need to work harder to make the sale.

I believe that an updated iPhone SE would be a far more competitive piece of kit. I'd say priced starting at $300.

So what would it be like?

Here's what I'd expect the tech spec to look like:

• 4-inch LED display (likely an updated version of the display that shipped on the iPhone SE)
  
• 32GB to 128GB of storage
  
• 2GB RAM
  
• Wireless charging
  
• A11 Bionic chip (as seen on the iPhone 8)
  
• Touch ID (because Face ID tech would add too much to the price)
  
• 12-megapixel rear-facing camera
  
• 5-megapixel front-facing camera
  
• Headphone jack
  

As to what it might look like, I'm guessing something along the lines of the iPhone SE. Here's a plausible looking render:

Not a tech spec that blows your hair back I'm sure you'll admit, but still pretty good for a $300 iPhone. On top of that, the smaller screen offers enough differentiation from Apple's higher-end iPhones to prevent cannibalization, while the rest of the spec is beefy enough to satisfy those who either want a budget iPhone, or who have smaller hands.

Would you buy one? Let me know!

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