Apple appears ready to start 2025 strong by launching a new low-price iPhone, a faster MacBook Air and a pair of revamped iPad models. These could come at a possible Apple winter event as early as February, though the wait might be longer.
An Apple winter event isn’t a given. The company could simply issue a series of press releases introducing the new products. No matter what, you don’t need to wait until the official announcements to know what’s in store. Here are the rumors available on all four upcoming devices.
An Apple winter event seems likely
While Apple’s autumn events get the most attention, the company actually scatters product launches throughout the year. And that includes winter. The M3 MacBook Air hit the market last March, for example, and the M2 MacBook Pro and Mac mini debuted in January 2023. And the iPhone SE 3 launched in March 2022.
But you may have noticed there’s no pattern there. One cannot say with any certainty there’ll be an Apple event in March — there wasn’t one in 2023 or 2021. Those years, the events happened in January and April, respectively.
This year, the best information we have from sources inside Apple is that new products will hit the market “by April.” That could mean an Apple winter 2025 event to heat up the tech world.
iPhone SE 4 could bring major changes
Photo: Cult of Mac
Of the four upcoming devices expected soonish at an Apple event, none will bring more changes than the iPhone SE 4. Rumor indicates the handset will ditch its Home button, making room for a much larger screen. All in all, it should look much like the iPhone 14, but it might include a Dynamic Island rather than a black notch at the top of the screen.
Another major change is an upgraded processor so the device can run Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI tools that tweak users’ grammar and images and can generate cutesy pictures based on user prompts. That will require at least an Apple A17 Pro processor and 8GB of RAM. An unconfirmed report says the iPhone SE 4 will run on an A18 chip.
Rumors indicate the iPhone SE 4 redesign will bring significant camera improvements as well, including a jump to a 48MP primary camera.
Apple needs a new budget handset soon because it can no longer sell the current one in Europe. The European Union banned the sale of handsets without USB-C ports at the end of 2024, so expect the iPhone SE 4 to dump the old Lightning port.
There’s no word yet on the price, other than the next iPhone SE is not expected to come in a lot higher than the current $429 — it is Apple’s budget handset, after all.
MacBook Air gets an M4 chip
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac
While most Macs went to a faster M4 processor in autumn 2024, the MacBook Air remains on an M3. But not for much longer. Information leaking out of Apple says that early 2025 will bring the M4 to Apple’s lower-cost notebook.
For reference, the move from M3 to M4 jumped the performance of the 2024 MacBook Pro by as much as 33%. Some of that boost comes from an increase in the number of processor cores: 10 instead of eight. Expect the 2025 MacBook Air to improve by about that much.
The new chip supposedly will go into the 13-inch and 15-inch variants of the upgraded laptop, which apparently will look essentially identical to the 2024 models. Early reports call the new chip the only significant change.
As such, we don’t expect a price increase. The 13-inch version should continue to start at $1,099, and the larger one should start at $1,299.
iPad Air jumps up to M3
Image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Word that a new version of the iPad Air with “internal improvements” is on Apple’s agenda surfaced in the autumn. This week came a report that this means an Apple M3 processor, not the M4 that some had expected. Still, the new chip should bring a 15% increase in performance.
The goal seems to be to spur interest in the tablet. The iPad Air M2 that launched in spring 2024 reportedly sells poorly compared to Apple’s other tablets. A faster chip could change that. And quickly. The 2025 iPad Air will supposedly come soon — less than a year after the previous version.
There’ve also been rumors of a 90Hz screen in place of the current 60Hz one. Still, pre-release leaks indicate the two display size options won’t change. They’ll stick at 11 inches and 13 inches.
Given that the M2 version launched only eight months ago, and the fairly minor changes anticipated, a price increase for the next generation seems unlikely. If that’s the case, then the cost will stay at $599 and $799, depending on screen size.
iPad 11, at last
Image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The iPhone SE 4 isn’t the only 2025 model anticipated for the possible Apple winter event that is being upgraded to run Apple Intelligence. You can add the iPad 11 to that list. As with the handset, the tablet will need at least an Apple A17 processor and 8GB of RAM to run the software.
The 10th-generation model, released in 2022, brought a larger, 10.9-inch screen, USB-C and other enhancements while kicking out the Home button. Expect the iPad 11 to keep that design.
Rumors point to a release in early 2025. As for price, Apple experimented with charging $449 for the iPad 10, then dropped the cost to $349 in spring 2024. Maybe Cupertino learned its lesson and will keep the 11th-generation model at $349.
Will there be an actual winter Apple event in 2025?
Many Apple products benefit from a big launch event, with company executives taking to the stage of the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park to show off the new devices. On the other hand, some are announced via a simple press release. Which treatment the next crop of devices will get remains unknown at this time.
Considering the iPhone SE 4, M4 MacBook Air, M3 iPad Air and iPad 11 could all be unveiled at once, there seems plenty to fill up a glitzy launch event. On the other hand, the new iPhone is the only device getting a real redesign. The others are simply being speed-boosted with faster chips. That’s the sort of thing Apple generally uses press releases to announce.
Of course, it’s possible there’ll be a mix. Some of the new products, like the iPhone SE 4, could be the stars of an Apple winter product launch event. Apple could unveil the other upgrades more quietly.
We’ll likely know which before April.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
