In late December Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple is reportedly Preparing to begin iPhone SE (2022) Trial Production to work out any last minute changes." The report noted that "analyst at JPMorgan Chase Bank in a note to clients stated that Apple’s new iPhone SE 5G mobile phone has the potential to lure nearly 1.4 billion low- to mid-end Android phone and about 300 million older iPhone model users." PMorgan Chase analyst Samik Chatterjee also thought that Apple could drop that price to as low as $269."

Today, Samsung has released an iPhone SE 3 challenger branded the Samsung Galaxy XCover 5 Pro. It's a rugged smartphone that features a removable battery, a feature long gone in today’s smartphone market.

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The compact phone, priced at 275,000 won (US$231.80), comes in black and white and features a 5.3-inch LCD display as well as a water resistant and dustproof body.

The Korea Herald added that "The most distinctive feature is a 3,000 mAh replaceable battery that lasts long enough for all-day use and supports a quick charge rate of up to 15 watts."

The original XCover 5 was released in March 2021 and today's announcement seems to be more of a rebranding campaign than a being new phone.

Korean carriers have started promotions for the budget phone for kids, offering special plans consisting of educational content.

Earlier this morning Patently Apple posted a report titled "New 2022 iPhone SE 3 Renderings have been Posted.

On January 11, Samsung introduced the Galaxy S21 FE at $699 to challenge Apple's iPhone 12 as presented below.

Samsung is getting aggressive right out of the gate for 2022, with their next-gen flagship phone, the Galaxy S22, due out next month.