The iPhone Air and iPhone 13 Mini have about the same volume (external dimensions). If you used the shrunken hardware from the Air with a thicker, but squatter due to reduced height, battery you'd probably be able to get comparable battery life out of the hardware in a Mini sized phone. Maybe better since you'd also have a smaller screen (less power draw, not sure it's enough to make a big difference).

> they can make the whole phone as thick as the cameras to remove the camera bump, and fill all that extra space with a huge battery and better speakers. Sounds perfect to me.

Please! The bump is so stupid. All I want is the original SE with new internals.