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iPhone SE 4 leaks point to brand new design
New video and images show off Apple’s upcoming entry-level iPhone
💧 Latest leaks show off upcoming iPhone SE 4 in full
🤷 Design looks a lot like the iPhone XR
🔘 The iconic home button is nowhere to be found
📅 Could launch in March or April
📱 Will likely feature an OLED display
🤓 Should get a RAM boost to support Apple Intelligence
💲 Probably a big price bump
Apple’s rumored upcoming refresh of its budget-focused iPhone SE has allegedly been revealed for the first time recently in a video and high-res images. The design is very reminiscent of Apple’s iPhone XR, which launched way back in 2018.
The leaks line up with most of the rumors we’ve already heard, such as Apple finally ditching the home button for FaceID, the switch to an OLED display, and support for Apple Intelligence. Considering the last iPhone SE launched in March 2022, and the fact that the rumors and leaks are coming more frequentl,y means the phone will likely launch in March or April.
This isn’t the first we’ve heard about the upcoming fourth-generation iPhone SE, but it’s certainly the best look we’ve had at the forthcoming iPhone. A brief hands-on video of the device was shared by leaker Majin Bu Official on X along with a series of high-res images of the phone. If accurate, the iPhone SE 4 will feature many welcome upgrades over its predecessor, which is looking quite dated.
What’s new?
The biggest change will be on the front. The current iPhone SE is still desperately clinging to the iconic Home button with TouchID, and I know there are quite a few people who will hold on to theirs as long as physically possible just for that reason.
Instead, the new SE should finally have support for FaceID, which will be quite welcome. I still find it ironic that many techies keep calling TouchID ‘outdated’ when nearly every single Android phone uses a fingerprint scanner for biometric identification. When will we finally see a true FaceID competitor on the Android side (and MagSafe magnets inside the phone)?
Other rumored upgrades for the SE suggest it could finally adopt an OLED display, bringing all of Apple’s iPhones in line with the industry-standard display technology. We’re also expecting Apple to keep the single-camera setup, although we’re unsure of the specs on that yet. The company could stick with 12MP to keep costs down, or maybe, just maybe, it might be nice and give us a 48MP camera (don’t hold your breath).
What else don’t we know?
We still know nothing about the internals of the phone, except that it is almost sure to have enough power to support Apple Intelligence. That likely means at least 8 or 12GB of RAM, and we’ll probably still be stuck with 64, 128, and 256GB storage options.
One of the more interesting things we also don’t know about is whether the phone will have a Dynamic Island. Known leaker Evan Blass recently shared that it would have the Dynamic Island, yet the leaks mentioned here seem to show it might have a notch instead. We’ll just have to keep waiting to find out about that one.
The other big question is the price. The current iPhone SE is $429, which is $30 higher than its predecessor. Considering this would be a much bigger re-design this time, it wouldn’t be surprising for Apple to take this opportunity to jack the price up quite a bit. I expect it will come in at $499, but we might get lucky and see it priced around $450 or $480.
Whatever happens, we can expect to see much more about this new phone over the next several weeks.
Jason Cockerham is a seasoned technology journalist reporting on the latest tech trends for The Shortcut as well as CNET and Top Ten Reviews. You can follow him at @jasonthejasonc on X and LinkedIn.