Up to recently, there have been several conflicting rumors on whether the next generation iPhone SE will have either the notch or the Dynamic Island in more recent iPhones. However, Majin Bu posted images of the dummy units of what the iPhone SE 4 could potentially look like, and based on the leak, it appears that the notch is more likely to appear in the final design of the iPhone SE 4.
Here's what the iPhone SE 4 looks like pic.twitter.com/pEyIAJ34VR
— Majin Bu (@MajinBuOfficial) January 25, 2025
Even Ross Young reported today that the upcoming budget smartphone will have the traditional notch, which contradicts other conflicting rumors. This would make a lot more sense as the iPhone SE 4’s design is expected to be based on that of the iPhone 14 as Apple has always used older iPhone designs for its SE models to have R&D costs overall. The original iPhone SE is based on the iPhone 5s, and both the second- and third-generation iPhone SE are based on the iPhone 8.
Another deciding factor that will help reduce costs further is using the (binned) A17 Pro chip as opposed to the A18 chip as Apple has had a lot of leftover stock when developing those for the now-discontinued iPhone 15 Pro. Apple currently uses that chip on the latest iPad mini, and we expect the company to use the same chip on the upcoming 11th-generation iPad.
In summary, the iPhone SE 4 is going to be a huge, substantial upgrade that we’ve been waiting for years as it will finally bring many of the features found in more modern iPhones, including a 6.1-inch OLED display, a single-lens 48MP rear camera, 8GB RAM to support Apple Intelligence, and a USB-C port for charging. This smartphone is also expected to pioneer Apple’s first in-house 5G modem chip. We expect Apple to debut the iPhone SE 4 sometime in March or April.
