Insiders: iPhone SE 4 will receive USB-C and a screen from the iPhone 14, but will not come out soon

MacRumors, citing industry insiders shared details about changes in the design and “internals” of the fourth generation iPhone SE.

The smartphone is being developed under the code name Ghost, based not on the iPhone XR, like was considered earlier, but the much newer iPhone 14. The new SE will receive a modified version of the chassis from last year's flagship: the case will have a cutout for the Action button, like in the iPhone 15 Pro - it will replace the silent mode switch. Another expected change will be USB-C instead of Lightning. But there will be no frames rounded at the edges a la the iPhone 15: the chopped edges of the iPhone 14 will remain.

There will be just one camera and a flash on the back. The shape of the block is not specified, but there is a chance that the camera will be 48-megapixel.

The screen will be 6.1-inch OLED, like the iPhone 14. Along with it, Face ID will come to the most budget iPhone, and Touch ID will remain a thing of the past.

In parallel, Apple is working on its own 5G modem, codenamed Sinope, which is being tested on SE 4. Initially, Apple wanted to test the chip for the release of the iPhone 16, but eventually extended the contract with Qualcomm for the supply of modems until 2026.

Previous leaks indicated that Apple is developing the iPhone SE 4 solely to test the new modem, and this model will not be released into mass production. This is probably what analyst Ming-chi Kuo wrote about in his note about the cancellation of SE 4.

New rumors indicate that Apple still has not buried the line and has decided to release a new smartphone. It looks like it will be different from what was previously used for modem tests and had no significant differences from SE 3, so technically we are talking more about the fifth version - it’s just that the fourth will not reach the masses release.

So far, the new iPhone SE is in the early stages of development, and you shouldn’t expect a release in the near future. Apple may also change something in already known details as it works on the device.