Apple iPhone SE 4 renders show XR design, surprise no one

Peter, 20 October 2022

There has been much talk that the next iPhone SE model will be based on the iPhone XR from the early notch era. Leakster Jon Prosser backs that up with info by an anonymous source, info that was used by Ian Zelbo to create these 3D renders.

Apple iPhone SE 4, speculative renders - Starlight

The feeling of deja vu is understandable, the SE series moves several years behind the premium models. The notch is back and this is the original one, the narrower notch arrived only last year with the iPhone 13 series. Also, wave goodbye to the fingerprint reader and the physical home key.

The old-school one camera design is a blast from the past. The colors are new, however, Midnight, Starlight and Product(RED). The XR color scheme, huh, with yellow, red and blue it doesn’t look too different from the palette of the new iPad 10th gen.

Three colorways for the Apple iPhone SE 4, speculative renders

Anyway, the only major hardware upgrade we can expect is the chipset. The iPhone XR has an Apple A12, the SE (2022) has an A15 – and so does the iPhone 14 non-Pro duo. This doesn’t really leave any options other than the A15 as the A16 chip seems too pricey for an SE model. Apple can use the 5-core GPU version of the A15 to provide a tiny upgrade over the current SE.

Apple iPhone SE 4, speculative renders - Midnight

Other than that, we may see more RAM, plus a bigger battery and/or faster charging. Those are the primary differences between the iPhone SE (2022) and the iPhone 8 on which it is based and it is mostly about catching up with the times.

Apple iPhone SE 4, speculative renders - Product(RED)

There’s one more thing – the charging port. It’s possible that it will be a USB-C port instead of Lighting. However, the phone will launch before the deadline, so it might stick with Lightning one last time. We already saw the last iPad holdover switch to Type C, though, so it may be time to move on.