The iPhone SE 4's new look may have been revealed early thanks to some detailed new renders of the rumored budget iPhone. The renders, designed by artist Ian Zelbo, are based on information from leaker Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech.
iPhone SE 4 rumors suggest the new phone would spurn the look of the last two iPhone SE releases, instead inheriting the iPhone XR's design. That's certainly the case with Zelbo's renders. Such a move would make the new iPhone SE model the first to use Face ID and gesture navigation, rather than Touch ID and a Home button.
Whether you like the rumored new look will vary based on your personal tastes, but we're glad to see Apple finally allowing customers with limited budgets easier access to a more modern smartphone design. One of our complaints about the current iPhone SE 2022 model is that it relies on the iPhone 8's aging design, making the phone look dated when stacked next to the recent iPhone 14 releases.
That said, there are a lot of users who like having the compact design of the current 4.7-inch iPhone SE, not to mention the convenience of fingerprint unlocking.
Unfortunately, Prosser was unable to provide anticipated specs for the iPhone SE 4. If we assume an iPhone XR-inspired design, though, that would mean a 6.1-inch LCD display, a single 12MP rear camera, a 7MP front camera, and likely the latest Apple A-series chipset. Assuming an early 2023 release, that chipset would be either the enhanced A15 chipset from the iPhone 14, or the A16 chipset found in the iPhone 14 Pro models.
The renders mirror the current color options for the iPhone SE — a choice between Midnight, Starlight and Product Red.
The mid-priced phone market that the iPhone SE is part of has tough competitors in the form of the Google Pixel 6a, the Samsung Galaxy A53, as well as the OnePlus Nord 2T in Europe. The current iPhone SE is already on our best cheap phones list, but perhaps a new version would score higher with an updated design, along with its usual performance advantage thanks to Apple's high-performance chipsets and smartly-designed software.
Going by previous iPhone SE launches, we should see this new model early in the year, rather than around September with the year's flagship iPhones. So that's one product we can possibly look forward to from Apple in 2023.
