The iPhone SE 4, expected soon, makes the Dynamic Island universal on current Apple handsets, according to a generally reliable tipster. If true, it means the iPhone SE 4 will skip the screen notch previously expected.
It’s already virtually certain that Apple’s upcoming lower-cost model will drop another bit of obsolete tech: the Lightning port. And the Home button is on the way out, too.
iPhone SE 4 may not come with screen notch
The screen notch appeared in the iPhone X in 2017. It proved controversial at the time, but nearly all iPhone users quickly became oblivious to it. And then the iPhone 14 Pro brought an alternative: the Dynamic Island.
The iPhone SE 4 is supposedly in for a significant redesign, with a much larger screen and no Home button. It’ll reportedly look much like the iPhone 14. If true, that would make the iPhone SE 4 the last model to launch with a screen notch.
On Monday, tipster Evan Blass posted an image on social media supposedly revealing the iPhone SE 4 from the front and back. This is accompanied by the note, “Color corrected the phone to highlight the dynamic island.”
If Apple adds the Dynamic Island and nixes the Home button, an open question remains. Will the iPhone SE 4 unlock using Face ID or Touch ID? Some iPads still use the fingerprint-recognition hardware, built into the button on the device’s right edge.
Other iPhone SE 4 changes expected
The iPhone SE 4 cannot include a Lightning port if Apple plans to sell it in Europe. The European Union banned the sale of handsets without USB-C ports at the end of 2024. Apple recently ended EU sales of the SE 3 for that reason.
Another major change widely rumored is support for Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI tools that fix users’ grammar and images, as well as generating pictures based on user instructions. An unconfirmed report indicates an A18 processor will power iPhone SE 4 and that it will come with 8GB of RAM, enough to run Apple Intelligence.
Rumors indicate the iPhone SE 4 will receive significant camera improvements, including a jump to a 48MP primary camera. However, for all of these rumors to be true, Apple would need to be prepping a budget handset with nearly the same feature set as the base iPhone 16 model — but at about half the price. Which is questionable.
Coming soon
Information leaking out of Apple indicates that we should expect the iPhone SE 4 to hit the market “by April.”
There’s no word on the price, though a small increase is possible, of course. That said, the handset shouldn’t come in much higher than the current $429.
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
