These dummies allegedly show the iPhone 4 SE – and there's a big surprise

Could Apple be working on two different versions of the iPhone SE 4?

Image claimed to show dummy units for the iPhone SE 4
(Image credit: macotakara.jp)
Quick Summary

Alleged iPhone SE 4 dummy models have leaked – and instead of one SE there are two.

A second, larger SE may exist but it's unlikely to launch in early 2025.

The iPhone SE 4, expected to launch in early 2025, will be the next generation of Apple's most affordable iPhone.

We've had months of rumours already, and now a new set of images apparently shows the iPhone SE 4 in more detail. We're saying "apparently" because the images don't show one iPhone SE 4 – they show two.

The images, posted to Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, are reportedly dummy units of the next iPhone SE.

Such units are often used to help accessory makers create their products, and because they need to do that in advance of the iPhone launches so they'll be ready on time they often leak in advance of the launch date. The blog is one of the key publishers of such leaks so we're not in uncharted territory here.

What do the iPhone SE 4 dummy units show?

As expected, the dummy iPhone SE 4 demonstrates that there's been a big design change: the new iPhone SE 4 will look more like an iPhone 14, complete with a slightly smaller notch at the top of the display, a mute switch rather than the iPhone 16's Action button. There's a single rear camera on the back, as widely predicted.

What nobody's predicted, however, is a larger SE. And one of the dummy units shows just that, with the same design as the other one but different proportions to make it the same size as the iPhone 14 Plus.

A larger SE is possible, but it's highly unlikely. The blog itself notes that "final precision design and size expansion" haven't been decided, so it's probable that this one isn't going to make it into production – or if it is real, that it won't be arriving in early 2025.

We're too far into the usual production schedule for Apple to have kept a large SE secret: Apple's partners begin making iPhones many weeks before the actual launch, and given the large number of iPhone SE 4 leaks we've already seen you'd expect the existence of a bigger model to have leaked too.

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Carrie Marshall

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).