The ‘iPhone SE 4’ Could Get a 48MP Fusion Camera
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Reports on what to expect from next year’s fourth-generation iPhone SE are heating up following news from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman earlier this week that the new model is “nearing production.”
While much about Apple’s upcoming entry-level iPhone has been known for a while — sources revealed nearly a year ago that it would use the iPhone 14 design — we haven’t yet filled in all the blanks on what to expect.
For example, over the past several months, there’s been some speculation and debate about whether the iPhone SE would fully embrace the old-school notch of the iPhone 14 or adopt the Dynamic Island of the iPhone 14 Pro, which is now standard across the rest of the iPhone family. Tangential rumors also suggested it might get a color-infused glass back like the iPhone 16.
Along the same lines, while it was assumed that the “iPhone SE 4” would get the latest A-series chip from the iPhone 16, following the trend established with the previous three generations, it wasn’t until last month that reliable sources confirmed Apple would pack in 8 GB of RAM for Apple Intelligence.
At this point, it’s apparent that we’ll be seeing a much more mainstream iPhone SE compared to previous models since not only will we finally see the elimination of the front-facing home button, but it’s also expected to feature a reasonably high-quality OLED display and a TrueDepth camera with Face ID.
Now, 9to5Mac’s sources have seemingly cleared up some remaining questions about what we can expect from next year’s iPhone SE. The information comes from the same source that gave the publication precise details about the iPhone 16 before its release, so it has a good track record.
Firstly, the “iPhone SE 4” will indeed stick with the iPhone 14 design around the front, including the notch, confirming Gurman’s report. There will be no Dynamic Island, even though it’s now become a standard user interface feature on the rest of the iPhone family. That will leave the iPhone SE as the odd iPhone out, especially after the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus get pulled from sale next year, but it will also help to set the wallet-friendly model apart.
Second is confirmation that the iPhone SE is expected to be the first iPhone to feature Apple’s in-house 5G modem chip as a proving ground for the technology. We’ve been hearing reports of that for well over a year now. While we’ve remained skeptical in light of Apple’s reported struggles to build its own 5G chips, the new iPhone SE has also turned out to be much farther away from release than those earlier reports predicted. However, it’s always seemed reasonable to believe that Apple could want to avoid using its fledgling 5G chips in its most premium flagships, especially since the first-generation chip is rumored to lack support for the fastest mmWave frequencies.
Most significantly, the iPhone SE 4 will stick with only one camera. While that’s not too surprising, there was a very slight possibility that Apple could go with a dual-camera configuration. While the iPhone SE has traditionally sported a single camera, the last major redesign of the low-cost model was in 2020, which came on the heels of Apple’s first dual-camera standard model, the iPhone 11. Today, even sub-$300 Android smartphones have dual-camera systems. They’re not very good cameras, but they’re there.
However, such a move might blur the lines with Apple’s higher-end iPhone models, and Apple would naturally prefer to give us one good camera rather than two mediocre ones. Early rumors suggested a single 48-megapixel shooter and 9to5Mac’s source confirms this, adding that the iPhone SE will effectively get the same camera as the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus.
By extension, that would give it essentially the same specs as the iPhone 16 camera since the two models are identical on paper. Apple could be using a slightly newer sensor in this year’s model, but it doesn’t seem like it. Everything from the resolution and aperture to the two-micron quad-pixels is the same, which throws some cold water on rumors of an upgraded IMX903 sensor.
Andrew Williams has a good analysis of this over at TechRadar, but it seems any improvements in the iPhone 16’s photographic prowess are the result of the A18 chip’s more powerful computational image signal processing and the additional ultrawide lens, which has seen some meaningful improvements this year.
In short, “Fusion” may be little more than a marketing name. However, it could also be a handy way for Apple to emphasize that the single camera on next year’s iPhone SE is superior to every similarly-priced dual-camera model out there since it’s “two lenses in one.”
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]