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The iPhone SE 4 might feature the Dynamic Island instead of a notch

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The back of the Apple iPhone SE (2022).
The 2022 version of the iPhone SE. Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Newly-leaked images from tipster Evan Blass suggest the iPhone SE 4 might come with the Dynamic Island after all. Blass also shared code snippets that indicate several more yet-to-be-released Apple products, including the 11-inch iPad Air with M3, the 13-inch iPad Air with M3, the iPad 11th generation, and the iPhone SE 4th generation. Blass followed up his initial post with supposed visual assets for the devices, and notably enough, the iPhone SE 4 shows a Dynamic Island.

The Dynamic Island is faint. If you want to get a better look at it, we suggest making the image full-screen. Blass said he had color-corrected the image to make it more visible. However, Blass specifically stated that he had edited the image to make it more visible, so it’s confirmed that, in this image at least, the phone has the island.

An image showing potential renders of the iPhone SE 4.
Evan Blass

The iPhone SE 4 and the iPhone 16 look eerily similar to one another, with both devices sporting the A18 chip, 8GB of RAM, Apple Intelligence, and much more. The iPhone SE has traditionally been a more budget-friendly model, but a price hike isn’t out of the question — especially when you take all of these other factors into consideration.

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In fact, there are enough similarities between the two that 9to5Mac actually suggested the phone might be called the iPhone 16E, rather than the iPhone SE 4.

This news contradicts earlier leaks that insisted the iPhone SE 4 would only have a notch, versus the Dynamic Island. While it’s inclusion is a welcome surprise, it also makes sense. As our own Jesse Hollington pointed out, the notch will be virtually obsolete later this year when the iPhone 14 stops being sold, so why would Apple want to give it another bump on a new phone?

The iPhone SE 4 is still quite a ways off from release, so take these early details with a grain of sand. Details are likely to change before the device is fully completed.

Patrick Hearn
Former Technology Writer
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