Apple iPhone SE (2017) rumor round-up: design, specs, features, and expectations

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Update: Shortly after the image surfaced online, @OnLeaks pointed out on Twitter that it may very well have been tampered with. According to him, the glass shells depicted in the photo are from a phone by Chinese manufacturer 360 Mobiles, with Apple's logo slapped on top. After taking a closer look at the photo ourselves, we did notice that the Apple logo looks a bit off – it's not perfectly centered and its bottom half is somewhat distorted. The original text of the rumor round-up follows:

It's been more than a year since Apple paid some serious attention to the compact smartphone segment it once ruled. It did that by releasing the iPhone SE - a 4" device that combined the iPhone 6s' hardware prowess inside an iPhone 5s' body. This recipe turned out successful - the iPhone SE still remains one of the best ultra-compact phones you can buy. 

Although it's not that long in the tooth yet, the iPhone SE will reportedly be succeeded by an improved iPhone SE, a new entrant to the compact scene. Although not much is known about this one, a bunch of specs and a couple of real-life pictures that recently popped up put a lot of oil in the fire. Who knows, Apple might even show us this new iPhone SE at WWDC '17, which kicks off June 5!

Let's see what we know so far!

Design & display


It seems that the new iPhone SE will bear little to no resemblance to its predecessor - if the recent leak is to be believed, Apple will be ditching the old school edgy metal design for a trendy glossy glass one. This is exactly what the leak shows: a bunch of rear panels that proudly boast the Apple logo and a revamped camera-flash design. The new iPhone SE will reportedly boast an ION-X glass back, which is the same stuff that's used for the glass of the Apple Watch and is reportedly as sturdy as Corning's latest Gorilla Glass iterations.

As far as the overall design of the next iPhone SE is concerned, we suppose it could look like a mix between the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 5c but with a glass back. The front of the device will most certainly look like any other iPhone out there, with a round home button with the TouchID fingerprint scanner embedded within. 


The display size will likely remain 4 inches, or so they say. There's a rumor that Apple might put an OLED display on that phone, but that's highly unlikely - it's much more plausible that this one will be introduced on the iPhone 7s/8 first. The screen will likely continue to boast a 640 x 1336-pixel Retina display as we don't expect an upgrade.

Hardware


The next generation of the iPhone SE will most likely continue to meet the unprecedented performance standards its successor established and then add some. The compact powerhouse is likely going to boast an Apple A10 Fusion chipset on deck, complemented by 2 gigabytes of RAM. That sounds like it would be an impressive combo, and we really do hope the hearsays holds water.

Camera


Little to nothing is known about the camera unit of the next-gen iPhone SE. It's safe to assume that the device will either inherit the iPhone 7's camera setup or score no improvements at all. All we know so far is that the layout of the camera and the flash would be slightly revamped - the flash will be positioned to the immediate bottom of the camera lens, which is unlike any iPhone thus far. 

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As far as we know more, so will you.

Expectations


We don't know if the nest iPhone SE will be unveiled at WWDC '17. Given that it's strictly a software summit, we doubt that Apple will launch a new phone this June, but we wouldn't completely discard this rumor. After all, surprises do happen on a regular basis, and Apple's definitely among the chief "perpetrators" of those. 
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