On Friday, news broke that Apple's upcoming 4-inch iPhone would be called the iPhone 5se.
9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman had the scoop: The new 4-inch iPhone would look a lot like the iPhone 6 with its curved glass display, but not be called the iPhone 6c as had been widely speculated. Instead, Apple might advertise it as the “special edition” of the company’s first 4-inch iPhone, the iPhone 5, which will now come with Touch ID for Apple Pay and an 8-megapixel camera with Live Photos.
Over the weekend, a photo claiming to show the iPhone 5se surfaced on an Apple blog called “One More Thing.” The photo showed the alleged phone next to the three-year-old iPhone 5, which was Apple's first iPhone with a four-inch display. From this photo, it’s pretty easy to note the five biggest physical differences.
Assuming this photo is the real deal, there are five major physical differences between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5se. To match the design of the iPhone 6, Apple has moved the locations of the power button and FaceTime camera, and it's also added Touch ID for better security and of course Apple Pay, the company's payments platform. You can also see the iPhone 5se has adopted the oblong volume buttons and rounded glass display of the iPhone 6 as well.
As for the inside of the phone, 9to5Mac says the iPhone 5se will feature the same A9 chip and M9 coprocessor from the iPhone 6s, and be sold in 16GB and 64GB capacities. But there's still plenty we don't know about the iPhone 5se, like its battery life, or if Apple will even call this phone the iPhone 5se.
We'll likely learn more about the iPhone 5se in March, which is when Apple is expected to host its next big product announcement.
This isn't the only iPhone that Apple's expected to unveil this year. Apple will likely introduce its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in September, which would be the successors to last year's iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.
