The design shows what I expected: an iPhone X-style front with bezel-less display, Face ID sensor and metal chassis. But it doesn’t show it at the dimensions I expected (a 6-inch display) with Olixar stockist Mobile Fun providing internal schematics to me which show the phone as being 121.04 x 55.82 mm (4.8 x 2.2-inches).
This is almost identical to the 4-inch iPhone SE which measures 123.8 x 58.6 mm (4.87 x 2.31-inches) and would imply Apple cannot squeeze in a bezel-less display any larger than 5-inches. For reference, the 5.8-inch iPhone X measures 143.6 x 70.9 mm (5.65 x 2.79-inches).
So which new iPhone is this?
Currently, Apple is expected to release a total of four new iPhones in 2018. An iPhone SE2 (which is expected to look identical to the iPhone SE), the budget-friendly so-called ‘iPhone X SE’ which will look like an iPhone X but have a metal chassis and retail for just $550, a second generation iPhone X and a much larger iPhone X Plus.
From Olixar’s information, this design should be the ‘iPhone X SE’ but Mobile Fun lists it as the iPhone SE2. Which means either customers are in for the greatest entry-level iPhone of all time, or the iPhone X SE is a lot smaller than expected.
And here things get interesting.
Speaking to Mobile Fun, it confirmed the iPhone SE2 branding is due to uncertainty about what Apple’s new iPhone SE and budget iPhone X models will be called. But the company did stress it was confident in the information, which was obtained through their team in China, and supplied me with factory shots of the new display glass beside an iPhone SE for a direct comparison.