This is Rumor Replay, a weekly column at 9to5Mac offering a quick rundown of the most recent Apple product rumors, with analysis and commentary. Today: the iPhone 17’s display features and a possible new iPhone 16E branding for the iPhone SE. Here are this week’s Apple rumors.
iPhone 17 lineup’s display features
This week, Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station posted the following about the iPhone 17 line:
Judging from the supply chain materials, the standard version of the iPhone 17 series is likely to have a high refresh rate.
Details here are pretty minimal, but the leak corroborates a Ross Young report that ProMotion and always-on would come to the base iPhone 17 and 17 Air.
My takeaways
This report is more interesting than it first appears, mainly for what it doesn’t say.
Apple could very well add ‘high refresh rate’ to the base iPhone 17 and 17 Air, but not give them the full 120Hz ProMotion feature.
Supply chain reporting can’t tell us much about the software features that hardware will enable.
Even if every iPhone 17 model includes many of the same display components, Apple could choose to reserve full ProMotion for the 17 Pro and Pro Max, and give a lesser 90Hz feature to the cheaper 17 and 17 Air.
What will they do? That’s anyone’s guess. But we could very well see the iPhone 17 line continue being split into two different classes, even if the more affordable models do get some new display features.
iPhone 16E as the new iPhone SE?
Apple’s next iPhone will arrive this spring as a big revision to the iPhone SE. Leaker Majin Bu has claimed that Apple is changing the device’s name, though.
Rather than iPhone SE, he says the new name will be iPhone 16E.
My takeaways
Bu’s mixed track record with leaks gives me pause here. But as my recent overview of the upcoming 2025 iPhones shows, the new iPhone SE will have an awful lot in common with the iPhone 16.
Shared features include:
- A18 chip
- 8GB of RAM
- Apple Intelligence support
- 48MP main camera
- USB-C port
The design will be slightly different, with the SE sporting a notch rather than Dynamic Island. But otherwise, there are lots of similarities here.
I don’t expect Apple to actually make this change, since the SE name is established and even used for other products like the Apple Watch.
But if there was ever a year to change the iPhone SE’s name, this spring’s big overhaul would be the time.
What do you expect from iPhone 17 display tech? Do you think the iPhone SE will get a new iPhone 16E name? Let us know in the comments.
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