iPhone SE 4 to Mark Apple’s Full Transition to OLED Across iPhone Lineup

Apple today is announcing that the fourth-generation iPhone SE will be introduced in early 2023, and this upgrade for Apple’s lower-cost model brings all of its iPhones’ displays over to OLED technology.

iPhone SE 4 Coming with OLED Display

This transition from LCD to OLED, as Nikkei Asia pointed out earlier this year already removes two major Japanese panel suppliers (Japan Display JDI and Sharp) back home in the process of Apple’s iPhone supply chain. After the arrival of OLED screens that started with iPhone X in 2017 which became high-end models for Apple, demand was reduced to LCD panels. JDI and Sharp provided about 200 million LCD panels per year for iPhones in the past, but this quantity has been cut to around 20 million by 2023. At present, these Japanese suppliers are only offering LCDs for iPhone SE.

At present, JDI is only able to mass produce small OLED displays for devices like the Apple Watch and will overclock its business towards automotive LCD applications in the future. Most of the reductions involved Sharp’s LCD production, mainly used for TVs. Reuters said Apple has begun ordering OLED screens for the new iPhone SE from China’s BOE Technology Group and South Korean makers LG Display.

According to rumors on the next iPhone SE, it will have similarities with the design of a 2022 iPhone such as Face ID, a USB-C port, an Action button, an Apple-designed 5G modem, an A18 processor, and an all-screen layout without a Home Button. The display size is expected to increase from 4.7 inches to 6.06 inches, and the internal RAM is likely to be upgraded to 8GB from the previous 4GB to accommodate new hardware requirements.

Production of the new iPhone SE is anticipated to begin in October, with a possible release in January 2025, around the Lunar New Year, though a March 2025 launch remains a possibility, as previous iPhone SE models were announced in March.

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