Apple reportedly prepping launch of 4in iPhone 5se for March-April

Apple is apparently prepping the 4in iPhone 5se for a spring launch with its shipping date set for March-April, according to recent claims by Mark Gurman on 9To5Mac. The device codenamed N69 bears the tag name 'iPhone 5se', wherein the "se" suffix stands for special edition variant of the vintage 4in iPhone or the enhanced version of the iPhone 5s.

Contrary to recent rumours, the forthcoming 4in iPhone will not be named "6c" and instead will carry the moniker "5se", as it will mostly retain the iPhone 5s's design along with the headphone jack. The purported iPhone 6c model is confirmed to be a fake, according to sources claiming access to the forthcoming 4in iPhone.

The report confirming this information also adds that Apple will not try to appease potential customers seeking an iPhone with a smaller version of the iPhone 6s and instead will be upgrading the existing iPhone 5s that debuted in fall 2013. Besides, the rumours of Apple releasing a preview version of the iPhone 7 have been ascertained to be false and baseless, as fresh details suggest that the next iPhone will indeed ship with a headphone jack.

In a nutshell, the 5se will inherit design features from the 2013 flagship, but will add upgraded internals, software, and hardware features to combine older design and newer technologies from the past two iPhone upgrades.

9To5Mac reports that its sources offered the following probable list of iPhone 5se upgrades over the 5s:

• The chamfered, shiny edges have been replaced with curved glass like on the iPhone 6 and 6s lines
• The same 8 megapixel rear camera and 1.2 megapixel front camera systems from the iPhone 6
• Support for larger panoramas and autofocus for video recording
• Barometer for tracking elevation in the Health app
• An NFC chip for Apple Pay
• The A8 and M8 chips from the iPhone 6
• Bluetooth 4.2, VoLTE, and 802.11ac WiFi chips from the iPhone 6s
• Live Photos from the iPhone 6s without pressure-sensitive screen
• Same Silver, Space Gray, Gold, & Rose Gold colour options as the 6s line

The proposed iPhone 5se launch is expected to kick off at a planned Apple event in March along the lines of 2015's iPhone keynote. A next-gen Apple Watch is also on the cards at this event, although recent reports indicate it will be a minor upgrade.