iPhone SE 2: Rumours begin to swirl about update to Apple's small smartphone

Apple was surprised by the interest in the new, tiny phone

Rumours are beginning to swirl about an update to Apple's hugely popular iPhone SE.

The little phone has gone for years without an update but is still one of the company's most popular handsets.

Now it appears that it will be getting a refresh, likely to bring new features that have been introduced with the more recent iPhone X and SE. And it could arrive within the next few weeks.

Apple released the first iPhone SE in March 2016. The new handset – which packed new internals into the small body of the iPhone 5 – proved immediately popular, and Apple is said to have been surprised by the scale of the interest in the new phone.

Now Apple is rumoured to be updating the two-year-old handset. The sheer quantity of the rumours does appear to suggest that something is on the way – though it's not clear what exactly that might be.

The company might simply choose to upgrade the internals so that they are faster and more fresh, without making any major changes to the outside. That was suggested by usually reliable analyst Ming-chi Kuo, who said earlier this year that his sources in the supply chain didn't appear to be expecting a drastic overhaul that would bring new features like wireless charging or the iPhone 8's glass back.

However, some rumours suggest a far more extreme change. Leaks that claim to have come from the Chinese supply chain have suggested that the company could be preparing an update to the iPhone SE that would make it more like an iPhone X – including that phone's edge-to-edge display and the trademark notch that cuts into it – though those rumours are far from confirmed.

Many of the rumours suggest that the new phone could come sooner rather than later, and that it will launch long before the main updates to the iPhone arrive in September.

If the phone does receive a significant upgrade, it is unlikely that the company would reveal it without an event at the same time. There will probably be only one event before the major iPhone reveal in the Autumn – Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, where it tends not to reveal new hardware.

But if only the insides receive an upgrade to make them faster, then it is possible Apple could release the new phone with a simple press release.