Someone put an iPhone inside a Nokia Lumia 1020, and it’s glorious

We regularly cover interesting tech projects here at XDA, especially those which include hardware modifications. Some of our recent coverage includes a 3D live map of Manhattan’s subway trains using a Raspberry Pi, an RTX 4090 cooled by a built-in air conditioner, and the conversion of a 24-inch touchscreen into a home dashboard by leveraging the power of a Raspberry Pi. The human imagination truly knows no limitations, and now, a hardware enthusiast has modded iPhone internals into a Nokia Lumia 1020, because why not?

The return of the Nokia Lumia 1020

Microsoft’s Windows Phone endeavors have been dead for quite some time, but some keep resurrecting the idea through concept versions or getting Windows 11 to run on a Lumia 950. Now, Reddit user OceanDepth95028 has made public his personal project of reviving a Nokia Lumia 1020 using the internals of the third-generation iPhone SE (5G). This “LumiPhone 1020 SE” still uses the outer shell and front display glass of the Lumia 1020, but pretty much everything else comes from the iPhone.

Does the LumiPhone 1020 SE actually work?

Surprisingly, this weird Frankenstein phone is actually quite functional. It runs iOS 18.3.1 and can receive OTA updates, although, wireless charging and Apple CarPlay don’t work. The microUSB port is actually a Lightning connector, and the speaker next to it works perfectly well too. Since the display of the iPhone was larger, the capacitive buttons present on the Lumia 1020 had to be removed.

Unfortunately, the iconic 41MP camera is no more, and instead, we have the iPhone’s 12MP camera system with an LED flash. You can also use the physical volume button as a shutter button for the camera. Additionally, the selfie camera has been fitted inside the body too, but the headphone jack has been killed, with the opening sealed. Apart from that, this phone is powered by Apple’s A15 Bionic chipset, and features 128GB of storage, along with a functioning 5G system.

All in all, it’s quite an impressive project, and one that has sparked major interest and discussion on Reddit. This is not the Reddit user’s first project of this kind, but it’s certainly the most interesting, in this author’s opinion.