Just this Monday we saw a YouTuber do something we never thought possible – put a USB-C port port on a Nokia 3310 from 25 years ago. Why? Because a phone if there’s something that makes the 3310 more indestructible than it already is, it’s a series of tech upgrades! However, if you thought that was ambitious, wait until you see what’s next. A hacker going by the Reddit handle OceanDepth95028 has given the world the NokiApple LumiPhone 1020 SE, a Frankenstein creation that shoves an iPhone SE 3’s internals into the shell of a beloved Windows Phone relic—the Lumia 1020. The result? A device that runs iOS but looks like it just stepped out of 2013.
The project is equal parts nostalgia and absurdity. Lumia phones, with their colorful polycarbonate bodies and gorgeous curved displays, had a cult following. The 1020, in particular, was legendary for its 41MP camera—a sensor so powerful it still gets name-dropped in photography discussions today. But this LumiPhone? The only thing left from the original Lumia is the shell and the front glass. Everything inside is pure iPhone SE 3, powered by Apple’s A15 Bionic chip and running iOS 18.3.1 like any standard iPhone. If the Lumia 1020 was a Windows Phone purist’s dream, this is some kind of multiverse glitch.
Designer: OceanDepth95028
The creator of this hybrid masterpiece describes it as “a Mac motherboard inside an office PC chassis.” And honestly, that analogy is spot on. The moment you fire it up, you’re greeted by the familiar world of iOS, a stark contrast to the live tiles that once defined Windows Phone’s aesthetic. The integration is so deep that the LumiPhone still receives OTA updates, has working 5G, and supports Apple CarPlay. The only things that don’t work? Wireless charging and Apple Pay. A small price to pay for the sheer joy of confusing tech enthusiasts everywhere.
The craftsmanship here is meticulous. The front glass from the Lumia has been relaminated to fit the slightly larger iPhone SE 3’s LCD. The iPhone’s selfie camera was carefully transplanted into the Lumia’s original location. Even the physical buttons remain in place, with a clever hack that hooks up the classic Lumia camera shutter button to the volume switch. Want to snap a photo? Sure. Want to use it as an extra volume-down button for no real reason? Go ahead, because it does that too.
And then there’s the back. The original Lumia 1020’s massive Oreo-style camera bump is still there, but it no longer houses the 41MP PureView sensor. Instead, the iPhone SE 3’s 12MP camera is centered on the bump, with a transplanted Touch ID sensor right below it. It’s a back-mounted fingerprint scanner in the year 2025, making this one of the rare times an iPhone borrows a feature from old-school Androids. Oh, and the Xenon flash? It’s just decoration now, because some things are sacred.
One of the most amusing details is the port situation. At first glance, the LumiPhone appears to have a classic Micro-USB port, a staple of old Lumia devices. But look closer, and you’ll realize it’s actually Apple’s Lightning port, disguised in a Micro-USB shell. It’s the kind of small, unnecessary attention to detail that makes projects like this so fun. The SIM card slot was also custom-built to match the Lumia’s original placement. Meanwhile, the headphone jack is gone, plugged up “for sealing purposes,” because let’s be real, getting a 3.5mm jack back into an iPhone is a battle even modders don’t want to fight.
But here’s the wildest part: this isn’t just some proof-of-concept that barely runs. It’s a fully functioning daily driver. The creator even mentions it has 93% battery health, a solid signal, and works just fine as a second phone. Imagine casually pulling this out in public, watching someone recognize the Lumia design, and then seeing their brain short-circuit as iOS 18 loads up. It’s Cognitive Dissonance Pro Max – like watching Jason Statham act in a rom com. Or Zooey Deschanel hunt zombies.
What makes this project fascinating is that it highlights two completely different design philosophies colliding. The Lumia 1020 was a love letter to photography, designed for a time when Microsoft still believed it could carve out a space in the smartphone world. Its curvy, colorful polycarbonate body screamed confidence. Meanwhile, the iPhone SE 3 is the definition of safe, predictable design—a modern device wrapped in a chassis that Apple barely updated from the iPhone 6 era. Merging them is a bizarre yet strangely beautiful contradiction. The LumiPhone 1020 SE is both a tribute to Windows Phone’s past and an amusing reminder that in some alternate universe, Lumia hardware could’ve housed iOS.
Make no mistake, this project isn’t about practicality. Nobody was sitting around wishing they could run iOS 18 on a Lumia 1020. But that’s what makes it brilliant—it exists purely because someone wanted to see if they could. The Lumia 1020 was a love letter to photography, a defiant burst of color and personality from a time when Microsoft still believed it could take on Apple and Google. Meanwhile, the newly released iPhone 16E is the complete opposite: a safe, familiar rectangle that Apple barely bothered to visually update from the iPhone 11 era. Merging them is like dressing Tim Cook in a bright yellow Nokia jumpsuit—completely unnecessary, but undeniably entertaining.
And yet, here we are, with a Lumia 1020 that not only runs iOS but does so flawlessly. It gets OTA updates. It works with Apple CarPlay. It has a Touch ID sensor where the camera should be. It’s absurd in all the best ways, like a tech multiverse glitch that somehow made it into reality. There’s something oddly poetic about a Windows Phone refusing to die, even if it had to borrow an iPhone’s internals to keep the dream alive. If nothing else, this proves that nostalgia, determination, and a little bit of madness can produce some of the coolest creations.
The post A Nokia Lumia Running iOS 18? This Hacker Created The Ultimate Tech Mashup Of 2025 first appeared on Yanko Design.