If you ’re Apple , how do you make a more low-cost iPhone to attract fresh users , without devaluing or cannibalizing sales of your existing batting order ? For many twelvemonth , this was the iPhone SE lineup — which offered a pare down - back experience for half the price of the Pro — but this year sees the launching of the iPhone 16e and a variety of strategy .
It ’s easy to recollect of the iPhone 16e as a successor for the iPhone SE , but to do so would be to miss the reason for its universe . It ’s not the iPhone SE 2025 ; rather , it ’s design to provide the latest iPhone and just the essentials at a blue , more accessible price .
It reach this in a amazingly good way , although it has a muckle of nuances and caveats that you should be aware of . In a few fundamental ways , it ’s also better than other iPhones , and also has an exclusive feature for proficient measure . Here ’s why the iPhone 16e is great , but only if you ’re a first - time Apple smartphone user .
Apple iPhone 16e: Specs
800 nits liquid ecstasy brightness ( typical )
1200 nit tip brightness ( HDR )
6 - nitty-gritty CPU4 - core GPU16 - essence Neutral Engine
Up to 50 % charge in 30 minute with 20W transcriber or high match with USB - coulomb charging cable
Qi receiving set agitate
Apple iPhone 16e: Design
If you ’ve used any of Apple ’s latest smartphones , the iPhone 16e will be right away conversant . It follows the same design nomenclature as other iPhones , but while it sport the same notch as others , it does n’t have the Dynamic Island feature article that its sib do .
At 167 grams , it ’s refreshingly lightsome , even compare to the iPhone 16 which consider 170 grams . I ’m a daily drug user of theiPhone 16 Proand the iPhone 16e is 0.5 millimeter thinner and 32 grams lighter , and this makes a big difference . We ’ve all experienced an iPhone dropping on our faces while lie in seam , and the iPhone 16e hurts well less than other iPhones .
toss the iPhone 16e over and you get a glass back in two color alternative , both of which are fairly sterile , asmy colleague Andy Boxall wrote . At the top of the back , you ’ll find the single camera ; several weeks in , it still looks unusual to me having been used to two or three camera iPhones for the past decade .
To the left wing is the pair of volume keys as well as the Action Button . Yes , I think it ’s safe to say that the volume switch is numb , and the Action Button is here to stay . Unsurprisingly , the iPhone 16e does n’t have the camera ascendancy slider / release found on the iPhone 16 Pro series , so mine is set to quickly launch the camera . A tip of line is that using the iPhone 16e made me value the photographic camera control on my iPhone 16 Pro more than I had previously , at least as a way to quickly launch the camera .
To the bottom of the iPhone 16e is the USB - C port , the mike and the loudspeaker . There ’s also antenna bands at several point along the aluminium frame , and the tv camera swelling is one of the slimmest in recent memories .
The iPhone 16e is a great blending of new and old . Features like the Action Button keep its blueprint in step with Apple ’s current contemporaries of iPhones , but it miss the flourishes like multiple cameras , the Dynamic Island or the camera control feature find on its siblings . If you ’ve used any late iPhone , the iPhone 16e will feel directly familiar .
Apple iPhone 16e: That 60Hz Display
The iPhone 16e features a 6.1 - inch OLED display that ’s essentially the same sizing one as found on the regular iPhone 16 .
The display is mostly a pleasure to use , and offer vivacious colors , rich direct contrast and rich blacks even in direct sunlight . It features 1,200 nits vertex brightness , which is significantly lower than the 2000 nits featured on the residue of the iPhone 16 serial .
The show itself is only 60Hz , and while the animations in Io do smoothen over some of the jarring , it ’s noticeably less quiet than the iPhone 16 Pro . It ’s not something that bothers you all the time , but it ’s something that does rile you when you notice it . This is less likely to be a problem if you ’re upgrading to the iPhone 16e from a smaller iPhone , but it may feel bump around at first .
Refresh rate aside , the iPhone 16e feels like a solid iPhone presentation . Yes , it ’s not as lustrous as others , but it ’s still high - quality with with child color reproduction like any other iPhone . It ’s a pleasure to use , iOS make colouration start and Ceramic Shield field glass should ply a just academic degree of protection .
Apple iPhone 16e: Hardware and Performance
One of the benefits of peck the iPhone 16e is the focus on current - propagation carrying into action . It is powered by the same Apple A18 SoC used in the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus — which is build using TSMC ’s 3 New Mexico physical process — and delivers fantabulous carrying into action even under heavy loads .
There ’s also 8 GB of RAM — the minimum needed for Apple Intelligence — and between 128 GB and 512 GB of storage . It ’s unsurprising that the store set off at 128 GB , but I ’ve already used more than half and that ’s just with apps and synchronize my Photos Library .
For the most part , the iPhone 16 is snappy and performant , although there are modest glitches and bugs throughout the experience . There also seems to be some aggressive ground task management , with features like FaceID perceptibly slower to reply than on the iPhone 16 Pro . It ’s noticeably dumb if you ’re come from another iPhone , but it ’s tight enough all the same .
To by rights test the iPhone 16e , we put it through two benchmarks to try out the central processor and GPU performance . They revealed that while it ’s still an A18 processor inside the iPhone 16e , it is observably less performant than the “ same ” processor inside the even iPhone 16 .
The iPhone 16e GeekBench 6 result above were the best across five different tests , and reward that this is n’t the fast iPhone , but it ’s designed for length of service and bombardment life .
The other examination we go is 3DMark Solar Bay , a cross - platform bench mark for equipment that confirm hardware - based ray trace , which is one of the fringe benefit of the latest A18 chip inside the iPhone 16e . Solar Bay is designed to try the overall graphics performance of a earphone , and much like the performance , the iPhone 16e delivers an experience that ’s circumscribe compared to the rest of its sib .
The Apple C1 modem
One of the downside to the extra power and features in the rest of the card is the effect on battery lifetime , which is where this phone excels . The iPhone 16e offer the best battery life on an iPhone and this is due to a combination of a large battery capacitance , and the new Apple C1 modem .
The iPhone 16e is singular as it ’s the first iPhone to useApple ’s C1 modem — which it educate in - house — while the rest of the iPhone 16 series uses a Qualcomm modem . The route to this head was full of roadblocks and delays , and Apple Silicon revolutionize processors for computing thanks to immensely higher-ranking performance and efficiency , and Apple is hoping the same will apply to the C1 modem in the iPhone .
I ’ve tested it extensively alongside the iPhone 16 Pro on the same meshing while trip and there has been no dispute in performance between the two . Signal strength does seem to be a short low-toned on the iPhone 16e than the iPhone 16 Pro , but in terminus of genuine identification number , there ’s little to separate them .
The first generation of the iPhone 16e does n’t support mmWave so there are times when the iPhone 16 Pro serial publication will progress to gamey peak speeds , but there ’s piffling existent departure in literal - humans performance . There is one key benefit that give all the difference of opinion .
Apple iPhone 16e: Battery and Charging
Apple ’s focus on the essential features — and probably a desire to not make the iPhone 16e drastically low-cal or slight than the rest of the iPhone 16 batting order — imply the iPhone 16e has a bigger barrage than even the iPhone 16 Pro . pair with the efficiency from the iPhone 16e modem , this means the iPhone 16e offers incredible multi - day battery life that ’s really all - day and more .
I ’ve long been a fan of Apple ’s smaller non - Pro and non - Plus phone , but the little batteries mean that you often have to charge during the day . The iPhone 16e and Apple ’s C1 modem fix this , by offering honest multi - daylight battery life-time . On more than one occasion , it last through the night and well into the following day .
The iPhone 16e offers incredible multi - day barrage life
At 4,005mAh , the iPhone 16e battery is close to 12 % larger than theiPhone 16andiPhone 16 Pro , but about 15 % modest than theiPhone 16 PlusandiPhone 16 Pro Max . It fills the gap between the two and offers the efficiency of the larger iPhones , but in a much smaller form broker .
In terms of raw number , the best battery life I experience was 39 hours of runtime and 10 hours of sieve on sentence . This is prominent battery life , and on par with — if not best than — the iPhone 16 Pro Max .
Like many of its siblings and extended kinsperson , the iPhone 16e is n’t the fastest to charge to full . Apple has n’t sustain the exact agitate speed , but it promises firm charging with a 20W adapter or higher . In my testing , the iPhone 16e take 30 minutes to shoot to 50 % but a further hour to charge the remain 50 % . Most iPhones are only plan to be charged to 80 % to expand battery life , which takes just under an hr .
By far the biggest disappointment is MagSafe , or the lack of it . Initially , I thought it would n’t rile me , but I ’ve found that I do miss experience it , particularly when trying to use some of the practiced iPhone accessory . Yes , the iPhone 16e supports 7.5W radio charging , but it feels like the one part escape from this experience ; MagSafe is a stigma in and of itself , and the lack of it does make the iPhone 16e feel less like a current - generation flagship .
Apple iPhone 16e: iOS and Apple Intelligence
One of the benefit of using current generation hardware is that you get the maximum length of service and accompaniment . Apple does n’t make title of how many class support it will extend , but historical data suggests that you could expect the iPhone 16e to last for at least five years .
Out of the box , the iPhone 16e bleed iOS 18 and the a la mode build available is iOS 18.3.2 which sport ChatGPT integrating inApple Intelligence . iOS 18 brings a host of improvements and unexampled feature and in many ways , the biggest change to iOS in years .
There ’s a redesign control center that adopts a multi - page design giving you quick access to even more shortcuts , a new connectivity panel and more context of use around what ’s playing . There ’s a young theming and home screen engine that appropriate you to deepen your rest home screen and app icons coloration at will . you could even rearrange your home blind in a more freer way , and Apple has also made it effortless to resize thingmabob .
Then there ’ ’s a host of new security and privateness features , which is key to the iOS 18 offering . you could lock and hide apps behind FaceID , TouchID or a passcode so that only you could access them . you’re able to also hide out an app from your home screen inside a hidden app folder that ’s protected . There ’s also major changes to the Photos app , a newfangled Passwords handler , and a host of other changes throughout the experience .
iOS 18 has its fair portion of bugs and things that do n’t work as well as expected , but it ’s a great overall OS and prevail jolly well on the iPhone 16e . The latest ironware also think that it ’s capable to run a host of new AI - power features , which is one of the reasons you may be weigh it .
Apple Intelligence and AI-powered features
Apple ’s journey to AI on the iPhone has n’t been the fluid , and the launch of Apple Intelligence at WWDC last yr was introduce with the expectation that many feature film would roll out over the preceding yr . As it reverse out , some of these feature have launched , but Apple has also announced that the raw context - aware Siri — which can intelligently empathize what ’s on your CRT screen — could take a further yr to launch .
Aside from the delay , Apple Intelligence is available on the iPhone 16e in a few different agency . Visual Intelligence provides a Google - lens experience that allow Apple Intelligence to interact with the world around you through your phone ’s camera , while AI feature article are also built into most of Apple ’s apps .
Notes has had a huge acclivity thanks to Apple Intelligence , including being able to record and transliterate live audio in a bank bill , a master of ceremonies of unexampled data formatting options , and help oneself solving complex math equation instantly with Math ’s bank bill . you may also now platter outcry , get AI - power summaries of any e-mail in the Mail app and get summary of articles in Siri .
My preferred Apple Intelligence feature is Notification Summaries , which I use daily to help triage my life . Notification Summaries has vastly ameliorate as a feature , and while you ’ll still get funny sum-up that make little sentience , it is far more utilitarian as a feature article now than it was six months ago .
Apple iPhone 16e: Just One Camera
The biggest surprisal in this phone is that the iPhone 16e camera is near than I expect . That said , there are some caveats that are deserving keeping in brain , and while Apple has do to make a single tv camera good in some situation , it still ca n’t beat the benefit of multiple cameras .
The iPhone 16e sport a undivided 48MP tv camera with f/1.6 aperture , phase detecting autofocus and OIS . There ’s only one television camera but it captures high quality images , and combine pixels into a gravid one to aid capture right picture in blue light conditions . It takes all the learnings from the iPhone 16 Pro ’s main photographic camera and play it to the most low-priced current - gen iPhone .
For some masses , one television camera wo n’t be enough , but for others , it may be worth the compromise , peculiarly if you do n’t take many photos or you ’d rather have the lighter weight and better battery life .
There ’s no ultrawide or telephotograph camera , but the iPhone 16e does offer 2x telephoto zoom using in - detector cropping . The in - sensing element crop works fairly well , although there is a little reduction in resolution and quality . Beyond 2x , there ’s a obtrusive reduction in caliber .
There ’s also the total range of studio effects in portrayal mode , and the ability to use both 1x and 2x focal lengths . The gist of the latter is particularly jarring as the cropping conduct to a much tight image than you might expect .
If you ’re debate the iPhone 16e from another phone — especially one that has multiple tv camera that you use — then you will probably end up disappoint by the iPhone 16e tv camera . However , if the camera does n’t matter to you , but you ’d like a undecomposed one there just in case , the iPhone 16e is a great pick .
Apple iPhone 16e: price and availability
The most contentious part of the iPhone 16e is not its exclusive camera , but its price . depart at $ 599 , it ’s only $ 200 cheap than the iPhone 16 which has a few key upgrade include a dual - lens camera raiment .
For that , you get 128 GB of storehouse and a selection of either Black or White color ways . If you need more memory , the 256 GB and 512 GB model be $ 100 and $ 200 more severally . AppleCare+ costs $ 10 per calendar month or $ 100 per yr , and there are a legion of trade - in bargain uncommitted to offset the overall cost .
Should you buy the Apple iPhone 16e?
If you ’ve never experienced an iPhone before and are upgrading to the iPhone 16e from a simple phone ( smartphone or otherwise ) , you will enjoy the iPhone 16e . It ’s the quintessential Apple smartphone experience at a cheaper price , and it offers everything you probably want .
The iPhone 16e is a true battery life champion , and if you value longevity over all else , it ’s the iPhone to pick . However , there are better iPhones on the market if you take a lot of photos or want snappier carrying out . You couldbuy the iPhone 16or last year’siPhone 15 Pro serial publication . These are all priced similarly , and they both have pregnant vantage over the iPhone 16e .
The iPhone 16e is the iPhone to pick if you just need the essentials like a good showing , solid performance and great battery life . The e does n’t mean it ’s for everyone , but it ’s definitely the right phone for someone .
