After what seems like eons of speculation over the next generation of Apple’s affordable smartphone, the company finally revealed the newest iPhone SE. It’s called the iPhone 16e, and at a $600 starting price, this is the cheapest way to access Apple Intelligence features like the Clean Up tool, Image Playground, and the ability to type to Siri.
The iPhone 16e is a dialed-down iPhone 16. It has a 6.1-inch OLED display sans Dynamic Island. Apple has instead opted for the notch here, but the upside is that there’s Face ID integration. The last iPhone SE, if you’ll recall, was still carrying the torch for Apple’s Touch ID, also called the Home button. The iPhone 16e graduates to what the rest of the ecosystem already uses.
The Action button returns to the iPhone 16e, replacing the now-antiquated Mute switch of the iPhone’s past. There’s an Apple-made six-core A18 chip inside—similar to the chip featured on the rest of the iPhone 16 lineup—plus the rumors of the company forging its territory in cellular modems came true with Apple’s C1 cellular modem chip. The company says its first-ever design modem is the most “power-efficient modem ever” in an iPhone. Apple lauds its “extraordinary battery life.” We can’t wait to put it to the test.
The camera system on the iPhone 16e seems solid, though it’s limited compared to what you’d get for a few hundred dollars more. It’s a 48-MP fusion camera sensor, which means there’s one camera lens to shoot it all. There is no dedicated telephoto or ultra wide-angle lens, though the primary lens does have 2x optical Telephoto capabilities. It can record in 4K with Dolby Vision up to 60 frames per second. The iPhone 16e can also record Spatial Audio, just in case there’s someone nearby with an Apple Vision Pro to witness that content.
The iPhone 16e provides access to all the little features Apple has thrown in as value-adds over the past few generations, including satellite messaging and Emergency SOS. However, Apple made some concessions to bring down the cost. For instance, the iPhone 16e is missing features like MagSafe magnetics—odd, considering the accessory ecosystem created around this circular magnet array—though it kept Qi-compatible wireless charging.
The iPhone SE was always meant to be a “special edition” of Apple’s smartphone. What does the “e” stand for in the case of the iPhone 16e? “Economical”? Or maybe it means “everything,” since the iPhone 16e appears to have all the basic tenets of being an Apple user: the hardware, the software, the camera, and Apple Intelligence.
The iPhone 16e is available for pre-order this Friday. It starts at $600 for 128GB and is available with up to 512GB for $900.
