The iPhone 16e Is Here – But Who Is It For?

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Need-to-knows

• New iPhone 16e replaces the iPhone SE in the iPhone lineup
• Only one camera (with two lens capabilities included)
• Price is far too high compared to other Android mid-range devices that have 120Hz displays
• The lack of MagSafe is churlish, but this phone will still sell like hotcakes

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There’s always one thing people jump on whenever Apple launches a new product.

The power button placement on the M4 Mac mini. Jelly scrolling on the iPad mini 7. The smudges left on people’s fancy wooden furniture, courtesy of the HomePod.

Everything about the AirPods Max. 

It’s not just Apple who falls victim to this, either – Samsung has been roasted this year for the S25 Ultra having an 8-bit display. And, no, I’m not sure when that started being a ‘thing’, either.

For the iPhone 16e, it’s the lack of MagSafe. Apple announced their new ‘budget’ phone just a few hours ago, and one search of its name on Google already unearths countless Reddit threads containing people who are bemoaning Apple’s decision not to include the fancy magnetic rear casing.

I’m far more interested in who on Earth this phone is for. The iPhone 16e replaces the now-retired iPhone SE and is quite a bit more expensive than the outgoing model. Despite this, Apple is calling the iPhone 16e its “latest iPhone” (true), at its “greatest price” (highly debatable).

A fascinating spec sheet

Let’s forget about the lack of MagSafe for a moment. There’s some fairly juicy stuff in – and not in – the iPhone 16e.

It’s powered by the A18 chip, which is the latest variant of Apple Silicon. It can be found in the iPhone 16, too, albeit with one extra graphics core than the iPhone 16e’s variant. As you might expect, the inclusion of this chip enables Apple Intelligence. More on that later.

There are three storage options, and, mercifully, none of them is 64GB; the iPhone 16e is configurable with either 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of space for all of the stuff that you don’t store on iCloud.

There are just two colours to choose from – black and white, and there’s IP68 water resistance to keep everything nice and safe inside that spookily iPhone 13 mini-like body.

Only, it isn’t an iPhone mini, I’m afraid, because the iPhone 16e is quite a bit bigger. The display is a 6.1” OLED unit with 1,200 nits of peak brightness for HDR content and a 60Hz refresh rate. Stop shouting at the back – I haven’t finished.

When it comes to battery life, Apple claims that the iPhone 16e will last for up to 26 hours during video playback and can charge up to 50% in 40 minutes with a 20W or faster wall plug.

The rear camera system features a single-lens 48MP snapper with a 2x zoom, and the selfie camera is the same one you get on all of the other iPhone 16 models. Oh, and while we don’t get the Camera Control (who cares), Apple did see it fit to add the Action button to the iPhone 16e.

Gone is the physical home button and, in its place, Apple has included Face ID, which is nestled within the much-maligned notch at the top of the display.

Oh, and did I mention that this is the first iPhone to feature Apple’s own modem chip, the C1? Yes – it looks like Apple has officially started the process of pulling away from its reliance on Qualcomm’s modems. It was only a matter of time.

However, and as always, it’s what the iPhone 16e doesn’t have which people will focus on. Beyond the lack of MagSafe, there’s also no Dynamic Island, no ProMotion (obvs), no ultrawide lens (and, by association, no macro, either), and no interesting colour choices.

The pricing for the iPhone 16e is as follows:

• 128GB: £599/$599
• 256GB: £699/$699
• 512GB: £899/$899

Quite why there’s a £200/$200 price difference between the last two storage options is anyone’s guess, but, regardless, this is still a pretty expensive device when you take into consideration what the Android-based competition offers. And the fact that the regular iPhone 16 is only £200/$200 more.

So, who is it for?

An upgrader play

Apple knows its onions. Tim Cook and co. will have a very rounded idea of how many old iPhones there are in the wild, still being used. I guess that it’s a lot.

This is why so many of their recent presentations have honed in on the upgrader. They’ve done it with the iPad and the Mac. However, the iPhone 16e launch is perhaps one of the most blatant upgrader plays yet committed by Mr Cook.

That’s fair. I’d do the same in his position – iPhone sales are falling, after all. And, to be fair, the iPhone 16e is a huge upgrade over the outgoing iPhone SE and devices like the iPhone 8 series. Cue lots of mentions about Apple Intelligence compatibility, four-times drop resistance, and all of the features enabled by the A18 chip that aren’t present on older iPhones.

It was, basically, a greatest hits playback of WWDC from last year, with a bit of new iPhone thrown in for good measure.

And if you’re still not convinced that the iPhone 16e is a phone for the upgrader, mention of the A18 being “fast for years to come” must surely have been aimed squarely at people who keep their iPhones for aeons. Which is a lot of people.

It also feels like the iPhone 16e is the ultimate ‘who gives a shit, I just want an iPhone’ iPhone. That’s what the iPhone SE was, and it’s why Apple is so adept at rummaging through its parts bin to make the most of a highly profitable production line.

A confusing line-up (but is that the plan?)

There is, of course, another potential reason the iPhone 16e is so artificially hampered – decoy pricing. Apple is a master at this sales strategy. For the uninitiated, it’s when you offer a low-end product which has just enough downsides to make the one above it more attractive. Thus, the consumer goes for the more expensive one to avoid any form of buyer’s remorse.

You can see that in action today when one sifts through the available iPhones. There’s the iPhone 15, iPhone 16e, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 16e is the cheapest of the lot, but it has those aforementioned missing features. The price differences aren’t particularly outlandish – only a couple of hundred quid, give or take. It’s “ah, why not” money for a lot of people – particularly those who are obtaining their iPhones via carrier subsidies.

This isn’t a dirty trick, and it certainly isn’t a scam (that word is used often within the comments sections of my YouTube videos and, always, entirely unreasonably). It’s simply what Apple does. Very well.

MASSIVE competition

I’m not going to sit here and list all of the Android phones that are better (on paper, at least) than the iPhone 16e, because it’s all of them.

Ok, that’s slightly hyperbolic. It’s certainly all of them within the last twelve months that cost £500/$500 or more. The big caveat here is that the iPhone 16e benefits from being best mates with the Mac, and if that kind of interoperability matters to you, there’s no better solution out there.

Despite this, I can’t shake the idea that the iPhone 16e simply doesn’t offer what the competition does for the same money. They have more cameras, they have faster, brighter displays, and their battery life is, I’d wager, better in real-world usage. Oh, and they have chips that are at least on par with the A18. Some even have a non-half-baked AI platform built in.

Final thought (for now)

The iPhone 16e is too expensive for what it offers. Removing MagSafe was churlish. Apple Intelligence isn’t a selling point. The lack of a 120Hz (or, at the very least, 90Hz) refresh rate display is silly now. And I defended it for ages.

But the iPhone 16e will still sell like hotcakes. Or it will sell more iPhone 16s. Either way, it’s probably going to be a winner for Apple.

My full review is on the way, but let me know what you think about Apple’s latest iPhone in the comments section.