For a long time, I have been excited about the release of the iPhone 16e. Well, Apple has finally unveiled all the features of this device, but I don’t think I would recommend it.

Name

First, let’s talk about the name. It’s not the fourth-generation iPhone SE, but instead it adopts the all-new “e” suffix. Apple has previously used the “S” suffix in the iPhone 4S, 5S, 6S, and XS; the “C” suffix in the iPhone 5C; and the “R” in the XR. We’ll see whether this “e” stands out on its own.

At the press event, when asked if the “e” had any particular meaning, an Apple representative said, “No, it doesn’t stand for anything, but it’s built for everyone.” I don’t think she was hinting that “e” secretly stood for “everyone,” simply because I’m pretty sure Apple doesn’t want everyone buying its cheapest iPhone model.

Apple has also never explained the meaning of “SE.” Personally, I’ve interpreted it as maybe standing for “Special Edition”? A long time ago, I believed Phil Schiller once said the “S” in the iPhone 3GS stood for “speed” because the 3GS was notably faster than the 3G released the year before. The “C” in iPhone 5C absolutely stood for “color,” albeit unofficially.

It’s probably best not to spend too much time trying to find logic behind the naming conventions—other than Apple thinking “iPhone 16e” looks and sounds cool. At least it’s not called the “iPhone 16 AI.”

Price

As expected, the third-generation iPhone SE has now been retired. The SE (2022) debuted in March 2022 with a starting price of $430 (for the paltry 64GB version), with 128GB and 256GB options priced at $480 and $580, respectively. The new iPhone 16e starts at $600. Depending on how you see it, that’s either a $170 price hike (compared to Apple’s cheapest new iPhone) or a $120 price hike (compared to Apple’s cheapest 128GB iPhone).

I’ve seen many people argue that the iPhone 16e “should” have started at $500. However, if you look at Apple’s overall pricing strategy for the iPhone 16 series, you’ll find that at equivalent storage tiers, there’s always a $200 gap between the 16e and the regular iPhone 16, as well as a $200 gap between the iPhone 16 and the 16 Pro. So $600 feels like the “right” price.

Colors

One of the highlights of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus is their color options, such as Navy Blue, Cyan, and Pink. The iPhone 16e, however, only comes in Black or White.

Battery

The battery life on the iPhone 16e is better than that of the regular iPhone 16, and this surprised me. According to Apple’s own comparison page:

Apple’s C1 chip

Apple’s C1 chip power efficiency sounds promising. Of course, the modem supports “5G,” but it doesn’t support mmWave or ultra-wideband (UWB), which is a blazing-fast variant of 5G offering Wi-Fi-like speeds over short distances with carrier antenna support.

Frankly, compared to LTE, I don’t see why I should care about 5G. For anything I do on cellular networks via my phone, there’s no noticeable difference between LTE and 5G (let alone 5G UWB).

Clearly, Apple eventually wants to introduce UWB support to its own modem chips, but their renewed agreement with Qualcomm (announced solely by Qualcomm, which Apple loathes and deeply resents relying upon) covers smartphones launched in 2024, 2025, and 2026. This leads me to believe we won’t see C-series chips in the expected iPhone 17 or 17 Pro in September, but perhaps in the rumored iPhone 17 “Air.”

No MagSafe

I find this omission surprising. The iPhone 16e does support wireless Qi charging but only at 7.5 watts. Meanwhile, the regular iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models support up to 25W MagSafe charging, and the iPhone 15 supports 15W MagSafe charging.

You can use a MagSafe charging pad to charge the iPhone 16e, but it only charges at 7.5W and won’t magnetically click into place. It’ll act as a non-magnetic pad. I’m not sure if this decision was driven by the cost of components, the internal space MagSafe components take up, or just marketing differentiation. It could be a mix of all three. The older SE also only supported 7.5W non-MagSafe Qi charging.

Single Rear Camera

This isn't surprising, as cameras are expensive, and offering just one camera emphasizes the differentiation. Apple refers to this single camera as “two-in-one” because, like the main cameras on other recent iPhone models, it offers both 1x and 2x optical perspectives (1x uses the full 48MP sensor, treating the sensor pixel array as “quad-pixel” to produce 12MP images; 2x crops a 12MP section from the center of the sensor).

Lacking a second ultra-wide camera means no 0.5x lens, no macro photography, and no spatial photos or videos.

The 16e also only offers “Photographic Styles” rather than the “latest-generation Photographic Styles” present in the 16 and 16 Pro.

If cameras are a priority for you, the iPhone 16e is not the phone for you. As mentioned, it features fewer lenses, and its imaging pipeline doesn’t support next-gen photographic features.

No Camera Control Button

Another hardware-related downside of the 16e is the absence of the new camera control button/slider on the side. I know several iPhone 16 users who claim they’ve never used it or even dislike it because they accidentally activate it. Personally, I love it and use it as my primary way to launch the camera app and take pictures.

That said, you know we’ve been taking photos and videos just fine for generations of iPhones without that hardware button. No matter how much you like it, you certainly don’t need it. However, for now, you need the “camera control” button to invoke Apple Intelligence’s visual intelligence features. Pressing and releasing the button launches your favorite camera app; pressing and holding activates visual intelligence.

Although the iPhone 16e lacks the camera control button, Apple has enabled visual intelligence on it in two ways. First, Control Center now includes visual intelligence. Second, as demonstrated in Apple’s announcement video, you can assign the Action Button to visual intelligence. (By default, as with other iPhones equipped with an Action Button, it toggles Silent Mode, reminiscent of the old ring/silent switch—“old” because it’s still present on the iPhone 15.)

No Dynamic Island

The iPhone 16e reverts to the screen notch—a cutout at the top of the display housing the selfie camera and Face ID tech. However, it lacks the Dynamic Island cutout, which is a smaller oval-shaped area on the iPhone 16’s display. Apple uses the area around the Dynamic Island for system alerts and background tasks like playing music.

Clearly, lacking the Dynamic Island doesn’t prevent the 16e from displaying alerts, but it does miss out on clever software interactions. For the lowest-priced model, this is a reasonable design tradeoff.

The maximum brightness of the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro displays is 1,000 nits (typical), 1,600 nits (HDR), and 2,000 nits (outdoor). The 16e display offers 800 nits (typical), 1,200 nits (HDR), and no more. The minimum brightness of the 16 and 16 Pro displays can also go as low as 1 nit; Apple does not list the minimum brightness for the 16e.

Silicon

The A18 chip in the iPhone 16e (as listed on its spec page) seems nearly identical to the one in the iPhone 16, except for the number of GPU cores: the 16e has 4 GPU cores, while the regular iPhone 16 has 5. (The A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max has 6 GPU cores.)

More interesting than comparing it to the iPhone 16 is comparing it to the iPhone 15, which costs $100 more than the 16e. Since the only A17-generation chip is the A17 Pro used in the iPhone 15 Pro models, the regular iPhone 15 uses the A16 chip—just like the iPhone 14 models before it.

Beyond all the overall performance improvements between the A18 and the two-year-old A16, the biggest differentiator is that the iPhone 16e supports Apple Intelligence, while the iPhone 15 does not. As widely reported when Apple Intelligence was announced at WWDC last June, this is largely a matter of RAM capabilities. For whatever reason, though, the less expensive iPhone 16e includes Apple Intelligence, while the iPhone 15 does not. This isn’t entirely surprising, but it definitely is a twist.