Credit: Apple
It’s official. The iPhone 16e is here.
It’s been a long time since Apple offered an “affordable” iPhone and this will be brilliant for our customers. Following months of rumours, Apple announced its new budget smartphone on February 19, and the feature-packed device. Originally tipped to be called the iPhone SE4, Apple announced it as the iPhone 16e and looks set to rank among the most cost-effective punchy smartphones in 2025. Of course, and you might agree that ‘iPhone 16e’ also sounds more premium than ‘iPhone SE (2025).
The new iPhone 16e comes with an updated design. It will include a USB-C port, a customisable Action Button, a fast A18 chip, and lots of extras. And while the iPhone 16e may be (slightly) smaller and cheaper than the iPhone 16, Apple isn’t skimping out on quality: unlike the last iPhone SE, the iPhone 16e comes with an OLED display panel. It’s nice to see Apple bringing some of its premium features to its budget-friendly devices. the new iPhone 16e uses the current processor, found in iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
The A18 in the 16e does have one fewer GPU core (four instead of five), but I doubt anyone’s really going to feel the difference. The new iPhone comes with an aluminium frame, glass front and back and an 15.4cm (6.1in) OLED screen, relegating the old-school iPhone design. To keep things simple, the 16e is only available in black or white and has the older, notch-style cut-out at the top of the screen from the iPhone 14, not the newer pill-shaped dynamic island design used by the rest of the iPhone line-up. The notch contains the face ID sensor that replaces the touch ID system for unlocking the phone and authenticating payment.
If you were a loyal old iPhone 6S user or an iPhone SE customer, you will love the iPhone 16e. At 6.06 inches, the iPhone 16E’s screen size seems like the perfect medium between too big and too small. It’s bigger than the iPhone SE released in 2022 but roughly the same as the standard 6.1-inch iPhone 16 (though it’s also 0.1mm narrower and 0.7mm shorter). That will hopefully be a plus for those of us who want to put our phones in our pockets. This design change means the SE finally feels like a modern take on an affordable phone: extremely powerful, packed with AI (for better or worse), and with a full-screen design that doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.
AI, or Apple Intelligence as the brand calls it, also plays a big part in the iPhone’s functionality thanks to the A18 chipset. Apple says the six-core CPU is up to 80 percent faster than the A13 Bionic chip on iPhone 11. This AI skillset includes support for features such as Genmoji, Writing Tools, Clean Up in the Photos app, and ChatGPT integration. You can also access Visual Intelligence via the Action button. Turning to battery life, Apple says it has “the best battery life ever on a 6.1-inch iPhone, lasting up to six hours longer than iPhone 11 and up to 12 hours longer than all generations of iPhone SE.”
Sadly, there is no Magsafe charge speed but you will still be able to charge wirelessly using the Qi chargers, just not through the Magsafe technology— wired is always faster anyway — but some will say that the magnetic ring is so handy. You can always add a magnetic case, though, so all can be well.
Let’s talk about that camera. The iPhone 16e gets a single, 48MP wide lens on the back, which is complemented by a 12MP selfie camera on the front. Being a lower-spec iPhone, we’re not surprised to see Apple stick with a single-lens rear setup for its latest budget-friendly model. In fact, the phone’s 48MP main camera is the same as the one you’ll find on the regular iPhone 16 – it’s Apple’s ‘Fusion’ lens, which features an integrated 2x telephoto that lets you zoom in with optical quality. Considering that the iPhone SE (2022) used a 12MP main camera, the iPhone 16e’s 48MP lens marks quite the step up, though you’ll still miss out on a dedicated telephoto and ultra-wide lens by going for Apple’s new model. Camera Control, too, remains exclusive to the rest of the iPhone 16 line.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16e begin on February 21, and the device will ship from February 28. Apple discontinues iPhone SE, iPhone 14, and iPhone 14 Plus
We have not had the opportunity to get our hands on the iPhone 16e yet, but it looks promising. Will you be buying Apple’s newest iPhone?
You can contact the team at Active to pre-order your device here: https://www.activedigital.co.uk/contact/
