Everything You Need To Know About The iPhone 16e
Given the cost of the Apple iPhones, it’s no surprise that there’s always great interest in its affordable models. They began in 2016 as the SE range, but their newly-announced model breaks tradition and is positioned as the 16e, to complete the 16 series that includes premium versions, the 16 Plus and 16 Pro.
Look a little closer, and this phone is a curious mix of old and new, blending together the tech wizardry of Apple Intelligence and top-of-the-range connectivity with a retro design. With a hefty £599 price tag, the question is whether or not the cost is justified by its performance. Let’s take a closer look to find out.
Camera
The iPhone 16e has the same impressive main camera as the iPhone 16: a 48MP rear camera with 2x telephoto lens, and a 12MP selfie camera. But there’s no ultra-wide camera, no telephoto lens, and while the cameras here offer night and portrait modes, there are less options altogether than the main phone.
It also captures great video, with videos in 4K up to 60 frames per second, and spatial audio.
Given the quality of Apple’s lenses and editing software (especially with Apple Intelligence, which offers useful features like a Cleanup tool), it’s a decent offering, although it will certainly feel restrictive if you like to capture plenty of pics.
Battery performance
One of the iPhone’s 16e stand-out features is the all-day battery life. It’s assuring to know that this entry-level phone supports up to 26 hours of video playback and up to 90 hours of audio playback. That’s 4 more video playing hours and 10 more audio playing hours than the iPhone 16. They put it down to the power efficiency of Apple’s newest hardware, although the smaller screen size no doubt helps a little too.
Design and display
The iPhone 16e features a 6.06-inch Super Retina OLED display (compared to the 6.12 inches of the iPhone 16), and comes in matte black and matte white.
In terms of the design, Apple have made some interesting choices here. While the 16e may have the latest tech installed, looks wise it appears similar to the iPhone 14 and 15, down to the notch that has since been replaced by the Dynamic Island. Also, it features the 15’s Action button rather than the 16’s Camera Control button. In all, it doesn’t look like a brand new iPhone, but at least it looks recent.
Tech and features
The big selling point is that the 16e is now the cheapest phone to make use of Apple Intelligence. That means owners have access to a range of neat features like a natural language search, photo creator and Chat GPT integration. Partly because of the pressure that AI puts on its hardware, it has the same internal make-up of the iPhone 16, with the powerful A18 chipset, 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. And actually, it goes one better: the iPhone 16e also debuts Apple’s new C1 modem, for 5G and better network connectivity.
Other new features include Face ID, and safety features like Crash Detection and Apple’s satellite comms to make emergency calls and find your device even without phone signal.
Price and availability
The main point to note that the iPhone 16e is barely a budget option: at £599, it’s far more expensive than its predecessor, the iPhone SE 2022, which cost £429.
If you’re spending £600 to upgrade anyway, it will certainly be worth considering shelling out £200 more to get the iPhone 16. That’s arguably the better option for the extra camera lenses, let alone the full suite of other features. But if you’re happy with a pared-down version, the iPhone 16e is available for pre-order now, and released on February 28.
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