Apple overnight announced a cheaper new iPhone, but it isn't quite as cheap as expected. It also has a different name. While the manufacturer was expected to reveal the fourth-generation iPhone SE, Apple's latest handset is branded the iPhone 16e, explicitly placing it in the iPhone 16 family.
The most noticeable change from the 2022 iPhone SE is a new design. The home button is gone, replaced with an "all-screen" look and Face ID. There's also an A18 processor and the same 48MP camera that you'll find in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus.
This does however mean the iPhone 16e has seen a significant price hike. It starts at $999 for a 128GB model. For comparison, you'd pay $719 for a 64GB iPhone SE at launch in 2022, or $799 for a 128GB model. The standard iPhone 16 starts at $1,399, and the iPhone 15 is also still available from $1,249.
Here's the full pricing for the iPhone 16e:
- iPhone 16e 128GB: $999
- iPhone 16e 256GB: $1,199
- iPhone 16e 512GB: $1,549
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16e will start at 12am AEDT on February 22, ahead of a February 28 release date. We're expecting Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone will all offer the iPhone 16e on a mobile plan. It comes in a choice of black or white.
When it comes to the phone itself, the iPhone 16e harkens back to the standard iPhone 14 in terms of design. It's mostly screen, but with a notch instead of the dynamic island found in the iPhone 14 Pro and up.
The display measures in at 6.1-inch, making it a sizeable step up from the 4.7-inch screen found in the last iPhone SE. It's also an OLED panel rather than an LCD, which means more vibrant colours, better contrast, and deeper blacks. The display is protected with Apple's first-generation Ceramic Shield technology, rather than the second-generation from the rest of the iPhone 16 family.
There's also IP68 water resistance, eSIM support, USB-C, wireless charging, but no MagSafe. The mute switch has been replaced with the action button first introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro. By default, a long press swaps your device from silent to loud and vice versa. You can swap this out for a different action, however, such as starting a voice memo, turning on an accessibility feature, or opening a shortcut.
Notably, the iPhone 16e features the first modem Apple has designed in-house - the "C1". Apple says this leads to better battery life. Despite being roughly the same size, Apple claims the iPhone 16e will offer up to 26 hours of video playback compared to the 22-hour figure for the standard iPhone 16.
On the camera front, there's what appears to be the same 48MP camera found on the iPhone 16 on the back, and the same 12MP selfie camera on the front. The 48MP camera can do 2x zoom, but there aren't any secondary lenses, like an ultra-wide or dedicated telephoto.
Lastly, the iPhone 16e has a similar A18 chip as the iPhone 16. This is Apple's second fastest mobile chipset, and means the phone supports Apple Intelligence out of the box. The variant found in the iPhone 16e has four GPU cores rather than five in the iPhone 16, however. This should make very little difference for most people.
Apple has naturally discontinued the old iPhone SE now that the iPhone 16e is almost available to order. In addition, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are no longer listed on Apple's website.
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