Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
In many way the iPhone 16e is astonishingly skillful , delivering superb hurrying , salutary battery life , the former Apple Intelligence features , and an attractive design at an affordable terms . And then you bump into the lack of MagSafe and the individual rear tv camera lense . The only word for it is cockeyed , and I ’m clamber to see who the iPhone 16e is for .
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Yeah, I’d call that unexpected results.
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The iPhone SE is last and its replacement is here . Or is it ? Apple ’s newfangled cheapest smartphone is n’t actually all that cheap and disagree from the SE in some major ways . More of a replacement for the iPhone 14 , then ? Maybe . Kind of . It ’s complicated .
I spent a few weeks with the iPhone 16e , putting the gimmick through our exhaustive testing process and weigh its seat in the Apple range and your life . Is this the budget ( ish ) smartphone for you ? have ’s retrieve out .
Yeah, I’d call that unexpected results.
Design and build quality: A smart balance
This is a slight , lightweight , good - looking speech sound with a Graeco-Roman design that has stood the test of prison term . It feels great in the hand , and the camera module on the backside is far less obtrusive than those on high-priced iPhones , so it does n’t wobble so much when placed on a flat surface .
If you ’re coming from the 3rd - gen iPhone SE the innovation will finger like a monumental step onward : get is the SE ’s Home button , cramp screen , and rounded side , supervene upon by a handsome all - cover design with squared - off edge . For those more accustomed to the current iPhone mountain range , however , it will feel like the opposite . The 16e may have been branded to tie in with the late-2024 iPhones but it follow the design cues of two generations originally .
David Price / Foundry
There are a few differences , but in most respects , you ’re looking at the external of an iPhone 14 . It has the same aluminum bod and looking glass back ( without the color infusion added to the iPhone 15 ) , the same 6.1 - inch 2532×1170 screen with the same notch , and the same strong-arm proportion … although it weighs fractionally less than the 14 , presumably because of having one camera fewer . ( That ’s difference number one , which I ’ll come back to . )
Another significant difference of opinion between the 16e and the iPhone 14 and 3rd - gen SE is the inclusion of an Action push button in office of the unspoken switch on the lefthand bound . This can still be used as a wordless switch – in fact , that ’s what I use it for on my 16 Plus – but you could or else reprogram it to get to the Camera app , change state on a Focus mode or the Flashlight , or variousother handy alternative .
That list of activeness , by the manner , now includes one new option : Visual Intelligence , which on the late-2024 iPhones is triggered using theCamera Control . This is because the iPhone 16e does not feature the Camera Control . I ’m not a huge fan of the Camera Control on my 16 Plus , which feels unnecessary ( since you may easily cabbage to the television camera from the lock screen ) and which I sometimes press by accident with the 4th finger of my left helping hand when holding the gimmick in portrayal mode . So as far as I ’m concerned this is a minor loss . The only downside was that , while I was test Visual Intelligence , I wanted that tie to the Action push button , which meant in number that silent mode had to move from the Action button to the Control Center . This sort of clit juggle can mess up with your muscle memory so it ’s best to find a organisation you care and stick with it .
Yeah, I’d call that unexpected results.
A final cosmetic difference from the iPhone 14 is the ambit of coloring material . The iPhone 14 came in six widely wide-ranging colors : mild greyish blue , light over-embellished , yellow , black , whitened , and ( Cartesian product ) Red ’s glorious unabashed orange red . The iPhone 16 has black , lily-white , ultramarine blue , teal , and an excellent pink . Even the SE had midnight , starlight , and red . But the 16e comes in just white or contraband . It ’s not a lot of choice or visual interest and feel like a deliberate scheme to promote upselling .
Mind you , the black model I tested is shrill . The prat is top-notch - matt , to the extent that it ’s hard to shoot ( my confrere on Macwelt make the same complaint about the white finish ) , and I love the contrast between this and the glossy Apple logo in the center . Besides , if monotone finishes scratch you as boring , you may always buy a brightly colored eccentric to jazz the phone up a little . I arrive Apple ’s Winter Blue silicone case and like it a lot . See if there ’s a casing you like in our beat up of thebest cases for iPhone 16 - serial publication .
Features: Surprising inclusions, strange omissions
Whereas the forcible purpose is a set of sensitive compromises , walking a unwavering middle path between the outdated look of the iPhone SE and the unattainable upgrades of the iPhones 15 and 16 , the 16e ’s feature of speech listing is more of a rollercoaster ride . It verge wildly from one extreme to another . The twist miss out on some truly introductory feature that budget smartphone buyers have every right to await , yet manages to squeeze in others that I ’d categorise as luxuries .
The first incongruously generous inclusion ( and really thedefining element of the full Cartesian product ) is Apple Intelligence , the fellowship ’s AI platform and vision of the futurity . Apple Intelligence is a demanding matter to run , requiring as a lower limit an A18 processor and 8 GB of RAM , and it would be unrealistic at this stage to fit those thing into a budget iPhone . alternatively of conceding frustration and exit the lineament out of the 16e ( as it did with the11th - gen iPad ) , Apple decided not to have a lawful budget iPhone any longer . That ’s why I ’m reviewing a $ 599 phone or else of a $ 429 one .
Was this drastic step worth it ? Yes and no . Apple Intelligence is still at an early level in its development , with featuresgradually rolling outas they ’re finished … or in some cases , before they ’re complete . It does n’t feel very polished right now , but this probably wo n’t be representative of your experience across the lifetime of the sound ; Apple is very committed to AI right now and we can wait futureiOS updatesto feature a lot of melioration in this area . It ’s a ripe matter that 16e owners will get to be a part of that .
Whereas the iPhone 16 Plus (pink) has a distinct module and then the lenses extend above that, the 16e (black) just has the lens sticking up.
There are far too many part of Apple Intelligence to cover them all here , but here are a few thoughts from my clock time with the iPhone 16e :
Apple Intelligence is technologically quite impressive but nevertheless pass away faulty fair often and is n’t the most intuitive to use : more of a curiosity or proof of concept than a serious readiness of tool , really . It will get better , but right now it ’s of modified value . And that ’s leaving away the ethical issues ( using up water system , carry citizenry ’s jobs ) that AI model more generally .
Still , the inclusion of Apple Intelligence pass to the 2nd human activity of generosity : an exceptionally ( some would say unnecessarily ) impressive solidification of tech specs . Having that chip and RAM jazz group will be useful for thing other than AI ; they ’ll assure the 16e is future - proofread to run demanding apps for a retentive prison term to come , for one thing . And it also means it has some serious processing office , which I ’ll explore in a later division .
We ’ve covered the positives , but now we call for to mention the negatives , and there are two almost criminal gap on the feature list . First , the iPhone 16e does n’t back MagSafe , even though the iPhone 14 did ( as did the 12 and 13 before it ) . This , as I’vediscussed elsewhere , is a huge letdown .
Before the launching of the iPhone 12 , radiocommunication charging felt like the poor cousin of its cable equivalent : slow , less power - efficient , and just as much of a hassle because you had to verify the phone was in the sweet blot on the charging puck , and a single inadvertent nudge could leave in an uncharged gimmick . MagSafe , which pull the telephone into the mellifluous place and hold it there firmly , change all that . The only prison term I utilize wired charging with my iPhone 16 Plus is when I desperately need to top up the stamp battery as quickly as possible before go out .
The iPhone 16e , by demarcation , feels like a stair back to 2020 , and wireless charging is once again a tiresome vexation . At least you get an onscreen computer graphic and tactile vibration to tell you charge has begun – but it is n’t as well-heeled , and does n’t offer the same speeds , as charging with all the other MagSafe - compatible iPhones . Which is to say , every single other exemplar . It would be deserving considering aMagSafe shell , which wo n’t give you the gamy charging speeds but will give you the utilitarian magnetic association .
The second dissatisfactory negative is the fact that the 16e also has only one rearward tv camera lens system . This carry implications for Portrait Mode , rapid growth , and more , which I ’ll discuss in the next discussion section .
Camera performance: Mostly good, but with disappointing limitations
Whereas the iPhone 16 Pro has three cameras on the rear and the iPhone 16 has two , the 16e has just one . If that makes it voice like it will be a third as estimable at photography as the Pro modelling , do n’t worry ; the in force news is that not all Lens are created adequate , and the extra lenses on the other model are reasonably less important than the one on the 16e . Nevertheless , this is a serious disadvantage for the new headphone .
The 16 Pro ’s third lens is the telephotograph . The fact that the 16e does n’t get it mean ( like the 16 ) it does n’t have optical rapid climb in the exacting expert signified , although Apple claims a 2x zoom by cropping into the center of high - resolution shots use up using the main lens . Given that the 16e has the same humongous 48MP wide - angle camera as the other iPhone 16 phones , 2x shots have plenty of particular — it is just as unspoilt as a non - zoomed shot taken using the iPhone 14 ’s perfectly decorous 12MP camera – so that ’s average enough . But zoom along in any more ( up to 5x , for exemplar , which the Pro can accomplish with no issues ) and images will take off to suffer detail and show pixellation .
A big loss for me is the extremist - wide petty lens . As the name suggest , this means you pretermit out on the ready to hand 0.5x anti - zoom option for wide - slant shots , an important tool when shoot landscapes . But the fact that the 16e does n’t have two crystalline lens mean you also ca n’t take macro shot or “ reliable ” Portrait exposure , and my suspicion is that the medium iPhone proprietor takes more photos of the great unwashed than landscapes .
Sure, the building is a little dark. But these were the most challenging lighting conditions I could find and it’s really not bad. (Incidentally, the 16 Plus performed no better in this test.)
There is still a Portrait alternative in the 16e ’s Camera app , of course , but this is all done via software trickery rather than by compare profoundness datum from two crystalline lens . This trickery relies on Io knowing what it ’s looking at , so it only work on people . I try taking Portrait shots of mailboxes , dog , and cat , and in every case , it say “ No person detected ” and refused to play ball .
Even if you do snap a human good example , the bokeh effect wo n’t be as just as the other iPhone 16 phones . I find some sissiness around the edges , with region of my model ’s clothing and hairsbreadth conflate erroneously in with the scope . It ’s not terrible by any mean but it is noticeably worse than the real matter .
In other respects , however , the 16 ’s tv camera performance is excellent , and that ’s what I imply by the relative importance of the lenses . My guess is that for 90 pct of iPhone picture taking , the limitations lean above wo n’t be a factor . For those 90 pct of shots , item was excellent , semblance reproduction was vivacious and close , and the resultant role were great .
The 16e even did well in difficult lighting thanks to the inclusion of Smart HDR 5 , the latest loop of a feature that takes multiple exposures and portmanteau word elements of each into the finish shot so that smart Christ Within in one part of the frame does n’t result in loss of item in another darker part . This was n’t perfect , but I found that I could snap a shadowed building with a shining sun straight behind , genuinely making the worst compositional decisions on intent , and still clearly discern the brickwork . No small exploit .
Performance: Is there such a thing astoofast?
That last section was critical , but we ’re back on firm terra firma here . With an A18 central processing unit and 8 GB of RAM , the iPhone 16e is an deadly overcome earpiece for the money , and this was reflected in speed testing .
In full term of general processing , this is essentially the same as the iPhone 16 , and it ’s about as hefty as iPhones get right now . Across the mainframe tests in Geekbench 5 and 6 , and the various Neural Engine test in Geekbench AI , there was nothing to select between the 16e and even the 16 Pro , despite the latter featuring an A18 Pro . This is an out-and-out powerhouse .
Graphically it ’s a unlike news report because the 16e has just a four - core GPU , compare to the 16 ’s five cores and the 16 Pro ’s six . In Geekbench 6 ’s GPU mental test , the 16e was around 27 per centum behind the 16 Pro , and we saw systematically humbled frame rate across all the artwork mental testing in 3DMark . In these areas , the 16e performed closer to the iPhone 15 Pro .
In real - mankind enjoyment , however , the 16e was fast and slick , performing at the high level across every app I used . But in true statement , I ’d expect an iPhone with a considerably weaker set of specs to execute the same way . It ’s tempting to say that this is overkill , although as mentioned earlier , the 16e ’s chip and RAM make it superbly future - proofed .
C1 modem: A solid inclusion after all
This is the final surprising inclusion I ’m going to talk about in this clause . The 16e features Apple ’s new in - houseC1 cellular modem , which promises improvements to battery performance , and it convey this at least six and potentially 18 months before any flagship iPhone model .
On the aerofoil that ’s a remarkably generous decision , and we ’d never expect a new processor , for example , to make its first coming into court this modest down in the range . But is it really generous ? Or is the 16e instead being used as a testbed for a bad young component with cons as well as pros ?
After initial examination we were inclined towards the latter purview . After all , regardless of its event on electric battery life , the C1 ’s principal job is to deliver cellular connectivity , and when my colleague Jason Cross ranspeed testshe incur that the C1 delivered roughly the same upload pep pill as the Qualcomm Snapdragon X71 M modem in the iPhone 16 but about half the download speed . That ’s not great – and it ’s not an upgrade .
But hold on ! At the clip , Jason was careful to level out that his tests should not be take as classic : while they cover multiple locating and were better than most of the data we ’d seen in early reviews , the exercise was still limited to a individual metropolitan field and a single carrier . And a larger - ordered series test publish since we first published this recap suggests that the C1 ’s cellular execution may be better than first thinking . In fact , with a few caveat ( readJason ’s accountfor the full details ) , the composition indicates that the C1 modem can beat or match the X71 M most of the clip .
So powerful now , it look like the C1 is fine for cellular connectivity . Your mileage may deviate , of course , but it no longer looks like the downgrade we first thought . And the C1 does seem to take out less top executive , perhaps 25 percent less . This is unbelievable to have a huge event on shelling life , but it ’s something .
Battery performance: Good, but notthatgood
bluster a larger - electrical capacity barrage fire than either the iPhone 16 or 16 Pro , plus the power - economise capabilities of the C1 modem , the iPhone 16e has all the makings of a electric battery star . certainly enough , Apple estimates up to 26 60 minutes of video playback , well ahead of the 16 ’s 22 hours and only slenderly behind the 16 Pro ’s 27 .
In practice , this view of the 16e ’s functioning was mildly unsatisfying . In the barrage fire component of Geekbench 4 ( thanks again to Jason Cross for running these tests ) the 16e managed 13 hours and 38 minute , depressed than any other 16 - series iPhone . That ’s also broken than some other reader have reported , so Jason checked everything and repeated the run , with no melioration .
This is n’t bad , to be clear . It ’s salutary than any pre-16 iPhone , including the much larger 15 Pro Max , and you could ask far longer life-time in normal manipulation ; the battery test is deliberately very demanding to highlight differences in performance . While I was testing the 16e it would generally end the day with 30 to 50 per centum of electric battery mogul remain , the only exclusion being a Clarence Day of ludicrously vivid benchmarking which it still endure with 11 percent get out . shelling living is very good … just not quite as serious as we expected .
Price: A nasty shock
The iPhone 16e starts at $ 599 , in yet another surprise . We were expect this phone to supercede the iPhone SE , which started at $ 429 , but Apple went in a different direction and no longer offer up a budget smartphone .
To be fair , there was no way a phone with these spectacles was rifle to be viable at $ 429 ( or $ 479 for the SE with the same 128 GB of memory ) , and it is n’t the 16e ’s fault that Apple has given up on what I think is an important market . The dubiousness is not whether the 16e should be $ 479 , because it clear should n’t , but whether it ’s deserving $ 599 . Here ’s how much the three configuration will cost :
Should you buy an iPhone 16e?
The iPhone 16e issucha strange phone . In many ways it ’s astonishingly beneficial , render superb speed , secure barrage fire living , the a la mode Apple Intelligence features , and an attractive invention at an affordable price . And then you bump into the want of MagSafe and the single rearward camera lens . The only word for it is askew , and I ’m struggling to see who the iPhone 16e is for .
You ’re wedge to pay for a commonwealth - of - the - art CPU which is overkill for most people and is only there for Apple Intelligence – an AI system that is blemished and very much a work in progress . Do most phone buyers even care about AI ? I ’m not sure , although its importance will increase so perhaps it ’s good to be organise .
I ’m quite appalled that Apple thinks it can get away with a single - lens television camera setup in the year 2025 , give that it ’s been selling dual - lens iPhones since 2016 and triple - lensers since 2019 . Perhaps it ’s lucky for the 16e that we ’ve reached a point in smartphone photographic camera development where even the worst cameras are still good enough for most people ’s needs most of the time . Still , it ’s worth suppose that you could easy get a much better camera on a cheaper and older freshen up iPhone . You would n’t get Apple Intelligence , but at least you ’ll get MagSafe .
Is the iPhone 16e worth $ 599 ? Yes , it in all likelihood is . If you weigh up the things that Apple included against the things it did n’t , I estimate it add up to something around that terms . It ’s just that the various elements do n’t mesh together in a way of life that makes sense . It would be like function to the supermarket and buy the tatty wine and the most expensive steak . You ’d end up paying a fair Mary Leontyne Price , but you believably would n’t enjoy the pairing .
So who is this earphone for ? Who are these people who postulate Apple Intelligence but are happy to accept a single - electron lens television camera ? I do n’t know , but I ca n’t imagine there are many of them . In fact the iPhone 16e does n’t palpate like it was designed withanyonein mind – just the strategical imperatives of an AI - obsessed pot . This is a mathematical product that was designed with the improper motives and , to be honest , it usher .
