OPINION: The iPhone SE range was all about compromise. With the iPhone 16e, Apple has set the bar so high, it has cannibalised the standard iPhone 16.
Call the cops, because the iPhone 16e just committed fratricide. It has brutally killed its new family member, the iPhone 16, stone dead.
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Apple has launched a phone that not only decimates the mid-range, but massively disincentivises buying Apple’s standard flagship model. And I’m wondering whether the iPhone 16e has over performed what was necessary from this phone to keep the iPhone 16 relevant.
It’s clear to see why Apple wanted to change the nomenclature by bringing this phone into the iPhone 16 family. It completely changes the narrative of what users can expect. The tag line sums it up. “Latest phone. Greatest price.”
The iPhone SE range, on the other hand, was synonymous with compromise. An old brain, stuck in an even older body, Touch ID in lieu of Face ID, and a passable but unremarkable camera. It was a phone stuck in the past.
The £599/$599 iPhone 16e is priced just above what we’d want from the midrange, but it’s a phone about Apple’s future and, on the face of it, there’s not too much to justify the iPhone 16 being £200/$200 more expensive.
So has Apple gone too far? Has it made the iPhone 16e, so tempting that it effectively renders the iPhone 16 pointless?
About iPhone’s future, not its past
The iPhone 16e has the same A18 chip (save a slightly less powerful GPU) doing the heavy lifting with the all-important Neural Processing United providing support for Apple Intelligence – the iPhone 16 range’s flagship feature. That means Genmoji, Image Playground, Writing Tools, ChatGPT integration within Siri, Visual Intelligence, and way more to come.
This will be important as those features – like the revamped conversational Siri due later this year – continue to ramp up. It’s important to Apple’s strategy to have as many people with access to Apple Intelligence as possible, otherwise we may have seen older silicon placed into this phone.
The phone also has more or less the same 6.1-inch OLED display as the standard model, although it lacks the same brightness, and it has the customisable Action Button in place of the legacy mute switch. There’s Face ID too, meaning the massive bezels for Touch ID have gone and there’s more screen real estate to enjoy with. The previous iPhone SE had a tiny 4.7-inch display, which isn’t really fit for purpose in today’s market.
Quite surprisingly Apple even went as far as to include the satellite connectivity on the iPhone 16e, meaning you can access the emergency services and share regular messages when out of range of traditional connectivity.
That Fusion Camera, which impressed on the iPhone 16 with its 24 and 48-megapixel capabilities within one sensor, has made it to the iPhone 16e too. Like the iPhone 16, you can also shoot Dolby Vision up to 4K at up to 60pfs. And there’s access to the AI Visual Intelligence feature that can help you learn about your surroundings.
The new model also has a USB-C port for charging and data transfer, although MagSafe hasn’t made the transition. The iPhone 16e has an advertised battery life of 26 hours, the iPhone 16 has an advertised battery life of 22 hours. The iPhone 16e has the new C1 modem Apple has spent half a decade working towards, from that perspective it’s a more advanced phone than the iPhone 16.
It’s every bit an iPhone 16 level handset. Look at what’s missing and ask yourself whether it’s worth an extra couple of hundred quid.
- The second ultra-wide 12-megapixel camera
- Spatial photos and videos (no point unless you have a Vision Pro too)
- Macro photography
- The Dynamic Island instead of the display notch
- The Camera Control button for quick assess to the lenses and settings (Action Button takes care of the first part)
- MagSafe charging
You tell me? If you want the additional cameras you may be operating at the Pro end of the market anyway, but everything else feels like a more than acceptable way to save £200. You’re getting almost everything you could ask from a latest-generation standard model iPhone with very few compromises.
And don’t forget this one now looks the part too. People buying this phone will still feel like they have the latest iPhone in their back pocket. There’s no stigma about an old design.
To sum up, the iPhone SE range was made for people who wanted in on iOS without spending top dollar, the iPhone 16e is for people who want the latest iPhone without spending top dollar.
It’s going to absolutely fly. I expect it to be the best-selling Apple phone of 2025 by quite some distance.
