IPhone 17e Reportedly Set To Launch This Month With 4 Major Upgrades

iPhone 17e Reportedly Set to Launch This Month With 4 Major Upgrades

Last updated: 2026/02/09 at 3:16 AM

News Room Published 9 February 2026

Apple just posted a record quarter with its highest-ever iPhone sales, but the company is now gearing up to launch its next phone, the iPhone 17e, on Feb. 19, Macworld reports.

The date falls on a Thursday, which is not a day Apple usually reserves for hardware launches. It is, however, the same date the iPhone 16e debuted. Like last year, Apple may avoid an event to announce the phone and instead unveil it through a press release, the report adds.

The iPhone 16e resembles the iPhone 14, and it replaced the budget SE model in the iPhone lineup. The phone comes with a 6.1-inch OLED display, the A18 processor, support for Apple Intelligence, a single 48MP rear camera, and the C1 modem.

The iPhone 17e is expected to retain the 16e’s design, while receiving four major internal upgrades. According to Japanese blog Mac Otakara, it will use the A19 chip from iPhone 17 for faster performance and improved power efficiency, and will be equipped with Apple’s C1X modem for 5G and LTE connectivity and the N1 chip for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6 connectivity.

Apple says C1X is two times faster than the C1, and the N1 chip “improves the overall performance and reliability of features like Personal Hotspot and AirDrop.”

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MacWorld also reported that the iPhone 17e may support MagSafe. The iPhone 16e supported 7.5W wireless charging, but that’s nothing compared with the 25W support MagSafe offers.

Apart from the 17e, Apple is preparing to launch the iPad 12 in the next few months, according to Mac Otakara. The tablet is expected to receive the A18 chip and 8GB of RAM. Another “imminent” Apple launch, per Bloomberg, is the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros.