2 min readApple has officially revealed the iPhone 16e, an Apple Intelligence-compatible mid-tier alternative to its iPhone 16 series. In the week since Tim Cook first posted on X about the “newest member of the family,” many theorised Apple was about to reveal a revision of the iPhone SE, which was last updated in 2022. What we got is similar to the SE in principle, a more affordable entry point to the iOS ecosystem, but it’s more closely aligned with Apple’s flagship smartphones and doesn’t feature a physical Touch ID home button.
From 12:00am AEDT on the 22nd of February, Australians will be able to pre-order the new iPhone 16e with outright deals starting at $999 for the 128GB variant.
The iPhone 16e sports a 6.1-inch Super Retina display (same as the iPhone 16,) the same customisable Action Button, iOS18, Apple Intelligence and a 4-core GPU variant of the Apple A18 chip.
So what don’t you get at the cheaper price? Well, a few things. The most noticeable thing missing is the iPhone’s Dynamic Island, Apple’s interactive solution for hiding the front-facing camera. Second to that is the iPhone 16e’s simplified camera system. There’s a single lens on the back of the iPhone 16e, Apple’s 2-in-1 48MP Fusion camera that combines a 2x telephoto lens with the regular wide-angle lens, allowing for 2x optical zoom, Portrait Mode and FaceID. What you don’t get is the 12MP Ultrawide lens of the iPhone 16 (or the 48MP Ultrawide lens of the 16 Pro) or the dedicated Telephoto lens of the iPhone 16 Pro (which offers 5x optical zoom.)
There’s also no dedicated camera control button, and Apple Vision Pro users won’t be able to shoot spatial photos or video. The camera also won’t allow for the Cinematic and Action modes introduced in the iPhone 13 era.
Finally, there’s no MagSafe charging and no Ultra Wideband chip (introduced in the iPhone 11) so you won’t be able to use Precision Finding for Airtags and Find My devices or Apple Car Key features.
