Goodbye iPhone SE, hello iPhone 16e. Here’s the basic rundown of Apple’s new entry level iPhone. Just don’t call it “cheap”, OK?
As was widely rumoured — albeit intially for last week, not this week — Apple overnight announced its replacement for the entry-level model in its iPhone lineup. Where previously that had been the iPhone SE over a number of generations, it’s now the iPhone 16e.
How much does the iPhone 16e cost in Australia?
The iPhone 16e retails in Australia with pricing starting at $999 for a 128GB model, $1,199 for a 256GB model or $1,549 for a 512GB model. Not “cheap” then, though Apple does like to refer to it as its “most affordable” iPhone.
When can I buy an iPhone 16e in Australia?
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16e start from 12:00am AEDT on Saturday the 22nd of February 2025, with actual in-store availability from Friday the 28th of February.
What’s new about the iPhone 16e?
Well, it’s not the iPhone SE any more for a start.
It’s built around a 6.1 inch OLED display with a 2532×1170 pixel resolution in either black or white finishes — if you want more “fun” colours Apple would rather you bought an iPhone 16 — and because it’s no longer built like an iPhone SE, that also means it’s not built on what was basically an iPhone 8 chassis like the SE phones were.
The update to a newer design means it gets USB-C charging rather than lightning, the action button built in, FaceID rather than TouchID and, as predicted by most rumours, it’s also packing in Apple’s A18 CPU to enable “Apple Intelligence” features.
That also means it should be a nicely powerful phone too, though it’s worth noting that the version of the A18 packed into the iPhone 16e appears to be a 4-core A18 GPU, where the still more expensive iPhone 16 has a 5-core A18 GPU.
There’s still going to be a performance gulf there, though whether it’s one that will fuss everyday users will have to wait until I can get hold of one for testing. Stay tuned on that front.
On the camera front, you get a single 48MP rear “fusion” camera with 2x telephoto features, though because it’s just one camera that’s essentially just an optically stabilised digital crop.
It’s also Apple’s first iPhone to feature its own “Apple C1” modem, distinct from the Qualcomm X75 5G modems found in all other iPhones. Apple bought out Intel’s mobile modem business back in 2019, and the iPhone 16e is the first beneficiary of that in-house modem development team.
The Apple C1 modem doesn’t support mmWave 5G, not that Apple’s ever bothered to release a mmWave iPhone here in Australia anyway, but presumably there will be a C2 modem or similar in some models of the iPhone 17 family this year to cover that particular faster 5G variant.
Will we see those models in Australia? Impossible to say right now, though I wouldn’t bet money on it.
Isn’t this just the iPhone 16 in fewer colours?
Not… quite, though it will be interesting seeing how the two stack up in day to day usage.
While they’ve got the same processor branding, as noted above the GPU in the iPhone 16e is likely to deliver slightly less performance than the iPhone 16 in straight line graphics terms; time will tell as to whether that affects observational day to day performance.
There are other subtle differences too. It’s slightly less bright at 800-1200 nits versus the 1000-1600 nits of the iPhone 16, it lacks the camera control button of the iPhone 16 and it’s Wi-Fi 6 rather than Wi-Fi 7 based.
It’s also only Qi capable for 7.5W charging where the iPhone 16 is Qi2/15W capable, which means you’d need some level of magnetic case to get it to attach to any angular wireless charger, or presumably to use Apple’s Standby mode overnight.
Is the iPhone 16e going to be worth buying?
Good question… that I can’t entirely answer until I review it, see the title of this site for more clarity on that score.
On the surface, while it’s not inexpensive, as prior iPhone SE models did, it could provide an interesting shakeup to the value/power dynamics of upper mid-range phones at its $999 price point, although less so for the pricier higher storage tier models.
We’re well into the mature phase of the smartphone market here, so if you’re a die-hard Android user I don’t expect that the iPhone 16e will tempt you much to speak of.
As an upgrade path for older iPhone SE users, and for a certain quantity of older iPhone users generally it could be a decent way to get your iPhone refresh happening.
Not shockingly, Apple’s scrubbed the iPhone SE from its lineup as of today — and if you’d bought one yesterday that was a silly move, though Apple’s general return policies should typically mean that you could return it and wait out the week for the newer model, though it will cost you more. It’s worth noting that the iPhone SE 2022 had pricing at launch starting at $719, considerably less than the entry level price of the iPhone 16e — and in fact every single model of the iPhone SE 2022 was cheaper than that baseline price too!
Also dropping off the Apple sales radar are any iPhone 14 models, with the new baseline for older iPhones being the iPhone 15 lineup, with prices there starting at $1,249.
Will Apple ever really do a “cheap” iPhone?
Let’s go with “no” for now… and probably forever.
What does the ‘e’ in iPhone 16e stand for, anyway?
Good question… and I don’t know because Apple isn’t saying.
So I’m going to suggest it stands for “Ernie” from Sesame Street.
Hey, if enough of us believe that and spread that idea, then it’s got to be true, right?
Hey, can I have a basic specifications table?
Sure, I can do that. Here you go:
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