Apple iPhone 16e Review: Just The Right Size (For Your Hand And Your Wallet)

There is something admirably blunt about the new iPhone 16e. Apple's latest smartphone is unashamedly its pitch to buyers on the strictest budget, offering tidbits from its more expensive iPhone 16 models, though not quite their full meal. Its $599 price tag makes it the cheapest new iPhone the Cupertino company offers, a gateway to some — though not all — of its newest features.

We've seen this strategy played out before, and yet this isn't the iPhone SE 4th Edition. While the "e" could arguably stand for "everyman" (Apple doesn't actually say what it means), the cheapest iPhone 16e is $170 more than its affordable — and now discontinued — predecessor. 

Yes, you get a much more modern-feeling phone for your extra spend, but it also feels very much like a transparent move by Apple to shift its average selling price northwards. With the SE series having been "enough" iPhone for many people, is there more here than most actually need? 

With a design nodding back all the way to the iPhone 8, the old iPhone SE always looked out of place in Apple's current line-up. Though home button fans may grumble, it really did feel like its retirement was overdue. The swipe-based navigation on the iPhone 16e not only falls in line with what iPhone and iPad are doing these days, but allows for more screen and less bezel.

The 6.1-inch OLED Super Retina XDR panel is bright and HDR-ready, and there's Face ID to replace Touch ID. Having seen a family member grudgingly make that security switch recently, only to be delighted the first time their iPhone unlocked by facial recognition alone, I think it's a decision few will complain about in the long term. If you've been using an iPhone with a ProMotion display, the iPhone 16e's screen probably won't feel so smooth, but it's definitely one of those "you only really notice it, if it's taken away" situations.

It's wrapped up in a familiar, crisp-edged metal chassis, fronted by Ceramic Shield glass on the front, and toughened glass on the back. With a single rear camera, and only black or white finishes, there's something unexpectedly pure about the iPhone 16e, at least compared to its lens-sprouting, more colorful counterparts higher in Apple's line-up. Like the generic icon for iPhone has somehow escaped from software, and become a tangible thing.

Apple saves its touch-sensitive Camera Control button for the more expensive models, but the iPhone 16e gets the multifunction Action button above the volume keys. That can now be set to trigger Visual Intelligence, for AI-powered identification of objects, landmarks, and more. There's USB-C for charging, and no physical SIM slot: if you're switching from an iPhone SE, for instance, the transition to eSIM is surprisingly straightforward, and you probably won't even have to call your carrier.

Inside, the A18 chipset shares a name with the beating heart of other iPhone 16 models, though not quite the same specs. There are six CPU cores, yes, but only a four-core GPU (versus five in the iPhone 16, and six in the iPhone 16 Pro's A18 Pro).

I mention this primarily because it is my job to, not because you should care. This version of the A18 is plenty fast enough for any of the everyday tasks I attempted; it's also apparently 40% faster — for both CPU and GPU — than the iPhone SE 3rd Gen, not to mention a marked bump over the iPhone 12. Arguably, this is all more important for longevity, than performance today, since it means Apple will presumably be able to roll out more iOS updates for the iPhone 16e.

Apple, though, might disagree with my framing. It's keen to push Apple Intelligence, after all — its own flavor of AI that is gradually weaving its way through the iOS (and iPadOS, and macOS) experience — and the A18 means the iPhone 16e is better equipped to run that on-device. The full suite of Apple Intelligence functionality is being rolled out piecemeal, and the big Siri improvements are still to come, but there's already plenty you can try.

Apple Intelligence can reword your emails and messages, adjusting their tone; it can sift through your inbox to craft summaries of long message chains. If Apple's AI isn't doing the trick, you can optionally hand over to ChatGPT; you don't get charged for that, and Apple promises your data won't be used to train third-party AIs. Live phone call transcription, and audio recordings in Notes that are transcribed and then summarized, are also supported.

Then there are the various photo tools, like the ability to tap a background object and have it removed, or to search through photos and videos with natural language terms. You can create custom images and Genmoji, from text prompts, across a variety of styles. Apple Intelligence will do as much as it can on-device, handing the baton over to Apple's private cloud if that's insufficient.

I fall somewhere in the skeptical to scathing range when it comes to AI tools like these, frankly. Apple does, at least, commit to using all-renewable power for its AI data centers, and arguably has the best privacy policy for AI in the business. Nonetheless, the AI-rephrased messages typically seem lifeless or cringeworthy to me; the summaries are just lacking enough in detail that I still need to read the thread with my own, human eyes; and perhaps I have the wrong sort of friends, but I've never felt the absence of custom images while I'm chatting with them.

Meanwhile, for all the safeguards, I just don't trust ChatGPT to be doing what's best either in the ethical training of its datasets, or green energy sourcing for its servers. You can, of course, turn Apple Intelligence off (though, annoyingly, it'll now reenable itself with every iOS update: maybe one day the AI will be smart enough to remember I turned it off before, and disable itself proactively).

It's possible doing that will impact battery life, though there I can't see most people having issues. Apple says the various hardware and software improvements should mean a runtime bump measured in hours, compared to older phones. I certainly didn't struggle to make it through a full day of mixed use, with juice to spare.

If photography is what sells smartphones, then the iPhone 16e's 48-megapixel Fusion Camera feels likely to do the trick. Sure, there's only one sensor, but with that resolution — and the default 12-megapixel output — Apple has a surfeit of data to run through its Photonic Engine and Smart HDR 5 pipeline. Or, it can concentrate on just the center portion of the frame, and give the equivalent of a 2x optical zoom.

As elsewhere in the iPhone 16e experience, there's a strong sense of "concentrate on the essentials," here. There's no ultra-wide option, nor macro mode, and you can't change the focal point of a Portrait mode image post-capture, but everyday shots are great, Night Mode works better at pulling out low-light detail, and 4K video recording (with Dolby Vision at up to 60 fps) is smooth and crisp.

If you're upset about the absence of more granular control, then you probably should be looking to more expensive iPhone models. And, again, while the degree to which you'll consider this a leap ahead will vary depending on what you're upgrading from, as the point of entry for iPhone photography this feels considerably better than what, say, an old SE could deliver.

There's a palpable sense that the iPhone 16e is Apple's tasting menu. An invitation for tech laggards to get a glimpse of what their upgrade-eager counterparts are already enjoying: wireless charging, yes, but not MagSafe; a lossless zoom, sure, but not the dedicated, multi-sensor array of more expensive models; 5G, but without mmWave for the fastest performance (albeit typically only in dense, urban areas).

There is something undoubtedly calculating about that strategy, but then again shoppers for affordable tech are used to doing tough calculations of their own. Not to mention accepting compromise is part and parcel of living on a budget.

Let's be cold about it, then: the $170 premium over the old iPhone SE 3rd Gen gets you twice the storage (128GB vs 64GB); better water- and dust-resistance (IP68 vs IP67); improvements in camera, battery life, and overall performance; a bigger, nicer display; and conveniences like wireless charging and Face ID. There's Apple's first in-house modem, too: it's called the C1; it does 5G, messages over satellite, and Emergency SOS; and I noticed no difference whatsoever in performance alongside my iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Should you spend $100 more, and get the iPhone 15? Again, it's a matter of compromises: a second, ultra-wide camera but an older, A16 Bionic chipset; the useful Dynamic Island, but no Apple Intelligence; MagSafe support, but shorter battery life compared to the iPhone 16e. I can't say I agree with Apple, that the AI is a big enough selling point on its own, and I wish Ultra WideBand — for precise AirTag location — had made it to the 16e's spec sheet.

I also think it's far too easy to dismiss these $100 increments, particularly if you're not used to considering things from a strict budgeting perspective. After all, you could as easily say that the iPhone 16 is "just" $100 more than the iPhone 15, and make a case for why that's a no-brainer decision.

$599 isn't nothing, but if you've been chugging along with an old iPhone SE or iPhone 11/12, I think it leaves the iPhone 16e compelling. Even if — like me — you're still unconvinced by Apple Intelligence, the value of having the latest chipset in terms of the longest roadmap of iOS updates is not to be sniffed at. You can nitpick Apple's decisions for what was included, and what was left out, but for the mainstream consumer I suspect the balance is just about right.