(Bloomberg) — With a starting price of $599, Apple Inc.’s iPhone 16e is hardly a budget phone.
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This new handset replaces the $429 iPhone SE as the cheapest phone in Apple’s lineup. And while it brings many of the iPhone 16’s features and enhancements, including Apple Intelligence and a programmable Action button, it cuts back on camera capabilities, display quality and other areas. So it’s neither cheap nor a full-fat iPhone. Who is it for?
People like me, perhaps. I’ve lived outside the Apple bubble for years now, opting for Android-powered devices offering better cameras and specs for the money. But I have many US friends whose digital lives depend on iMessage, and I look on with envy at the ubiquity of Face ID and the company’s unrivaled selection of third-party apps. The “it just works” quality of the iPhone user experience (while slightly less solid than it once was) still carries appeal — so, while I might not spend flagship-phone money on an iPhone, a lite version at a palatable price could be appealing.
In addition to Android converts, there’s a wide swath of existing iPhone owners who’d welcome quality-of-life upgrades without spending four figures on a top-of-the-line device. In the US, where Apple is the leading mobile brand, consumer confidence in February fell the most in years on concerns about the outlook for the broader economy, signaling wariness of discretionary purchases. Elsewhere, in growing markets like India, price sensitivity could also see the 16e emerge as the favored option in Apple’s lineup — but it’s impossible to ignore that the device is still hundreds of dollars more than the average seller in the country.
The Business Case
Apple’s smartphones have never been cheap. The first-generation iPhone was a status item when it debuted in 2007, with then Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer famously laughing it off as wildly expensive at $500. A decade later, the iPhone X normalized $1,000 handsets. Even now, with its lowest-end phone, Apple is asking more than double the average selling price from other manufacturers, per IDC data.
It’s the clearest sign that Apple has lost interest in competing in the value segment. In nearly a decade of trying to carve out a share with the iPhone SE, the company has underwhelmed consumers and fallen shy of its own high expectations. Competition has intensified, with Samsung Electronics Co. fending off aggressive Chinese rivals. Brands like Oppo’s OnePlus, Poco and Nothing Phone are bringing a mix of high specs, fresh designs and rock-bottom prices. Instead of continuing in a competitive segment of the market with low margins, Apple has decided to pull up the drawbridge and underline the idea that all of its products are premium.
The question, then, isn’t really whether the 16e is a high-quality phone — it is. But does it offer enough premium features to justify being pricier than true budget phones?
What Works
Though it shares a name with the higher-end iPhone 16 and 16 Pro, the 16e has a simplified, more utilitarian design, available in black or white. (Pro tip: The white option hides scratches much better.) Its dimensions are practically the same as the 6.1-inch iPhone 16, but with a single camera on the rear, making it feel a bit easier to handle.
After two weeks of living with it as my everyday phone, I’ve found the 16e to be good enough in most respects. The battery life is reliable, and the Apple-made A18 chip delivers consistently fast performance, even with a small spec downgrade (one fewer graphics processing core) that’s unimportant in practice. The 16e also marks the debut of Apple’s in-house wireless modem, replacing one from Qualcomm Inc. The new component doesn’t call much attention to itself, and that’s a good thing; I didn’t notice a step down in connectivity speed from my usual smartphone.
Loudspeakers are often an overlooked phone component, but in side-by-side testing, the 16e’s audio quality stood above much pricier flagship phones from Xiaomi Corp., Vivo and Google. In daily use, which included listening to a steady diet of podcasts and hip-hop, I often didn’t bother using a Bluetooth speaker since the 16e was adequate on its own.
Also on the audio front, anytime I turn on my paired wireless headphones, the lock screen surfaces my recently played Apple Music albums for quick access. This feature has been present in iOS for years, but it’s a nice touch for someone new to the ecosystem.
The phone’s battery promises similar runtime as the iPhone 16 and, in my experience, can make it through a full day of work and leisure with plenty of juice left over. At a time when competitors like Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pixel phones have actually taken a step back in battery life, the 16e crunches through YouTube sessions, games, workout runs and Zoom calls without causing the smartphone equivalent of range anxiety.
More than anything, I can appreciate as a longtime Android user how much more cohesive the iPhone experience is. Apple’s Face ID is supported universally, leaving no guesswork about whether your local bank will let you log in with your face. On Android, Honor Device Co. uses similar biometric technology, but it’s a toss-up as to which developers choose to support it.
In the time I’ve been away, Apple’s Siri assistant has learned some new tricks. I can ask it to play Kendrick Lamar on Spotify and it starts playing GNX. With headphones connected, it’ll turn down my music and announce that I have a WhatsApp message and who it’s from, reading the content and also pronouncing people’s names correctly. Still, it doesn’t stand apart from other digital assistants. Worse, Apple has delayed some of Siri’s most ambitious AI upgrades for the foreseeable future.
What’s Missing
The pill-shaped Dynamic Island and Camera Control button for easier camera access did not make it into this watered-down iPhone. Opinions will vary on how important those omissions are, though I’m at peace with them. Given the very basic 48-megapixel rear camera, the absence of Apple’s premium video-recording modes also makes sense.
Anyone upgrading from a years-old or lower-tier handset will be satisfied with the camera’s quality. But the lack of a second shooter for zoomed-in shots, or a macro mode for closeups, will be a tough sell for consumers who see other phone makers serving up excellent zoom cameras. Particularly in China, where more is always more, the single-camera setup will be seen as a huge disadvantage.
My foremost camera concern is image quality, and that’s where Apple really cannot hang with cheaper Android alternatives. Google’s $499 Pixel 8a can already take better shots than the iPhone 16, and the less capable 16e is simply no match.
Another shortcoming is the 16e’s frugal amount of internal storage: 128GB at the starting price. The OnePlus 13R, which costs the same at $599, has double the storage as well as a multi-camera array on the back, faster charging and a wall adapter in the box. The Pixel 8a is cheaper and comes in a couple of lovely color options. (And the 9a is arriving shortly too.) In short, Android alternatives always offer better hardware for the money — the user experience just isn’t as polished.
Having said that, Android may actually be ahead on the AI front, as Apple Intelligence is a disappointing work-in-progress and Siri still awaits an overhaul. I’ve not yet come across any AI features that would compel me to purchase one device over another, but Apple has significant catching up to do, even compared to Google’s unimpressive Gemini chatbot.
The 16e’s display is another compromise. It is clear, accurate and bright enough for the price, but it’s not as smooth as the ProMotion panels Apple offers on its Pro models. The Pixel 8a and OnePlus 13R are again superior options, as they have the equivalent of ProMotion, scaling up to a 120 frames-per-second refresh rate, double the 16e’s 60fps.
An unexpected issue I ran into with the 16e relates to Bluetooth. Connecting it to the Oura Ring 4 and listening to wireless audio resulted in recurring skips in my music. Disconnecting the Ring fixed the issue, and I know from using that gadget with Android devices like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra that it wasn’t Oura’s fault. Additionally, the Bluetooth range of Apple’s latest handset is significantly shorter than the likes of the Xiaomi phone, Google’s Pixel 9 or Vivo’s X200 Pro. With those, I could walk a full basketball court’s length away from the smartphone while listening to Apple’s Powerbeats Pro 2, but the 16e could only keep a steady connection at half that distance.
Lastly, the 16e doesn’t have MagSafe, Apple’s magnetic charging system. It can still charge wirelessly, but it’s nowhere near as convenient a setup as what you’ll find on more premium iPhones. The charging is also woefully slow compared to something like Xiaomi’s 80W-capable phones.
The Takeaway
In a fair fight, the iPhone 16e loses out to many Android alternatives costing the same or less than its $599 base price. Savvy (and platform-agnostic) consumers would be better off with Google’s budget Pixel or something from OnePlus, Poco or Nothing.
The 16e just doesn’t do enough to compel those outside the Apple realm to make the switch. Not at its current price. Apple is asking consumers to pay a hefty premium for its design, brand cachet and software polish, and I suspect a majority of us would sooner pay extra for the regular iPhone 16 or get more for our money from an Android device.
But there are many people already entrenched in the iOS ecosystem who will walk into a carrier store determined to get an iPhone and nothing else. For them, the 16e will be a worthy upgrade from models like the iPhone 13 and older. Its minimalist design and ample battery life are appealing, and it retains most of what makes Apple handsets compelling while costing 25% less than the iPhone 16.
If it were priced closer to the just-discontinued iPhone SE, it could have swept aside much of the Android mid-range. The 16e is good enough for most people. It just isn’t good enough at $599.Read next: Huawei’s Google-Free Phones Are Making Real Progress
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