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The iPhone 16e replaces the iPhone SE (2022) and the iPhone 14 as Apple’s lone entry-level phone. It represents a simultaneously welcome and confounding approach to a moderately priced iPhone.
Depending on how you look at it, the $600 iPhone 16e is either a diluted version of the $800 iPhone 16 or a partially enhanced, partially downgraded take on the discontinued iPhone 14, which Apple previously sold for $600.
Nominally a member of the iPhone 16 family, the iPhone 16e lacks several features of Apple’s latest flagship phones, including an ultrawide camera, MagSafe compatibility, support for the fastest 5G networks, the Dynamic Island, the Camera Control button, and the Ultra Wideband chip that helps you find your Apple devices.
Some of the compromises are stark, especially as Apple recently sold the iPhone 14 for the same price with many of those features. However, in exchange, the iPhone 16e offers the performance and longevity of Apple’s latest A18 processor, which runs Apple Intelligence. Battery life is also stunning.
While the iPhone 16e doesn’t have an ultrawide camera, its single camera doubles as a 2x telephoto lens for optical-quality zoom, and its photography should satisfy most people in the market for a $600 phone.
Apple iPhone 16e
Apple’s iPhone 16e features significant upgrades over the previous entry-level iPhone, including Apple Intelligence, Face ID, and an Action button. It offers several key aspects of the flagship iPhone 16 model for $200 less.
Design and functionality: Slightly dated, but still modern
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The iPhone 16e, with its flat aluminum edges, glass back, and matte exterior, looks and feels almost like a contemporary flagship phone from Apple, except for a few key differences.
The notch that houses the front camera and Face ID sensors is a visual cue that the iPhone 16e isn’t a flagship iPhone model — every iPhone since the iPhone 15 series has come with Apple’s Dynamic Island. Visually speaking, the notch dates the iPhone 16e between the iPhone 12 and iPhone 14 series.
On a day-to-day basis, it’s hardly noticeable and easy to forget about. However, in practical terms, the notch means the iPhone 16e lacks useful functionality that the Dynamic Island enables on the best iPhones. Still, it’s an acceptable compromise in exchange for a milder price.
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The black border around the iPhone 16e’s display is also notably thicker than the iPhone 16, which gives off a less premium look. For the $600 price tag, the thicker border is inconsequential.
The iPhone 16e’s single camera is another visual distinction when most people are used to seeing at least two cameras on the back of most iPhones. More on that in the camera section.
Otherwise, the iPhone 16e features the Action button introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro models. It performs the same functions and shortcuts as other iPhones with the Action button, and it’s a useful and appreciated addition.
You won’t find the Camera Control button introduced with the iPhone 16 series on the iPhone 16e, and I’m fine with that — it hasn’t proven indispensable to the iPhone experience so far.
Performance: Flagship power for a mid-range price
One of the best things about the iPhone 16e is its astounding performance and its potential longevity for the price. It runs on Apple’s latest A18 processor with four GPU cores, which is one fewer than the iPhone 16’s version of the processor with five GPU cores.
The iPhone 16e opens and runs apps as quickly as we expect a new phone running on the latest processor available. Benchmark results are aligned with the iPhone 16’s A18 processor for single-core performance (running active apps). Multicore benchmark scores (background apps and processes) are slightly lower but almost within the margin of error.
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Gaming-wise, performance is largely similar to the iPhone 16, with support for ray tracing and demanding AAA titles despite the missing GPU core. In benchmark tests, the iPhone 16e scores almost identically to the iPhone 15 running on the A16 processor.
Apple Intelligence: The cheapest phone with Apple’s AI
With the A18 processor, the iPhone 16e supports Apple Intelligence features, which plays a large role in Apple’s value proposition for the iPhone 16e. It’s a notable upgrade over the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14, which are incompatible with the AI suite.
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I dissect Apple Intelligence features more fully in our iPhone 16 review, but in summary:
The most distinguishing feature is Siri’s integration with the ChatGPT AI chatbot, which essentially makes Siri much more useful and able to process significantly complex tasks. You can get help devising a workout plan or plan an entire trip, among many other things. It’s like it does the research for you, or at the very least, it offers a good starting point for daunting tasks.
One of the things I like most about ChatGPT and other AI chatbots is they give me a straight answer rather than offering a list of links to sift through myself, as previous AI assistants have. Just be aware that ChatGPT and other AI chatbots can occasionally return with outdated and incorrect information, so it’s best to double-check, especially if the answer seems off.
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The other headlining feature in Apple Intelligence is Writing Tools, which can be immensely useful. You can write entire emails with various tones based on short prompts, and it’s excellent for summarizing longer emails. Shorthand notes in the Notes app can also be converted into full prose.
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Visual Intelligence lets you use your camera to identify and get more information on an object, like an unfamiliar plant. You can then ask more specific questions, like how to care for said plant. It works well and makes it easier to learn more about your surroundings.
In the Photos app, Apple Intelligence powers the Cleanup feature, which removes unwanted objects from a picture. It works well for smaller details but struggles to fill in the details behind larger objects.
Smaller Apple Intelligence features include Genmoji, which lets you create an emoji of your own if the one you’re looking for doesn’t exist. It’s a great tool for creating simpler emojis, but you need to master writing prompts for more complex ones.
The Playground app lets you create images of almost anything based on prompts, and I struggle to find any good use for it. One example is creating an image for an invitation in the Apple Invites app. However, AI-generated images have a certain and identifiable look to them, and I find them off-putting.
Overall, Apple Intelligence can be useful, and it’s continually improving and expanding. The greatest hurdle with the evolving AI suite is knowing which features are available and how they can be applied to whatever you do on your iPhone.
Display: On par with previous flagship models
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The iPhone 16e’s display is identical to the iPhone 14’s, which means it’s a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED panel with a 60Hz refresh rate, up to 1,200 nits brightness, and Apple’s previous-generation Ceramic Shield glass. It’s also a substantial improvement over the 2022 iPhone SE’s 4.7-inch Retina HD LCD display, which was only capable of 625 nits brightness and a lower resolution.
The iPhone 16e’s display effectively provides an experience on par with the iPhone 15 and 16. Despite lower maximum brightness, it looks as bright in direct sunlight as the last two flagship models. It doesn’t go as low as one nit, as the iPhone 16’s display can, but it’s still comfortable to use in the dark.
There’s no Plus version of the iPhone 16e with a larger display, like the 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus. That’s a shame, as the $800 iPhone 15 Plus is now the least expensive iPhone option with a big display, whereas the iPhone 14 Plus recently sold for $100 less.
Less hardwearing than the latest-generation Ceramic Shield glass of the iPhone 16 models, the iPhone 16e’s original Ceramic Shield screen is comparatively susceptible to damage. See our guide to the best iPhone 16e screen protectors to preserve the phone’s display.
5G connectivity: No super-fast 5G, but you might not notice
The iPhone 16e supports the low- and mid-band 5G networks provided by any carrier in the US, but it doesn’t support high-band mmWave 5G networks offered in the best cell phone plans from Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile.
Most people might not even notice, as low- and mid-band 5G networks are plenty fast for common data-heavy tasks, like streaming video or scrolling social media apps.
The iPhone 16e works fine on premium plans, though it simply won’t connect to their mmWave 5G networks. On T-Mobile’s premium Go5G Plus plan, for example, that means your speeds would be limited to around 350 megabits-per-second instead of around 400. To be sure, 350Mbps is more than enough — I have a 300Mbps internet connection at home, and I stream home monitoring cameras, YouTube, 4K videos, and browse the web simultaneously without any issues.
Really, the only issue in using the iPhone 16e with a premium plan is that you might be overpaying for mmWave 5G access, which the phone can’t access.
Even then, you can still take advantage of the prioritized data that premium plans usually include. Prioritized data means your speeds won’t be artificially throttled when the network is congested, and you’ll always get the fastest low- and mid-band 5G and LTE data available in your coverage area.
Still, considering the iPhone 16e’s value-driven price and lack of mmWave 5G support, it’s ideally paired with a value-driven carrier or mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), like those in our guide to the best cheap cell phone plans. Most plan options from MVNOs like Mint Mobile, Visible, Tello, and US Mobile don’t include high-band 5G network access, so you’re not paying for mmWave 5G access.
Cameras: Ditching ultrawide, but doubling down on zoom
The iPhone 16e sports a single 48MP rear camera that takes excellent photos for its $600 price tag with balanced brightness, contrast, and colors.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
By default, photos are snapped at 24MP, but all 48MP are used in a process called pixel binning. This process essentially combines all the small pixels to create larger pixels that absorb more light, leading to clearer photos under any lighting condition, whether bright or dark.
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Photos taken in low-light conditions look great on the iPhone 16e’s display, but they become slightly less sharp compared to the iPhone 16’s low-light photos when viewed on a larger computer monitor. Still, most people will be pleased with the iPhone 16e’s low-light camera performance, considering its lower price.
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The iPhone 16e omits the additional ultrawide camera we’d expect on modern iPhones, but it’s essentially been replaced by an optical-quality 2x zoom option. The result is sharper and clearer 2x photos compared to iPhones with 12MP cameras, like the iPhone 14. Even at 6x zoom, photos still look surprisingly decent, with plenty of detail, even if they’re not tack-sharp.
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider
It’s an unfortunate trade-off for those who value taking ultrawide photos. However, while I sometimes wished I had an ultrawide camera to capture more of a scene, the 1x photos I took looked better than anticipated. It made me question whether I should use my phone’s ultrawide camera as much in the future.
Overall, the iPhone 16e’s camera is less versatile than the two-camera system of the iPhone 14, the phone it replaced as Apple’s $600 option. With the iPhone 14, you had the option to take zoomed shots with its 12MP camera. With a 1x optical zoom, its results aren’t as crisp as the iPhone 16e’s 2x optical zoom, but they’re still usable to an extent. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16e doesn’t give you the option to take ultrawide photos.
As for video quality, the iPhone 16e can record video up to 4K resolution at 60 frames-per-second, and point-and-shoot quality is very good.
It lacks certain video features, like Cinematic mode (basically portrait mode for video), Action mode, spatial video recording for playback on Apple’s Vision Pro headset, and macro video recording. These are expected compromises for a more budget-minded iPhone.
The iPhone 16e also doesn’t feature sensor-shift optical stabilization, available to flagship iPhones dating back to the iPhone 13, and instead features basic optical stabilization. Videos from the iPhone 16e are slightly more shaky than the iPhone 16’s while walking, but less so than I expected. Videos recorded while in motion are certainly usable for most people.
Battery life and charging: Exceptional battery, but a confounding lack of MagSafe
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Once again, Apple makes good on an iPhone battery claim. Apple’s claim the iPhone 16e has the best battery life in a 6.1-inch phone is true. It ended our test with 68%, which is even better than the iPhone 16’s 65% score. The iPhone 16 previously held the best phone battery life result for the 6.1-inch range, so the iPhone 16e’s score is truly impressive. To note, it’s almost as good as the 6.7-inch iPhone 16 Plus’ 70% result.
The iPhone 16e charges via USB-C at typical iPhone charging speeds (between 20 and 25W), but it doesn’t support Apple’s wireless MagSafe charging, which is utterly mystifying. It only supports wireless charging with the Qi standard, which is slow at under 10W compared to the latest MagSafe standard’s 25W. Even the original MagSafe standard with 15W charging speeds would have been appreciated.
A magnetic case for the iPhone 16e can soften the blow of its lacking MagSafe, letting you at least place the iPhone 16e on a MagSafe charger and use MagSafe accessories. Yet, wireless charging speeds will remain at Qi standards. See our guide to the best iPhone 16e cases for various top options.
Should you buy it?
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Almost anyone with a $600 budget for an iPhone should feel comfortable buying the iPhone 16e. Its stunning performance, potential longevity, access to Apple Intelligence, high-quality camera, and remarkable battery life make it an excellent option.
Cost-conscious shoppers with older iPhones, like the iPhone SE (2022) or the iPhone 12, will find the iPhone 16e a worthwhile long-term upgrade at a more approachable price than the iPhone 16. Conversely, those hoping to buy a sub-$500 iPhone, like the iPhone SE (2022), will be disappointed.
The iPhone 16e makes less sense with higher storage options: $699 for 256GB or $899 for 512GB. At those prices, we’d rather recommend the $799 iPhone 16 with 128GB and that you explore cloud storage solutions rather than expand the iPhone 16e’s storage.
Otherwise, the iPhone 15 is a better fit if Apple Intelligence is of no interest to you, but you’re still looking for a flagship experience that includes an ultrawide camera, Dynamic Island, mmWave 5G connectivity, and MagSafe support, all while spending less than the iPhone 16. Its A16 processor is still a high performer, and we estimate Apple will continue supporting the iOS operating system for the iPhone 15 for another five years.
Even further, it’s possible to get the iPhone 14 from carriers and retailers while stock lasts as a mildly priced flagship phone. It remains a worthwhile option in the $600 range for its ultrawide camera, mmWave 5G compatibility, and MagSafe support, but it’s incompatible with Apple Intelligence and offers a comparatively short support window.
