Apple iPhone 16e review: Our tech critic’s honest first impressions

Design and display

Looking at the iPhone 16e from the front, you could mistake it for its pricier sibling, the iPhone 16. It even comes in the same colours, black and white – although the 16 has extra colours, too.

There’s the same all-display front as all other current iPhones, apart from the shape of the cut-out at the top of the screen. This area holds the front-facing camera and TrueDepth sensor which together make face ID happen – the iPhone SE was the last iPhone with the touch ID fingerprint sensor.

On the iPhone 16 SE, the cut-out is a solid block which runs across the very top, whereas the other iPhone models have a smaller cut-out, creating what Apple calls the “dynamic island”, which cleverly appears to change in shape as different notifications arise.

Cut-out apart, the display is identical to the iPhone 16: it measures 6.1in, is an OLED screen with 460px per inch resolution and supports Dolby Vision and other HDR formats.

Like the iPhone 16, this display has a 60Hz refresh rate, not the dynamic refresh rate of the iPhone 16 Pro, for instance, which can adjust so scrolling through lists, for instance, is smooth. That said, if you’re not comparing this phone side-by-side with a Pro model, this looks great: pin-sharp and bright.

The current iPhones use a material called ceramic shield on the front, which is tougher than smartphone glass, Apple says. It’s designed to be tougher and survive better if it’s dropped. The edge of the iPhone 16e is aluminium, colour-matched to the back of the phone.

The left edge has the action button – first seen on the iPhone 15 Pro and now a feature on the iPhone 16 series. On all the other iPhones, this can be programmed to do different things, such as launch a voice note or turn the ringer on and off. But on the iPhone 16 SE, it does something extra: you can evoke visual intelligence, which is part of the Apple Intelligence suite of features and gets the rear camera to act differently, offering you information about what you’re looking at. Camera control, the clever button found on other iPhone 16 models is missing here, so the action button is employed.

The back of the iPhone shows the most striking difference in design from other iPhones. Unlike the rest of the iPhone 16 series, there’s only one camera on the back. It has a unique 48-megapixel sensor and it works in cool ways (more on that later). The back is also capable of wireless charging, something Apple introduced on all its phones from 2017 onwards, apart from the iPhone SE.

But one of the omissions on the 16e is MagSafe, the blissfully simple way to ensure your iPhone is placed just right for charging wirelessly. I miss it, not least because of the missing StandBy feature, the system where if your iPhone is in landscape orientation and charging, it can show photos, the calendar or the clock – it makes a great nightstand alarm clock. That said, the alarm clock feature only shows for a few seconds, not all night long as it would on iPhones with always-on display features (ie the Pro models). And, the lack of MagSafe does, however, mean it’s easier to hold the phone in the right way if you’re charging by cable. And t

Camera

Apple has put a brand-new camera sensor on the back of the iPhone 16e, with the same 48MP resolution as the iPhone 16. The tech giant describes it as a two-in-one camera because it gives a 2x optical zoom equivalent even though there’s only one lens. It does this by cropping into the central part of the image, giving a 12MP photo with no digital zoom.

As mentioned above, the iPhone 16e doesn’t have the camera control (which happens to be my favourite way of launching the camera) found on the other models in the iPhone 16 family. But, there are other ways to get to it, such as swiping the lock screen or setting the action button to open the camera with a long press.

In terms of photography, while there’s only one camera, it’s very good. Some of the advanced features and photographic styles found on pricier iPhones aren’t here, but the camera delivers strong results across stills and video. Speaking of video, the impressive audio mix feature found in the iPhone 16 is here, too, so you can adjust how a video sounds to remove unwanted intrusive noises – not something you might have expected to find in a mid-range phone.

The lack of an ultra-wide camera, found on other iPhone 16 models, means there’s no macro mode here, however.

Intelligence

This is the most affordable iPhone that can handle Apple intelligence, the suite of advanced features which arrived in the last few months and is still growing. It has features such as writing tools, and the capability to create original emoji (called “Genmoji”) from text input, for instance, and more features are coming. Apple Intelligence demands power, which is why the A18 processor found in the iPhone 16 is on board here and may be why the lowest storage level is 128GB (yet another difference from the iPhone SE which had 64GB).

Performance

Although there is one fewer graphics core on the A18 processor included here compared to the iPhone 16, I think you’ll find it hard to spot the difference. In use, this is a fast and capable phone that performs at speed, whatever you’re doing.

While this sounds a bit geeky, excellent performance could be attributed to the fact developed its own modem, which it has debuted with this handset. The Apple C1 is the most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone, Apple says.

Battery life

The C1 modem also contributes to the battery life, which is exceptionally good. Apple says the iPhone 16e has the longest battery life of any iPhone with this size display, ever. The battery is also bigger than in the iPhone 16.

You will realise that this means the iPhone 16e has longer battery life than the pricier iPhone 16 – by up to four hours, depending on how you measure it. In a nutshell, the battery life is tremendous here.

Pre-orders are live now. The Apple iPhone 16e costs from £599, and the phone will be generally available from 28 February.