Apple has finally revealed the long-awaited iPhone 16e, offering a complete rethinking of Apple’s budget-friendly iPhone SE.
New naming convention aside, the new iPhone 16e is essentially a massively upgraded iPhone SE.
The iPhone 16e finally sheds its iPhone 8-inspired design for something way more modern, bringing the smartphone into line with the rest of Apple’s iPhone collection with elements like a full-screen design, Face ID support and even Apple Intelligence support.
Here’s everything there is to know about the iPhone 16e including release date and pricing details and the key changes on offer from this year’s smartphone.
iPhone 16e at a glance
- Pre-order on 21 February ahead of release on 28 February
- Costs £599/$599
- Overhauled iPhone 14-esque design
- 6.1-inch OLED screen
- Face ID support
- New 48MP rear camera
- A18 chipset with support for Apple Intelligence
iPhone 16E release date and pricing
Following today’s reveal of the iPhone 16E, pre-orders are set to kick off on Friday 21 February 2025, with the phone set to ship a week later on 28 February 2025.
Despite the iPhone 16E acting as a spiritual successor to Apple’s budget-friendly iPhone SE 3, the price has increased from £429/$429 to £599/$599 with 128GB of storage, though you can opt for 256GB and 512GB variants at an additional cost if you need a little more storage.
It’s still more affordable than the £799/$799 iPhone 16, but it’s not quite as affordable as some might’ve hoped.
iPhone 16E colours
Unlike the iPhone 16, which comes in a slew of vibrant colour options, the iPhone 16E’s colour options are more muted, available in just two shades: black and white.
iPhone 16E design and screen
As we’ve already alluded to, the iPhone 16E is way more impressive than Apple’s previous budget-friendly iPhone SE. In fact, it’s a complete overhaul of the budget-focused iPhone that’s much better placed to compete with the mid-range competition in 2025.
That starts with a refreshed design, ditching the aged iPhone 8-inspired design for something more akin to the iPhone 14, complete with a 6.1-inch OLED screen, flat edges and rounded corners – albeit with USB-C connectivity in place of Lightning. That also means that Apple’s iPhone collection has officially completed the transition to USB-C.
The 6.1-inch OLED screen offers the same resolution as recent flagship iPhones at 2532 × 1170, offering a massive upgrade on the 1334 × 750 pixels of its LCD-based predecessor.
It also offers support for Face ID in place of Touch ID, offering Apple’s high-end facial scanning tech on a budget for the first time. This is found within an old-style notch, however, not a Dynamic Island-style cutout like more recent models of iPhone.
iPhone 16E chipset
That upgrade continues in the performance department, sharing the same A18 chipset as the iPhone 16 and a boosted 8GB of RAM to match – both requirements for Apple Intelligence, which the new iPhone also supports. It also offers either 128-, 256- or 512GB of storage depending on the option you go for.
That means that the iPhone 16E can not only run high-end games (including console ports) but also power a swathe of on-device AI capabilities, from rewriting chunks of text to generating entirely new images based on your description. It also features integration with ChatGPT, handy notification summaries and much more, permeating practically every area of iOS 18.
If you’re curious about what this means for the new budget-focused iPhone, take a look at our Apple Intelligence explainer.
iPhone 16E cameras
The iPhone SE has always shipped with a single rear camera and this trend hasn’t changed with the rebranded upgrade, but it has had an upgrade from 12MP to 48MP while also sporting elements like OIS for improved low-light performance.
Combined with pixel-binning tech, this should translate to much higher quality image capture, complete with the same digital 2x zoom you’ll find on the full-fat iPhone 16. The front-facing 12MP selfie camera remains unchanged, but that’s still in line with the rest of the current iPhone collection.
Overall, it’s a complete overhaul of the entry-level iPhone, offering a way more capable device that’s much easier to recommend than any older model of iPhone SE ever was.
