Did Apple just win the “Budget flagship” game?

After much speculation and excitement, the iPhone 16e finally landed via an elaborate press release, complete with a demo video to show it off from all sides.

And the first reactions were “Wait… this wasn’t what we were supposed to get?”. Well, first reactions if you hadn’t been following the leaks over the past two weeks. If you had — then you had the same thought, just two weeks prior.

Anyhow, what and why is the iPhone 16e?

For one, it’s a new iPhone model that eradicated two pre-existing ones as soon as it landed. You will notice that you can no longer buy an iPhone SE nor an iPhone 14 from the Apple website.

The iPhone 16e took the iPhone 14’s $599 price bracket, and since the SE is now gone, it also took the place of “the cheapest iPhone you can buy”.

But is the iPhone 16e worth it?

At first look, it’s a bafflingly good deal — Apple A18 chip, presumably 8 GB RAM (Apple Intelligence needs it as a minimum). This single 48 MP camera should be pretty good if it’s ripped straight off an iPhone 16, and the 6.1-inch OLED screen has almost the same quality as all other non-Pro iPhones.

To top it off, apparently, Apple managed to fit a bigger battery in there. Now, Cupertino doesn’t share the “geeky specs” like battery capacity, but they do list endurance for “video playback” and “audio playback”. According to those numbers, the iPhone 16e has about a 16% longer battery life than the iPhone 16, which is the same shape and size.

*Numbers reported by Apple

OK, so it’s as good as a regular iPhone 16 on almost every front, and it starts at a full $200 off, so what gives? In other words…

Hey, iPhone 16e, what’s the catch?

Every time we get a cheaper version of a product, we can expect to get it with the corners shaved off a bit — or a lot. But, generally, since it bears the iPhone name, you’d think you get the core Apple experience, right?

Well, that is mostly correct with the iPhone 16e. But here’s where it’s a bit backwards:

• No MagSafe - the iPhone 16e does support wireless charging, but it’s limited to 7.5 W and there are no magnets on its back. If you’re loaded up on accessories, steer clear of the 16e.
• Old photographic styles - it’s an iPhone 16, it has an A18 chip, but it doesn’t support the new Photographic Styles with the mega customization? Hm…
• No Camera Control button

Then, there are the other things you’d expect to be missing:

• One less GPU core, no harm no foul
• No ultrawide camera - may or may not be a huge loss

But you get Apple Intelligence, which is supposedly the next step in the “core Apple experience”. Even though the iPhone 16e doesn’t have a Camera Control button, you will still be able to activate Visual Intelligence. That feature was previously only available on the new iPhone 16 series because there was no other way to access it other than holding the Camera Control button. Reason unknown, but it can now magically be activated via the Action Button.

So, is $600 for the iPhone 16e worth it?

Looking at the market that the iPhone 16e is landing in:

• The Google Pixel 9 is currently down to $650 for an unknown amount of time
• The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE is $650
• The OnePlus 13R is $600

The iPhone definitely gets one over on each of these. It will beat the Pixel in speed and performance any day. It will have a better camera than the OnePlus 13R (OK, OK, we’ll wait for the review, call it a hunch). It will… hmm, OK, the Galaxy S24 FE has enough going for it to swing back.

And I guess that’s it — if I can call the Galaxy S24 FE a “pretty good phone for $650”, then the iPhone 16e is certainly a very good iPhone for the price. You get the last-gen CPU, and the upgraded Apple main camera for a midranger price. I think it’s going to rock some socks and shake up the market. Good luck, Galaxy S25 Edge!