OPINION : The iPhone SE kitchen range was all about compromise . With theiPhone 16e , Apple has set the measure so high-pitched , it has cannibalised the standard iPhone 16 .
Call the cop , because the iPhone 16e just committed friendly fire . It has brutally killed its raw household member , the iPhone 16 , stone deadened .
Apple has found a phone that not only wipe out the mid - mountain chain , but massively disincentivises buy Apple ’s standard flagship model . And I ’m wondering whether the iPhone 16e has over performed what was necessary from this phone to keep the iPhone 16 relevant .
It ’s light to see why Apple wanted to vary the nomenclature by bringing this phone into the iPhone 16 phratry . It completely changes the narrative of what users can gestate . The tag end product line total it up . “ Latest phone . Greatest price . ”
TheiPhone SErange , on the other hand , was synonymous with compromise . An old brainpower , lodge in an even older dead body , Touch ID in lieu of Face ID , and a passable but routine camera . It was a speech sound bond in the past .
The £ 599/$599 iPhone 16e is price just above what we ’d need from the midrange , but it ’s a earphone about Apple ’s future and , on the grimace of it , there ’s not too much to justify the iPhone 16 being £ 200/$200 more expensive .
So has Apple fail too far ? Has it made the iPhone 16e , so alluring that it effectively render the iPhone 16 pointless ?
About iPhone’s future, not its past
The iPhone 16e has the same A18 chip ( deliver a slightly less powerful GPU ) doing the laborious lifting with the all - important Neural Processing United provide accompaniment for Apple Intelligence – the iPhone 16 range ’s flagship feature . That means Genmoji , Image Playground , Writing Tools , ChatGPT integration within Siri , Visual Intelligence , and way more to come .
This will be authoritative as those feature – like the revamped colloquial Siri due later this year – remain to ramp up . It ’s important to Apple ’s scheme to have as many the great unwashed with access to Apple Intelligence as potential , otherwise we may have seen onetime Si placed into this phone .
The speech sound also has more or less the same 6.1 - inch OLED exhibit as the standard model , although it lacks the same brightness level , and it has the customisable Action Button in place of the legacy mute switch . There ’s Face ID too , meaning the massive bezel for Touch ID have gone and there ’s more screen real estate to enjoy with . The previous iPhone SE had a tiny 4.7 - inch exhibit , which is n’t really fit for purpose in today ’s market .
Quite amazingly Apple even go as far as to include the planet connectivity on the iPhone 16e , imply you could get at the emergency services and share regular message when out of range of a function of traditional connectivity .
ThatFusion Camera , which impressed on the iPhone 16 with its 24 and 48 - megapixel capability within one sensor , has made it to the iPhone 16e too . Like the iPhone 16 , you’re able to also inject Dolby Vision up to 4 kelvin at up to 60pfs . And there ’s access to the AI Visual Intelligence feature of speech that can serve you learn about your surroundings .
The newfangled model also has a USB - C embrasure for charging and data transferral , although MagSafe has n’t made the transition . The iPhone 16e has an advertised battery lifetime of 26 hours , the iPhone 16 has an advertised electric battery life of 22 hour . The iPhone 16e has thenew C1 modemApple has spent half a decennary work towards , from that perspective it ’s a more advanced telephone set than the iPhone 16 .
It ’s every piece an iPhone 16 storey handset . Look at what ’s missing and take yourself whether it ’s deserving an extra couple of hundred quid .
You severalize me ? If you want the additional tv camera you may be operating at the Pro terminal of the grocery store anyway , but everything else feel like a more than satisfactory manner to save £ 200 . You ’re getting almost everything you could ask from a latest - generation received theoretical account iPhone with very few compromise .
And do n’t forget this one now looks the part too . the great unwashed buy this phone will still feel like they have the latest iPhone in their back pocket . There ’s no mark about an old design .
To sum up , the iPhone SE range was made for people who want in on iOS without spending top buck , the iPhone 16e is for citizenry who want the late iPhone without spending top dollar .
It ’s rifle to absolutely wing . I expect it to be the well - selling Apple speech sound of 2025 by quite some distance .
