Buy today's budget or yesterday's premium?
One of the things that raised a bit of a stink in my MacBook Neo review was the idea that it might be prudent for people looking to buy a $600-700 MacBook to also consider older devices off mainstream storefronts like Amazon, eBay, and Best Buy. To me, it made sense for price-sensitive buyers to weigh all their options to get the most bang for their buck, and know that they could get a computer that was a few years older, but was better in every single spec…I think that's compelling.
Which brings us to today where I was checking out Best Buy's phone prices (after seeing stories they were discounting the iPhone Air by $100-200), and stumbled quickly on the top-selling iPhone from Best Buy, the iPhone 15 for $599.
Well that happens to be exactly the price of Apple's budget iPhone 17e. If I thought a few years old MacBook Air was a pretty compelling purchase over the Neo, did that thinking carry over to the iPhones as well?
It's all about value
The iPhone 15 is only 2 generations behind the current iPhones, so it's really not that old or that bad a device in 2026 (in fact, it's pretty great for the most part). So which would I get? To the iPhone compare page!
Here's where the older iphone 15 still wins over the 17e:
- Dynamic island
- Ultra-wide camera
- Better image stabilization
- Cinematic and Action Modes for video
- Brighter display (25-33% in normal modes, and nearly twice as bright outdoors as needed)
- mmWave 5G (vs normal 5G on the 17e)
- Intangible, but the build quality will feel slightly better
That's not nothing, but let's look at what the 17e has over the 15:
- 2x the storage (256GB vs 128GB)
- 3 generations newer A19 SoC
- 30% more advertised battery life
- Stronger front glass
- Action button
- Fusion camera setup
- Apple Intelligence
My opinion
As ever, my goal in discussing products is typically to give you the information you need to make the choice that's right for you, rather than to tell you that you, stranger on the internet who I don't know, should absolutely buy Product A over Product B.
That said, I think this comparison is more favorable to the new budget option over the older, previously more expensive device. Faster, more storage, better battery life, and more durable is a heck of a combo for the 17e. in my opinion, the biggest edge I'd give the older iPhone 15 is the camera setup, which is probably going to be pretty similar with the 1x lens, but the addition of the ultra-wide would definitely be nice to have.
Honestly, there's one spec that has always made the budget iPhones quite compelling to me as a value proposition: speed. The A19 is about 40% faster than the A16, which means not only will it be faster today, but it will also be a pleasant phone to use for a few more years than the older phone. Add onto that the other benefits we just talked about, and I can tell you that if I was given the choice, I'd personally go with the 17e 100 times out of 100.