Today Apple unveiled the iPhone 16e, which they're calling a part of the iPhone 16 lineup now, rather than this odd duck the SE had been since launch. Honestly, I think this move in particular is interesting and maybe makes a ton of sense, but let's start with the most important question: was I right about this phone?

Here's what I predicted in my report card post a couple months ago:

Let’s start at the bottom of the line with the SE, which I do think will get an update this in 2025. I’m expecting a spring release window and I expect the new SE to adopt the iPhone 14 design.

Setting aside the name change, this is largely what I expected, including the iPhone 14-style design with a notch.

I keep saying this over and over, but I think the SE is for people who want a cheap iPhone, it’s nothing more than that, so Touch ID can go.

At a starting price $200 more than the outgoing SE, it does take this squarely out of the "budget" arena and makes it a relatively expensive phone, although it does clearly still occupy the "cheapest iPhone" slot.

I also think this phone will get the A18 processor, which is a little aggressive, but is also in line with how the SE has traditionally operated: last year’s processor in an older form factor. Critically, the A18 will mean this phone can use Apple Intelligence, which I think Apple is intent on all of their new devices running by the end of 2025.

Also spot on! I didn't specify anything about the single camera setup continuing, but that should have been assumed, although I did miss the new cellular modem coming to this model.

Onto my new thoughts

I haven't read a single other opinion on this yet, so god help me if these impressions are wildly outside the mainstream…

I think this is an interesting new phone, and I could see why this might be the best iPhone for a lot of people. The critical flaw with SEs in the past has been that they had terrible battery life (the fundamental problem of small phones). Apple seems to have addressed this completely with the 16e, as Apple advertises a 73% increase in battery from the outgoing SE, an 18% edge over the iPhone 16, and within spitting distance (4%) of the iPhone 16 Pro, which I've found to be quite good for a smaller modern phone. I think this is a huge win, and makes this phone something I'd feel more comfortable recommending to more people.

It seems this improvement comes down to a few things, but Apple calls out their new C1 cellular modem, their first in-house 5G networking chip. I hope this chip does well and it can be brought to the normal and Pro lineups ASAP, especially if it can bring notable battery improvements as well. Of note, their video made a point of saying this was the most energy efficient modem in an iPhone ever, not any phone ever, so I am now curious who still has that crown.

Looking down the spec sheet, and few things stand out:

• It's good to see the action button here.
• No camera control is fine by me as I'd rather have an iPhone without one.
• The single camera having a 48MP sensor with a 24MP default output is solid.
• It looks like the selfie camera is exactly the same as the one in the 16 and 16 Pro.
• The A18 looks to be the same CPU across the board, but the GPU count goes down as you go down the line (16 Pro has 6GB, 16 has 5GB, and 16e has 4GB).
• It only has the old photographic styles, which is not ideal.
• Wireless charging is here, but MagSafe isn't, which is surprising.
• The 60Hz display is fine, even if I'd like 90Hz to become the new baseline in all Apple products.
• No ultra wideband or Thread radios in here, although who amongst us knows what the hell those do, anyway?

I think the MagSafe omission is the most surprising omission for me, so I hope that most cases for this thing come with the magnets inside so that people can use MagSafe accessories with this phone and at least get the reliable charging that brings, even if they don't get the enhanced speeds or animations that Apple accessories like to do when attached.

Then there's the price, which my initial reaction was, "whoa, that's expensive!" I got less annoyed the more I looked at it, though, and ultimately I think it's not too bad. The iPhone SE has long offered people a cheaper way to get a new iPhone at a price point far below what the standard iPhone lines delivered. It undeniably sucks that that's gone. The new phone is in the same ballpark of price to the iPhone 16, although I would also say this is a better phone than the previous SEs have been. Those always came with horrendous battery life and pretty poor cameras, and this 16e looks like it's got great battery life and at least a very respectable camera.

I guess what I'm saying is that Apple tweaked what this product is by making it higher end, and that meant raising the price of their "cheap phone" accordingly. The question for me is how this resonates with the people who have been buying iPhone SEs for years, which I don't think is most people reading this blog, so it's hard to us to say for sure.

I also wonder what this does the mainstream iPhone 16 lineup. Does this being closer in quality to the normal iPhone make the $200 savings appealing to people who now feel like they can get everything they want for less money? Does this mean that my prediction that the "iPhone Air" people keep talking about is actually just the iPhone 17 and the notably fancier design is still going to make people who can spend the money keep buying the more expensive models?

And finally there's the naming convention: iPhone 16e. Previously, the SE lived on its own, outside the normal iPhone upgrade cycle. Nerds like us usually knew which generation it was technically a part of, but annual updates weren't a huge deal when the product name didn't tell the customer that they were buying a phone made 1, 2, or even 3 years ago. Now it's pretty clear this is a part of the iPhone 16 generation, so what's the plan going forward?

1. Will they keep the same 3 year cadence and in a few years the lineup will be iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18, and iPhone 16e?
2. Will their September updates include all 3 iPhone lines now? Is this 16e going to be replaced in just 7 months with an iPhone 17e?
3. Will they move to annual updates, but it will always be in the February to March window?

My money's on the third option, especially since this also helps them better avoid the issue mentioned about about people seeing the new iPhones and thinking the cheaper "e" model is good enough for them.

Personally, this phone was never going to be for me, so I feel a bit too disconnected from it to have strong feelings, and I think I'll mostly be interested to see how SE buyers react to it and what Apple's update strategy is for this product going forward.