Apple, as the only maker of iOS phones out there, is responsible for providing entry-level models. Apple, a company that sees itself as a maker of premium products, has a hard time doing that. And the Apple iPhone 16e is a really bad entry-level model.
Before we get to its qualities as a phone, however, we have to address the elephant in the room – its price. At $600/€700/£600/₹60,000, this is well above the $400/$430 starting price of the last two generations of iPhone SE, even if it has double the storage (it’s still 128GB, not a massive amount).
For a whopping 39% of voters in last week’s poll, the price makes the 16e an absolute non-starter. And that percentage is if we don’t exclude the people who just aren’t interested in any iPhone – without them, the “it’s too pricey” vote would score even higher.
Apple iPhone 16e
But if you do want an iPhone, going for a vanilla iPhone 15 or 16 seems to be the preferred option. Some in the comments mentioned that the iPhone 17 will finally offer 120Hz refresh rate on a vanilla iPhone and AoD. That’s the expectation for this generation. It should also be noted that once the 17 series arrives, the iPhone 16 should drop to $700, taking the place where the iPhone 15 sits today. There isn’t much between those two, but the 16 supports Apple Intelligence (if you care about that), faster MagSafe and better battery life (15:42h Active use score vs. 13:20h).
People in the comments were lamenting the loss of the iPhone mini – once upon a time, there was a belief that the fourth iPhone SE would be based on the mini instead of adopting an iPhone 14-like design. Even the third SE was smaller and lighter than the iPhone 16e, except it is now gone, leaving fans of small iPhones with nowhere to go. That was a problem only for a minority (just over 2% of the vote), but still.
As for the phone itself, selling a device with a 60Hz display and a single camera in 2025 is an iffy proposition at any price – at $600 it’s just confusing. Now if that price were to drop, the 16e could be worth a second look. For now, though, it looks like most people will be skipping it in favor of other devices.
