Apple has unveiled the iPhone 16e, and the rumours are all true. The SE nomenclature has been dropped and an ‘e’ has been suffixed to the 16, probably because it does get some new hardware from the 16, along with a similar footprint. Priced at $599, or Rs. 59,990 here in India, the iPhone 16e indeed uses the chassis of the iPhone 14, as widely speculated. So it gets a 6.1-inch OLED display, a bathtub notch at the top, but only gets the solitary 48MP camera at the back. It also gets the Action Button that was first introduced with the 16 Series. However, there is no Camera Control like the 16 Series. With the move to the 14’s chassis, Touch ID has also moved away from Apple’s smartphones, possibly for good this time. You instead get Face ID, like on all other Apple phones.
More importantly, it does get the A18 processor from the latest iPhones, and should have 8GB of RAM (but in typical Apple fashion, there is no confirmation on the actual RAM in the device). However given that Apple has previously said that 8GB of RAM is the bare minimum for Apple Intelligence to work, it is an easy to guess to make.
Another important highlight is the fact that this is the first Apple device to ship with an Apple-developed 5G modem. Apple has worked on developing its modems for six years now (and stuttered and struggled along the way) and it is easy to see why the iPhone 16e would serve as the perfect testing ground. Apple has relied on Qualcomm for the modems in its phones and that is on its way to changing entirely with the 17 Series that will launch later this year. There is wireless charging and an IP-rating for the first time on Apple’s most affordable device. With the mini discontinued a couple of generations ago, and the speculated 17 Air still some time away, this ties with the 16 for being the most compact Apple smartphones.
The 16e comes with 128GB of base storage, so all Apple phones now start with atleast 128GB of RAM. It only comes in two colours, black and white and bookings open on 21st Feb with the devices set to start shipping on Feb 28.
