iPhone 16e Has Been Released. Would You Buy?

iPhone 16e is here

White or Black
A18 chip
C1 (Apple made) cellular modem
6.1" OLED with a notch
Single 48mp camera
Action Button
Supports Apple Intelligence, including Visual Intelligence despite the lack of the camera button
Aluminum body
$999, 128GB to start

❌ no magsafe

https://www.apple.com/au/iphone-16e/

Poll Options

  • 23
    Yes
  • 323
    No
  • 10
    Maybe
  • 9
    This sucks

Comments

    • Yeah it’s thought provoker for Apple, they want you to spend on pro

      • I can definitely see that for their usual lineup customers who "need" the latest & greatest as only a few hundred to upgrade from base 16 to Pro.
        But there is no way anyone looking at the SE/mid range models around $750 end up spending $1799.

        As @mskeggs says - This is the uncle-aunty phone that doesn't want to spend too much and only upgrade when they need to.
        Those that want to stick to Apple iOS in this price range will probably keep their current for another generation.

        Just don't see an actual market case for it with such little differentiation in price. Hopefully they will price correct downwards in 6 months however unlikely with Apple.

    • A worse overall phone for only $200-300 off flagship entry

      This is the main question.

    • Well, the iPhone 16 list price is precisely $400 more.

      Sure, you can get $150-200 of that on sale, but we'll almost certainly similar offers on the iPhone 16e once the launch fever dies down.

      I'll just watch and wait, and when it gets below $900, I'll grab one.

  • +4

    I hope these 16e sales be dreadful, which may lead Apple to bring back the Mini's

    • +2

      An iPhone 16 mini with dynamic island would be an instabuy for me

  • +2

    Doesn’t seem great for the price.
    I may have considered it with some price drops if I hadn’t purchased the iPhone 15 last year

  • I was considering it, but of all things the lack of 0.5x zoom turned out to be the deal-breaker. I've found myself using it surprisingly often and not having it would be really annoying.

  • No. Lack of .5 camera, no wifi 6e support, no magsafe, and finally no UWB for airtags/airpods. Would rather fork out an additional $250 ish for a iphone 16 when they're on sale.

    • exactly hwhat they want you to do….

  • Yeah nah

  • I'm okay with my 13 mini.

  • +4

    I’ll hang onto my 6S for a bit longer I think… $999 is crazy

    • 6S a ? Salute 🫡

      • +2

        Yep. 10 years coming up this year. No iOS 16 is the worst bit about it

    • +1

      10th anniversary of your 6s coming up this year, incredible sustainability effort on your part

    • How many batteries / screens have you gone through in ten years?

      • 5 or 6 batteries I think. All done myself.

        No screens, but have a few small cracks (not over the LCD fortunately)

  • whats the best value iphone atm, even second hand? i have a iphone X thats dying

    • SE 2022, considering only 2.5 years old and recent deal for $259

      • Not with those bezels 🤢

        • What would you suggest for ~$250 for value?

          • @upsidedownlemon: I'm currently using a G84 which is in that price bracket and I highly recommend it. My previous phone was an Edge 30 Ultra which costs 2-3x as much and besides the camera being quite noticeably worse, this phone is just as good as a daily driver. Obviously it's worse specs-wise but I don't notice it in my day-to-day use.

            Edit: if you meant iPhone only, I'd prefer a used 11 or 12 for $250-300, if you look around you'll find a good condition one at that price.

  • No fingerprint sensor in 2025, enough said.

    • -1

      Apple's face unlock is very good though. It's not that big a thing compared to androids which abandoned the advanced face unlock hardware to get a less annoying hole in the screen.

      • There's a big difference between very good and very safe…

  • +3

    Apparently I’m very much counter to the masses, but I actually think it’s alright?

    $999 vs $1399 makes the full fat iPhone 16 40% more expensive (or the e 30% cheaper) by cutting some of the frippery but keeping the basics. Seems ok to me.

    Obviously if you already have a 16 (or 15) there’s no point, but for someone coming from an older model (I have a 12 mini) it’s either equal or better almost entirely across the board and saves some money and gets (claims) better battery life.

    Granted that’s rrp and not factoring sales, but if this is as unpopular as commentary would have us believe, fair to say there’ll be sales on this too.

    Just seems bizarre to me that in a cost of living crisis they’re getting crucified for offering a (significantly) cheaper model. Sure it could be cheaper, but a) what couldn’t? And b) when has Apple ever actually been ‘cheap’?

    • -1

      I think the general consensus is you get a much better phone at 1k with more features.

      • +3

        If comparing with Android I think that's completely fair, but also nothing new? If you wanted the most cutting edge features and/or the cheapest price…iPhone has never been the answer.

        Within the Apple ecosystem though, maybe the 14 is the comparison? But you'd more or less be trading Performance, Software support and Battery Life for Magsafe…to me that's a no brainer.

        Maybe I'm just getting old. I switched back to the iPhone four years ago precisely because I felt everything had stagnated, most of the new 'features' were marketing gimmicks at best and I just wanted a phone that worked, vaguely respected my privacy (I'm looking at you Google Play Services), and didn't lag to hell. 4 years later my 12 mini is going pretty good, but the battery is suffering (was mediocre to begin with), by comparison I was lucky to get 18 months out of my Samsung's before they drove me nuts with instability/lag, and even my new ish company phone S24 is extremely poor (though likely due to the corporate policy BS).

    • I agree 100%
      I'm on an iphone 12 atm, and this will probably be my next phone!

    • +2

      I think it will be a lot more popular once deals start popping out for it. We're hitting the point where we're getting $150-200 off the iPhone 16 in sales here and there, when the 16e pops up for $800-850 it'll be a great phone. I bought a refurb 13 pro for about $700 a year ago, I would have taken this instead if it was an option.

      I'm still tempted if I can get $400 for my 13 pro, although I'm waiting for the camera reviews first.

    • +1

      When all leaks and reports suggested it was the SE4 until 24-48hrs prior to official media release, it seems quite lacklustre.
      Simply because this phone is overpriced to what it had been rumoured for a long time - an iPhone SE4 at approximately $750-800AUD ($450-499USD).
      As such, it's seen as 25-30% more expensive and needing an approximate 20% drop in price to $800 for people to buy (as per multiple comments in this thread).

      I worry if it sells poorly compared to other SE, it's more likely they will drop the range completely then realise it's overpriced.

  • +1

    Beware A18 chip has less core compare to iPhone 16, not same chip.

    Apple doing magic to raise price for the next iPhone and by trying to justify this look like good deal. Lol

    Just got iPhone 16 or even S25 will do better.

    • Beware A18 chip has less core compare to iPhone 16, not same chip.

      it's 1 less GPU core so the only difference matters for gaming.

  • iPhone 16

    does this mean there will be "e" edition every year?

  • Stop encouraging apple to manufacture more ewaste

    • Apple products last a lot longer than Android, who are making more ewaste since their products typically don't get as much use in the long run.

  • Apple phones aren’t that great but man, the android fanboys are just so rabid….

  • A small 8gb 1 camera granny/uncle phone should be $700-800 at most. The biggest issue with this phone is the processor is too expensive, too good. Uncle Bob isn't likely to dig into the AI features.

    I wonder how big the overlap in the Venn diagram is between people that want high powered AI SoC and a small one camera system.

    • It’s not really a high powered SoC to Apple, it would’ve been throw away otherwise due to the defective GPU core.

  • Apple intelligence lol
    From what I've seen it should be renamed to apple unintelligence. Doesn't do much right

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