By
Dan Moren
February 19, 2025 8:28 AM PT
Don’t call it an iPhone SE. Apple on Wednesday launched the new iPhone 16e, a more affordable member of the iPhone 16 family that starts at $599, and offers a customizable Action button, Face ID, and support for Apple Intelligence. It’s also, perhaps most notably, the first iPhone to use a modem chip created by Apple, which the company has dubbed C1.
Powered by the same A18 processor that underpins the iPhone 16 (albeit with 4 GPU cores, one fewer than the 16’s version), the 16e also has the same 6.1″ Super XDR display and the same aluminum frame. It also supports satellite connectivity, has Apple’s Ceramic Shield front glass, and a USB-C port supporting up to USB-2 speeds, all like the iPhone 16 line.
But the 16e is also unlike the iPhone 16 in some key ways: for one the 16e has a notch, rather than the Dynamic Island; for another, it features a “2-in-1” 48MP camera system that sports just a single lens, which the Camera app will allow you to use as the same “2x” crop that other iPhones offer. It also lacks the MagSafe charging option of other more recent iPhones, supporting only wireless Qi charging up to 7.5 watts.
The 16e starts with 128GB of storage for $599, with 256GB and 512GB upgrades for $699 and $899 respectively, and is available in white or black. Preorders start at 5am Pacific this Friday, February 21, and will be in stores on February 28.
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors. You can find him on Mastodon at @[email protected] or reach him by email at [email protected]. His latest novel, the sci-fi spy thriller The Armageddon Protocol, is out now.]
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