The rumours were true. The “newest member of the family” teased by Apple chief executive Tim Cook last week was indeed a major makeover of the entry-level iPhone line, formerly known as “SE”.
The iPhone 16e, unveiled this morning, has a 6.1-inch display (thelast SE was a “thumbable” 4.7-inches) and gets Apple’s A18 silicon – the chip featured in the full-blood iPhone 16. That means the 16e has the grunt for Apple Intelligence.
The single camera on the rear of the 16e’s glass and aluminium case is bumped up to 48 megapixels, with up to 2X optical zoom.
As expected, the SE’s physical home button has disappeared and Face ID is added.
Apple says battery life with video playback is a chunky 26 hours, or more than twice the SE (the iPhone 16 is 27 hours, the 16 Pro offers up to 33 hours). The 16e includes the firm’s first inhouse-designed 5G modem, which it says has yielded big efficiency gains.
The colour options are literally a black and white choice.
The 16e will sell from $1199 with 128 gigabytes of storage, with 256GB ($1399) and 500GB ($1799) options.
That’s low cost in the Apple universe where the 16 Pro Max starts at $2399 and runs to $3199, but ahead of the now phased-out SE’s $899.
Preorders begin on Saturday (February 22) with availability from next Friday (February 28).
Apple’s total revenue rose 4% to US$124.3 billion in its fourth quarter, reported on January 31, but iPhone sales eased 1% in the period amid a softer China market. An Apple Intelligence-capable, big-screen entery-level model should pep things up again.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
