The latest budget iPhone cuts a few corners, but is it still worth buying?

At $1000, the iPhone 16e isn’t exactly cheap, even in the smartphone world. But it is $400 less expensive than the standard iPhone 16 with which it shares an awful lot. So it’s a fundamentally different proposition than previous cut-price iPhones, including the $720 iPhone SE that Apple has now put out to pasture.

Comparing the 16e with the 16 reveals a number of small nice-to-haves were stripped away in exchange for the lower price, and it will be up to each person to decide whether they’d rather have better cameras, faster charging and a brighter display, or $400 left in their pocket.

But compared with iPhones from a few years ago, the 16e is, like the 16, practically a quantum leap.

If you’re still on the latest SE, for example, the new phone ditches the old-fashioned Home button and Lightning port, has a huge screen despite only a modest increase in physical size, features twice the storage and twice the battery life, and has a much nicer version of iOS complete with the full Apple Intelligence suite.

In fact, since Apple’s put the requisite AI hardware only in the 16 line-up and the iPhone 15 Pro, the 16e is by default the cheapest way to get access to features such as Writing Tools, Image Playground and ChatGPT integration. So, what exactly is it missing versus the 16?

The notch is back for the 16e (left), while the regular 16 features the Dynamic Island.Credit: Tim Biggs

Well, in a physical sense, the two phones are distinct. The 16e looks a little bit outdated thanks to its thicker screen borders and camera notch, replaced in the more expensive phones by the “Dynamic Island”, which is also used to serve notifications and keep track of certain widgets. Around the back of the phone, you’ll notice the 16e has only one camera module.

The 16e is also missing the camera control zone present on the other 16s, and it has no MagSafe for attaching to chargers and accessories. Yet despite that, it does support (slower) wireless charging, plus the new Action Button, which replaces the old ringer switch and can be set to perform a range of functions.

There’s only one camera on the 16e, and the phone comes only in black or white.Credit: Tim Biggs

Camera-wise, the 16e is an excellent performer despite dropping the secondary lens; the phone takes great wide shots and the digital zoom to 2x is pretty good. The lack of a dedicated ultra-wide lens means there’s no macro, but you might not miss it. You also don’t get the expanded photographic styles or advanced always-on portrait mode of the 16.

For video, you miss out on the cinematic, action and spatial modes, but the 16e still supports 4K Dolby Vision at 24 frames, or 1080p at 60, or 240fps slo-mo, all with optical image stabilisation, and as a $1000 phone it’s practically best in class.

Internally, the 16e is powered by an A18 chip that’s very similar to the one in the standard 16, just with slightly reduced graphical power. That means it’s extremely fast, AI-capable and could still handle any game I threw at it.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for the notch, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the 16e and 16 in regular use. And that’s likely the point of the 16e overall; Apple knows upgraders who might usually go for an iPhone 14 or a used 15 may be tempted by full access to Apple Intelligence and other recent iOS developments, especially when it’s around the same price as the 14 would be.

Of course, that price is $1000, and it’s worth reiterating that this is not Apple attempting to make a “cheap” phone. There’s an entire world of $600 or even $400 Android phones that are arguably better value if your needs aren’t complex or you just want a first phone for your teenager.

And while Apple would find it extremely difficult to produce a phone that upholds its quality standards at those prices, it’s still a viable option to grab a refurbished iPhone 11, which is competitive specs-wise with today’s lower-end Android phones.

The benefit of the 16e is that it takes in all the recent style and capability updates to the iPhone line (OLED screens, USB-C connectors instead of Lightning, the action button, safety features that can communicate with satellites) and bundles them with the latest processing silicon and AI hardware for $400 less than the flagship phone. Plus, it will get OS and security updates for longer.

So while on the surface the 16e may seem like it doesn’t stack up value-wise in the wider phone ecosystem, or that it cuts a lot out for a mere $400 discount, it does make sense within the walled garden of iOS. If you want a phone with Apple Intelligence, or just most of the latest hardware and software innovations from Apple, this is the cheapest way to get it. And compared with other $1000 iPhones (i.e. second-hand ones), it stacks up incredibly well.

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