The $599 iPhone 16e is a lot, but you shouldn’t call it a budget phone. I even hesitate to call it “cheap”. As the successor to the $429 iPhone SE, it’s hard to see the 16E as a disappointment. Of course, it’s $200 less than the vanilla iPhone 16 (I argued a lot at launch), and the 16E also packs it into the latest A18 chip that supports Apple Intelligence. But it’s no longer a small phone, pushing Apple’s cheap iPhone options well beyond $500. That’s something we’re likely not to see again. (And that’s potentially terrible news for future iPhone pricing.)
The iPhone 16E has a larger 6.1-inch OLED screen, Apple’s first in-house “C1” modem, and the huge amount of new hardware, including the A18 chip mentioned above, making excuses at the price is easy. The 16E is certainly much closer to the iPhone 16 specs than the third generation SE was on the iPhone 13. However, Apple insists that this model does not require an OLED screen exactly. Reduce costs. (Apple doesn’t keep out Magsuff and fast wireless charging, which were cheaper to implement and perhaps more convenient than the larger OLED display.)
It’s also great to have an A18 chip (although one less GPU core) and full Apple Intelligence support, but my colleague Igor Bonifacic has not attracted users to these AI features. I agree. However, if you had to blame one person for the culprit for the iPhone 16E, it’s probably Apple Intelligence. After all, Apple is still fighting to prove that it’s not too far from Microsoft, Google and Openai. In any other year, Apple could have justified throwing an old chip at the 16E, but that’s not possible if it’s in the middle of an AI hype war.
It’s sad that most of the time Apple is again increasing the price of admission to walled gardens without justifying it. There’s something special about the $500 smartphone. They remind us of the Saner days of smartphones when prices were falling on mobile phones like the Moto G. Recently, you’ve been left with Android phones like pixel 8a (and potentially future pixel 9a). A $400 Samsung Galaxy A35 and a $499 Galaxy A55.
With the $500 iPhone dream going well and truly dead, it feels like Apple is setting the stage for future price increases. The $600 or $650 iPhone 17E certainly looks like a deal compared to the $850 or $900 iPhone 17. And wait for the inevitable $2,000 iPhone folding.
Of course, you can become a smart apple shopper and choose a second-hand or renovated iPhone. I recently picked up a renovated iPhone 14 Plus as a $420 early Mother’s Day gift. iPhone 14 PRO is under $500. Although these devices do not support Apple Intelligence, they argue that sticking to the second-hand market is simply a more useful form of intelligence.
This article was originally published in https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/a-599-iphone-16e-is-a-cruel-joke-200507275.html? src = rss
