Apple has scrapped the iPhone SE (aka Special Edition) and replaced it with the iPhone 16e (aka.. 16 Edition? or maybe.. Eeh?). At the $600 price point, latest-gen iPhones now range from $600 to $1000 in starting price in $200 increments. But what exactly do you lose by saving $200 with the iPhone 16e versus the iPhone 16? Let’s find out!
Camera
The most noticeable thing on the outside is probably the camera. It’s clear Apple is positioning the e, regular, and Pro iPhones to have 1, 2, or 3 cameras, as there is only a single lens on the 16e, with no Ultrawide lens, which means no option to do a 0.5x zoom.
In addition, the optical image stabilization is not “sensor-shift”, which presumably means it works less well.
Besides the lens, the biggest loss here is the lack of the Camera Control Button that lets you quickly access the camera, change settings, and take pictures or video.
For Photo Features, the iPhone 16e is missing Focus control, macro photography, spatial photos, and while there are photographic styles, you don’t get the latest and greatest generation.
On the video side, the 16e lacks cinematic mode, action mode, spatial video, and macro video recording. In addition, QuickTake videos, which are those you record in photo mode without switching to video mode, don’t go up to 4K at 60 fps in Dolby Vision HDR, which requires that missing camera button to do on the iPhone 16. Instead the resolution depends on your photo aspect ratio, but it’ll be closer to 1080p at 30fps.
Screen
Moving to the front of the phone, the screen is the next obvious difference. There’s no dynamic island, as we’re back to the notch experience.
The screen’s brightness is also reduced to 800 nits vs 1000 nits typically and 1200 vs 1600 in HDR mode. There’s no longer a 2000 nits peak outdoor brightness, nor is the minimum brightness 1 nit.
Finally, the ceramic shield front is not the “latest generation”, which means it’s probably not quite as durable.
Color Options
The last difference on the outside is that the iPhone 16e comes in only White or Black colors. You won’t get the color-infused glass back in Ultramarine, Teal or Pink color options that the iPhone 16 provides.
Chip
Going inside the phone, the iPhone 16e is powered by the same A18 chip that the iPhone 16 has, but with 1 less GPU core. That means up to 20% less graphics performance.
Battery and Charging
One area the iPhone 16e is actually better than the 16 is battery life, which is enhanced by 12-20% due to the 16e using Apple’s in-house C1 modem. The 16e vs the 16 is rated at 26 vs 22 hours of video playback, 21 vs 18 hours streaming video, and 90 vs 80 hours of audio.
When it comes to charging though, the 16e supports only Qi wireless charging up to 7.5 watts and does not have Qi2 up to 15 watts or MagSafe up to 25 watts support, so wireless charging will be slower. And you won’t be able to clamp magnetic doodads to the back of your phone.
Cellular and Wireless
When it comes to connectivity, the first major difference here is the iPhone 16e only has Wifi 6 instead of Wifi 7, so wireless networking speeds will be slower.
Another potentially bigger miss here for some is the lack of an Ultra Wideband chip, which means no Precision Finding support for friends or AirTags.
There’s also no Thread networking support to communicate directly with smart home devices that use it. However, unless you know you need this, it probably isn’t a big deal.
The 16e’s C1 modem was built in-house, versus the Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem in the iPhone 16.
Besides the battery efficiency, there are some functional differences, including no DC-HSDPA (or Dual-Cell High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) support, which “allows the simultaneous use of two 5 MHz carriers to increase data transfer rates in mobile networks.” While this can help download speeds, it’s a 3G or 3.5G network technology, so it may not be relevant to you depending on where you live.”
One perk is that the GPS system includes NavIC support, otherwise known as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System used in India, so it may not be relevant for you.
Size and Weight
The iPhone 16e is a tiny bit smaller at .03 inches or 1.1mm shorter, 0.1mm less wide, and with the same depth, but .12 ounces or 3 grams lighter. Overall, not a huge difference.
$200 Gets You…
So in summary, the $200 savings you get by going with the iPhone 16e instead of the iPhone 16 means you miss out on:
- The Ultrawide camera, Camera Control button, and some photo and video features
- The Dynamic Island
- A brighter and darker screen with a tougher coating
- Additional color options
- 1 extra GPU core for increased graphics performance
- Less battery life
- Faster MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging
- Wifi 7
- An Ultrawideband chip for Precision Finding
- Thread networking
- DC-HSDPA cellular network support
- Not missing NavIC GPS support in India
- And finally a slightly bigger and heavier phone
That’s actually quite a bit of stuff for $200, but you can decide if its worth it for you. Personally, I can’t settle for a 60Hz display on a phone, so until Apple brings 120Hz ProMotion to the iPhone 17 next year (hopefully), I’m stuck with paying more for Pro.
