Apple’s iPhone 16e is a strange duck. When one sits down and considers the specs, it’s hard to figure out where it truly fits into Apple’s lineup.
It’s apparent from the name that Apple wants you to see it as the new junior member of the iPhone 16 lineup. That’s certainly fair, and it’s arguably about time that the iPhone family got a third tier. After all, Apple’s chief rivals like Google and Samsung have had their A-series and FE-series phones for years.
Still, Apple has done a disservice to its iPhone fans by creating a somewhat Frankensteinian hybrid of the traditional iPhone SE, the iPhone 14, and the iPhone 16. There are some steps forward here, but there are also some significant steps backward.
There’s probably only one area where the iPhone 16e truly stands out. If you’re a fan of AI — or at least Apple’s take on it — then the iPhone 16e is now the most affordable way to get access to Apple Intelligence. With how much Apple has been hyping its new AI platform, it’s probably not surprising that it made this the priority for the iPhone 16e. It’s the one advantage the new model has over anything else in its price range and perhaps the only thing that makes the iPhone 16e special.
I probably shouldn’t have been too surprised that this would be the focus. After all, Apple began hyping Apple Intelligence for the iPhone 16 lineup weeks before it arrived. The iPhone 16 launched with the AI-barren iOS 18.0 release; the first Apple Intelligence features came in late October with iOS 18.1, but it wasn’t until December’s iOS 18.2 release that we got most of the set. We’re also still waiting for the next phase — a smarter Siri — which may not arrive until iOS 18.5.
Apple Intelligence and not much else
If selling an affordable iPhone with Apple Intelligence was Apple’s primary goal, the company certainly hit the mark. However, it also compromised heavily to get there. The iPhone 16e sports the display from the 2022 iPhone 14, including the notch, while lacking MagSafe charging, an ultra wideband chip, mmWave 5G support, and sporting a single camera. While that camera has improved significantly — it’s the same 48-megapixel (MP) Fusion camera used in the iPhone 16 — it’s still only a single lens and has also cut out features like sensor-shift optical image stabilization.
Many of these limitations also existed in Apple’s iPhone SE lineup, which in some ways is still the spiritual predecessor to the iPhone 16e. However, these things were tolerable in a $429 iPhone; they’re much harder to stomach at $599, especially when there was an iPhone 14 in that price slot only two days ago.
Leaving aside the most obvious pluses and minuses, like the more powerful A18 chip and more limited camera system, the iPhone 16e omits many subtle things that have been standard iPhone features for so long that we’ve come to take them for granted.
Chief among these is MagSafe, which has been available on nearly every iPhone released since late 2020. Yes, the 2022 iPhone SE 3 omitted it, but that was forgivable in an older iPhone 8-esque design that was still a holdover from the pre-MagSafe days (the 2022 iPhone SE was little more than a spec bump to bring it into the 5G era). It’s a much starker omission on a modern iPhone that matches the design of every other iPhone, all of which are MagSafe-capable.
A hidden drawback
While the lack of MagSafe is annoying, there’s another even older feature that Apple has chosen to leave out of the iPhone 16e: ultra wideband.
Apple added a U1 Ultra Wideband chip to the iPhone 11 and later brought it to the Apple Watch Series 6. In 2023, it upgraded to a second generation of the chip, colloquially called “U2” by some analysts — a name Apple avoided for reasons that should be obvious. That’s the chip now found in all iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, and it’s also expanded to the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 9, and Ultra 2.
Granted, ultra wideband isn’t something everyone uses daily, but it offers enough that you may be using it without even realizing it. Here are just a few of the things that are powered by Apple’s ultra wideband (UWB) chips:
- More efficient AirDrop: If you’ve ever tried to AirDrop something to a friend or family member using a pre-iPhone 11 model, you’ve probably noticed how it can be challenging to wade through a long list of strangers. The UWB chip solves this by detecting iPhones that are closer to you and putting them at the top of the list. This was the first feature of the U1 chip when it debuted in 2019.
- NameDrop and Proximity AirDrop: Along the same lines, the ultra wideband chips are used to help the NameDrop and AirDrop process when placing two iPhones in close proximity. That’s not to say that these features require a UWB chip — even the iPhone XS and iPhone XR can take advantage of NameDrop — but it should work faster on those with UWB capabilities.
- Precision Finding for AirTags: One of the most powerful features of Apple’s item trackers is the ability to zero in on their exact location using Apple’s Precision Finding feature. This not only lets you know that your keys are somewhere in your house but can lead you straight to the couch cushion they’re buried under. This relies on UWB, so it requires an iPhone 11 or later. It excluded the iPhone SE and now also the iPhone 16e. Users of Apple’s newest budget iPhone will be left trying to track down their AirTags by sound.
- Precision Finding for Friends and Family Members: The new “U2” chip in the 2023 and later iPhone and Apple Watch models extended the AirTags’ precision finding to other Apple devices. This feature makes it possible to precisely track down your friends or family members in a crowd, whether that’s on a wilderness adventure or in the depths of a busy shopping mall. This same feature also lets you locate your iPhone using your Apple Watch, giving you bearing and distance to find precisely where you left it.
- Car Keys: This is more of a niche feature since it’s limited to higher-end vehicles from a few brands, such as BMW, Genesis, and Mercedes, but these digital keys rely on the UWB chip to do their thing. Some vehicle models will support Car Key over NFC, but this is a much more annoying and cumbersome way to use the technology, which makes it almost pointless.
- Home Keys: Apple added the ability to store NFC-based digital keys for your front door lock in Apple Wallet in iOS 15. With iOS 18, it’s expanded this to UWB home keys, which makes a lot more sense, as you’ll be able to unlock your front door without taking your iPhone out of your pocket and tapping it on the lock. There aren’t any Home Key-compatible UWB locks on the market yet, but they’re on the way.
The lack of a UWB chip in the iPhone 16e means it will have little to no support for any of the above Apple features. NameDrop and AirDrop will still work, but not as effectively; keys will only be usable via NFC, requiring you to tap your lock to open it, and AirTags will only be able to play a sound to help you track them down.
The iPhone 16e isn’t an ideal device for families
The iPhone 16e may be part of the iPhone 16 family, but it won’t be part of my family. That’s because most of the above features are too valuable to give up.
Until recently, my teenage daughter had an iPhone 15 Pro. The precision finding feature has proven invaluable when we’ve been out together, saving the hassle of coordinating meeting up via a series of texts or phone calls. It avoids confusing chats like, “I’m over near the mannequin” … “Which mannequin” … “the one with the clothes on.” Instead, I can just hit the Find button, my daughter grants the request, and I use the distance and heading to walk directly to her location (and vice-versa if she’s trying to figure out where I am).
Sadly, my daughter recently had her iPhone stolen, so she’s had to fall back to an older iPhone 11 Pro Max. However, that 2019 model still has the U1 chip that allows for the effective use of AirDrop in a crowd and lets her precisely track down her AirTags. Ditto for my wife, who uses an iPhone 14 Pro and also habitually misplaces her iPhone around the home, making the Apple Watch-based finding feature indispensable.
You can also bet that a Home Key lock will be in my future once the UWB-equipped ones hit the market. I’ve been using an August Pro for years, which supports Bluetooth-based proximity unlocking. It works about 98% of the time but fails often enough to be annoying. Home Key with UWB will almost certainly solve that problem, as the shorter and more precise range of ultra wideband makes it far more reliable than the Bluetooth/GPS combo that August relies on to do its thing (the GPS aspect is to ensure you’ve left your neighbourhood and come back so your door doesn’t inadvertently decide to unlock before you pull out of your driveway).
When the iPhone 16e first came along, I briefly thought it could be an affordable replacement for my daughter’s stolen iPhone 15 Pro. However, I realized that it wasn’t going to cut it as soon as I looked at the specs. I’d be better off buying her an iPhone 15 for $100 more since that would have the latest UWB chip, plus a dual-camera system and 15W MagSafe charging support.
The iPhone 16e may be a very affordable way to get access to Apple Intelligence in raw dollars, but you’re paying that cost in many other ways by the features you’re giving up to get Apple’s latest AI bells and whistles. I think Apple has set the wrong priorities here, focusing far too heavily on Apple Intelligence in defiance of the other things that make the iPhone great.
Time will tell if the rest of the market agrees, but the iPhone 16e isn’t a device I’ll be purchasing for anyone in my family or even recommending to anyone in my circles. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 deliver far more value for their $100 and $200 price bumps.
