Apple’s aim with the brand new iPhone 16E appears to be the identical as with the iPhone SE: supply an excellent, low cost smartphone to entice price-sensitive customers to both depart Android or improve from a a lot older iPhone. From what we’ve seen up to now, the corporate appears to have succeeded — however perhaps a bit too effectively: there’s not an entire lot of area differentiating the 16E from the pricier iPhone 16. That’s one thing Apple should treatment the subsequent time its flagship cellphone updates come round if it needs that mannequin to face out.
There was once a big hole between the iPhone SE and the usual mannequin iPhone. The SE had an previous design with thick bezels and a house button. It had a small display screen, a slower processor, and fewer storage. In the event you purchased the SE, you knew you weren’t getting the newest and best.
The iPhone 16E seems much more like a flagship cellphone at a price range worth. It has an OLED show, FaceID, Apple’s newest processor, and even the customizable Motion Button — an ideal characteristic for nerding issues up that was as soon as unique to iPhone 15 Professional telephones. It solely has a single digicam, nevertheless it’s been upgraded to a 48-megapixel affair that Apple payments as a “2-in-1 digicam” with a 2x zoom.
In the meantime, the iPhone 16 has a second rear digicam, the Digicam Seize button, MagSafe, and successfully the identical OLED show, albeit barely brighter and with the sleeker Dynamic Island design. Is all of that price paying $200 extra?
When the iPhone 17 comes round, Apple goes to wish to do extra to present patrons a transparent motive to decide on the usual mannequin cellphone. And the obvious improve is for Apple to present it a 120Hz ProMotion show — the carrot it’s dangled for years to upsell individuals to a Professional cellphone.
It makes rather a lot much less sense for ProMotion to be restricted to these telephones now, when so many rivals are placing high-refresh screens of their extra inexpensive fashions. The Google Pixel 8A and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE every have 120Hz shows and beat Apple’s telephones on worth; Google’s does particularly so — at $499, it’s $100 cheaper than the iPhone 16E.
There are many causes to desire a 120Hz show. The primary and most blatant is that it makes scrolling a lot smoother — you may really learn a webpage whilst you swipe by means of it, one thing that’s tougher on a jittery 60Hz show. ProMotion additionally allows Apple’s always-on mode, which helps you to repeatedly see the time and widgets. That’s essential for the display screen to activate mechanically while you come close to it whereas it’s in StandBy mode, a characteristic that turns the iPhone into an ambient good show when it’s on a charger. It really works on common iPhones, too, however you must faucet the display screen to make it seem.
In the meantime, the Professional cellphone fashions produce other options that ought to maintain them in a category of their very own. That features a telephoto digicam, titanium construct, and extra succesful chip.
Apple appears to be completely conscious that it must make this modification, at the very least if the rumors are true. The corporate is predicted to place high-refresh fee OLEDs in all of its flagships this yr, from the iPhone 17 Professional all the way down to the common iPhone 17 and alleged iPhone 17 Air. That’ll give customers a superb motive to skip the 16E. But when it doesn’t, the 16E would possibly appear like much more of a deal come fall.
