Apple’s objective with the new iPhone 16E appears to be the identical as with the iPhone SE: supply an excellent, low-cost smartphone to entice price-sensitive buyers to both depart Android or improve from a a lot older iPhone. From what we’ve seen thus far, the corporate appears to have succeeded — however possibly a little bit too nicely: there’s not a complete lot of area differentiating the 16E from the pricier iPhone 16. That’s one thing Apple should treatment the following time its flagship telephone updates come round if it desires that mannequin to face out.
There was once a big hole between the iPhone SE and the usual mannequin iPhone. The SE had an outdated design with thick bezels and a house button.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 most recent and best.
The iPhone 16E appears much more like a flagship telephone at a price range value. It has an OLED show, FaceID, Apple’s newest processor, and even the customizable Motion Button — a good characteristic for nerding issues up that was as soon as unique to iPhone 15 Professional telephones. It solely has a single digital camera, however it’s been upgraded to a 48-megapixel affair that Apple payments as a “2-in-1 digital camera” with a 2x zoom.
In the meantime, the iPhone 16 has a second rear digital camera, the Digital camera 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 provide consumers a transparent purpose to decide on the usual mannequin telephone. And the obvious improve is for Apple to provide it a 120Hz ProMotion show — the carrot it’s dangled for years to upsell folks to a Professional telephone.
It makes loads much less sense for ProMotion to be restricted to these telephones now, when so many rivals are placing high-refresh screens of their extra reasonably priced fashions. The Google Pixel 8A and the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE every have 120Hz shows and beat Apple’s telephones on value; 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 when you swipe by way of it, one thing that’s more durable on a jittery 60Hz show. ProMotion additionally permits Apple’s always-on mode, which helps you to constantly see the time and widgets. That’s obligatory for the display screen to activate mechanically if you come close to it whereas it’s in StandBy mode, a characteristic that turns the iPhone into an ambient sensible show when it’s on a charger. It really works on common iPhones, too, however you need to faucet the display screen to make it seem.
In the meantime, the Professional telephone fashions produce other options that ought to preserve them in a category of their very own. That features a telephoto digital camera, titanium construct, and extra succesful chip.
Apple appears to be completely conscious that it must make this alteration, not less than 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 buyers a great purpose to skip the 16E. But when it doesn’t, the 16E would possibly seem like much more of a deal come fall.