iPhone 16E: All of the Options You Do not Get for $599

Apple’s iPhone 16E is now out there to preorder, beginning at $599. The brand new telephone comes out Friday, Feb. 28, and maybe its greatest promoting level is the sub-$600 beginning worth, which makes it $200 lower than the iPhone 16. The iPhone 16E has most of the costlier machine’s greatest options, like an A18 chip, a 48-megapixel important digital camera, iOS 18, Apple Intelligence and entry to Apple companies like Facetime, iMessage and Emergency SOS through Satellite tv for pc.

What extra may you need, proper?

Properly, as with different reasonably priced telephones, compromises have been made to get to that cheaper price. These omissions inform you numerous about what Apple values — like Apple Intelligence, for instance. I’ve reviewed extra funds telephones than I can rely, and one of the best ones at all times supply way over simply their low sticker worth. It is a nice shock when an organization like Motorola, OnePlus or Google nails the steadiness of what to maintain and what to omit. So how did Apple do?

I will save my ideas till I can take a look at and overview the iPhone 16E. For now, although, let’s check out the options you aren’t getting on the iPhone 16E.

Watch this: The iPhone 16E Has Arrived

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MagSafe and Qi2

MagSafe has turn into a preferred side of being an iPhone proprietor, and it is wild that the iPhone 16E does not have it. MagSafe debuted in 2020 on the iPhone 12 and makes use of magnets contained in the telephone to assist it wirelessly cost by making certain it is within the optimum place. The magnets have an additional advantage as a result of they allow you to connect magnetic equipment to your iPhone, like a pockets or battery pack, in addition to safe your telephone to mounts, like one in a automobile.

The iPhone 16’s MagSafe helps 25-watt wi-fi charging speeds. However the iPhone 16E solely helps 7.5W wi-fi charging, the unique Qi customary — not even Qi2 speeds of 15W.

Ultrawide, macro digital camera

The iPhone 16E has one thing of a rarity in 2025: a single rear digital camera. However as I’ve mentioned earlier than, in different tales and opinions, I would moderately have one actually good digital camera than the 2 or three mediocre ones that may typically be discovered on sub-$300 telephones. The 16E’s important digital camera has a 48-megapixel sensor, which has sufficient decision for sensor cropping to supply a 2x magnification — not fairly the identical as having a second digital camera, however shut.

Sensor cropping cannot substitute having a devoted ultrawide digital camera, which on the iPhone 16 doubles as a macro digital camera, letting you concentrate on close-up topics, like for meals images.

3 grams

The iPhone 16E weighs 167 grams, making it 3 grams lighter than the 170-gram iPhone 16. Hey, not all omissions are dangerous.

Dynamic Island

The iPhone 16E brings again the display notch, a cutout on the prime of the display that homes the telephone’s selfie digital camera and FaceID know-how. Nevertheless it lacks the Dynamic Island cutout, which is a smaller, oval-shaped gap on the prime of the show on the iPhone 16. Apple makes use of the display area across the Dynamic Island cutout to point out system alerts in addition to background duties, like when music is taking part in. Clearly the 16E’s lack of a Dynamic Island will not stop it from exhibiting alerts, but it surely’s nonetheless lacking out on a intelligent software program interface.

Qualcomm 5G modem and mmWave

In its launch video, Apple proudly identified that the iPhone 16E has an in-house designed 5G modem known as C1. The brand new Apple modem forgoes the Qualcomm 5G modems utilized in different iPhone fashions. Designing its personal modem permits Apple to tailor the machine for its telephones. The brand new modem helps prolong the iPhone 16E’s battery life, which Apple says is longer than it’s with different iPhone 16 fashions.

However the C1 modem has one wrinkle: It does not assist 5G mmWave (or ultra-wideband), which is the very quick taste of 5G that you just may expertise in components of some cities or at a stadium for an occasion.

Shade choices

When the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus launched, the most effective elements was that they got here in colours like ultramarine, teal and pink. The iPhone 16E is available in solely black or white.

5 GPU cores

One of many iPhone 16E’s greatest options is that, just like the iPhone 16, it has the A18 chip and might run Apple Intelligence. However the chip is not precisely the identical. The iPhone 16’s A18 chip has 5 GPU cores, whereas the 16E’s has solely 4. So, what does that imply precisely? Properly, the excellent news is that the distinction probably will not have a noticeable impact on every day use with the iPhone 16E. However in the event you’re somebody who performs graphics-intensive video games for hours on finish, the iPhone 16 may have a slight edge.

Digicam Management button

Apple’s omission of the Digicam Management button, which additionally triggers Visible Intelligence searches, is smart, because the 16E has solely a single digital camera. These people who find themselves probably to make use of a Digicam Management button are most likely going to get an iPhone 16 or 16 Professional, as a result of these fashions have extra cameras. Apple additionally neatly enabled the 16E’s Motion button to start out a Visible Intelligence search.

Extremely-wideband, Wi-Fi 7 and Thread

The iPhone 16E lacks Apple’s ultra-wideband chip, that means you will not have the ability to use the Precision Monitoring characteristic in Discover My for AirTags. The telephone helps Wi-Fi 6 however not the newer 6E or 7 requirements. Wi-Fi 6 speeds are good, however as extra Wi-Fi 7 routers come out, the 16E will not have the ability to benefit from quicker peak speeds. The 16E additionally lacks assist for Thread radio and will not have the ability to immediately connect with some good house gadgets with a built-in Thread border router.

Motion, Cinematic and Spatial video modes

The iPhone 16E’s Digicam app does not have:

• Motion mode for stabilizing video recordings with numerous digital camera shake
• Cinematic mode for recording movies with a pretend shallow depth of subject
• Spatial mode for recording “3D” movies for the Imaginative and prescient Professional, which wants two cameras

Different odds and ends

The iPhone 16E has Photographic Kinds, however not the newer ones that debuted on the iPhone 16 sequence. The 16E can take Portrait mode images, but it surely lacks the flexibility to vary focus after the actual fact like on the iPhone 16. The 16E’s show is roofed with Ceramic Defend, however not the newer, extra sturdy model that is on the iPhone 16.

Although this record of omissions is lengthy, that does not imply the iPhone 16E is a foul telephone. I sit up for getting my arms on one and testing it quickly.