iPhone 16e Price, Specs, Features and Best Deals

The iPhone 16e is the most affordable model in Apple’s iPhone 16 series, effectively replacing the SE lineup. It shares many features with the standard iPhone 16, including a 6.1-inch OLED display, the powerful A18 chip, and Apple Intelligence. However, it lacks the Dynamic Island and instead offers a single 48-megapixel rear camera. The iPhone 16e also features Apple’s new C1 modem for improved 5G connectivity, a 4005 mAh battery with wired charging (no MagSafe), and a solid overall performance, making it a great budget-friendly option.

Design

The iPhone 16e shares a similar design with the iPhone 16, but with a few key differences that make it slightly more compact and lighter. It measures 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8 mm and weighs 167g, 3g lighter than the iPhone 16 and 32g lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro, making it feel a bit more comfortable to hold. Like its siblings, the iPhone 16e is made of aluminum and glass, giving it a sleek and modern look. The iPhone 16e also features flat edges with rounded corners, which adds to its clean and contemporary design.

The front of the phone is protected by Ceramic Shield glass, which is tough and resistant to scratches. The iPhone 16e has an aluminum frame, and the glass back features a matte finish, which not only looks elegant but also helps reduce fingerprints and smudges, so the phone stays cleaner for longer.

The design is clean, with no noticeable camera bump—just a single camera lens that sits flush with the back. This adds to the phone’s minimalistic vibe, keeping things simple and modern.

At the front, the 5G phone has a 6.1-inch display with thin bezels surrounding it. It also features a traditional notch at the top, which houses the selfie camera. This design is similar to the iPhone 14, unlike the iPhone 16, which uses the newer Dynamic Island. While the notch might feel a bit old-fashioned compared to the newer iPhone models, it doesn’t take away from the phone’s overall look or performance.

On the right-hand side, both the iPhone 16 and 16e have the remappable Action Button. However, the iPhone 16e lacks the dedicated Camera Control button that the iPhone 16 has, making it a bit simpler in functionality.

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Additionally, the right edge holds just the large power/lock button, while the bottom edge holds the USB-C (v2.0) port, microphone, and downward-firing speaker.

The phone is available in just two colors—black and White—keeping the color options simple and understated, in line with the overall minimalist design. Furthermore, the iPhone 16e has an IP68 rating, which means it is well protected against dust and water. It can sit in up to about five feet of water for up to 30 minutes without worry.

Display

The iPhone 16e boasts a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, offering a sharp and vibrant viewing experience. It comes with a resolution of 1170 x 2532 pixels, hence, the screen delivers a pixel density of approximately 457 ppi, making text and images look crisp and detailed. The display also supports HDR10, which enhances color depth and contrast, providing rich and lifelike visuals when watching HDR content.

One of the key strengths of this display is its brightness. The iPhone 16e has a typical brightness of 800 nits, which is bright enough for most indoor scenarios. However, when you’re outside in direct sunlight, the display can peak at up to 1200 nits, ensuring good visibility even in challenging lighting conditions.

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While the display offers impressive brightness and clarity, it does come with a limitation in terms of refresh rate. Unlike higher-end models, the 16e sticks with a more standard 60Hz refresh rate, which means it won’t feel as smooth when scrolling or interacting with the interface compared to phones with 90Hz or 120Hz displays. It’s not a deal-breaker for most users, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re used to smoother experiences.

The iPhone 16e’s display also doesn’t support the Always-On display mode. It is not an LTPO panel and does not support Always-On display like the Pro models, which means you won’t have the option to keep certain information visible on the screen at all times.

Still, the combination of OLED technology, high peak brightness, and HDR support makes the iPhone 16e’s display a solid option for everyday use, offering an outstanding balance of clarity, color, and outdoor visibility.

Camera

The iPhone 16e has two camera setups: one on the rear and one at the front, offering solid performance for everyday photography. On the back, the 48-megapixel primary sensor utilizes pixel binning to combine pixels for improved light sensitivity, resulting in well-balanced photos that are sharp and detailed in most conditions.

The camera takes 48MP full-resolution photos and merges them with 12MP binned shots, creating a final 24MP image that benefits from both high resolution and better low-light performance. You can also shoot in the full 48MP resolution, but only in JPEG format, which can be useful for capturing extra detail if you plan to edit your shots later.

The 16e’s sensor is also capable of 2x optical zoom by cropping into the central part of the image, which delivers decent magnification without losing too much detail. The camera supports up to 10x digital zoom, though the image quality degrades slightly as you zoom further in. While digital zoom isn’t as impressive as optical zoom, the camera does a good job of keeping the results usable for casual shots.

In terms of image quality, the 48MP camera on the iPhone 16e stands out for its excellent dynamic range, which is particularly noticeable when capturing scenes with high contrast, like sunrises or sunsets. The colors are attractively subdued, giving the images a natural and true-to-life appearance. There’s a slight softness to the edges, but the detail is sharp and clear overall, making it great for everyday photography.

The camera also has features like dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, and panorama modes, adding to its versatility. As for video recording, the iPhone 16E offers impressive options, supporting 4K video at up to 60fps and 1080p video at up to 240fps, with HDR and OIS for steady, high-quality footage.

The 12MP selfie camera on the front, with its f/1.9 aperture, also delivers excellent performance, featuring autofocus for sharp, well-defined selfies, and it integrates seamlessly with Apple’s Face ID system. The front camera supports 4K video recording, making it perfect for high-quality video calls or content creation.

Hardware and Software

The iPhone 16e packs the same powerful A18 chip as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, offering a robust performance boost with its 6-core CPU, which includes two high-performance cores and four efficiency cores.

This configuration ensures smooth multitasking, app launches, and gaming performance. However, unlike the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16e uses a ‘binned’ version of the A18 chipset, which comes with a 4-core GPU, compared to the 5-core GPU in the standard model. This results in slightly lower graphics performance, particularly noticeable in more graphics-intensive tasks like gaming or video editing. Nonetheless, the iPhone 16e still delivers solid graphics performance for most everyday tasks.

The 16e is also the first device in Apple’s lineup to feature the custom-designed C1 modem, which Apple developed from scratch. The modem combines all the essential components, including the transceiver, baseband, air interface, controller, and software, creating a highly efficient 5G experience. The C1 modem supports sub-6GHz and C-band 5G spectrum, allowing fast and reliable connectivity on compatible networks.

The iPhone 16e comes in three storage configurations: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB, each paired with 8GB of RAM. The NVMe storage ensures fast read and write speeds, making the phone feel responsive during use, whether launching apps, editing photos, or running multiple tasks simultaneously.

Running on iOS 18.3, the iPhone 16e benefits from Apple Intelligence and an even more customizable iOS experience. The platform is clean, polished, and user-friendly, and it offers the most flexibility in personalizing your device, from lock screens to widgets. While Apple doesn’t specify the exact duration for software updates, users can expect at least four to five years of updates, ensuring longevity for the device.

Furthermore, with its 4,005 mAh battery, the iPhone 16e offers reasonable battery life and supports 20W fast charging, with Apple claiming the device can charge from 0 to 50% in just 30 minutes. However, it does not support MagSafe wireless charging, which would offer faster wireless charging speeds (up to 15W). Instead, the 16e supports regular Qi wireless charging at 7.5W, and users can opt for a MagSafe-compatible case to align with MagSafe chargers.

Regarding connectivity, the iPhone 16e supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6, which offers reliable connectivity but lacks the latest Wi-Fi 7 found in other models of the iPhone 16 series.

The device also supports satellite-based services, including Emergency SOS via Satellite, and will be compatible with T-Mobile’s future satellite-based voice and messaging features. Overall, the iPhone 16e delivers excellent performance, strong 5G connectivity, and solid battery life, making it a great choice for those seeking a capable iPhone without all the premium extras.

You may also be interested in the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

iPhone 16e Price and Availability

iPhone 16e price starts at $599 for the 128GB model, $699 for the 256GB model, and $899 for the 512GB model. In Nigeria, the iPhone 16e price starts at ₦1,400,000 for the 128GB model, ₦1,600,000 for the 256GB model, and ₦2,000,000 for the 512GB model.

You can buy the iPhone 16e in Nigeria at Belle Store Inc. The smartphone is available in stores in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Kano, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Kaduna, Calabar, Owerri, and major cities in Nigeria.