The new iPhone 16e costs $599. Who is it for?
Save 15% when you bundle a dbrand Prism and Grip case at https://dbrand.com/bundle
Apple iPhone 16e: https://geni.us/6rPErQ3
Apple iPhone 15 Pro: https://geni.us/aSjdqeY
MKBHD Merch: http://shop.MKBHD.com
Playlist of MKBHD Intro music: https://goo.gl/B3AWV5
Phone provided by Apple for review.
~
http://twitter.com/MKBHD
http://instagram.com/MKBHD
http://facebook.com/MKBHD
Save 15% when you bundle a dbrand Prism and Grip case at https://dbrand.com/bundle
Apple iPhone 16e: https://geni.us/6rPErQ3
Apple iPhone 15 Pro: https://geni.us/aSjdqeY
MKBHD Merch: http://shop.MKBHD.com
Playlist of MKBHD Intro music: https://goo.gl/B3AWV5
Phone provided by Apple for review.
~
http://twitter.com/MKBHD
http://instagram.com/MKBHD
http://facebook.com/MKBHD
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hi, welcome to Honesty Wireless, the world's most honest salesman here.
00:08How can I help you today?
00:10Hi.
00:11Yeah.
00:12So I'd like a cheap new iPhone, please.
00:13Cool.
00:14So, unfortunately, the iPhone SEs are out of style, but we do have iPhone 14s.
00:19I think that'd be perfect for you.
00:21I'll get you started with that, but actually, actually, I'd like a cheap small-ish iPhone
00:27with a 48-megapixel camera specifically.
00:30Okay.
00:31Well, then I can get you the iPhone 15 to get started.
00:35Perfect.
00:36Wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:37Okay, wait.
00:38Okay.
00:39So I would like a cheap, small-ish iPhone with a 48-megapixel camera, and I got to have
00:45Apple Intelligence, so okay.
00:49Nobody ever asked for that, but then I'll get you with an iPhone 15 Pro.
00:55We got those on refurb.
00:56Okay.
00:58So I have exactly $600 to spend on a cheap, small-ish iPhone.
01:03I need a 48-megapixel camera.
01:05I need Apple Intelligence.
01:06I need an OLED screen.
01:08I heard that was good, and it's got to have Face ID, and I want that action button.
01:12So I've...
01:13It's...
01:14Yeah.
01:15Okay.
01:16No.
01:17Yeah.
01:18That's still...
01:19I should...
01:20An iPhone 15 Pro should actually be good for all of your needs.
01:24And also, I hate high refresh rate.
01:26So it's got to be 60 Hertz.
01:27And MagSafe, I hate that too.
01:29Don't want that.
01:30What?
01:31Who are you?
01:32So this is the brand new 2025 iPhone 16e, and this is not a budget phone anymore.
01:45So the SEs of the past used to be definitively budget.
01:49This one is not.
01:50This phone starts at $599, and Apple storage upgrade prices are still ridiculous as usual.
01:57So the phone that I happen to be holding and testing right now costs $900.
02:02So this is not a budget phone.
02:03It happens to be the cheapest new iPhone available, but it's not cheap anymore, which makes it
02:11much harder to recommend.
02:13See the iPhone SE for the past two generations, even though it's been old body, new chip,
02:18it's been the easiest iPhone to recommend for most people, to your parents, to kids,
02:23to random people getting their first iPhone, to anyone who is randomly upgrading from an
02:27old phone.
02:28It's just the cheapest new iPhone, and it's fine.
02:31But those phones were $399 and $429.
02:36So at $599, this phone that they've made, we just look at it differently now.
02:41And so I've been using this phone for the past week, trying to figure out who I think
02:44I could actually recommend to buy it.
02:47And I don't think there is one.
02:54The secret to making the SE iPhone so cheap for years has been the part spin strategy.
03:04Basically taking parts that they've already spent the money engineering and just Frankensteining
03:08them together.
03:09And this is true again for the 16E.
03:12So this time it's mostly in the body of the iPhone 14.
03:15So you've got your aluminum build, your flat sides, your USB type C, even IP68 water resistance.
03:21But then it's a new single camera ring on the back.
03:24We'll get to that in a minute.
03:25And they've added the action button to the left side too.
03:28Up at the front, it also still appears to be straight from the iPhone 14.
03:31You've got your 6.1 inch screen with a notch and face ID.
03:36It definitely is just all bringing the cheapest iPhone up to date with a more modern look.
03:40Again, remember the last one looked like this.
03:43So this is way better.
03:44It's not the brightest display in the world.
03:46So once you get it out into direct sunlight, it's a bit less visible than some other actually
03:51modern displays.
03:52And it's also still 60 Hertz, which is still silly.
03:56But in general, it looks fine.
03:58But this is exactly where the nickel and diming begins.
04:01So you've got this whole family of iPhone 16s now, 16E, 16s, and 16 Pros.
04:07Good, better, best, if you want to call it that.
04:09And so the cheapest iPhone, they've had to take stuff out of it to get it down to this
04:14price.
04:16Some of the stuff they've taken out, not that big of a deal.
04:19Some of the stuff they've taken out, kind of harder to swallow.
04:22So here's one.
04:23The headline is that it gets the newest silicon straight from the flagship iPhone 16, the
04:27A18 chip.
04:28Great.
04:29Asterisk, this is not exactly the same silicon.
04:34This chip has one less GPU core.
04:36Pretty classic binning.
04:38Not that big of a deal.
04:39This happens all the time.
04:40We just saw the Oppo Find N5.
04:42That also has a binned Snapdragon 8 Elite with only seven cores instead of the typical
04:46eight.
04:48It's barely a footnote, honestly.
04:49You'll only really maybe notice it with intense gaming, with the few games that are actually
04:54that taxing on the GPU.
04:56But aside from that, it's really good.
04:58This formula has worked in the past and it's always ended up being, on paper, one of the
05:02most powerful phones in its price bracket.
05:05And that's still true.
05:06It still is.
05:07So a binned CPU, GPU, fine.
05:09Fine cut.
05:11Another cut, colors.
05:13There's no colors.
05:14There's only a matte black or matte white.
05:17This whole design here really is actually, it's super clean and also super boring.
05:21There's a complete lack of text anywhere on the back.
05:23And then honestly, the relatively small camera bump is a bit refreshing, honestly.
05:28But yeah, if you want any type of color on this phone, you'll need a case or a skin to
05:32get that.
05:33It's funny.
05:34The last two iPhone SEs I reviewed were both bright red, which I thought was fun.
05:39And now there's actually no more product red products anywhere in Apple's lineups.
05:46That was that program that was the red color products where the proceeds would go to help
05:50support AIDS programs.
05:51I kind of wonder what happened to that.
05:54So colors, that's another cut.
05:56Okay.
05:57No MagSafe in a 16E.
06:00That one feels a little worse.
06:03So obviously the last SE also didn't have MagSafe, but that was three years ago.
06:07And MagSafe has now become a staple of the iPhone experience, at least I thought.
06:13And this is supposed to be the cheapest version of a modern iPhone, but no, this phone has
06:18just slow first gen Qi wireless charging that maxes out at seven and a half Watts.
06:24And since there's no magnets to make sure you get alignment right, if you're just a
06:27little bit off, it can be painfully slow.
06:30This week I had it on my desk charger for like half an hour and it gained 0% while just
06:36getting warmer.
06:37I don't have to remind you of the downsides of early wireless charging.
06:39Of course, if you really, really want MagSafe on your 16E, there's nothing stopping you
06:43from getting a case.
06:45So I've got one from channel sponsor dbrand here, their grip case, and it's got the magnets
06:50in the case, like we've seen in the Android world.
06:51So perfect alignment every time.
06:55Yeah, I guess Apple didn't want SE users who only spend $600 to be able to get MagSafe
07:01accessories on the back of their phone without a case.
07:04Oh, and while we're at it, if you want to get full protection, dbrand also supports
07:07the 16E with their easy to install prism 2.0 screen protector.
07:11So you can actually save 15% if you bundle a prism with a grip case.
07:14So I'd recommend that route if you're buying both.
07:16Check them both out at dbrand.com slash bundle.
07:20Either way, the iPhone has been the phone with magnets for so long in my head that I
07:24just feel like it's super disappointing to not have them in a new $600 iPhone.
07:31But now we've got to talk about that camera.
07:32So there's a new single camera on the back.
07:35I actually think the whole good, better, best thing with the iPhones were like the cheap
07:39one has one camera, the middle one has two cameras, and the best one has three cameras.
07:43It actually feels pretty natural and like an easy to understand hierarchy.
07:48But please understand that this single camera is also not the same as the primary camera
07:53on the iPhone 16.
07:55It's 48 megapixels, just like the 16 and 16 Pro, but that's only part of the story.
07:59It is actually a much smaller sensor with inferior stabilization.
08:04So that manifests itself into just a very different look for photos.
08:10It kind of reminds me a lot actually of the A-series Pixel phones.
08:13It's not necessarily a worse look during daytime anyway.
08:16It's just different, way less shallow depth of field, a lot less natural bokeh.
08:22There's still plenty of sharpness and typical iPhone colors and saturation, but then the
08:28image definitely gets much more quickly soft as the light starts to go away because the
08:33tiny sensor is just not getting as much light.
08:35It gets less likely to freeze action and more likely to kick in night mode.
08:39Also missing the second lens means you're missing cinematic mode, spatial video, and
08:45macros.
08:46So I just think in general, if you're the type of person that cares a lot about the
08:50camera on your phone, you can see the clear, steady progression of better iPhone equals
08:55better camera.
08:56But this one, honestly, for its price range is fine.
08:59Now there's a couple other smaller things that the iPhone 16E also doesn't have.
09:04Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 support is one of them.
09:08Honestly, not a huge deal to me.
09:10It would be nice for future proofing.
09:11Other phones do have it, but a lot of people will never notice because they also will never
09:15update their router.
09:16There's also no ultra wide band, so you cannot do the precision finding with any air tags
09:21or anything like that.
09:22There also is the action button, but there is no camera control on this phone.
09:25But honestly, I don't think anyone's dying for that.
09:28But the sneaky X factor with this phone is they've actually introduced a new part.
09:32And that's Apple's first in-house designed cellular modem called C1.
09:37So there were some rumors about this.
09:39I remember from years back, Apple spent literally a billion dollars acquiring part of Intel's
09:44modem business.
09:45So fast forward six years, and this is the first iPhone that doesn't have a Qualcomm
09:50modem in it.
09:51Apple's replaced it with their own for 4G, 5G, GPS, and satellite.
09:57They've had a lot of success with the vertical integration thing lately.
10:00We just saw this with Apple Silicon replacing all the Intel chips that used to be in MacBooks.
10:06So I think the question people are wondering is, is this the Apple Silicon of modems?
10:13And I think the short answer is you probably won't really notice anything, but that's actually
10:18a good thing.
10:19Like I did speed tests in different places, didn't find anything really too dramatic.
10:23Gripping the phone differently in different ways also doesn't seem to matter at all, because
10:27as far as I can tell, the antennas aren't really changed.
10:31There is no millimeter wave 5G support with this modem yet.
10:34That's something to keep in mind, though again, a lot of people will also never notice that.
10:38What is sneaky important though is modems can be or have been really big power draws
10:43in phones.
10:44Like you've probably noticed this.
10:45If you're in an area with like kind of crappy cellular signal and your phone is like hunting
10:49and switching back and forth between 4G and 5G, that can drain your battery a lot.
10:53And the main claimed improvement of the C1 really is actually efficiency, which I love
10:58to hear.
10:59It's funny.
11:00SE iPhones of the past have always also been small because they're using older bodies.
11:04So small body, but modern processor that draws a lot of power.
11:08So battery life was just not a strong suit of those phones.
11:12But this 16E is a modern size, big phone.
11:15And then it has this new, more efficient modem that is actually physically smaller and makes
11:20room for a physically larger battery.
11:22So battery life on this phone has been really good in my week of using it, literally on
11:26par with my 16 Pro.
11:28It wireless charges way slower, but it's really good battery.
11:32So two main thoughts here on the C1, one, if, if Apple's been working on this for years,
11:37it actually makes sense that they would debut it in a relatively low stakes, lower volume
11:43phone like the 16E.
11:44You know, iron out any kinks or figure out if there's any issues with it.
11:47And then when it's a big deal in the iPhone 17 series later this year, should be all set.
11:52But also two, maybe this is like the other missing piece that will help enable Apple
11:59to make this like super thin iPhone air everyone's talking about.
12:03Apple's always wanted to make super thin stuff, but battery life always suffers when you do
12:07that.
12:08So maybe this alongside that silicon carbide battery tech could enable them to make an
12:14iPhone that's super thin whose battery doesn't suck.
12:18Maybe we'll see, but overall the iPhone 16E, the more I think about this phone, the more
12:23it feels like it exists specifically to push you up to an iPhone 16 in Apple's classic
12:30price ladder.
12:31You get enticed by this base price, but then the next rung on the ladder is only a small
12:35jump away.
12:36And it's sitting there with all of its shiny extras like MagSafe and an ultra wide camera.
12:41Here's a problem though.
12:42This phone fits the price ladder, sure, but it doesn't fit the price tag.
12:48Like let's be real.
12:49Everything that's wrong with this phone is the price.
12:52Now I'm sure tariffs, the R and D of this new C1 chip, the extra RAM to support Apple
13:00intelligence, inflation, maybe even like all these things to some extent contribute to
13:04the higher price of this phone.
13:07Maybe Apple also plans on increasing the entire iPhone 17 lineup price too.
13:12But this is the same identity crisis that the Pixel A series just had.
13:15I don't know if you remember that, but that budget phone came out, but the slightly older,
13:20more premium phone was still a better deal for most people because it was on a slight
13:25discount already.
13:26So you could get a refurbished iPhone 15 Pro for $600 today.
13:32I could argue that every single person considering the 16E should start by considering the 15
13:39Pro.
13:41Just everything about it is better.
13:43The screen, it's way brighter, more visible.
13:45It's a higher refresh rate, triple cameras instead of one camera, same battery life.
13:51It's only one year older.
13:52It's got Apple intelligence.
13:54It's just, you should just start with that phone instead.
13:56And I actually feel like I know what Apple's answer would be if I asked them who should
13:59buy this phone.
14:00Because if you go to their site for the 16E, the built-in compare tool only shows comparisons
14:06versus iPhone 12 and 12 mini and iPhone 11 and the older SEs.
14:12So basically if you're somebody with one of these older phones, then this would be a perfectly
14:16fine upgrade for you.
14:17You get that more modern design, the new chip, Apple intelligence, and you're set.
14:22And they'd be right.
14:23It's not a bad phone for those people at all.
14:26It's just the new price does not match the phone.
14:29What?
14:31What?
14:33Who are you?