Apple's New iPhone 16E in 8 Photos

This week's introduction of the iPhone 16E finally answered questions that had been building for months.

The new phone was always going to be the inexpensive, entry-level device to replace the iPhone SE, but which features would be reserved for the flagship iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models? Apple has been developing an in-house cellular modem for years -- would this be its first appearance? And would the phone keep the same smaller physical size that's been the hallmark of the iPhone SE and iPhone Mini lines?

As we wait for shipping units to hit the market on Feb. 28, we can now see some of the decisions Apple made in designing the new "budget iPhone."

See also: The iPhone 16E puts to rest the dream of small phones, and why this could be the new inside track for Apple Intelligence adoption.

I know people whose eyes lit up at the prospect of Apple releasing a new, smaller iPhone. That's why one big surprise of the iPhone 16E is the screen -- it's actually big. It shares the same 6.1-inch size as the iPhone 16, a letdown for folks with smaller hands or who don't want to resort to the reachability feature to use it one-handed. Technically, the iPhone 16E screen is a tad smaller in resolution, and the overall height of the phone is three-hundredths of an inch shorter than its sibling.

On the positive side, the screen is still HDR, shares the same True Tone and wide color (P3) range and is covered with a Ceramic Shield front to protect against knocks and tumbles.

The processors in iPhones have become important again. Granted, they've always been important, but usually to show the incremental gains in speed and battery life compared with previous years' models.

Then Apple created a processor gap in its lineup: iPhones that can run Apple Intelligence and those that can't. AI features are computationally intensive, and Apple's approach is to do most of that work on-device instead of in the cloud (which also consumes more resources), necessitating more-powerful chips, like the A18 that runs the iPhone 16E.

That's also the same processor found in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, but with a little less oomph: The iPhone 16E chip has four GPU cores compared with five on the other models.

As if to reiterate that mobile phones are as much cameras as communicators, the new iPhone includes just one rear camera. Remember when the idea of festooning a phone with multiple cameras seemed like a weird design decision? The iPhone 16E now looks out of place with its single lens compared with most everything else on the market.

However, that one camera isn't a budget part. It can capture high-resolution photos at 48 megapixels, just like the main cameras on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro -- though by default the images look to be 24-megapixel unless you specify shooting at 48 megapixels, the same approach the other models take.

A cellular phone needs a modem to send and receive data, make calls, and otherwise be more than a handheld video player. Until the iPhone 16E, this essential but unheralded component was sourced from outside Apple.

But Apple prefers to "own the full stack," or have control over as many pieces as possible. Not just for control, but because Apple can design them to cater to its devices. The new C1 chip in the iPhone 16E is Apple's first modem for the iPhone, and the company touts it as being more power efficient than the Qualcomm chips found in every other current iPhone.

We'll see how well it performs once we get hands-on time with it. One notable hardware difference is that it supports 5G network speeds below 6GHz -- the most pervasive flavor of 5G -- but not millimeter wave, which offers much faster speeds but struggles over distances and through objects.

When it was introduced in the iPhone 15 Pro, the Action button was a premium new top-tier feature -- the first new hardware button in years. Now it can be found on every iPhone 16 series model.

What's different with the iPhone 16E is the ability to use the Action button to invoke Visual Intelligence. On the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models, that's the job of the separate Camera Control button (among other abilities). Visual Intelligence is added to the list of tasks; I suspect (or at least hope) that will be included in an upcoming iOS update for other iPhone models with Action buttons.

The iPhone 16E completes the iPhone transition to USB-C, ditching the Lightning connector. However, like the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the data throughput is only at USB 2 speeds of up to 480Mbps. To get the much faster 10Gbps USB 3 speeds, you'll need to move up to the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

For most people, this isn't a big deal. If you're capturing lots of 4K video, though, expect long waits to pull the footage from the phone either via iCloud syncing, wireless AirDrop sharing or the USB-C port via cable to an external card or drive.

One way Apple is apparently shaving the production costs of the iPhone 16E is by omitting one of the most useful iPhone features of the past several years. Though you can charge it wirelessly by setting it on a Qi-enabled charger, it doesn't include the magnetized MagSafe hardware that makes it possible to fasten all sorts of accessories, from wireless power banks to handy charging mounts. Oh, and the Qi charging is the original version, not the newer Qi2 that allows for fast charging the iPhone.