As anticipated, Apple revealed the long-awaited iPhone SE refresh Tuesday. The fourth-generation system arrives three years after the final main replace to the budget-minded smartphone. This one arrives with a twist, nonetheless. The SE branding has been dropped to maintain the system extra in keeping with the corporate’s flagships. The brand new iPhone 16e begins at $599 and can start delivery February 28.
The highest-line characteristic is Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s reply to choices like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. It options small fashions that may run domestically on-device, to supply textual content summaries, write letters, and generate photographs.
The 16e is now a part of an unique group of handsets — together with the remainder of the iPhone 16 line and iPhone 15 Professional — able to operating Apple Intelligence. That’s thanks partially to the addition of an A18 processor — the identical in-house chip discovered throughout the remainder of the flagship iPhone 16 line.
Like different iPhones with Apple Intelligence, the 16e lets customers entry ChatGPT through Siri without spending a dime, with out an OpenAI account.
The brand new handset can be the primary to sport Apple’s personal in-house modem, the Apple C1. The addition arrives as the corporate continues to minimize its dependence on chipmakers like Qualcomm and Intel in favor of silicon constructed particularly for its units.
Because it shifts to a extra up to date design, the iPhone 16e ditches the Contact ID house button in favor of Face ID, whereas bringing again the iPhone X’s digicam notch. The Lightning port can be gone in favor of USB-C, as the corporate standardizes the connector throughout its {hardware} units.
The handset sports activities a 6.1-inch OLED show and “the best battery life ever on a 6.1-inch iPhone,” per Apple. That’s up from a 4.8-inch display screen on the third-generation SE, which suggests small telephone devotees simply misplaced an actual one.
Apple notes that the system delivers as much as 12 hours extra life on a cost than earlier SEs, a truth due in no small half to the six-core A18. The chip additionally sports activities a 16-core neural engine for AI processing and a four-core GPU — down from the iPhone 16’s five-core graphics processor and the 16 Professional’s six.
There’s a single rear-facing 48-megapixel digicam, with 2x zoom. The corporate is positioning this as a “two-in-one” digicam, that means you may as well shoot 24-megapixel photographs. On the entrance is Apple’s TrueDepth digicam, which permits for face unlock.
The brand new telephone arrives at a pivotal time for Apple. The corporate’s market share just lately slipped 11% in China, one in every of its most consequential markets. A number of issues are at play right here, together with the rise of Huawei and different home telephone makers, coupled with the truth that Apple Intelligence remains to be not obtainable in mainland China.
Apple has reportedly had conversations with Tencent and ByteDance in an effort to convey a localized model of its generative AI providing to China. Extra just lately, phrase has emerged that the corporate has partnered with Alibaba as its native generative AI associate.
The unique iPhone SE, which launched in 2016, has been a robust vendor for Apple in each China and India, the primary and two smartphone markets, respectively. In contrast to the annual flagship iPhone launch, the SE’s launch schedule has been irregular, with subsequent releases in 2020, 2022, and now 2025. Whereas the $599 price ticket marks a $100 premium over the past SE, the extra state-of-the-art finances handset ought to assist the corporate regain misplaced floor in these markets.
Preorders for the iPhone 16e open Friday, February 21. The system begins delivery precisely one week later.
