As anticipated, Apple revealed the long-awaited iPhone SE refresh Tuesday. The fourth era gadget arrives three years after the final main replace to the budget-minded smartphone. This one arrives with a twist, nevertheless. The SE branding has been dropped to maintain the gadget extra in keeping with the corporate’s flagships. The brand new iPhone 16e begins at $599 and can start delivery February 28.
Apple Intelligence is the iPhone maker’s reply to choices like OpenAI ChatGPT and Google Gemini. It options small fashions that may run domestically on-device, to supply textual content summaries, write letters, and generate photos.
The 16e is now a part of an unique group — together with the remainder of the iPhone 16 line and iPhone 15 Professional — of handsets able to operating Apple Intelligence. That’s thanks partially to the addition of an A18 processor — the identical in-house chip discovered throughout the flagship iPhone 16 line.
Like the remainder of the iPhone line with Apple Intelligence, the 16e lets customers entry ChatGPT by way of Siri without spending a dime, with out an OpenAI account.
The brand new handset can also 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 gadgets.
Because it shifts to a extra up to date design, the iPhone 16e ditches the Contact ID dwelling button in favor of Face ID, whereas bringing again the iPhone X’s digital camera notch. The Lightning port can also be gone in favor of USB-C, as the corporate standardizes the connector throughout its {hardware} gadgets.
The handset sports activities a 6.1-inch OLED show and “the perfect 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 implies small telephone devotees simply misplaced an actual one. Apple notes that the gadget delivers as much as 12 hours extra life on a cost than earlier SEs, a reality due in no small half to the six-core A18.
There’s a single rear-facing 48-megapixel digital camera, with 2x zoom. The corporate is positioning this as a “two-in-one” digital camera, that means you may also shoot 24-megapixel photos. On the entrance is Apple’s TrueDepth digital camera, which permits for face unlock.
The brand new telephone arrives at a pivotal time for Apple. The corporate’s market share not too long ago slipped 11% in China, one among 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 continues to be not accessible in mainland China.
Apple has reportedly had conversations with Tencent and ByteDance in an effort to carry a localized model its generative AI providing to China. Extra not too long ago, phrase has emerged that the corporate has partnered with Alibaba as its native generative AI companion.
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. Not like 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 final SE, the extra state-of-the-art funds handset ought to assist the corporate regain misplaced floor in these markets.
Pre-orders for the handset open Friday, February 21. The gadget begins delivery precisely one week later.
