The 'E' in iPhone 16E Might As Well Stand for Expensive
Apple has unveiled its newest phone, the iPhone 16E, and promptly removed its budget iPhone SE (2022) from its online store. While that suggests Apple sees its new phone as a follow-up to its only affordable option, its $600 price tag means it's more of a discounted premium handset than a true budget pick.
But I hold out hope. I'm an iPhone SE truther: I believe the affordable phone space is too valuable for Apple to give up. The iPhone 16E inhabits a mid-range role that had been missing for a couple key reasons, but at some point, the company will triumphantly bring back the true inheritor of the iPhone SE throne, if only to stop Samsung from eating its lunch.
Samsung's been dominating the market for budget phones for years with models like the Galaxy A15 5G, a sub-$200 phone that was the fourth best-selling phone in the US last year. Though Apple phone fans have at least had the $430 iPhone SE which was the most affordable way to access iOS and Apple services. The SE also suited users who wanted a no-frills iPhone that they could use for years. I can't imagine that the company wants to abandon that constituency.
Check out: iPhone 16E Preorder Deals: How to Save on Apple's New Budget Model
Even if Apple suggests the iPhone 16E is its budget option, the phone is serving a different purpose: being the most affordable phone with premium features. Aside from the performance of its A18 chip, it also has Apple Intelligence (and the unspecified amount of RAM needed to run it), a higher-resolution 48-megapixel rear camera and a 6.1-inch OLED display that covers the full front of the phone. It also supports satellite services for Apple's Emergency SOS and iMessage texting.
All of these features likely justify the jump in price, but they also appeal to a different customer segment than buyers of the iPhone SE line. Who is the iPhone 16E for? Likely consumers who wanted those premium features and are willing to forego some for a "discount." There's a place for the iPhone 16E, but it's not at the very bottom of Apple's phone lineup.
It was painfully obvious that Apple wasn't interested in updating the design on its later budget phones, with the 2022 iPhone SE carrying the same look (massive chin and top bars, home button) as the iPhone 6, which launched in 2014. There's presumably an economic advantage to pumping out the same old displays and body designs year after year. To its credit, Apple did endeavor to upgrade the hardware to ensure the later iPhone SE models could handle all new iOS features until gracefully aging out of software updates five to seven years later.
But since Apple took the 2022 iPhone SE off its online store, it seems like the company wants to make a clean break from that phone. Hopefully, it's just to retire that specific aging design and use the iPhone 16E as a stopgap until the company figures out the best way forward. Ultimately, there are a few features, like Apple Intelligence and Emergency SOS, that require pricier components and chips to work. For now, it's not clear if Apple could make a cheaper phone with those features, which it's including in every new phone it releases.
Perhaps Apple decides these are standard on its future phones, and if so, the iPhone SE line could be put on ice until these components become cheap enough to get its phones back down to budget prices. Of course, it's always possible that Apple decides that a price point lower than the iPhone 6E's $600 is unattainable.
I don't think we've seen the last of the iPhone SE, or at least, I hold out hope. For all the phone nerds like me who want the latest and greatest, there are plenty others who just want a device that works with features they can depend on, and so far, Apple's given it to them at reasonable prices. I hope it becomes so again soon.
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