It may not look radically different, but Apple’s latest addition to the iPhone lineup is giving us what we need

The iPhone 16e is an honest phone, and I love it for that.

It’s not setting out to be what it’s not. It’s not full of lame promises. It just delivers on what it sets out to be.

This phone is not about specs and data sheets. It’s all about using it!

The iPhone 16e just sets out to be a phone, and that’s what some folks seem to have overlooked. The problem with the tech world is that there is a lot of snobbery and pretension in it. Many reviewers want to complicate things for the sake of it.

That bias is what’s made me want to sit down and write this piece and just try to defend the iPhone 16e and point out what makes it such a winner.

The iPhone 16e – obviously simple

You don’t need to be a genius to realise what Apple were setting out to achieve with the 16e. The fact that it only comes in two colours and three storage configs lets you know from the get-go that this phone is not going to overcomplicate things.

It represents a return to a minimal, simple design language. The iPhone 16e possibly marks the start of a new trend in tech. It’s a trend that isn’t only applicable to phones but to all areas of tech.

Cars, for instance, were until recently devoid of physical buttons. Everything was touch screen. But we’ve started to realise the folly of that, and sometimes a physical button will win the day. How much easier is it to twist a knob to set the temperature in your car than phaff about with annoying menus and sliders on a screen? The car makers have listened to the feedback, and now things are changing.

Well, it’s the same with iPhones.

Although smartphones and iPhones in particular seem to have been with us forever, in reality, it’s less than 20 years. In those two decades, style, fashion and technology has changed at a pace. We’ve all been excited to see how much can be crammed into a phone – how much can it do.

Now, whilst that is all very impressive, what has happened over time is that we’ve lost sight of what it is we genuinely do with our phones and what we need our phones to do.

I don’t know about you, but many days of the week, my phone is nothing more than a glorified iPod! I use it more for listening to music and podcasts than I do for anything else.

I get the feeling we have reached maximum smartphone and the inevitable bloat that comes with and now we are gradually yearning for a simpler, less complicated way of life. Complications have become boring. I think we’ve reached saturation point.

It’s time to be honest with yourself – what do you really need from your phone?

The elephant in the room

That elephant would be the price. Is £599 too much? Can a phone that costs that much be called a budget phone?

Well, let’s unpack that, shall we?

Sure, you could go and find cheaper Android alternatives out there, but my guess is you’d soon start to notice the difference. There is a quality about any Apple product that is undeniable. They have a feeling that they are built to last – and they do. Apple’s biggest enemy is itself! The Macs and iPhones they build last and last, so convincing us that it’s time to change is one of the biggest challenges they face.

Although Google and Samsung have now caught up, Apple was the first to offer a five or six-year support cycle. With Apple, you get quality and longevity. You also have peace of mind knowing that if you have a problem, you have physical stores you can walk into and get advice. The infrastructure that comes with buying an Apple product is unrivalled and is all part of the price tag we pay.

Back to the price. To me, it looks about right, bearing in mind all the invisible bonuses that I’ve just mentioned that are part and parcel of buying an iPhone.

Also, bear in mind that hardly anyone will go and buy this phone outright. The majority of iPhone 16e’s will find their way into our hands via mobile provider packages, buying it through Apple with zero per cent finance or through employers handing them out. Make no mistake, the 16e is heaven-sent for corporate use.

And as we know, once these phones are with us, they will be used for years to come. Possibly more so than the pro phones, whose buyers are more concerned about the latest and greatest tech developments, 16e owners are probably not that fussed. For many, familiarity is more important than constantly changing phones.

If you end up getting six, seven or eight years of trouble-free, software-supported use out of a phone that costs you £599, I reckon that sounds pretty decent value.

Display wars

The iPhone only has a 60Hz panel, and that’s a crime on a phone in 2025, is the argument that is often trotted out by the haters.

But here’s the point. This display is a 6.1-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display. It’s a quality display. I’d rather use an iPhone with a crisp, sharp, colour-accurate 60Hz refresh rate, reliable display, than a cheaper alternative with its choppy, stuttery, jittery 120Hz panel.

And this goes back to the point I made earlier that this phone isn’t about spec sheets. I’m not for one moment suggesting that the 16e is only going to be used by Luddites – that is so far from the truth. But it is also true that a vast majority of iPhone 16e owners either won’t give a hoot about refresh rates or couldn’t care less about it.

At best, I’d say the difference is marginal anyway between 60Hz and 120Hz displays on smaller devices (depending on how you use your phone). You don’t need a high refresh rate display for Apple Maps, online browsing or listening to a podcast!

When I look at my 16 Pro Max alongside my 16e, am I horrified by the display? Nope, of course I’m not. Apple’s display technology has always been one of the best, and that holds on the iPhone 16e.

And whilst I’m talking displays, that dovetails neatly into the battery life on the 16e.

Long live the battery

Higher refresh rate panels are harder on the battery; that’s a fact.

Have you ever noticed your phone getting warmer when the refresh rate is cranked up? That’s because the phone is working harder to feed those pixels, and as a result, it will drain your battery.

One of the hidden wins of the 16e is another hidden gem – the C1 modem. I know it’s pretty damned hard to get excited over a modem, and it borders on the extremely nerdy, but the C1 modem represents something special.

It’s another move towards Apple coming completely in-house and becoming responsible for making every component that ends up inside our iPhones. From OS to chip to modem. Pretty soon, everything in an iPhone will be made by Apple, and that’s huge.

In simple terms, it means that all the components can be optimised to run the way that Apple envisioned. For us, the results are quicker phones, with much better power efficiency, reliability and battery life. And don’t forget – this is the C1 modem, in other words, it’s their first go at making and using one. This is as bad as it will ever be, and it’s already pretty damned special.

Using the 16e over the past couple of months, it’s the battery life, call quality and improved connectivity that have been the biggest surprises. The battery will easily last a day and a half, and I can now make calls from known local dead spots on the 16e. It’s seriously impressive.

Again, you see, it’s all about using the 16e.

This, of course, has important implications moving forward. We’re rumoured to be getting the iPhone Air later this year. With it only being around 5mm thick, we’ve all been scratching our heads as to how Apple would tackle battery life. Well, we now partly have the answer. With the C1 or possibly C2 modem by then optimised to extract every drop of efficiency out of the battery, we can maybe breathe easy. We can have a thin slice of cake and eat it too!

There is also some Apple Intelligence magic coming that is going to monitor your battery as well, which makes me think the Air may shock us with how good it is from a battery perspective. Time will tell, I guess.

Camera shy

Then we have the single-camera shenanigans to deal with!

Citing the price argument, should a phone costing £599 in its most basic form have only a single camera? Well, the iPhone Air will cost a lot more, and that will only have one camera, so we’d best get used to it.

In my mind, we come back to the point of proven quality. I’d prefer only one good camera than three that are average and will rarely be used. The iPhone 16e packs a 48MP Fusion 2‑in‑1 camera system with an f1.6 26mm lens, which will give you either 24MP or 48MP images. You get an equally comprehensive video specs too, that can even record slo mo in 1080p at 120fps or 240fps.

Not bad for a joke camera, right?

You get lighting effects, Photographic Styles, Night Mode, Burst Mode and Apple’s Photonic Engine. The main reason for carrying a camera with you is having the ability to capture & make memories – and this camera is more than capable of that. It’s the equivalent of an old point-and-shoot Polaroid camera.

My 16 Pro Max has an ultra-wide camera, and the main camera has a 24mm, 28mm and 35mm option and also a 5x zoom lens. There are so many settings to play around with, including the Camera Control button, that it can be hard to make all the choices before shooting – and that’s coming from someone who’s in love with photography!

The single camera also means that the phone is pretty much flat, sits on a desk with virtually no wobble without a case and is much, much lighter to carry around without all that glass in the corner that we’ve become accustomed to.

The design of this phone, while not revolutionary, is a tidy new take on how an iPhone can look. It feels great in the hand as well. It’s one of those phones you want to fiddle with. It fits in neatly with that throwback feeling I mentioned earlier on – tech simplified without sacrificing quality.

Before moving on from the camera, though, there’s one last point that’s worth making. If you said to a chef that his or her oven cooks great food, it would be kind of absurd, right? I mean, the chef has a fair bit to do with it, right?

Well, the same is true of the camera on the 16e. It’s not all about the camera; a lot of it is to do with who’s holding it. Unless you take care to set up the frame well, look at the lighting and get the composition right, the photo will still look average – I don’t care what you’re shooting on. Get the basics right, and virtually any camera can get you a decent result.

I rest my case – the iPhone 16e has a plenty good enough camera.

What’s missing?

It doesn’t have MagSafe, which may or may not be a dealbreaker for you. It’s surprising how quickly I switch from using MagSafe on my Pro Max to not missing it on the 16e.

If I’m using it in the car, it’s normally in the centre console charging on a USB cable, out of sight, and because the battery life is so good, you don’t find yourself reaching for a charger that often anyway.

The iPhone 16e supports basic Qi wireless charging, which, while not quick, if you throw it onto charge overnight, will trickle charge perfectly well. And if you are hooked on MagSafe charging, then you can always buy a case.

It doesn’t have Ultra Wideband, which means you don’t get Precision Finding in Find My. But be honest with me, when was the last time you used that feature anyway?

It doesn’t have either the Camera Control button or the Dynamic Island, but as a 16 Pro Max user, I promise you, neither of those is a major loss. When I’m using the Pro Max, I do use the Camera Control button, but only to launch the camera – but let’s face it, there are so many ways to launch the camera you won’t miss that function.

Dynamic Island is useful, but not a must-have. It’s useful for carpark sessions and quickly getting to the media you’re playing, but that’s kind of it. The notch is back, and the bezels are ever so slightly thicker, but it kind of suits the character of this phone. It harks back to the much-loved 13 mini of a few years back.

But you do get Face ID and the Action Button, both of which are way more useful and convenient if you ask me.

Be smart

For those saying that for similar money, you could buy an iPhone 15, I’d say this.

For the C1 modem alone, it’s worth buying the newer phone. The 16e is the start of a new future, so why not be a part of it?

The 16e is a bit of a parts bin of previous models, but if that helps in keeping the price down and also helps to pave the way forward by testing the odd new feature like the modem, then I think the e series of phones will have found its spot.

When Apple surprisingly named it the iPhone 16e, who’s to say that the ‘e’ doesn’t stand for Essential? The iPhone 16 Essential has a certain ring to it, no?

My videos about the 16e must have had around 750 comments on them, and not a single person who has used it has had a negative comment about it. Those reviewers who dunked on it, I promise you, will have spent virtually no time using it.

The joy of the iPhone 16e comes from using it. It’s all too easy to hate on something and make cheap, throwaway comments about something new. Appreciating something takes effort.

Do yourself a favour – give the iPhone 16e a go. I’d be surprised if you wanted to hand it back.