iPhone 16E Review: Power at $599—but Which Features Got Cut?

When I reviewed the iPhone 16E, I was mesmerized by its simplicity and disappointed with the $ 599 price. The phone is $ 200 less than the iPhone 16, but $ 499 Pixel 9A (and Google’s cheap phone comes with two rear cameras) is $ 100 more than rivals.

The iPhone 16E has several best features of the iPhone 16, such as A18 chip, a 48-megapixel main camera, iOS 18, apple intelligence and access to apple services such as facetime, imessage and emergency SOS through satellite. What else do you want, don’t you?

Well, with other affordable phones, an agreement was made to go to that low price. This lapse tells you a lot about what the Apple has values ​​- such as Apple Intellation, for example. I have reviewed more budget phones as much as I can count, and the best people always offer far more than their low sticker value. This is a pleasant surprise when a company like Motorola, OnePlus or Google has made a balance to leave.

Let’s take a look at the features that you do not find on the iPhone 16E. And just because this Apple phone lacks a facility, it is not bad … unless it is a facility you want.

Magsafe has become a popular aspect of being the owner of an iPhone, and it is wild that it is not in iPhone 16e. Magsafe starts at the iPhone 12 in 2020 and uses magnets inside the phone to help in charging wirelessly by ensuring that in optimal position. Magnets have an additional advantage because they allow you to attach magnetic accessories to their iPhone, such as a wallet or battery pack, as well as to mount your phone, like one in a car.

The Magsafe of the iPhone 16 supports the 25-wireless charging speed. But the iPhone 16E supports only 7.5W wireless charging, not even QI2 speed of the original Qi standard – 15W.

Ultravide, Macro Camera

The iPhone 16E has a rareness in 2025: a single rear camera. But as I have said earlier, in other stories and reviews, I will actually have a good camera than two or three average status that can often be found on sub-$ 300 phones. The main camera of 16E has a 48-megapixel sensor, which has sufficient resolution to offer 2X magnification for sensor cropping-not the same as the presence of the camera, but close.

The sensor cropping cannot replace a dedicated ultravide camera, which doubles the iPhone 16 as a macro camera, making you focus on close-up topics, such as for food photos.

3 grams

The iPhone 16E weighs 167 grams, which is 3 grams lighter than the 170-Gram iPhone 16. Hey, not all lapses are bad.

Dynamic island

The iPhone 16E brings back the screen notch, a cutout on top of the screen that keeps the phone’s selfie camera and faceid technology. But it lacks a small, oval -shaped hole at the top of the display on the iPhone 16, which is a lack of dynamic island cutouts. Apple system uses screen space around the dynamic island cutouts to show alert as well as background functions, such as when playing music. Apparently a dynamic island’s 16E deficiency will not stop it from showing alert, but it is still missing from a clever software interface.

Qualcomm 5G Modem and MMWave

In his launch video, Apple proudly explained that the iPhone 16E has an in-house designed which is a 5G modem called C1. The new Apple Modem abandons the Qualcomm 5G modem used in other iPhone models. Designing your own modem allows Apple to tailor the device for your phone. The new modem helps to increase the battery life of iPhone 16E, which Apple says that is with other iPhone 16 models.

But the C1 modem has a wrinkle: it does not support 5G mmwave (or ultra-windband), which has a very fast taste of 5G that you may experience in some parts of some cities or in the stadium for an event.

Color option

When the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus were launched, one of the best aspects was that they came in colors like Altmarine, Chaiti and Pink. The iPhone 16E only comes in black or white color.

Five gpu core

One of the biggest features of iPhone 16E is that like the iPhone 16, it has an A18 chip and can run Apple Intelligence. But the chip is not the same at all. The A18 chip of the iPhone 16 has five GPU core, while 16E has only four. So, what does it really mean? Well, the good news is that the difference is not a noticeable effect on daily use with the iPhone 16E. But if you are someone who plays graphics-intensive games for hours in the end, then the iPhone 16 may have a slight increase.

Camera control button

Apple’s camera control button lapse, which also triggers visual intelligence search, makes sense, as 16E has only one camera. Those who are likely to use the camera control button are probably going to get the iPhone 16 or 16 Pro, as those models have more cameras. Apple enables 16E’s action button to start a visual intelligence search smartly.

Ultra-Vidband, Wi-Fi 7 and Thread

The iPhone 16E lacks the ultra-windband chip of Apple, which means that you will not be able to use the precise tracking feature in Find Mai for Airtags. The phone supports Wi-Fi 6 but not new 6E or 7 standards. Wi-Fi 6 speeds are good, but as Wi-Fi 7 routers come out, 16E will not be able to take advantage of fast peak speed. 16E also lacks support for thread radio and will not be able to connect directly to some smart home devices with a built-in thread border router.

Action, cinematic and spatial video mode

The iPhone 16E camera is not in the app:

• Action mode to stabilize video recording with lots of camera shake
• Cinematic mode to record videos with a faux shallow depth of the field
• Spatial mode to record “3D” videos for Vision Pro, which requires two cameras

Other obstacles and ends

The iPhone 16E has photographic styles, but not new ones that started in the iPhone 16 series. The 16E portrait mode can take photos, but like the iPhone 16, there is a lack of ability to change focus after this fact. The display of 16E is covered with ceramic shield, but is not a new, more durable version on the iPhone 16.

Although this list of lapse is long, it does not mean that iPhone 16E is a bad phone. I am eager to get my hands on one and test it soon.