iPhone 16e

The iPhone 16e was Apple's cheap iPhone at $599, and it ended the SE name after nine years. The change was more than cosmetic. Where the SE had always been an old body with a new chip inside, the 16e used the modern iPhone shape, with a 6.1-inch screen, Face ID and no home button.

Apple also used it to try something it had been working towards for years. The C1 was the first cellular modem Apple designed itself, replacing the Qualcomm part every previous iPhone had relied on, and the company chose its cheapest phone to put it in first.

The A18 chip came from the iPhone 16, making this the first budget model able to run Apple Intelligence. The Action button arrived too, taking the place of the old ring and silent switch.

A single 48MP camera handled both ordinary photos and a 2x zoom cropped from the middle of the sensor. Apple claimed the best battery life of any 6.1-inch iPhone, helped by the efficiency of its own modem.

The price was the sting. At $599 it cost $170 more than the SE it replaced, which ended the sub-$500 new iPhone. Two colours were offered, white and black, with storage from 128GB to 512GB.

It was announced on 19 February 2025, with pre-orders from 21 February, and reached customers on 28 February 2025 at $599.