Newsletter

The Apple iPhone 16e is a phone made for Apple's business goals, not consumers

The 16e is designed to make Apple Intelligence available on all Apple's phones, whether you want it or not.

Nick Broughall

Feb 21, 2025 • 13 min read

This week, everybody expected an update to the iPhone SE. Instead, Apple gave us the iPhone 16e, a slightly more affordable version of the excellent iPhone 16.

At $999, the 16e has quite the price premium over the $719 iPhone SE it's replacing. You could buy the new Motorola G15 with some change leftover with that $280 price bump.

Apple has never been in the market of low-cost devices, so the price increase itself isn't much of a surprise. Even when Apple first launched the original iPhone SE back in 2016, it wasn't about the price, it was about the SE's size.

Greg Joswiak, VP of product marketing for Apple, said back then:

“Some people simply love smaller phones. And the 4-inch phone is often their first iPhone. Some people asked and pleaded with us. So we’re calling it the iPhone SE. Our most powerful 4-inch phone ever.”

Sure, the iPhone SE ended up being the cheapest iPhone model in the roster. But the key marketing point was that it was designed to be used one-handed. While Steve Jobs famously argued that nobody would buy a larger screen device, time has proven him wrong with phones getting bigger and bigger.

Even the iPhone SE changed its philosophy, jumping from a 4-inch display to 4.7 inches with the second generation.

So with price not being the key driver of the "budget" version of the iPhone, what is the point of the iPhone 16e?

The compromises made in the 16e's hardware, such as the single camera and lack of MagSafe, become more understandable when viewed through the lens of Apple's push for widespread AI adoption.

Apple Intelligence's rollout hasn't exactly been smooth. First it was delayed, not launching with the iPhone 16 despite being one of the biggest pitches to upgrade when 2024's new models were announced.

Instead it came via an iOS software update. But even then Apple has had to make changes, rolling back updates for News after its AI summaries disturbingly made up sentences that were factually incorrect.

But with the iPhone 16e, Apple now offers Apple Intelligence across the vast majority of its iPhone, iPad and Mac lineup.

It's clear that over the past few months, Apple has been very focused on updating its lineup to support Apple Intelligence. The problem is that AI is expensive. It also requires a lot of processing power.

So in order to deliver a more "affordable" smartphone that was still capable of running Apple Intelligence, Apple had to make sacrifices that benefit its own bottom line rather than deliver what consumers actually want. Sacrifices like having a $999 starting price, and not including MagSafe charging, and sticking with a single camera.

I'm confident most people would prefer a cheaper device, a device with Magsafe or a phone with better cameras over something that's biggest selling point is the ability to create horrific AI portraits.

It's also impossible not to compare the 16e to Google's Pixel 8a. It delivers a much better balance of value to features than Apple's latest device does.

Apple's focus on its bottom line is undeniable. The question remains: how long will consumers continue to accept these compromises?

BTTR now has three dedicated newsletters, so make sure you update your settings so you can receive everything you want directly in your inbox.

Update your newsletter settings now

This week's tech news

Ask me anything!

I've added a new section to the site, where you can ask me anything. It could be a tech support question or my opinion on the latest Samsung rumours. It would be amazing to see some questions from existing members this week to include in next week's newsletter!

Ask me anything

Thanks for reading

That's it for this week's roundup for free BTTR members. BTTR is funded by its members, and if you upgrade to the paid tier (from just $10 a month), you'll get access to the rest of this week's newsletter, which includes:

A collection of the best tech news of the week from across the web (with some commentary from yours truly)
A preview of next week's product reviews

You'll also get ad-free access to the website, while supporting indie Aussie media.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this week's newsletter, or even some input on what you'd like to see in next week's roundup.

Until next week

Nick @ BTTR

BTTR is better in your inbox

Update your newsletter preferences

This week's tech news

Ask me anything!

Thanks for reading