Apple iPhone 16e Review: When You Just Need an iPhone

Apple's modern-day iPhone SE gets a new name, an updated design, a brand-new chipset, and a first-of-its-kind modem. While these updates may seem significant, remember that this device essentially serves as a replacement for the iPhone SE, and ultimately, your decision to purchase one hinges on its price.

On the Android side of things, picking a phone is an extremely complicated decision. Unless you are brand-loyal, there are tonnes of features to be accounted for before one arrives at a decision. And this is because they come in all shapes and sizes, with varying hardware configurations and even different software experiences, even though they are all based on Google’s Android. On the iOS side of things, well… not so much.

If your old trusty

Apple iPhone 16e primary camera samples (tap images to expand)

Photos from the primary camera pack a surprising amount of detail when capturing images in daylight, but I did notice some slightly dithered textures upon zooming into these high-resolution images (24 megapixels by default), which I found a bit weird.

The capture frame of the 1X primary camera also feels a bit constrained and not wide enough. Apple should have gone with a wider lens, given that this phone has no dedicated ultra-wide camera either.

Apple iPhone 16e low-light camera samples (tap images to expand)

For some reason, the low-light photos aren’t the best I have seen at this price point. The camera often struggles to capture low-light images despite the bright f/1.6 aperture and OIS, taking twice as long to snap a photo in slightly dimmer lighting conditions. This results in flatter textures, which is quite the contrast to the daylight shots. The iPhone 16e also tends to overdo HDR in low light, resulting in an over-processed look, which only adds to its texture problem.

Apple iPhone 16e 2X (digital zoom) camera samples (tap images to expand)

The 2X magnification is just a digital crop of the primary camera. These photos appear a bit soft and naturally pack in less detail. They are usable provided you don’t pixel peep, but it’s nowhere near as good as a smartphone with a dedicated 2X or 3X zoom camera. In low light, the 2X zoom captures show flat textures, appear soft and don’t pack much detail overall.

Apple iPhone 16e primary Portrait mode camera samples (tap to expand images)

Portrait photos using the primary camera come out well in perfectly lit shooting scenarios. Introduce some backlight, and the edge detection goes for a toss, or the entire image appears soft or flat. The same goes for low-light shooting, where the camera even fails to focus properly in this mode.

Apple iPhone 16e low-light selfie camera sample (tap image to expand)

It’s business as usual for the selfie camera. Decent photos with accurate skin tones in daylight, but the system takes a U-turn in low light, with mostly unusable images, as can be seen from the camera sample above.

Video quality is more Android-like, in the sense that even at 4K 30 fps, it’s not as smooth as one would expect from a modern-day iPhone 15 or 16. Thankfully, the colours and dynamic range are accurate, but the overall clarity is lacking. Low-light video quality is blurry and quite noisy, and it appears soft in general.

Apple iPhone 16e Battery: Impressive

Battery capacity – 4,005mAh
Wired charging – Around 18-20W
Wireless charging – 7.5W
Charger in box – No

Apple’s marketing strategy for the iPhone 16e heavily emphasises battery life. Apple states that a lot of this is down to the use of a larger battery (because there’s just one camera). Apple also states that its C1 modem is much more efficient than the one used in an iPhone 15. All of the above, combined with the A18 processor and a standard 60Hz refresh-rate display, should deliver some impressive battery figures.

Everyone’s smartphone usage differs and, so it’s hard to give an estimate of battery life. However, there was a day when I covered a conference shooting about 70 1080p video clips (about 30-60 seconds long) along with 5G uploads for 70 percent of them, and my phone had drained to 50 percent by noon, which is very good. More so for a compact smartphone!

In our HD video loop test, which keeps running a video file in a loop until the battery runs out, the iPhone 16e managed 21 hours and 50 minutes, which isn’t the best we have seen at this price point. Even Google’s Pixel 9, with a (not so efficient) Tensor G4 inside, managed a slightly better 25 hours and 6 minutes. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Plus we tested managed a much better 27 hours and 20 minutes.

The best way to charge an iPhone 16e

Apple has not released any official figures, so I plugged it into a 100W GaN charger (which also supports PD) to see what this compact phone is capable of. The iPhone 16e delivered an impressive 58 percent charge in 30 minutes but then slowed down, managing 86 percent in 60 minutes. The device completed the charge in 1 hour and 34 minutes, which is still faster than the iPhone 16 Plus we tested earlier, but disappointingly slow compared to most Android devices available at this price point.

Apple iPhone 16e Verdict

Reviewing the iPhone 16e indeed got me thinking about what an iPhone experience really stands for today.

Do you need a ProMotion display?
Do you need the latest processor?
Do you need fast wireless charging?
Do you need a capable set of cameras?
And do you need MagSafe and all of its accessories?

Indeed, your personal requirements will see you picking or ignoring the iPhone 16e. In my case, I could tolerate the 60Hz display, the slower charging and everything else, but the camera was indeed the deal breaker for me, especially considering this phone’s price tag.

The elephant in the room is iPhone 15 (Review). It sells at around the same price as iPhone 16e during festive sales and, so it makes little sense to pick up an iPhone 16e unless you prioritise battery life and nothing else.

And that leaves the iPhone 16e for the “I just need an iPhone crowd”. Those who aren’t bothered by AI are fine with decent camera quality. These are users who aren’t aware, haven’t experienced and don’t care about MagSafe and Dynamic Island.

Those who are still using an iPhone SE (2020/2022), the iPhone 7 series or an iPhone 8 series and are on a tight budget, can also comfortably upgrade to the 16e. They will be more than happy to embrace features like USB-C charging, 5G connectivity and Car Crash Detection. They will also experience better battery life and slightly better cameras versus what they have been using on their older devices.

Everyone else, including Android users switching over to iOS for the first time, can just reach out for an iPhone 15 or a 15 Plus.