It’s official: the home button is dead. Apple has launched the iPhone 16E with an updated design and, with it, killed off the iPhone’s classic Touch ID interface. Instead, the 16E moves to a Face ID-enabled notch and adds the latest A18 chip and support for Apple Intelligence under the surface.
The 16E is a kind of iPhone SE successor based on the design of 2022’s iPhone 14, meaning it fits the front-facing cameras required for Face ID (and selfies) into a notch that cuts down from the top of the phone, rather than the Dynamic Island design found on the company’s latest flagship phones.
With a 6.1-inch OLED display, the 16E is now about the same size as Apple’s standard iPhone 16, meaning the company no longer offers a phone smaller than its default model — at least not until the rumored iPhone 17 Air arrives.
The 16E includes the customizable Action button, but not the new Camera Control you’ll find on the 16 series. It does swap its Lightning port for USB-C, now a requirement for the phone to be sold in the EU.
On the inside there’s an A18 chipset, the same chip as the iPhone 16. That makes the 16E powerful enough to run Apple Intelligence, the suite of AI tools that includes notification summaries. Even the non-Pro iPhone 15 can’t do that, so the 16E is one of the most capable iPhones out there. Apple has previously confirmed that 8GB RAM was the minimum to get Apple Intelligence support in the iPhone 16 series, so it’s likely that the 16E also boasts at least that much memory. It’s also been bumped to a baseline of 128GB of storage, meaning there’s no longer a 64GB iPhone.
There’s only a single 48-megapixel rear camera; the lack of additional cameras is the biggest downgrade compared to the company’s other handsets. With support for wireless charging and a water-resistant IP rating, there’s little you have to give up elsewhere.
The iPhone 16E is also the first iPhone to include a modem developed by Apple itself. The company has spent years trying to move away from modems developed by Qualcomm, and we’re finally seeing the fruits of that labor. The big questions now are how well the new modem performs and whether Apple is ready to roll out its own connectivity components in the iPhone 17 line later this year.
The new iPhone 16E is available to preorder tomorrow starting at $599, which is a significant price hike from the $429 2022 iPhone SE — though you get a lot more storage in the base model and a much more modern design. The 16E ships on February 28th.
