Putting the “e” in iPhone 16e

Apple Intelligence for the masses

However Apple chooses to classify its latest iPhone as, it’s definitely not a “budget” phone. But, thanks to the burgeoning billionaire-aspiring lifestyle that the vast middle-class in India is constantly fed via social media, it is a perfectly acceptable entry point into the world of Apple Intelligence.

The iPhone 16e falls somewhere in no man's land between the iPhone 16 in terms of specs and the iPhone XR in terms of looks. Retaining the current-gen A18 processor was critical to bake Apple Intelligence into the core of the iPhone 16e and also, retaining the notch from 2018 was essential to keep the price down. Well, one of the many trade-offs Apple has had to make to make this the cheapest iPhone you can buy now.

Dig deeper into the spec sheet though and the biggest change on the iPhone 16e is something you cannot even see. But its payoff is one of the headlining features of this new device. Apple has been working behind the scenes for the last several years building its own modem to negate the reliance on third-party suppliers for this vital component. The resulting C1 modem has been deployed for the very first time in any Apple device via the 16e and its most noticeable effect is extended battery life. Bob Borchers, Vice President – Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple says “16e provides a stepchange in terms of battery performance, especially if you’re coming from an older iPhone or another platform. It really is a huge step forward. C1 is a critical component to that because the modem is one of the significant users of power in the system and we're super excited that it uses 25% less power for the same use cases than the previous generation. It's the most power efficient modem we've ever put into an iPhone. All of that comes from the fact that our history and our philosophy in developing Apple silicon is performance-per-watt. It is about delivering the capabilities you need at the lowest power level possible. And so our innovation with C1, whether it was on the silicon side, the software side, the firmware side… all of that came together to deliver the power efficiency in the system, which ultimately to a consumer results in better battery life.” The claimed battery life on the 16e sees a significant four hour jump over even the more expensive iPhone 16! While it misses out on the MagSafe compatibility, it retains Qi wireless charging, albeit at a slightly lower capacity. Again, one of the compromises that had to be made for the greater good.

If the notch is the most obvious differentiating factor of the 16e from the rest of the iPhone 16 family, flip it around and the single lens camera will have you either raise your eyebrows in disbelief or squint with cynicism. The last time we saw a single-lens camera on an iPhone, it was 2022 with the iPhone SE. The good news though is that the single camera uses the Apple’s Fusion engine to “act” like two different cameras with clever cropping that still yields great looking 48MP photos.

Curious to know how similar it is to the primary 48MP camera on the iPhone 16, Bob Borchers explains, “it shares the Fusion capability in 48MP, but otherwise the rest of the system has been built specifically for 16e. So for example, we've got a 1.4 micron, quad pixel in 16e versus a 2.0 micron in the 16. But really what we've done is optimized the entire camera system to be able to capture life's memories in as vibrant and complete a way as possible. We've got features throughout the system, whether it's night mode or being able to capture Dolby Vision etc. So there are a number of similarities that way and the output qualities you see are phenomenal, but the actual module itself is bespoke for 16e.” All this means that you do lose out on macro or ultrawide capabilities, but you will be able to optically crop into the main 48MP image for a 2x zoomed-in lossless photo and the results are actually just as good as the iPhone 16.

Besides, as with every other iPhone that exists or came before it, the beauty lies in its simplicity, speed and colour accuracy. Point and shoot just works and with the A18 SoC, now you can even access Photographic Styles to a limited degree for lending a signature look to your shots. Clean Up, which is the AI-enabled object removal tool works brilliantly too and just like on the other 16 series phones, you get to play around in Image Playground to make whimsical or whacky versions of yourself or add a bit of originality to your messages using Genmoji.

Over the years, iPhones had gathered notoriety for being hard, expensive or even impossible to repair under certain circumstances and Apple has been steadily rolling out measures to mitigate this in recent times. For the 16e, which primarily is looking at finding home in middle class pockets, this could be a bone of contention if not addressed. Sure, you can slap on a case or even a tempered glass on the rear and front, but what about the battery dying prematurely? “The thing I would start out with is that the best repair is the one you don't need to make. So when you look at the durability of 16e, the aerospace grade aluminum enclosure, the Ceramic Shield that's covering the 6.1 inch OLED display, the back glass and its strength… we're focusing first and foremost on having as few repairs as possible. In the case, though, where you do need a repair, we are using many of the same techniques and capabilities that we have introduced in the rest of the iPhone 16 family. The back glass is individually repairable and when you look at the battery, the battery adhesive has an electrostatic component to it so that if you apply a voltage to it, it'll release, making battery repair much more straightforward. So we're focused on durability as a prevention to repairs” beams a very confident Bob. Most importantly, it means that you won’t have to replace your iPhone 16e just to get a new battery!

For the huge demographic of the iPhone-eyeing base in India, the biggest news though will be the imminent arrival of regional language support. 10 regional languages from Gujarati, Marathi to multiple south-indian languages are being baked into iOS18.4 when it drops in April 2025. A quick demo in Telugu highlighted Apple’s typical fastidious attention to detail. Everything from maintaining the Hindu calendar to orientation of language in case of Urdu has been taken into account. A large part of the regional diaspora will be covered within the realm of these 10 languages as Bob confirms, “This will give us roughly 90% coverage within India and give the people a natural and authentic representation, which is critical. And they're beautifully represented in this fusion local style together with our iconic SF font family. So that's at the system level. At the Apple Intelligence level, there are a number of factors that come in to deliver Apple intelligence in an authentic and a complete way. And it's everything from cultural nuances in terms of how we create Genmoji, to masala chai or paneer looking correct, or even in terms of how Siri works with dialects. So that's another effort that's just as important, but separate from what we do at the OS level. So we're excited to bring localized English for India and be able to give that access to our customers starting in early April. And then equally, but in a different way, bring those system languages to India as well.” So early adopters who have switched their iPhone’s language to US English just to access Apple Intelligence will be able to revert back to Indian English starting April. But using some of those AI features in regional languages is still some time away.

It’s evident that Apple is taking all the right steps in the Indian market with a serious show of intent. One could reasonably infer that the 16e is indeed engineered for markets like India and other BRIC nations, but at the same time, American or European customers wouldn’t be averse to the idea of a more affordable iPhone without the camera, GPU or display capabilities of a military drone. So then what does the “e” in the iPhone 16e stand for? Of course, we had to put the man in a spot but Bob Borchers valiantly defends it by saying, “When naming this, first and foremost, we wanted to make it clear that this was part of the iPhone 16 family, right? It shares the core capabilities and essential functions of the iPhone 16 flagship line. You've got the A18 chip, you've got incredible battery life, you've got the 48MP Fusion sensor, you've got the Action button, you've got USB-C, so it's very much part of that family. And then the other thing we wanted to do is make it clear that this is a product that is exciting, is elegant and it's got all the essential capabilities. It's really meant for everyone. We have had E in our naming vernacular before and it just felt like this fusion of 16 together with that really represented what we wanted to in the products. So the name as a whole is really, I think helping people understand how it all kind of comes together and where it sits in the line.”

That’s a lot of words alluding to the actual answer but it’s safe to assume that ‘Essential’ is what the iPhone 16e represents. In terms of price, it could’ve been Rs. 10,000 lower to hit that magical sweet spot of just under Rs. 50,000. But if you’re already invested in an Apple ecosystem and don’t care for the high-end add-ons from the more expensive variants, the 16e does represent all the essential features you need from an AI-enabled smartphone in 2025.