Apple iPhone 16e vs. iPhone 16
There is no next iPhone SE; there is only an iPhone E now. The new model is neither compact nor affordable, and yet, according to early data, it sells like hotcakes. In fact, it is far more popular than the last iPhone SE from 2022. The iPhone 16e is the first in Apple's new "economy-class" series of devices, and it's a toned-down iPhone 16 with a hint of iPhone 13. It starts at â¬699, while the vanilla iPhone 16 is at least â¬200 more expensive.
So, it makes you wonder â is the Apple iPhone 16e the go-to phone if you are after a no-frills but up-to-date iOS experience, or should you pay extra for the Apple iPhone 16? Let's look into it.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following video or in the text below.
Size comparison
The iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 are almost identical in size and weight.
More than that, both iPhones offer similar design and build. Both devices use Ceramic Shield front panels, aluminum frames, and glass back panels with frosted finish. Both are IP68-rated for dust and water resistance and are enhanced to survive in up to 6m deep water for 30 minutes.
The Ceramic Shield on the iPhone 16e is the first generation, whereas the vanilla iPhone 16 uses a second-gen Ceramic Shield, which is supposedly even more durable.
For all intents and purposes, though, we'd rate both devices equally great when it comes to design, looks and build, and both remain among the more compact smartphones on the market nowadays.
Display comparison
Both the iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 come with similar Super Retina XDR OLED panels with about 460ppi, fixed 60Hz refresh rate, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support.
There are differences though. The first, and most obvious one, is the notch. The iPhone 16e has the old-school notch to make way for the Face ID tech, the trimmed down version dating all the way back to times of the iPhone 13. And it's not just the notch - it's quite possibly the whole display panel that's 3 years old.
The iPhone 16 has a pill-shaped cutout, which Apple has magically transformed into a feature called Dynamic Island. Cool or not, it is better than the notch, we'd give them that.
Furthermore, while both screens offer nicely high brightness when controlling it manually (800nits for the iPhone 16e and 850 nits for the iPhone 16), the iPhone 16 panel also supports sunlight boost up to 1,708 nits when faced with a bright light.
For the more appealing cutout and the large boost in auto brightness, we can safely say the iPhone 16's display is the better phone in this department.