Can Apple's ‘affordable' iPhone 16e be a flagship-killer?
On 28 February, Apple launched the iPhone 16e. Its pitch at the time: a smartphone with specifications comparable to the standard version of the latest iPhone, but almost 25% less expensive. Earlier this month, the iPhone 16e finished the first 100 days of being available to one of the world's largest smartphone markets—offering almost all of Apple's latest features, at a considerable discount.
Upon launch, there was conjecture that the iPhone 16e was a touch too expensive for what it offered—a single camera unit and no MagSafe wireless charging support for a phone that cost more than twice the average selling price of smartphones in India. Yet, for those looking at the Apple ecosystem, the iPhone 16e does seem to be making sense today.
A quick glance at storefronts shows you that the iPhone 16e is available for as low as ₹54,000 (before any bank-related offers or device exchanges). In comparison, the one generation-old iPhone 15 costs ₹64,000, and the standard iPhone 16 is priced at ₹72,000 at the moment. This makes the iPhone 16e 15% less expensive than the iPhone 15, and 25% less than the iPhone 16—substantial margins for value-conscious first-time Apple buyers to consider.
However, it's not just the pricing and value that makes the iPhone 16e an interesting proposition. After 100 days with Apple's most affordable iPhone in India, there are a number of things that the iPhone 16e has done right.
When the AI breaks through
A key part of this flows from this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple opened up access to its AI tools to all developers. This means that in the coming months, more applications can integrate Apple's AI features—such as Siri on text, Personal Context and Visual Intelligence—into their core offerings.
These features could be restricted to devices compatible with Apple on hardware terms. This means that only the 'Pro' models of the iPhone 15 series, and devices onward of the iPhone 16 series will get access to AI features that can make a difference in terms of everyday usage. With third-party apps bringing AI to iPhones, the iPhone 16e offers an entry point to Apple's AI experience for as low a cost as around ₹2,000 per month via financing schemes—making the ecosystem accessible to a significantly wider base of audience than before.
With the iPhone 17 set to be announced in approximately another 100 days, the iPhone 16e could play a vital role to rope more users into the Apple ecosystem—and have them eventually migrate fully. The device is also maintaining interesting price parity with compatriots—Google's mid-tier Pixel 9a, launched in April, costs ₹50,000. The OnePlus 13s, launched earlier this month, costs almost exactly the same as the iPhone 16e.
On hardware terms
A big part of owning an iPhone in India is social validation—a mark of affluence in a market where buying decisions of electronics have been largely defined by prices, and Google's Android enjoys a market share of over 95%. In such social dynamics, the iPhone 16e's single-camera configuration could be something that not everyone would be happiest about.
But, as a device, the iPhone 16e offers everything that a first-time buyer of Apple's devices would want to experience. The A18 Bionic chipset is Apple's current flagship, giving the device access to a current-generation chipset, and making sure that it does not operate like an older phone. There are some clear tradeoffs—screen animations are not as smooth, but the occasional jitters are as much as you'd see in an iPhone 16, and less than an iPhone 15.
Having a membership to the Apple Arcade gaming programme, the iPhone 16e is able to run most of the games on Arcade (available as a bundle with Apple One) without much stress, and comes with 128GB to 512GB of internal storage, as is the norm for all iPhones (only the Pro models get a 1TB variant).
Even with the camera, you don't feel a compromise from the onset—until you try accessing the 'Portrait' mode, which is fairly popular among users. Here, the iPhone 16e will only shoot soft-focus photographs if there is a person in the frame, and not recognize or do the same for objects. In my 100 days with the iPhone 16e, it is this that comes across as its biggest restriction—a significant factor that may push buyers back to rivalling Android options (the Pixel 9a and the OnePlus 13s both offer portrait photographs).
Apart from this, the iPhone 16e is a splendid offering that hardly does anything wrong. With the integration of Apple Intelligence, it is certain to get the latest software offerings from Apple at least for the next three (or more) years to come. As such, it becomes suitable for various user profiles—the student graduating from high-school to college, or a career professional seeking to explore the Apple ecosystem without breaking the bank.
The AI features have already rolled out on this phone, and are available in the form of Image Playground (that generates images based on prompts), Genmoji (generative emojis), writing tools for proofreading, and a partly-introduced new Siri interface. As a result, new buyers opting for the iPhone 15 will already miss out on AI features—which, while not a deal-breaker now, could add up to an ecosystem in itself in the near future.
Deserves to sell better
The adoption of the iPhone 16e, on account of pricing parities and discounts to older models, has remained muted so far. Prachir Singh, senior analyst at market researcher Counterpoint India, said that 'its uptake has remained moderate so far, partly due to pricing overlaps with the iPhone 15, which continues to attract more buyers with features like Dynamic Island and a dual-camera setup."
As a result, Singh said that the iPhone 16e accounts for only 5% of all smartphones that Apple is selling in India right now.
"However, with the recent pricing discounts, the iPhone 16e could gain momentum among value-conscious consumers looking for a newer-generation iPhone experience without a flagship price tag. We have already seen double-digit growth recently, post the new discounts," he added.
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