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iPhone 16e — Technical Specifications (Apple Support)

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The iPhone 16e is a smartphone designed and marketed by Apple, announced on February 19, 2025, and released on February 28, 2025. It retired the iPhone SE name and formula together: instead of resurrecting a classic chassis, the "e" model was a stripped edition of the current iPhone 16 — the same 6.1-inch OLED size and USB-C-era design language, the A18 chip (with one GPU core fewer), 8 GB of RAM, and full Apple Intelligence support — at $599, $200 under the 16.

Its most historic component was invisible: the Apple C1, the company's first in-house cellular modem, ending exclusive reliance on Qualcomm after years of development and litigation history — debuted deliberately in the lineup's lowest-stakes slot. The cuts that funded the price: a notch instead of the Dynamic Island, a single 48-megapixel camera, no MagSafe (Qi wireless only), no Camera Control, and two colors.

The 16e served thirteen months as the entry iPhone before the iPhone 17e succeeded it in March 2026, establishing the annual "e" cadence.

The 16e reads as an iPhone 14-adjacent silhouette in the 16 era: flat aluminum sides, Ceramic Shield front, a notched 6.1-inch OLED (the last new iPhone with the notch), single rear lens without a plateau, Action Button (inherited) but no Camera Control, USB-C, IP68 — in matte Black or White at 167 g. The starkness was the design statement; reviewers called it the most anonymous iPhone in years, which its buyers counted as a feature.

The C1 modem — sub-6 GHz only, no mmWave — benchmarked slightly behind Qualcomm on peak speed and ahead on power, contributing to the 16e's standout spec: a 4,005 mAh battery (the largest ever in a 6.1-inch iPhone) delivering the best endurance of any 6.1-inch model, entry tier included. The A18's four-GPU bin and full 8 GB kept Apple Intelligence intact at $599 — the strategic point of the whole configuration.

The single 48 MP Fusion camera used its resolution as versatility — binned 12/24 MP output plus the optical-quality 2× crop marketed as a "2-in-1" system — with Night mode, Photographic Styles, and 4K 60 Dolby Vision. No ultra-wide, no macro, no spatial capture; the one-lens cut was the clearest tier line, and for the point-and-shoot audience the 48 MP main covered the overwhelming share of real shots.

Shipped with iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence enabled out of the box — the cheapest device to run it at release. Current release train since.

Reviews centered on one argument: at $599 the 16e was $170 over the old SE's price, drawing "the cheap iPhone isn't cheap anymore" takes — against which its actual contents (current chip, OLED, AI support, class-leading battery) made the SE look like the false economy in hindsight. The C1's smooth real-world debut was the quarter's quiet engineering story. It sold to the fleet, first-phone, and value segments it aimed at, and was discontinued on March 2, 2026, when the iPhone 17e took the slot.

The 16e ended the SE era's recycled-body formula in favor of "last year's phone, simplified" — the annual e-tier the iPhone 17e confirmed. Historically it will be remembered as the C1's carrier: the modest phone that began Apple's modem independence, the last major radio in the iPhone to come in-house — and the last iPhone notch.