Mac O’Clock

The best stories for Apple owners and enthusiasts

Member-only story

What Has Apple Done With the iPhone 16e?

Mark Ellis
Mac O’Clock
Published in
7 min readFeb 20, 2025

--

Image courtesy of Apple.

There’s always one thing people jump on whenever Apple launches a new product.

The power button placement on the M4 Mac mini. Jelly scrolling on the iPad mini. The smudges left on people’s fancy wooden furniture, courtesy of the HomePod.

Everything about the AirPods Max.

It’s not just Apple who falls victim to this, either — Samsung has been roasted this year for the S25 Ultra having an 8-bit display. And, no, I’m not sure when that started being a ‘thing’, either.

For the iPhone 16e, it’s the lack of MagSafe. Apple announced their new ‘budget’ phone just a few hours ago, and one search of its name on Google already unearths countless Reddit threads containing people who are bemoaning Apple’s decision not to include the fancy magnetic rear casing.

I’m far more interested in who on earth this phone is for. The iPhone 16e replaces the now-retired iPhone SE and is quite a bit more expensive than the outgoing model. Despite this, Apple is calling the iPhone 16e its “latest iPhone” (true), at its “greatest price” (highly debatable).

A fascinating spec sheet

--

--

Mac O’Clock
Mac O’Clock

Published in Mac O’Clock

The best stories for Apple owners and enthusiasts

Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis

Written by Mark Ellis

Tech reviewer. Join my free weekly newsletter for access to my Discord server 👉 https://newsletter.markellismedia.uk/subscribe