I’ve only had the iPhone 16e for a few hours, but I figured it was worth writing something out. Particularly because I am surprised by the device now that I have seen it in-person. It is no secret that I have been awfully skeptical of the value proposition and frankly I still am. But this hardware is spectacular. I could make the argument that this new iPhone is the most beautiful one in several years. When I picked it up in the Apple Store I was excited by a few things.

The first was that it was much lighter than my iPhone 16 Pro and the soft aluminum coupled with the textured back glass felt really nice in the hand. I had forgotten over the past few months that the iPhone 16 Pro is actually slightly bigger than previous models. To my surprise, I can tell that the iPhone 16e is smaller and even though it is not by much it does make a difference. I will also add that despite having wanted Apple to curve the edges of the iPhone a few years ago I actually kind of miss the totally flat sharper edges of the iPhone 12/13/14 design. It feels far more industrial in the hand.

The second was that the single camera design, coupled with the white and black finishes look quite sophisticated. This certainly does not look like a cheap device. The two models look clean, they look high-end, and they look really reminiscent of the silver and slate iPhone 5 models from back in the day. Both colors look fantastic. You cannot go wrong with either. I ended up favoring the white model after hemming and hawing, but that is largely because I am a sucker for that classic silver aluminum Apple look.

The third thing was that I found myself completely unbothered by the lack of several features, namely ProMotion. I do not know why, but I am increasingly less sensitive to display refresh rates. The iPhone 16e feels smooth and speedy, just like the regular iPhone 16. I could use this as my daily driver no problem. I was also unbothered by the notch and lack of the Dynamic Island. Unfortunately, Apple has not done much with the Dynamic Island recently so not having it does not feel like that big of a deal. It sort of reminds me of buying a MacBook Air with Touch ID in 2018 instead of buying a MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar. I am just not sure how committed they really are at the end of the day. Camera control is new enough that not having it does not even feel like much of an omission and I imagine that is why they did not feel any sort of hesitation to call this an iPhone “16” despite it being the line’s flagship hardware upgrade. Missing MagSafe however is not great. Apple clearly knows it given the weird displays that they have set up for the phones. They do charge on MagSafe stands like the other iPhones, but they sit in a little base and lean against them.

Ultimately I am impressed so far. I always knew that it would be a nice phone, but I am surprised by how much I like it. The question of whether or not the device is worth it to you at $599 though, is up to you. It is a really nice phone that happens to be missing some niceties. If you don’t care about those things and can get yourself a good deal, then this is a nice device. It is also now the cheapest iPhone to have Apple Intelligence support bolstering its value.

Couple of small things:

Apple finally made a white silicone case again. They haven’t made one for flagship devices since the iPhone 12 and it was always my favorite. Hopefully this means they will make one for the other iPhone 16 models soon or will at least make one for the iPhone 17 models this fall.

The default wallpaper on the iPhone 16e is sort of weird. I do think it looks sharp, but it strangely only has one theme. Other default iPhone wallpapers have variations for each device color. This one does not.

The missing always-on display is an omission that slightly bothered me until I remembered that the iPhone 16e has the best battery life of any standard sized iPhone model. The trade off is well worth it. I did not mention this above since it is far less important than those other missing features and arguably, not having it is a benefit.

The new Siri animation looks kind of funny in screenshots and screen recordings from the iPhone 16e. Instead of being a wireframe that wraps around the notch, it is a solid shape beneath it.

I was hoping that my plethora of old iPhone 14 Pro cases would fit the iPhone 16e and interestingly enough, they do. Except the side button has ever so slightly been repositioned that the cases hold it down. Unfortunately that renders all those old cases unusable. I imagine there may be a similar situation with standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 cases as well.

It is not much to go by, but I saw other folks buying the iPhone 16e in my Apple Store and asked how things were going. I was told they had sold a bunch of them today.

Yes, I bought an iPhone 16e. But in my defense, this is the first time that I have a good excuse to own a secondary iPhone. I am working on my first-ever iOS app and need a testing device.