February 26, 2025

Apple’s new iPhone is (almost) here. Our tech expert weighs in.

Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter

At $600, the iPhone 16e—a replacement for the now-discontinued iPhone SE—isn’t exactly cheap. But after testing it, our tech experts think it’s the best budget option for those in the market for a new iPhone.

Senior tech editor Caitlin McGarry has been testing the brand-new phone for a week. Here are her biggest early takeaways:

It’s affordable … sort of. Apple is certainly stretching the boundaries of “budget” with this model, with a price tag that’s $170 (!) higher than its predecessor. Admittedly, you do get a slew of new features that the SE didn’t have, like USB-C charging—and the phone also looks and feels quite nice. But for a “cheap” phone, we wish the price was a little lower.
It delivers excellent battery life—that lasts even longer than the pricier iPhone 16. Apple packed in a larger battery into this model, and it lasts an impressive 36 hours, even, we’ve found, with extremely heavy usage. “I charged it to 100% at 5 p.m. on a Sunday then flew from San Francisco to New York at 7 a.m. the following morning,” writes Caitlin. “I hailed an Uber, streamed music and podcasts, responded to Slacks and text messages in-flight, chatted on the phone after landing, navigated my way around Queens and Brooklyn using Google Maps, and FaceTimed with my partner before bed.” Come Tuesday morning? She still had enough battery life left to get through her morning meetings.
It’s not without flaws, including a meh camera. The camera pales in comparison to what you’d get with more expensive models. The 16e has just a single rear camera lens, so if you want to capture a nighttime shot of the Empire State Building at 10x zoom, say, you’ll be disappointed in the extremely grainy quality. Another particularly frustrating flaw? While it can charge wirelessly, it doesn’t support MagSafe, which means that Apple’s magnetic charging pads won’t stick to the back of the phone. “Especially for the higher starting price,” Cailtin says, “That’s annoying.”

Our tech expert’s first impressions of the 16e→

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