This is history repeating itself, and Qualcomm may be feeling what Intel did in November 2020 when Apple released the M1 chip. In about a year’s time, the elaborate Mac and iPad portfolios all switched to Apple Silicon, and Intel lost the Mac business for good. With good reason too, as the M-series chips set various benchmarks, including performance per watt. The Apple iPhone 16e, a truly compact iPhone (the iPhone SE was released in 2022 and the iPhone 13 mini in 2021), begins the era of Apple’s own cellular modem. The C1 modem replaces Qualcomm’s chips in the iPhone 16e, which will be priced starting from ₹59,900.
The iPhone 16e introduces a new naming scheme, but we believe it is logically a successor to the iPhone 13 mini, rather than the previous-generation iPhone SE. There’s, of course, the naming, which references the present iPhone 16 generation, extending that lineup. Secondly, the 6.1-inch screen size (with a ceramic shield coating for scratch resistance) is an upgrade over the iPhone 13 mini’s 5.4-inch screen and not really the 4.7-inch real estate of the last known iPhone SE. Then, there is processor parity with the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, featuring the 3-nanometer A18 chip. One could argue that the iPhone 16 already has a 6.1-inch screen, but that is where other specs influence the price and perceived value.
iPhone 16e prices start at ₹59,900.
“iPhone 16e packs in the features our users love about the iPhone 16 lineup, including breakthrough battery life, fast performance powered by the latest-generation A18 chip, an innovative 2-in-1 camera system, and Apple Intelligence,” says Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product Marketing.
Apple iPhone 16e features
Apple says the iPhone 16e with the A18 chip is almost 40% faster than the 5-nanometer A15 Bionic in the previous-generation iPhone SE—and it should show a similar performance improvement compared to the iPhone 13 mini as well, which used a similar chip. In the iPhone 16e, the A18 features a 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, a 4-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing (a significant upgrade for gaming), and a 16-core Neural Engine that is central to the Apple Intelligence experience.
On that note, Apple again confirms that in April, Apple Intelligence will extend native language support to include English (India), as well as more languages, including English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), and Portuguese (Brazil).
Apple also confirms that in April, users will be able to update the primary iPhone language to multiple Indian languages—Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, or Urdu.
Since the iPhone 16e doesn’t have the Camera Control key that’s present on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models, quick access to Apple Intelligence is integrated into the Action Key. You’ll have to make a choice between using it for AI features or quickly toggling between ring and silent modes as you enter a meeting. Other options include quick camera access, a flashlight, translator, voice memos, and magnifier.
iPhone 16e Camera
The single camera implementation continues, as is typical for SE-series phones, but Apple insists this is a two-in-one camera system. The 48-megapixel Fusion camera allows for photo resolutions that are twice as high as what the previous generation could capture. You also have the option to take 48-megapixel photos. The 2x telephoto is integrated for zoom photos, eliminating the need for a second physical telephoto sensor. More parity with the iPhone 16 series is evident as the iPhone 16e can record 4K video with spatial audio, along with the In-frame, Studio, and Cinematic audio mix options for changing how videos sound.
This has to be the most versatile camera system ever in the most affordable iPhone.
It’s important to circle back to the cellular modem transition. Considering the iPhone refresh cycle is usually much simpler compared to Macs, we could find Qualcomm’s hardware gone once the next-generation iPhones arrive later this year. The reason is that Apple believes the experiences they are trying to deliver require purpose-built technology. That’s something Bob Borchers, VP of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple, pointed out in an interview with *HT*, explaining that “you can turbocharge experiences when you have amazing purpose-built technologies that you can bring together,” and that chipmakers in general “need to think about kind of the lowest common denominator.”
