Apple has announced iPhone 17e, the most affordable phone in the iPhone 17 lineup. It replaces the iPhone 16e and SE line as the budget iPhone and starts at $599 for 256GB of storage, which is double the base storage of the 16e but offered at the same price.
The biggest upgrade here is MagSafe. The iPhone 16e only supported 7.5W Qi wireless charging, and the 17e’s addition of MagSafe (and Qi2) enables fast 15W wireless charging along with access to the whole ecosystem of snap-on chargers, cases, and wallets. If you're using an iPhone SE, the iPhone 17e is a solid upgrade.
What's inside the iPhone 17e
At the heart of iPhone 17e is Apple's A19 chip, the same as that in the iPhone 17. So you’ll enjoy most of the same capabilities as the iPhone 17 series, including support for Apple Intelligence features. The phone also gets C1X, Apple's latest cellular modem. It means you’ll see better 5G performance than the iPhone 16e while consuming less battery.
The 17e has the same 48MP Fusion camera with an optical-quality 2x Telephoto as the 16e. However, for the 17e, portrait mode has been upgraded to automatically capture depth information for people, dogs, and cats, resulting in better blurring and more realistic portrait shots. The video recording supports up to 4K Dolby Vision at 60 fps.
Read more: Is the iPhone 16e Good Enough for a Costa Rica Vacation?
The 17e’s 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display is protected by Ceramic Shield 2, which debuted on the iPhone 16 series (excluding the 16e), so you get better scratch resistance, and the screen won’t shatter as easily. The phone is IP68-rated, like the 16e, for water and dust resistance, and comes in black, white, and soft pink.
Is the iPhone 17e for you?
Now here's where the phone disappointed me a bit. iPhone 17e still doesn't support the Dynamic Island notification bubble, which has been on the Pro models since iPhone 14 Pro and on standard iPhone models since iPhone 15. It's a glaring omission at this point.
The display is also still 60Hz. That's fine for a budget phone, but Apple is one of the only manufacturers still shipping 60Hz screens at this price. The competition has largely moved to 90Hz or 120Hz in this range. I would have expected either the Dynamic Island or a higher refresh rate for the 17e, but neither makes it, dampening my excitement around this otherwise excellent budget phone.
If you're coming from an iPhone SE 3 or an older model iPhone, like an iPhone 11 or 12, the iPhone 17e is a solid upgrade. You get a modern chip, MagSafe, a much better camera, and double the storage. At $599, it fills the affordable iPhone role well enough. I hope the next version brings it more up to speed with the other iPhones and competing Android alternatives.
The iPhone 17e is available for pre-order on Apple starting March 4. It will be available widely on March 11.
[Image credit: Apple]
