Apple iPhone 16e vs. iPhone 16

There is no next iPhone SE; there is only an iPhone E now. The new model is neither compact nor affordable, and yet, according to early data, it sells like hotcakes. In fact, it is far more popular than the last iPhone SE from 2022. The iPhone 16e is the first in Apple’s new “economy-class” series of devices, and it’s a toned-down iPhone 16 with a hint of iPhone 13. It starts at €699, while the vanilla iPhone 16 is at least €200 more expensive.

So, it makes you wonder – is the Apple iPhone 16e the go-to phone if you are after a no-frills but up-to-date iOS experience, or should you pay extra for the Apple iPhone 16? Let’s look into it.

Table of Contents:

For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor’s assessment in the following text.

Size comparison

The iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 are almost identical in size and weight.

More than that, both iPhones offer similar design and build. Both devices use Ceramic Shield front panels, aluminum frames, and glass back panels with frosted finish. Both are IP68-rated for dust and water resistance and are enhanced to survive in up to 6m deep water for 30 minutes.

The Ceramic Shield on the iPhone 16e is the first generation, whereas the vanilla iPhone 16 uses a second-gen Ceramic Shield, which is supposedly even more durable.

For all intents and purposes, though, we’d rate both devices equally great when it comes to design, looks and build, and both remain among the more compact smartphones on the market nowadays.

Display comparison

Both the iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 come with similar Super Retina XDR OLED panels with about 460ppi, fixed 60Hz refresh rate, HDR10 and Dolby Vision support.

There are differences though. The first, and most obvious one, is the notch. The iPhone 16e has the old-school notch to make way for the Face ID tech, the trimmed down version dating all the way back to times of the iPhone 13. And it’s not just the notch – it’s quite possibly the whole display panel that’s 3 years old.

The iPhone 16 has a pill-shaped cutout, which Apple has magically transformed into a feature called Dynamic Island. Cool or not, it is better than the notch, we’d give them that.

Furthermore, while both screens offer nicely high brightness when controlling it manually (800nits for the iPhone 16e and 850 nits for the iPhone 16), the iPhone 16 panel also supports sunlight boost up to 1,708 nits when faced with a bright light.

For the more appealing cutout and the large boost in auto brightness, we can safely say the iPhone 16’s display is the better phone in this department.

Battery life

The iPhone 16e is powered by a 4,005mAh battery – 12% higher than the ‘regular’ iPhone 16 (3,561mAh). One might expect this to translate to a longer battery life, but that did not happen.

Contrary to expectations, the iPhone 16 beat the iPhone 16e in battery life by a landslide. It scored notably better across all battery life tests. And for that, it gets the win here as well.

Charging speed

Testing with a 20W or higher USB-PD compatible power adapter provides similar charge across both phones – north of 30% in 15 mins, close to 60% in 30 mins, about 85% in one hour, and a full charge after 90 or so minutes.

The iPhone 16 supports fast wireless charging for up to 25W via the new MagSafe charger when plugged into a 30W+ power adapter. If you have a compatible Qi2 charger that’s not MagSafe, then the iPhone 16 will max out at 15W.

The iPhone 16e also offers wireless charging, but there is no MagSafe support, nor Qi2 compliance. The maximum wired charging power you can get this way is 7.5W and there is no automatic alignment of the charging coils like you get with the magnets. So it’s another win (albeit small) for the vanilla iPhone 16.

Speaker test

The iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 have traditional hybrid stereo speaker setups we’ve gotten used to experiencing on the recent iPhones. The dedicated bottom-firing speaker handles one channel while the other is serviced by the amplified earpiece, pulling double duty.

The speakers across both phones support spatial audio and Dolby Atmos. And both setups sound incredibly well in real life with deep and balanced audio. As teardowns have revealed, however, the speakers inside the iPhone 16e are physically smaller because they are the same as the ones used in the iPhone 14.

Still, both the iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 scored a Very Good mark on our speaker loudness test and demonstrated excellent speaker performance.

Performance

The iPhone 16e, just like the iPhone 16, runs on the Apple A18 chipset, which is three generations ahead of the A15, which is found inside the iPhone SE (2022). This is a second-gen 3nm chip that is both more powerful and more efficient.

The Apple A18 has a six-core processor with two performance cores working at 4.04GHz and four efficient cores clocked at 2.2GHz – same as on the iPhone 16.

But the iPhone 16e’s GPU has a 4-core design, 1 core less than on the iPhone 16. It still supports improved hardware raytracing, among other novelties.

The iPhone 16e comes with 8GB of RAM, just like the iPhone 16, and it uses fast NVMe storage – you get a choice of 128, 256, or 512GB on both.

Benchmark performance

The CPU test shows that the iPhone 16e has an equally powerful processor as the most recent iPhones, which is great. The same goes for its AI capabilities.

The GPU tests show about 30% drop in the raw performance, which was somewhat expected. This also reflected on the compound AnTuTu final score.

While both iPhones are powerful, the iPhone 16 offers more oomph when it comes to gaming.

Camera comparison

The iPhone 16e has only one camera on the back – a 48MP primary with 2x high-quality zoom, which automatically makes the iPhone 16 with its dual camera (wide+ultrawide) setup – the more versatile imaging kit.

Still, the iPhone 16e appears to have the same selfie camera as the more expensive iPhones with autofocus and everything, with only minor omissions in the feature-set (like Cinematic mode).

The main cameras are not the same, though. The iPhone 16e uses a 48MP 1/2.55″ sensor with 0.7µm pixels, while the iPhone 16 has a bigger 48MP 1/1.56″ sensor with 1.0µm pixels.

Furthermore, the 16e type of focusing isn’t the same either – the 16 uses ‘100% Focus Pixels’, while the 16e makes do with ‘Hybrid Focus Pixels’, and the 16 has sensor-shift stabilization, while the 16e’s is lens-based.

Obviously, there’s no Camera Control key on the 16e – only the proper iPhone 16 gets that.

And on the software side, the iPhone 16e has the previous generation Photographic Styles, but we can imagine few people would notice.

Image quality

Let’s start with the default 1x zoom shot in the default 24MP resolution. Since Apple is heavily processing its photos – Photonic Engine, Smart HDR, Deep Fusion, and whatnot, the standard 26mm images are identical.

Main camera: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16

Same goes for the selfies.

Selfie camera: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16

But since the iPhone 16 has a larger sensor, its 2x zoomed photos are ever so slightly cleaner compared to the iPhone 16e. You also get better grass rendition.

2x zoom: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16

The larger sensor plays an even bigger role in low-light, where both 1x and 2x photos taken with the iPhone 16 have lower noise levels.

Low-light 1x and 2x: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16 (taken at different times)

Video quality

The iPhone 16e and 16 can record video up to 4K60 with all cameras. 30fps and 24fps modes are also on the menu, of course. Dolby Vision recording is also available (requires HEVC), and spatial audio recording, too.

Below we have a few framegrabs from the videos taken by the two phones

Main camera: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16

2x zoom: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16

Low-light: iPhone 16e • iPhone 16

The video quality in daylight scenes is identical in both 1x and 2x zoom levels.

However, in low-light conditions, the larger sensor on the iPhone 16 once again yields more detailed and less noisy footage.

Verdict

Both iPhone 16e and iPhone 16 offer a solid iOS experience with a well-rounded feature set. Both phones have premium build quality and recognizable looks. They both offer Dolby Vision OLED screens, powerful hardware, impressive speakers, and capable cameras.

The iPhone 16e is a cheaper phone with one less camera and one less GPU core than the iPhone 16, as well as not as bright screen with a bigger notch. But it has all the essentials for a meaningful iOS experience.

On the other hand, the iPhone 16 will give you proper gaming power and camera versatility, as well as a more modern display with a smaller cutout. Let’s not forget the better battery life and the faster wireless charging with magnetic assist. And its USB-C port has video-out, something the iPhone 16e does not offer.

Overall, the iPhone 16e is a decent alternative to the iPhone 16 for someone who might not appreciate these features – like a kid or a grandparent. But for anyone else, we think the price premium to get the iPhone 16 is well worth it.