The iPhone 16e launches today, and the first reviews are starting to appear online. One review that caught my attention was from John Gruber at Daring Fireball. The lengthy review has some information he picked up from Apple officials on why the company elected not to include MagSafe for wireless charging on the iPhone 16e. The reason is almost certainly on the mark and isn’t all about saving money.
As we’ve already noted, Apple’s latest budget phone shares many features with the iPhone 16. However, the iPhone 16e is priced $200 lower. As a result, some features present in the iPhone 16 are omitted from the iPhone 16e, with MagSafe being one of them.
MagSafe first launched with the iPhone 12 series in 2020. Other than the iPhone SE 3 (which launched in 2022), every iPhone produced since then included MagSafe—until the iPhone 16e.
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Gruber said Apple representatives concluded that “most people in the 16e’s target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging cable. They tend not to use inductive charging at all, and when they do, they might not care that the 16e is stuck with a pokey 7.5W Qi charging speed, when recent more expensive iPhones charge via MagSafe at 15W or even 25W.”
So the bottom line: Apple has concluded most in the iPhone 16e demographic couldn’t care less about MagSafe.
After reading Gruber’s report, I reflected on my parents, who I believe are likely part of the target demographic for the iPhone 16e. They are both in their mid-70s and currently own iPhone 14 models. However, they do not use MagSafe technology. The only time they charge their phones is at night, so fast charging isn’t a priority for them. I would expect that new iPhone buyers, like my parents, may share similar preferences, which could be a consideration for Apple when marketing the iPhone 16e.
The iPhone 16e is officially available as of today, February 28, starting at a price of $599 for the 128GB model. The 256GB version is priced at $699, while the 512GB model costs $899. These prices are $200 less than those of the iPhone 16 models.
However, the iPhone 16e lacks certain features, such as Camera Control, Dynamic Island, and a wide-angle rear camera. It also comes with a 4-core GPU, compared to the 5-core GPU found in the iPhone 16.
On the positive side, the iPhone 16e offers longer battery life, lasting 26 hours compared to the 22 hours of the more expensive model. Additionally, it is slightly lighter in weight.