Apple launched its affordable smartphone, iPhone 16e on Wednesday. The new addition to the iPhone 16 lineup seems to have less impressed the American tech giant’s SE variant users, who were anticipating a device priced below ₹50,000.
The iPhone 16e is powered by Apple’s latest-generation A18 chip and it enables Apple Intelligence. According to the Cupertino giant, the 6-core CPU is upto 80 percent faster than the A13 Bionic chip. The phone also comes with Apple’s indigenously designed C1 modem, said to be the “most power-efficient modem ever on an iPhone”. The phone is built for Apple Intelligence and comes sans a home button, a common feature in previous SE models.
#AppleLaunch Oru Phone.. i wonder people will get this phone for Apple Intelligence.. it has A18 with 4 GPU core.. also 5g modem is inhouse c1 chip.. i really thought they would launch this phone for 50k.. but 60K is too much.. anyways what do you guys think? pic.twitter.com/sNcpn4Z7Rg
— Shazzam (@callmeshazzam) February 19, 2025
However, the price of the new iPhone 16e hasn’t impressed SE variant users who were looking forward to the fourth generation of affordable iPhone. The third generation iPhone SE was released in 2022. While users were expecting the phone to be priced below ₹50,000, the price of 16e models starts from ₹59,900.
iPhone 16e, more like iPhone 16y 😵💫#AppleLaunch #iPhone16E pic.twitter.com/klhZ1j0c1d
— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) February 19, 2025
A SE user using the third-generation affordable iPhone was disappointed hearing the price. The user, who doesn’t want to be named, opined while the phone comes with the latest A18 chip, the other features were not upto the par compared with other smartphones in the price range. The user felt choosing previous variants like iPhone 14 or 15 seemed a better choice compared to 16e.
Reacting to the launch, Shazzam, a popular tech reviewer tweeted, “I wonder people will get this phone for Apple Intelligence...It has A18 with 4 GPU core.. also 5g modem is inhouse c1 chip... I really thought they would launch this phone for 50k...but 60K is too much...” Sharing an image of iPhone 16e, Shazzam said, “The budget phone no one asked for!!!”
Another user, Abhishek Hari, felt the phone was “Awfully priced”. He opined that iPhone fans may prefer the phone during digital sale, if the phone is available for an effective price of ₹35,000. Mukul Sharma tweeted, “iPhone 16e, more like iPhone 16y.”
