As anticipated, Apple announced its new iPhone 17e handset on Monday. Just one year after the introduction of the iPhone 16e, the device enters the market for users on a budget.
Per AppleInsider, the new model adds moderate upgrades, with the overall design remaining unchanged and the device retailing a 6.1-inch OLED screen. The overall design is also unchanged, with flat sides, the Action Button, and a single camera on the back sans bump as before. However, the main changes are internal.
The iPhone 17e offers an A19 processor, matching the chip used in the base version of the iPhone 17. The A19 chip itself offers two performance cores and four efficiency cores for the CPU, while the GPU has four cores. This is one GPU down from the five-core version in the iPhone 17’s version, but the Neural Accelerators added to each GPU core will give a significant boost to machine learning tasks.
The handset now offers the C1X cellular modem, which doesn’t support mmWave, but is an improved version of Apple’s C1 modem, which is also capable of features such as Emergency SOS, Roadside Assistance, Messages, and Find My via Satellite are. Other new features include MagSafe charging, which was missing from the iPhone 16e, despite its inclusion of Qi wireless charging support. The handset will work with MagSafe charging accessories, and will work at up to 15W, up from 7.5W support.
The iPhone 17e offers a single camera, as seen in the previous model, and sports a 48MP Fusion Camera with Deep Fusion computational photography, Portrait Mode with Portrait Lighting, Photographic Styles, Night Mode, and a 10x digital zoom. Video capabilities extend to 4K Dolby Vision at 60fps, 1080p Slo-mo at 240fps, Cinematic Stabilization, and a 6x digital zoom.
The battery life is cited at 26 hours of video playback, 21 hours when streamed, and up to 90 hours of audio playback and the iPhone 17e continues to be made available in a choice of Black and White finishes, plus a new soft pink.
Pre-orders begin on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, and the iPhone 17e will be shipping from March 11, 2026. The iPhone 17e starts from $599 for the base 256GB model, and $799 for 512GB.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and Apple
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