Iphone 17e Hands-on: Nothing More, Nothing Less

Apple announced nan $599 iPhone 17e earlier this week, and we conscionable sewage a chance to play pinch 1 for a fewer minutes astatine nan company’s “experience” for media successful New York City.

The 17e is much aliases little precisely what you’d expect – a cheaper, simpler riff connected nan iPhone 17 that replaces nan likewise stripped down iPhone 16e successful Apple’s lineup. It comes successful black, white, and pink, and nan main discuss is really nan display: it’s a very basal 6.1-inch show 60Hz surface that doesn’t person nan Dynamic Island aliases ProMotion aliases anything. The only existent upgrade to nan surface is that is now has Apple’s Ceramic Shield 2 coating for improved scratch guidance and glare. It’s each good for nan entry-level telephone – but astatine this constituent Apple has acold much absorbing displays elsewhere.

There’s but a azygous 48-megapixel camera connected nan backmost which mostly produces 24-megapixel photos. You tin sprout successful nan afloat 48 if you want, and nan sensor tin beryllium cropped successful for a 2x telephoto which Apple insistently calls “optical-quality” successful its ongoing effort to redefine camera words successful fantastical caller ways. We’ll spot really each that looks erstwhile we get a chance to really reappraisal this thing, but for now it each felt for illustration a acquainted iPhone camera situation, isolated from nan deficiency of a Camera Control fastener and nan flimsy downgrade to a 12-megapixel beforehand camera from nan 18-megapixel shooters recovered crossed nan remainder of nan lineup.

The large news is connected nan back, wherever Apple’s added MagSafe to its entry-level telephone for nan first time. You tin wirelessly complaint astatine up to 15W (down from 25W for nan remainder of nan lineup) and it supports nan Qi2 modular for those who for illustration to statement cross-platform.

Inside, nan guidelines retention has been bumped up 256GB and you’ve sewage an A19 processor alongside Apple’s caller C1X modem, which nan institution claims is doubly arsenic accelerated – a bully thought belied by nan reality of 5G successful 2026. But still: nice.

That’s astir it, really – arsenic you’d expect, nan iPhone 17e is simply a bully point to clasp and Apple’s fresh and decorativeness make for a very crisp small package. But there’s thing mindblowing present – which is astir apt precisely correct for a $599 telephone that astir group will bargain connected waste aliases get for free connected contract.

Developing…