The Apple iPhone 17e is on sale as of today, and we managed to get ours from the store and in for review!
It starts from €700/£600/INR 64,900 and 256GB – last year’s 16e had a base storage of 128GB and cost the same at launch (except in India). So double the storage for the same price – nice!
The boz contents are the same – you get a SIM tool and a USB-C cable, but it’s a nice braided one.
So what’s new on the iPhone 17e? MagSafe, for one. Ask anyone to say what they’d like added to the cheapest iPhone, and they’ll unanimously answer – a ProMotion, 120Hz display. And MagSafe will likely be after that, possibly. Maybe not.
Anyway, the iPhone 17e adds MagSafe, which opens the phone to a big ecosystem of accessories. It also brings it up to speed with the rest of the iPhone lineup.
It’s got MagSafe, unlike most Ultra phones out there
The iPhone 17e also brings a chip upgrade in the form of the A19, a binned variant with a 4-core GPU. The phone also brings the latest C1X modem, which should improve connectivity.
What’s still excellent on the iPhone 17e is the handling. Maybe it’s because we’re used to our phones being huge nowadays, but the iPhone 17e is refreshing in the hand – petite and comfortable. At just under 170 grams, it’s also light.
Upfront, the display has the second-gen Ceramic Shield topping the screen. The rest is pretty much the same. You have a single 26mm f/1.6 main camera with a small-ish 48MP 1/2.55-inch sensor at the back. On the front, there’s a capable 12MP selfie camera with autofocus.
The battery is also the same 4,005mAh unit, but wireless charging has doubled to 15W.
But maybe none of that matters. Not all new iPhone 17e owners will arrive directly from the 16e. Perhaps many of them will come from outside platforms. One thing is certain – most of them won’t care about the nuanced specs changes, and likely most of them will be more than happy with the iPhone 17e.
