My friendship with iPhone SE is finally over; iPhone 16e has replaced it as my new best friend. Why? Because it’s the New Year! I decided, instead of ‘new year, new me’, it’ll be ‘new year, new iPhone’.
Right from the first glance, the matte black finish of iPhone 16e looked amazing to me. Thanks to its minimal design, it feels light and fits comfortably in my pocket. That in itself made me confident that I made the right choice but there are plenty of other things that have made this ride an amazing one.
For starters, the battery backup stands out. While my iPhone SE would fall from 100% to 50% by the time I reached home from work, the iPhone 16e cruises through the day on a single charge. This is indeed a welcome upgrade.
Furthermore, I’m highly impressed by the gaming performance of 16e. As a regular Dream League Soccer player, I must say that the experience has been seamless. I even went down the memory lane and tried my hand at some of the games I used to play during the COVID lockdown days. Graphics & performance were flawless in those as well. Switching between apps and having multiple apps running in the background is not an issue anymore. What a relief!
Now comes the apple of my eye – the single camera! While scouting and reading reviews, I saw many people criticize the single camera setup, but those who actually used it seemed content. And they couldn’t be more right. The 48MP rear camera has genuinely blown my mind. Here are a couple of photos I’ve taken from my iPhone 16e. They are far superior than what I could manage with my old iPhone SE.
The Action Button is proving to be a valuable addition to this budget iPhone. With no Camera Control button, using it to enable Visual Intelligence feels like a good enough compromise. Apart from that, I have played around with using it to open Spotify and Camera, both of which proved to be pretty handy.
Apart from these features, there are a few more upgrades that are making life easier, like Face ID, USB-C charger, and smaller bezels.
Oh, before I forget, one thing that was bugging me at first was the size difference (iPhone 16e has 6.1inch screen as compared to the 4.7 inch screen on iPhone SE) but with time, I am getting used to it.
I must mention that the iPhone 16e isn’t perfect. There are a couple of misses that I am definitely noticing. I thought the lack of Dynamic Island wouldn’t matter. Turns out, it does, sometimes. I also catch myself missing Live Activity tracking. FOMO is real. MagSafe is another one. I don’t need it, but I wouldn’t say no either.
I’m still learning my way around my new iPhone 16e, and honestly, I feel like a kindergarten kid – getting excited every time I discover something new. The phone keeps surprising me, one little feature at a time. Now, the only thing left to do is put a cover on it before I drop it … hopefully, it’ll be done before you read this article.