This is Technology Bytes, episode 103 for February 23rd, 2025.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bytes on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So this week I’m talking about the iPhone 16E.
So Apple released a new product and that’s the name of it.
The iPhone 16E, it really is a replacement for the SE model that they’ve had up until this point.
Um, it’s a pre-announcement.
It’s not available yet, but the pricing is out there.
You can pre-order maybe yesterday.
Um, I didn’t really look at all of the details because I have my phone.
I’m not interested in the 16E as a purchase, but as a positional phone, it is kind of interesting.
The other thing that’s interesting is the announcement of it was clearly not blown out of proportion, I guess.
Um, Tim Cook tweeted about it at some point and said, you know, we’ll have something new to announce tomorrow or something like that, but it’s just really a release of a notification on their website, or maybe something went out to the press, I’m not part of that group, um, but it was really just there on their website and then the press gets ahold of it.
They talk about it.
And so it’s a little bit downplayed from what they may normally do.
So with the advent of Apple intelligence, many were thinking that the iPhone SE, which is now the 16E would need to get a bump because Apple’s not going to release anything that won’t handle Apple intelligence.
And so this is true of the 16E as well.
And so the price is not where it usually is.
In fact, I’ve seen a couple of things where people are talking about Apple, not having a phone available that’s under the $500 price range and whether that matters or not.
But this one is right there.
I think the base price is 599.
So still an expensive phone when you look at it that way.
Um, but a good phone nonetheless, depending, you know, for the price.
I mean, I paid way more than that.
I’ve got the 16 pro max.
Um, so it, it does come into that somewhat lower range, but it’s still a very good phone.
So one of the things, you know, that they did is, is really improved the camera on it.
They’re using their 48 megapixel sensor, which gives them a lot of capability and zoom to use the center part of that, that sensor to, um, I think they call it like double pixel or something like that.
Um, but really they’ve put a lot of focus as they often do, or always do into their camera system.
And on the 16 E it’s the same.
And so lots of ways to use that camera for a single lens phone.
It gives you lots of options and is a very good camera.
In fact, this is the sensor that, you know, when I listened to pundants, it’s the sensor that they like to use.
It’s the one that they use most often in that, um, center lens of the current iPhone pro type setup.
And, and so all in all, it’s updated the RAM to handle Apple intelligence.
It’s the base model comes in with a, I think a little bit more memory storage wise, and it is still though a very big phone.
So now Apple doesn’t make anything small.
This one is like 16, 16, 6.1 inch.
And so it’s still a good size phone, a big phone, and the screen is fantastic.
They’ve done a lot of things to make it a very good phone at a very reasonable price, I think.
And many say that value for dollar, this might be the best in Apple’s lineup.
So the phone is not available yet, but I think reviewers have it in their hands so that they can, you know, publish things about it.
And, and people who might be interested will know what the specs are and what it looks like.
And, and other things they might be able to know colors and just how it works and what it looks like and how it performs.
But one of the things that it looks like Apple left off was MagSafe charging.
And it’s, I agree with those who have written that that seems like a weird thing to leave off.
And then I also looked and said, and people are saying it’s kind of there, but kind of not there.
If you get a MagSafe case, then you can use a MagSafe charger and the phone will actually charge, but they didn’t put the magnets in the phone.
I don’t fully understand what Apple was doing at that point.
And I don’t know if that MagSafe option is that expensive where they had to leave it out.
I’m not really sure, but that feels like an oversight because MagSafe is kind of like, that’s what’s available and everything now.
And I don’t know why that wouldn’t be available in the 16e, but overall, it looks like a really good offering from Apple it’s not for me because that’s not where I live and mostly that’s not where my family lives I have a granddaughter who’s eight and if she was maybe a couple years older, this might be a good phone that her parents might want for her but it’s available.
It’s out there.
It’s a good phone.
It’s, it’s got good specs and it’s a phone that will last for some time and probably one that Apple needed to release.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytesatmerigfamily.com.
As always, I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes Microcast and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
