Key Takeaways:
- Features: Apple may include MagSafe in the iPhone 17E.
- Release date: It could happen as soon as February.
- Amount: There have been no leaks regarding the price hike, which is good news for now.
- Design: It can get Dynamic Island and look like iPhone 15.
Apple’s low cost The iPhone line it is expected to continue with the iPhone 17E which is reported to be released early this year. If that’s true, the successor to last year’s iPhone 16E has a lot of room for improvement.
Other rumors point to improvements borrowed from Apple’s Apple 15, such as Dynamic Island and MagSafe. If this is true, it would make the low-cost iPhone 17E a compelling value option with few trade-offs required to reach the lower price.
Apple’s $599 iPhone 16E was a surprise when it was released last year. It was replaced Apple costs $429 for the iPhone SEeffectively ditched the old iPhone SE design featuring a home button with Touch ID. Apple’s new “budget” device was a very expensive combination, consisting of a body of iPhone 14 with a display notch. It also had the USB-C port from the iPhone 15 and the A18 processor from the iPhone 16 to support Apple Intelligence features.
To save money, Apple cut back on features by including only one 48-megapixel primary camera and skipped the ability to use Apple’s MagSafe clip (although it retained standard wireless charging). While the iPhone 16E is a solid entry-level iPhone, I’ve found this is what is left to be It’s confusing, especially since Apple has raised the price of this entry-level iPhone from $429 to $599.
The iPhone 16E features a single rear camera.
The iPhone 17E could follow the playbook next to Samsung Galaxy S25 FE. It will have many of the same features as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17, such as a small notch for the screen and the A19 processor, as well as minor setbacks in the hardware that may be a little noticeable.
Apple has yet to confirm whether the iPhone 17E is here, but we’re keeping an eye out for it. Here are the rumors we’ve heard so far, with features that could help or hinder the budget-friendly iPhone 17E.
Watch this: iPhone 16E review
iPhone 17E release date: February 2026
The iPhone 17E could be announced as early as February, according to a Mashable report citing the Digital Chat Station Weibo account. The phone is said to be launched in the first half of the year. This will be consistent with iPhone 16E announcement for February 2025establishing winter as Apple’s preferred launch window for cheaper iPhone models.
There are also rumors that suggest The base iPhone 18 will be launched in the first half of 2027, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.
The rumored iPhone 17E is said to include the Dynamic Island screen cutout seen on the iPhone 15 (pictured here).
iPhone 17E Design: Gets Dynamic Island
Another feature that made the iPhone 16E stand out was Apple’s new design, which featured an iPhone 14 body, a USB-C port and a single camera.
The iPhone 17E, however, will look like the iPhone 15 of 2023, with a small Dynamic Island cutout, according to the same Digital Chat Station Weibo post. The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a 6.1-inch notch display, including resizable notifications for timers and app alerts, like Uber pickups. The display could have smaller bezels around it compared to the iPhone 16E, Elec said.
This design is supported by the Smart Pikachu Weibo account, which also notes that the iPhone 17E will have a 60Hz refresh rate screen rather than the 120Hz seen across the iPhone 17 and iPhone Air line. It would be nice to see the 17E with a 120Hz display, called ProMotion by Apple. But this is one area that might be a little less obvious to people coming from an earlier iPhone SE or an older base model like the iPhone 14.
While Apple’s ProMotion displays have been available on Pro models for years — and on nearly every Android phone costing $300 and up — the smooth images and always-on displays they offer won’t be seen from a phone that’s never had one.
MagSafe has been included with many iPhone models since 2020, and there are rumors that it will also come to the iPhone 17E.
iPhone 17E features: MagSafe wireless charging
I was surprised that Apple didn’t include MagSafe with last year’s iPhone 16E. The feature, which allows the attachment of magnetic accessories such as chargers and wallets outside the case, has been present in most iPhone models since 2020. It feels like a strange omission, since Apple has offered MagSafe charging and magnetic profiles at the Qi2 level, both on Google’s Pixel 10 phones, HMD’s Skyline, and its own. Clicks Connector.
The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a glass back that supports magnetic wireless charging — which could mean the phone will get the ability to magnetically attach to MagSafe and Qi2 devices, according to a report by The Information seen by 9to5Mac. This would be a huge improvement for someone coming to this phone from an iPhone SE or iPhone 11both of which support Qi wireless charging but don’t include magnets for attaching accessories and cases.
Although we will need more details, hopefully the inclusion of MagSafe means that the wireless charging speed of the iPhone 17E will increase to at least 15 watts, which is in line with the iPhone 15.
The iPhone 16E features an A18 processor, which allows it to play games like Resident Evil 4 Remake.
iPhone 17E price
We’ll continue to update this story as more iPhone 17E rumors come in. Although there is not much about the price of the rumored phone, it is from last year The iPhone 16E starts at $599 for the 128GB model. I hope the iPhone 17E starts at 256GB of storage, like the base iPhone 17. Apple still sells both the 16E and the The iPhone 16 is 128GB, and the latter starts at $699.
