The iPhone 17 Makes the iPhone 16e Even More Pointless We were pretty underwhelmed by the iPhone 16e when it debuted earlier this year, mostly due to its 599 dollar price tag, which makes it a poor replacement for a budget phone. And now that the iPhone 17 has arrived, the 16e makes even less sense. For 200 dollars more, you get a larger and better screen with ProMotion, support for MagSafe wireless charging, a zippier processor, two cameras instead of one, and double the storage. That price difference is significant, but the iPhone 17 is a far better deal as it is not nearly as limiting as the iPhone 16e, which should have been priced closer to 500 dollars to compete with something like the Pixel 9a. Last fall, I argued that the standard iPhone 16 was a smart buy given its revamped CPU and support for Apple Intelligence, and I think that remains true for the iPhone 17 with its many new features and identical price point. While Apple would love for more customers to jump to the 999 dollar iPhone Air or 1,099 dollar iPhone 17 Pro, it is still hard for a lot of people to stomach spending four figures on a smartphone. For everyone else, the iPhone 17 remains a solid device that will serve you well for many years. The addition of ProMotion support alone removes one of the feature gaps between the plain iPhone and the Pro models. It allows for a variable screen refresh rate of up to 120Hz, compared to the 60Hz limit of previous years. In practice, that means scrolling through websites and your social media feeds will look smoother and less headache-inducing. You will notice the difference immediately. And before Android fans jump in to brag, yes, we know that mid-range Android phones have offered high refresh rate screens for years. Apple is undoubtedly slow to react here, but the upgrade is still worth celebrating. The iPhone 17s screen is not just smoother than before, it genuinely looks better. Colors are more vivid, details are sharper and it is just more pleasant to look at. When it comes to cameras, the iPhone 17 improves its ultrawide shooter to 48 megapixels, joining the 48MP main sensor. But the big camera upgrade is actually on the front of the phone, thanks to the new Center Stage camera. It has been bumped to 18MP from 12MP, but more importantly, Apple also introduced a square sensor that lets you jump from landscape to portrait orientations without rotating your phone. By making it easier to take selfies, it follows that you will start to take even more of them, ultimately tying yourself into Apples ecosystem even further. And speaking of features available on all of the new iPhones, the standard iPhone 17 also supports Dual Capture, which lets you record video using the front and rear cameras at the same time. Center Stage keeps your face in the middle of the frame during those shots as well, which might make Apples implementation of Dual Capture more effective than what we have seen from Samsung and other phone makers. I could have seen Apple gatekeeping this feature for the more powerful iPhone Air and 17 Pro models, but it is nice to see it on the vanilla entry. Similar to selfies, it only benefits Apple if you are using your devices more to produce content, and I could see Dual Capture footage becoming a big deal on Instagram and TikTok. While Apple is keeping the iPhone 16 around at 699 dollars, it genuinely makes more sense to jump straight to the 799 dollar iPhone 17 for all of the reasons mentioned above. But if you find a good deal on a refurbished iPhone 16, that is another story. It is still a very capable phone, and it is compatible with Apple Intelligence features as well. Aside from lowering the price, there is not much else the iPhone 17 is missing. And for anyone who needs something more fashionable or powerful, the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro are right there. The only missing hole in the iPhone lineup is a budget option that is cheaper than the 599 dollar iPhone 16e. Hopefully, that will be something a future iPhone 17e might be able to solve.
