New just-the-basics phone replaces the year-old iPhone 16e at the same price.
Apple’s biggest iPhone announcements usually happen in September, but for the second year in a row, the company is also introducing a new iPhone in March. The iPhone 17e is a new version of Apple’s basic no-frills iPhone, replacing last year’s iPhone 16e. The phone will be available to preorder on March 4 and will be available on March 11, starting at $599.
The new iPhone includes an Apple A19 chip similar to the one in the more-expensive iPhone 17—both phones have six CPU cores, but the 17e only gets four GPU cores instead of five. The phone’s cellular modem is also upgraded, from the original Apple C1 to an Apple C1X capable of faster speeds. Like the A18 in the iPhone 16e, the iPhone 17e also supports Apple Intelligence, implying that it has the same 8GB of RAM as the iPhone 17. Apple says the new Ceramic Shield 2 front glass (also used in the iPhone 17) will be more durable and that the “Apple-designed coating” on the display is three times more scratch-resistant than the coating on the iPhone 16e and better at reducing reflections and glare.
But there are two more-noticeable upgrades that help close the gap between the iPhone 17e and the regular iPhone 17. The first is support for MagSafe charging, a notable omission from the iPhone 16e. The second is an upgrade from 128GB to 256GB of storage in the base model, which makes the $599 version of the phone a more attractive deal. A 512GB version of the phone is available for $799.
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