Apple's cheap iPhone trick gets another lazy rerun. The iPhone 17e is supposedly heading into mass production right after CES wraps up, sticking to a first-quarter reveal. This budget model will be almost identical to last year's iPhone 16e. The only real changes are a slower version of the new A19 chip and a screen upgrade. It will get a 6.1-inch OLED panel with the Dynamic Island cutout, ditching the older notch design. Chinese supplier BOE is tipped to provide most of these displays.
Under the hood, it is not all new tech. The phone will reportedly use Apple's older C1 5G modem, not the newer C2 or C1X versions. This cost-saving move matches the strategy with the chip. The A19 inside will be downclocked, a repeat of how the iPhone 16e used a weaker A18 with a cut-down GPU. Performance might land close to an A17 Pro chip. Pricing will likely stay at 599 dollars, but the base storage could double to 256 gigabytes. Beyond that, details are slim until Apple makes it official.
Under the hood, it is not all new tech. The phone will reportedly use Apple's older C1 5G modem, not the newer C2 or C1X versions. This cost-saving move matches the strategy with the chip. The A19 inside will be downclocked, a repeat of how the iPhone 16e used a weaker A18 with a cut-down GPU. Performance might land close to an A17 Pro chip. Pricing will likely stay at 599 dollars, but the base storage could double to 256 gigabytes. Beyond that, details are slim until Apple makes it official.
