Apple iPhone 16e Review: Sexy But Pricey With Caveats

As you’d expect, the iPhone 16e runs iOS 18.4.1 (the latest version as of this writing), which includes some new AI features under the banner of Apple Intelligence. Clever naming aside, Apple Intelligence has been off to a rocky start since its debut last October. Right now, it’s very much a work in progress. Fortunately, though, the iPhone 16e supports Apple Intelligence thanks to its A18 SoC, which is a good thing for its long-term viability -- Apple will surely keep working on its AI offerings and the 16e should improve over time in this regard.

iPhone 16e Software And User Experience

We’re primarily Android users here at HotHardware, but we also use iPhones, and there are things we really like about iOS. Apple’s vertical ecosystem and tight control over hardware, software, and services allows devices to work together more easily and seamlessly. Continuity Camera, for example, lets you use your iPhone as a high-quality webcam for your Mac. AirDrop makes transferring files between Apple devices trivial and bulletproof.
Restoring data and apps from an old iPhone to a new iPhone is one another area where iOS really shines. Apple has made this simple and reliable – to the point where most of your apps remain signed in. But there are also things about iOS we don’t like. Notifications on iPhones are still messy in our opinion. The lack of icons in the status bar makes it difficult to know what notifications are pending without pulling down the notification tray.
Also, why are some notifications shown above the Notification Center and others within? Why does clearing all notifications only clear those within the Notification Center? We realize that the Notification Center is home to your notification history, but why can’t all notifications live there? There’s no such thing as “current” notifications. Once a notification arrives, it should be in your notification history until you clear it.

iOS also desperately needs a “back” gesture. It would make navigating the user interface a lot easier. Finally, the lack of a navigable file system on iPhones adds another layer of opacity to the user experience, especially for power users. Some of these limitations make it harder for us to be as productive on iOS as we are on Android. That being said, iOS apps are generally more polished than their Android counterparts.

Apple Intelligence

But now, let’s talk about AI, or Apple Intelligence. Here’s what it enables today. Writing Tools allow you to change (via prompt), proofread, rewrite (with friendly, professional, and concise presets), summarize (including key points, a list, or a table) any text that’s currently selected. You can also prompt ChatGPT to write something for you using the Compose option. This whole feature is pretty intuitive and rather useful.
Apple’s Mail app gains AI features with built-in summaries, Priority Messages (places more time-sensitive messages on top), and Smart Reply (suggests replies based on message content). Priority notifications and notification summaries use AI to prioritize and summarize your most important notifications based on content. Reduce Interruptions surfaces the most critical notifications when Focus mode is enabled.

In the Voice Memos app, Apple Intelligence can summarize transcripts of voice recordings. Image Playground, Image Wand, and Genmoji are generative AI image creation tools. With Image Playground (an app) and Image Wand (a feature in the Apple’s Notes app) you can generate AI images using a text and/or a photo/screenshot as a prompt. Image Wand further lets you turn a hand-drawn sketch into an AI-generated image.

We ran into some issues with Image Playground. While the app is in beta and Apple clearly warns that it ”may create unexpected results”, Apple Intelligence turned every photo of me and my spouse into uncanny-valley, hyper-gendered, much older-looking versions of us. Admittedly, I’m a bit of a tomboy, but even adding “create a more feminine version” as an additional text prompt made zero difference.
Samsung’s generative AI image creation tools did a much better job with my likeness, honestly. Check out our Galaxy Z Fold 6 review. Even just prompting Image Playground to create “hot hardware” didn’t result in compelling AI-generated images. Genmoji brings the same generative AI image creation feature to Apple’s emoji keyboard, with similarly mixed results. Fortunately, the AI tools in Apple’s Photos app are significantly more polished.

Remember the Zoe video feature that launched on the HTC One M7 Android phone over a decade ago? Apple offers something similar in its Photos app, but updated with a dash of AI. It’s called memory movie, and you can prompt it to create a short movie of “all the pizza I ate last fall, set to death metal”, for example. Similarly, you can now search photos and videos by simply describing what you’re looking for.
The Photos app also includes a generative AI editing tool called Clean Up that lets you remove objects or people from photos. Siri also gets an infusion of Apple Intelligence. This enables more natural interactions thanks to richer language understanding and better contextual awareness. Ask Siri how to use features on your iPhone and it will respond with clear written and spoken step-by-step instructions. Finally, Visual Intelligence lets you point your iPhone’s camera at places, animals, or plants to get information about them. Point at text to have Visual Intelligence read aloud, summarize, or translate. If the text contains an address or a date, you can lookup the address in Apple Maps, or add an event to the Calendar app. You can also ask ChatGPT to describe what it sees, or Google to search for what it sees.
Best of all, Apple Intelligence mostly runs locally on-device, or in the cloud using Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, and doesn’t store any personal data. Like other iPhones, the iPhone 16e ships with zero pre-installed bloatware, and is set to receive seven to eight years of security updates and OS upgrades. Apple doesn’t have a specific policy for this, but historically, that’s how long the company has supported iPhones in the past.

iPhone 16e Review Summary

The iPhone 16e is a great smartphone. It delivers a clean design, beautiful display, nice cameras, excellent speakers, solid performance, and good battery life. Apple’s C1 5G modem works well enough, too. Yes, Apple Intelligence needs more time to bake – but there’s no denying that Apple’s ecosystem is a major selling point. So, is the iPhone 16e worth $599? Unfortunately, we think it's priced a bit high.

Within the vacuum of Apple’s universe, the iPhone 16e makes perfect sense. It costs $599 and comes with a single rear camera. Spend $200 more for the iPhone 16 ($799) and you get two shooters around the back. Another $200 buys you the iPhone 16 Pro ($999) with three rear cameras. It’s all very elegant and methodical. Plus, no matter which iPhone 16 model you choose, you get the Action Button and the promise of better Apple Intelligence.