KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 \u2014\u00a0Affordable and Apple as concepts are far apart.<\/p>\n
Apple\u2019s positioning as a premium brand means that the \u201ccheapest\u201d Apple product still feels pricier than any of the competition.<\/p>\n
Then the iPhone 17e comes along and is surprisingly priced similarly to Samsung\u2019s own \u201cvalue\u201d phone, the Samsung S25FE.<\/p>\n
Value is not the same as budget, understand.<\/p>\n
This segment belongs to phones that might not pass for the highest-end model in the range, but instead offers enough features to not feel like you\u2019re missing too much.<\/p>\n
Like Samsung\u2019s FE or \u201cfan editions\u201d and the iPhone SEs.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t low-end<\/p>\n
But \u2018Erna, isn\u2019t that just a midrange phone?\u2019<\/p>\n
No, midrange phones are the dullest phones, generally.<\/p>\n
Better than entry-level but unexciting.<\/p>\n
While the iPhone 17e is the cheapest iPhone, it doesn\u2019t feel cheap and that\u2019s what makes the difference.<\/p>\n
The iPhone 17e is what the 16e should have been\u2014with MagSafe support and starting at 256GB storage.<\/p>\n
With mobile operating systems growing in size, the previous 128GB starting storage would be inadequate.<\/p>\n
As a successor to the iPhone SE, the 17e still feels premium in the hand without the heft of the larger iPhone models.<\/p>\n
While you will need to surgically detach the iPhone 17 Pro Max from my wrist, I find that for a lot of people the 17e would be \u201cgood enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Examining your aspirations<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t actually take that many photos with my phone,\u201d my friend said, saying that the 17e was what he was likely upgrading to once he retired his current iPhone.<\/p>\n
Apple knows that many people don\u2019t or won\u2019t take advantage of Pro features\u2014the best camera, the best battery (on the Pro Max), more GPU cores.<\/p>\n
The average person will use their phone like this: discussing where to eat for the upcoming birthday in the family WhatsApp group chat, take pictures of the event\u2019s attendees and the receipt or if you\u2019re my mother, reply my WhatsApp messages the next day.<\/p>\n
Her phone, I think, exists solely to forward me WhatsApp or YouTube links.<\/p>\n
With phones it has come down to whether you prefer Android to iOS but that aside, most people won\u2019t need a Pro; they just want one.<\/p>\n
What you should know<\/p>\n
The 17e has a more durable display thanks to an upgraded Ceramic Shield but if you want to slap one on anyway, iPhone 13\/13 Pro and 14 screen protectors will fit just fine as they share the same 6.1-inch screen dimensions.<\/p>\n
You will have a slightly better gaming experience on the 17e as it uses the A19 chip that is also used in the iPhone 17 line though its chip has a 4-core GPU as compared to the Pro models\u2019 6-core GPU.<\/p>\n
Now the camera\u2014it comes with a 48mp wide rear cam with 2x zoom and a slightly improved 12MP TrueDepth front camera.<\/p>\n
Since I\u2019m in Kota Kinabalu for a week, I\u2019ll be writing an update dedicated mostly to said camera, which had just one main shortcoming for me\u2026 which you\u2019ll find out next week.<\/p>\n
My review unit is in the shade Soft Pink, a nice alternative to the current black and white shades the 16e came in.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a very delicate pink, think blush rose pink, that will appeal to those who like their shades muted, their tones not-so-garish.<\/p>\n
(I still think a hot pink iPhone Pro could have emptied out shelves during Barbie year but that\u2019s another story.)<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for next week where I decide whether this phone is \u201cnot bad\u201d or \u201cspend more money on the 17 instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 \u2014\u00a0Affordable and Apple as concepts are far apart. Apple\u2019s positioning as a premium brand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[183138,39128,44526,91385,183137,342,111,139,69,183136,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-343335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-a19-chip","9":"tag-ceramic-shield","10":"tag-iphone-17e","11":"tag-kota-kinabalu","12":"tag-magsafe-support","13":"tag-mobile","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-samsung-s25fe","18":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}