Apple iPhone 16e Review: specs and features, camera quality test, gaming benchmark, user opinions and photos

Apple iPhone 16e - the odd one out among bestsellers

The desire of the American company Apple to expand the flagship line of smartphones surprised many fans of the brand, because the new product did not have a significant marketing campaign. However, this fact becomes clearer with a thorough analysis of the gadget. Unfortunately, it seems that it will not have the success of its older brothers.

The appearance of the device is clearly outdated. A huge cutout for the front 12-megapixel camera with FaceID, wide display frames, a lonely photo module on the rear glass panel look like a greeting from 2020. Thank God that at least the metal frame is in place. The 6.1-inch AMOLED screen is good in terms of picture clarity with a resolution of 2532x1170 pixels, but in other respects it lags behind its competitors in the price category. The brightness reserve of 1200 nits is not outstanding, the color rendering is not perfectly calibrated, and there is no increased refresh rate. The oleophobic coating is effective, there are no complaints about it.

There are no questions about the performance either, because the proprietary A18 chipset, working with 8 GB of RAM, copes with any tasks. Yes, in AnTuTu the processor scores about one and a half million points, but the amazing software optimization allows you to enjoy the extremely responsive operation of the device, and all existing games without exception run at maximum graphics settings. At the same time, it is impossible to criticize the CPU for excessive heating, low energy efficiency. Even from a 3279 mAh battery, you can really get more than a day of active use of the device. But the power of wired charging is limited to a modest 25 W by today's standards, and the wireless alternative is completely disappointing with a ridiculous 7.5 W. The permanent memory can be 128/256/512 GB depending on the configuration.

The only main 48-megapixel module is difficult to criticize. It has no problems with both daytime and evening photo and video shooting, the detail of even dynamic objects is preserved with little noise. But the lack of both a telephoto lens and a wide-angle sensor seriously limits the range of shooting scenarios. There is stereo sound, everything is fine with it both in terms of volume and volume. Separately, we highlight the protection from dust and moisture according to IP68 standards, support for 5G and eSIM, contactless payment NFC. However, is this phone necessary when there is a 15th model for a similar price? Hardly.