iPhone 16e First Look: Unboxing, Setup, and Initial Impressions

In this podcast, Michael Hansen takes a first look at Apple's iPhone 16e, the latest member of the iPhone 16 family. He unboxes the device, goes through setup, and gives his initial impressions.

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by Aiko, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello Apple Vis.

This is Michael Hansen.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

I hope you're having a great day.

In this podcast, I'm going to be unboxing, setting up, and giving my initial first impressions of the iPhone 16e.

The iPhone 16e is the latest member of the iPhone 16 family.

It has all kind of the same foundational features as the rest of the iPhone 16 models.

So the A18 processor, Apple intelligence, things like that, but it comes at a more affordable price point.

I say more affordable because it's still a little bit more than kind of what I, and I think probably think it's safe to say many others, were hoping for.

For reference here, the devices start out at $599 for the 16e, $799 for the 16, $899 for the 16+, $999 for the 16 Pro, and $1199 for the 16 Pro Max.

But the other side of it is that this device has a lot, and I mean a lot of the same features as the more expensive, kind of the more costly other iPhone 16 models.

It's got the action button, it's got the A18 processor, so there's no chipset, a generation behind, anything like that.

It's got some new tech in there as well, and it's got the Apple C1, the new Apple C1 modem, which is going to deliver, hopefully deliver better battery life, the best battery life Apple says on a 6.1 inch phone.

It also has the action button, which is really, really cool, and it's got some interesting uses, not just in terms of the types of things that you can do with it for turning off and on focus, which is what I use my personal unit for.

But also you could even have it go to the home screen.

Speaking of the home screen on the iPhone 16e, this device has face ID and does not have a home button, and I know that as soon as I say that, there is probably going to be a subset of people going, what, no home button, and that's okay.

Don't feel bad if that's you, if the transition away from the home button concerns you.

Don't be embarrassed about it, don't be ashamed of it.

There's plenty of ways to make it work.

There's some new gestures for going to the home screen and other functions like that.

If the gestures are too difficult or just flat out don't work for you, you can always remap some voiceover gestures, some existing ones, or my favorite is you can use the action button to trigger a shortcut to take you right to the home screen.

That's really, really cool.

So Apple was kind enough to lend me an iPhone 16e and a case for review, and they sent me the white, I was thinking gold, these phones come in white and black, there is no gold.

Apple sent me the white iPhone 16e 512 gigabyte storage and a white silicone case.

I've got the boxes right here, so let's go ahead and I'll tell you about the case first because I like to, when I take a phone out, I like to immediately put it in a case.

So let's go ahead and open this up…