End of an era: Lightning gone, no more small iPhones, 128 GB standard
With the iPhone 16e, Apple has made a whole series of changes to its line-up: through improvements and omissions.
iPhone 16e in its two colors: Apple tidies up its portfolio.
(Image: Apple)
With the release of the iPhone 16e next week, Apple is making a lot of changes to its existing portfolio. The company is using the new entry-level device to cut out old habits and make some improvements – but in some cases in a way that may not please some customers. An overview.
Cutting out old habits
Lightning was actually already passé, at least in the EU: shortly before Christmas, Apple removed the iPhone 14, 14 Plus and the SE 3 from its range because they do not have the mandatory USB-C interface in the EU. However, this requirement does not exist in other regions of the world, which is why the Lightning interface in the iPhone has only now been completely phased out: With the launch of the 16e, the 14, 14 Plus and SE 3 models are being phased out of the market worldwide, but retailers are still selling them. This marks the end of the USB-C era in the Group's second mobile device after the iPad. Only the ancient first-generation Apple Pencil still has the interface, and Apple also still sells adapter cables.
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With the end of the SE 3, the last iPhone with a Home button will also be discontinued from the – range, along with Touch ID fingerprint recognition. This means that all iPhones on the market now use facial recognition (Face ID). LCD screens have also been buried in the iPhone: all models now have OLED. The Home button was introduced in 2007 with the launch of the first iPhone, Touch ID was added in 2013 and is still used on Macs and some iPads.
Setting new standards
Another innovation in the portfolio concerns the minimum amount of flash memory in the iPhone. With the SE 3, this was still just 64 GB for the entry-level model. With the 16e, there is no longer an iPhone that does not have at least 128 GB – This is not really much compared to the Android competition, but it is better than nothing. However, there has been no change to the RAM: although the 16e now has 8 GB instead of 6 GB as in the SE 3 to use Apple Intelligence, Apple still has devices without Apple Intelligence in its portfolio with the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, which only have 6 GB (LPDDR5).
Some users may find it annoying that Apple no longer has any compact iPhones in its range with the discontinuation of the SE 3. In the future, the screen size will start at 6.1 inches and will no longer be smaller. (The SE 3 had 4.7 inches.) Apple has not sold mini models (with 5.4 inches) since the iPhone 13 mini; they were replaced by Plus variants from the iPhone 14 onwards.
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