Apple iPhone 16e vs Apple iPhone SE 3 (2022): A one-sided fight

The iPhone SE is no more. It has shuffled off this mortal coil. The iPhone SE is dead. But Apple’s most affordable phone is not gone completely. It has been resurrected; brought back to life in the form of the Apple iPhone 16e. At a surprise launch, announced just a week prior, Apple announced what could be its most significant new phone in years – but made very little fuss over it.

The iPhone 16e replaces the iPhone SE in Apple’s range of smartphones, but it isn’t the usual incremental update. It’s a complete overhaul – the biggest update for the budget model since it was first released way back in 2016 – and if you have the old one, upgrading is a no brainer. But if you’re still unsure, here’s a point by point breakdown of exactly where the two phones differ.

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iPhone 16e vs iPhone SE 3 (2022): Price, design and display

• Bigger, better display
• More modern aesthetic
• Only available in black and white
• Price is now £599

Put the iPhone 16e and the iPhone SE 3 (2022) next to each other and the difference is obvious. On every point, the iPhone 16e is the superior phone. It has a bigger 6.1in screen with a higher pixel density. It uses OLED technology for vibrant colours and intense contrast, it’s sharper and it fills the front of the screen from edge to edge. It’s brighter, supports HDR properly and is topped with tougher Ceramic Shield glass, too, so it’s far less likely to pick up scratches and scuffs.

The old SE, on the other hand suffers from a far smaller screen, huge bezels at the top and bottom of the screen and much lower levels of brightness and sharpness.

Design changes are usually quite minimal from generation to generation of iPhone but in the case of the iPhone SE to iPhone 16e transition, the differences are night and day. It’s a bigger phone, naturally, but the bezels wrapping around the screen lend it a more elegant, slimline look. And compared with the rounded edges of the old SE, the iPhone 16e’s flat edges mean it looks much more modern.

I also prefer the larger camera housing on the rear and the phone has a superior water resistance rating as well.

The home button/TouchID is gone, as has the old physical do-not-disturb switch, and instead, we have a Face ID camera and the new customisable action button. Again, some might bemoan the loss of Touch ID but in my opinion, once you’ve got used to how well Face ID works, you’ll never look back.

The Action Button is more divisive but serves the same purpose, and as a bonus, it’s now customisable. By default it’s used to silence and un-silence the phone, but you can also use it to launch your favourite controls, fire up the translate function, Shazam your music, open the camera and more.

There are two black marks against the iPhone 16e in this section. The first is that the price has risen: the cheapest variant is now £599, having risen from £429, and it’s only available in black or white. If you cut yourself off from the buying an iPhone 16e because it isn’t available in pink, well, that’s something I’ll leave to you and your therapist.

Winner: Apple iPhone 16e – no contest

iPhone 16e vs iPhone SE 3 (2022): Performance, battery and charging

• Faster performance
• Higher levels of efficiency
• Charging speeds remains the same

In previous versions, the iPhone SE has lagged a generation behind when it comes to the processor inside the phone. This time, however, Apple has brought the iPhone 16e fully up to date.

Inside the new handset is the Apple A18 SoC. That’s the same as inside the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus and it’s backed up by 8GB of RAM with a base 128GB of storage. This is an order of magnitude superior to the old iPhone SE’s A15 chip, backed by  6GB of RAM and 64GB of base storage. To give you an idea of how much faster than the old phone the new one is likely to be, check out this Geekbench 6 chart:

Not only does it mean the new phone is faster than before but also that the phone is fully compatible with Apple Intelligence, so you can explore features like the writing tools (proofreading), generate your own emoji with Genmoji and get more interactive, useful responses from Siri.

More important than pure performance and a handful of AI features, however, is the fact that the A18 is a more efficient chip than the A15. That, combined with what must be a larger battery (and a more efficient Apple-manufactured 5G modem), means battery life has been boosted by a significant degree. Apple is quoting battery life of at least 12 hours more than every previous model of iPhone SE. Considering how poor battery life was in the SE, this can only be a good thing.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is charging speeds. As before, wired charging is at 20W and you’ll get up to 50% of charge in 30 minutes, while wireless charging speeds of up to 7.5W are also supported, which is also the same as before. The iPhones 16e has moved to USB-C, though, which is a major improvement over Lightning.

Winner: iPhone 16e (probably)

iPhone 16e vs iPhone SE 3 (2022): Cameras and video

• Higher 48-megapixel resolution with Apple’s latest Fusion Camera technology
• 4K Dolby Vision recording
• No ultrawide or optical telephoto

If you’ve read down this far, then you probably won’t be surprised to discover that the iPhone 16e’s camera system is another big upgrade over the iPhone SE (2022).

Described as a “2-in-1” camera system on Apple’s website – a nod to Apple’s fancy digital zoom capabilities – the 16e has a single 48-megapixel main camera with an aperture of f/1.6, captures 24-megapixel images by default and has 2x telephoto images at 12-megapixel. Video is now captured in Dolby Vision format – another notable upgrade.

The iPhone SE (2022), by contrast, came with a far inferior 12-megapixel camera with a dimmer aperture of f/1.8, and no Dolby Vision video capture. Its 7-megapixel selfie camera is a downgrade on the iPhone 16e’s, too, giving away 5-megapixels to the newer handset.

Of course, quality is not all about megapixels and specifications, but it stands to reason that a more modern camera coupled with a newer image signal processor is going to produce superior imagery and video footage. It’s just a shame that Apple decided not to add an extra ultrawide camera or optical telephoto zoom camera, when key rivals (like the Google Pixel 8a, for instance) do offer that feature.

Winner: iPhone 16e (almost certainly)

iPhone 16e vs iPhone SE 3 (2022): Verdict

Of course, we haven’t actually tested the iPhone 16e yet, so it might be that it isn’t as good as its cracked up to be. But as far as a comparison between this phone and its predecessor goes, it’s about as one-sided a fight as I’ve ever seen.

Indeed, if these two phones were boxers, the iPhone 16e would have had the iPhone SE on the ropes in the first round and knocked out in the second – Apple’s Mike Tyson to Marvis Frazier, if you like.

The one big fly in the ointment, however, is that high £599 price tag, making the newer phone a solid £170 more expensive than the older handset. I strongly suspect it will be well worth the extra cost, though, and with improvements all round – to the screen, battery life, performance, camera and features – it’s an absolute no-brainer of an upgrade for those who currently own an older iPhone SE.

Overall winner: It’s a no brainer – the iPhone 16e sweeps the board