The iPhone 17e is more than good enough for $599

As it was expected for months – and all but confirmed by Apple itself last week – the company just announced the latest version of its most affordable smartphone. The iPhone 17e will start at the same $599 price as the 2025 iPhone 16e when it becomes available on March 11th, sporting a number of improvements that make it an even better deal for mainstream consumers. It will be available for preorder beginning Wednesday, March 4th – in black, white and soft pink – and it’s expected to replace its predecessor worldwide shortly after.

There are two specific upgrades worthy of note here, one having to do with storage and another one having to do with accessories and charging. At the same price point, the base model of the iPhone 17e comes with 256GB of storage instead of 128GB which, in 2026 terms, is good enough for most people – truth be told, 128GB was not OK even in 2025 terms, so that’s more like it. This new entry-level iPhone also supports MagSafe accessories – offering faster wireless charging in the process – and battery life is expected to be about the same as last year’s model so, again, good enough for most people at around 25 hours of video playback time.

There’s a small number of other improvements worth mentioning too: all iPhone 17e users should enjoy faster Internet access when out and about, for instance, as the new model sports Apple’s own C1X modem. The new model’s screen, featuring Ceramic Shield 2, is more resistant to scratches, while the main camera (still a 48-Megapixel one) is more capable thanks to smarter software control. The A19 processor the iPhone 17e is based on is considerably faster in games and AI-related functionality, although most people will probably not notice that much of a difference in every day tasks and typical use compared to the A18 one of the 16e.

Everything else – design, size, weight, screen resolution/refresh rate, front camera, USB-C connectivity – remains pretty much the same. In typical Apple fashion, the iPhone 17e is also available with 512GB of storage but, at $799, it’s obviously not as good a deal as the base model. What’s more, at the same price point ($799) the base iPhone 17 offers higher value overall, sporting a better screen, a superior camera system and longer battery life. Then again, the iPhone 17 is basically the best iPhone deal so far for that amount of money, so…

What the base iPhone 17e brings to the smartphone market for $599 is still interesting, though, because – compared to typical Android-based models available at a similar or even higher price point – there’s the software side of things to consider. The iPhone 17e will probably be getting system, feature and security updates from Apple long after the vast majority of those similarly-priced, competing smartphones are left behind by their manufacturers, which is something increasingly important to more and more consumers nowadays. The iPhone 16e did quite well in 2025 (it was among the ten best-selling smartphones globally) and the iPhone 17e clearly deserves to do even better. Not a small feat, that, for $599.