iPhone 17e review: Apple upgrades its cheapest new smartphone

A picture


The cheapest new iPhone has been upgraded for this year with a faster chip, double the storage, automatic portraits and MagSafe, providing even more of the core Apple smartphone experience for less,The Guardian’s journalism is independent,We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link,Learn more,The iPhone 17e is an upgraded version of the mid-range “e” line launched last year with the first iPhone 16e and is the latest member of the iPhone 17 family.

It starts at £599 (€699/$599/A$999), undercutting the iPhone 17 and iPhone 16 by £200 and £100 respectively to be the cheapest new iPhone sold by Apple.The new 17e is the spitting image of the model it replaces, giving it the older iPhone 14-like design with a large notch at the top of the screen and a slower 6.1in OLED screen.The aluminium sides feel great and the screen glass has been upgraded to the latest Ceramic Shield 2, which is tougher and includes an extremely effective anti-glare treatment that makes it a lot easier to see outdoors.Screen: 6.

1in Super Retina XDR (OLED) (460ppi)Processor: Apple A19 (4-core GPU)RAM: 8GBStorage: 256 or 512GBOperating system: iOS 26Camera: 48MP rear; 12MP front-facingConnectivity: 5G, wifi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C, Satellite and GNSSWater resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 mins)Dimensions: 146.7 x 71.5 x 7.8mmWeight: 170gThe 17e has the A19 chip from the regular iPhone 17 but with one less GPU core, which reduces graphics performance slightly.

Not that anyone will probably notice, as the phone is very fast and still capable of handling top-spec games,It also has a decent 256GB of storage as standard, which should be enough space for most with additional cloud backup,The battery life is great, too, lasting a good 52 hours between charges with general usage across 5G and wifi, meaning most will need to charge it every other night,The 17e lacks a few of the more advanced hardware features common to Apple’s other phones, including wifi 7, Thread and Ultra Wideband (UWB), the latter of which is used for the precision finding tool and for some digital car keys, among other features,The battery should last in excess of 1,000 full-charge cycles, with at least 80% of its original capacity, and can be replaced for £95.

Out-of-warranty screen repairs cost £225.The 17e has repair guides available and was awarded seven out of 10 for repairability by the specialists iFixit.It contains more than 30% recycled material including aluminium, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, plastic, rare earth elements, steel, tin and tungsten.The company breaks down the phone’s environmental impact in its report, and offers trade-in and free recycling schemes including for non-Apple products.The 17e has a single 48MP camera on the back and therefore, like the iPhone Air, lacks ultrawide and telephoto options, which means if you physically cannot move back or forwards to your subject you will not be able to get the shot.

The camera at least captures good photos across a range of lighting conditions and can manage a 2x crop zoom for a tiny bit of magnification,It also now automatically captures portrait shots from the main photo mode, allowing you to change the focus and depth of a picture after the fact,The 17e lacks a macrophotography mode, which is a shame,It also has the same 12MP selfie camera from older iPhones, which is fine, rather than Apple’s latest 18MP automatic panning Centre Stage camera,The iPhone 17e costs from £599 (€699/$599/A$999) with 256GB of storage.

For comparison, the iPhone 17 costs £799, the iPhone Air costs £999, the Google Pixel 10a costs £499 and the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE costs £499.Apple is slowly adding more of the core iPhone features to its cheaper “e” line, which makes the iPhone 17e a better buy than last year’s iPhone 16e.That includes most of what you would expect: a fast chip, Face ID, MagSafe, long battery life and access to all the software.The screen is decent but slower and less smooth than the rest of the iPhone 17 line.The older design lacks the camera control button, an always-on screen and has a large notch at the top, but still feels good in the hand.

One of the biggest downsides is the single camera on the back, which captures great photos but limits the type of shots you can get.If you are at all interested in photography, this is not the phone for you.As with its predecessor, the 17e only makes sense if you want the absolute cheapest new iPhone Apple sells and will not settle for anything else.For everyone else the iPhone 16 is available new from third-party retailers for about the same price or less refurbished.Pros: fast, decent screen, great size, action button, USB-C, great battery life, MagSafe, long software support, Face ID, at least 256GB storage.

Cons: single camera only and no macro mode, no camera control button, old-style screen design, no wifi 7, no Thread or UWB, still expensive.
sportSee all
A picture

US high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus wins 800m to become youngest ever indoor world champion

US teenager Cooper Lutkenhaus made history on Sunday when he won gold in the 800m to becomes the youngest ever champion at the world indoor athletics championship.The 17-year-old, who took time off from his classes at Northwest High School in Texas to compete at the championships, won gold with a time of 1min 44.24sec, 0.14 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Eliott Crestan. Mohamed Attaoui of Spain won bronze

A picture

GB strike golden treble at world indoors with Hodgkinson, Hunter Bell and Caudery

Amid a gold rush for the ages, one image became instantly seared on the mind: Georgia Hunter Bell, Molly Caudery and Keely Hodgkinson jumping in pure delirium, before screaming in delight as they revelled in surely the greatest night for British athletics since the London 2012 Olympics.You could hear them high in the stands in Torun. And, one hopes, even louder in homes up and down the land. For across 29 enthralling minutes they delivered echoes of Super Saturday with three brilliant world indoor championship gold medals one after another. Bang

A picture

Chessum makes Tigers purr on return from England duty as Bristol fall short

Swapping the bright Saturday night lights of the Stade de France for the rusty old Crumbie Stand can be a real mental challenge. There is ­certainly less demand for foie gras in Aylestone but for certain people nothing beats a constant diet of rugby. England’s Ollie Chessum did occasionally look a tad weary during another selfless 80-minute shift but a vital 33-19 Leicester win made all those hard yards worthwhile.The result not only hoists the Tigers into third place in the Prem table but Gabriel Hamer-Webb’s spectacular last-gasp try earned what could prove a key extra point when the playoff maths are totted up. Bristol, who had been pressing for a couple of bonus points of their own, were ultimately left empty-handed and down in fifth place after a game that was never less than intense and absorbing

A picture

Giants’ Cam Skattebo says his denial of CTE and asthma were part of a ‘tasteless joke’

New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo has apologized for saying that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and asthma are “fake”, insisting that his comments were not meant to be taken seriously.In an appearance on the Bring the Juice podcast, the 24-year-old was asked whether he believes CTE – a degenerative brain condition linked to repeated head trauma – is real. Skattebo called the condition an “excuse”, before making a similar claim about asthma.“Yeah, asthma’s fake too,” Skattebo said, adding that people should “just breathe air”.After receiving widespread backlash for his comments, Skattebo offered a retraction on social media

A picture

Bereft Bombers poke, prod and point fingers against Port. What were they even trying to do? | Jonathan Horn

Heading into the season, Essendon released a mini-documentary called “Spend a day with Brad Scott”. To be honest, it didn’t really present as the most riveting 24 hours. Most of it took place in a classroom type setting, with the coaches and players endeavouring to bed down a team defence. They sat with their notepads and biros, nodding and jotting and giving every impression that they were taking it all in. Clearly this was something that needed to be taught, that needed to be learned, and that needed to be swiftly implemented

A picture

Arozarena sorry after expletive-laced comments about Mariners teammate Raleigh at WBC

Randy Arozarena says he has apologized to his Seattle Mariners teammate Cal Raleigh after an incident at this month’s World Baseball Classic.Arozarena was representing Mexico against Raleigh’s USA when the teams met at the WBC on 9 March. Raleigh ignored Arozarena’s offer of a handshake during an at-bat, a move that angered the outfielder. In a later interview, Arozarena said Raleigh could “fuck off” and “go to hell.” Raleigh downplayed the incident, saying “we’re good friends and we’ll continue to be good friends”