- The iPhone 17e is being tipped to reach subsequent 12 months
- A barely later launch date in May 2026 is rumored
- It suggests an annual refresh for the brand new ‘e’ collection
Given we needed to wait three years between the iPhone SE 3 and its sort-of successor the iPhone 16e, it was unclear what the improve cycle can be for essentially the most reasonably priced iPhone going ahead – however now it appears we’re set to get annual refreshes.
According to well-known tipster Fixed Focus Digital (by way of MacRumors), work on the iPhone 17e manufacturing line is now “on the agenda” (as per Google Translate), and we must always see the cellphone in May 2026 in keeping with a follow-up publish.
That’s a bit later within the 12 months than the iPhone 16e, which was after all unveiled in February of this 12 months. Maybe Apple is rearranging its schedule to try to increase gross sales, or to accommodate the iPhone 17 and 18, or to take care of the continued US tariff points.
This specific leak does not make any point out of what we are able to count on from the iPhone 17e, although a velocity bump is probably going. Apple most likely will not change an excessive amount of when it comes to the look of the handset, contemplating it acquired a reasonably large design revamp this 12 months.
What we need to see
If Apple does settle all the way down to an annual refresh of its ‘e’ line-up – very similar to the ‘a’ line-up for the Google Pixels – then that is to be applauded. Having extra choices when it comes to pricing and design when selecting smartphones is all the time good for customers.
There are two relatively apparent adjustments Apple may make with the iPhone 17e, nonetheless. The first is so as to add MagSafe, which was relatively surprisingly left off the iPhone 16e and meant that the cellphone was immediately incompatible with an entire vary of equipment.
The second change (which maybe contradicts the opposite one) can be to drop the value to one thing actually finances. The iPhone 16e begins at $599 / £599 / AU$999, in comparison with the $429 / £419 / AU$719 of its predecessor (albeit for 64GB of storage relatively than 128GB).
In our iPhone 16e evaluate, we known as the machine “a little bit of a irritating conundrum”, with some huge pluses and a few huge minuses to speak about. In different phrases, there’s positively room for enchancment with subsequent 12 months’s iPhone 17e.
