Should I upgrade my iPhone 16e?
The Apple iPhone 16e went on sale on 28 February 2025, launched at £599 (Apple Newsroom UK — iPhone 16e launch). It has a 6.1-inch display, a weight of 167 g, the A18 chip, a 48 MP main camera and 128 GB of storage to start. Apple claims up to 26 hours of video playback. Apple publishes no end date for its security updates. Every figure in the Apple iPhone 16e specifications below links the page it came from and the date it was read.
1.6 years oldNo published support end dateRead
Is it still supported?
Apple publishes no end date, and this site does not guess one. The support card on the iPhone 16e page says what is known and where it came from.endoflife.date — iPhone, retrieved 2026-08-19
What the iPhone 17 changes
This line has nothing newer on this site; the newest Apple phone within a year of it is the iPhone 17 at £799, released 19 September 2025. Judged row by row against our published thresholds; the full table is at iPhone 17 vs iPhone 16e.
On the makers’ figures and the named third-party sources, the iPhone 17 wins on peak brightness (3,000 nits against 1,200 nits), storage (base) (256 GB against 128 GB) and wireless charging (25 W from the maker against 7.5 W from GSMArena). 5 gaps are borderline, differences most people would not notice: display size (6.3 in against 6.1 in) for the iPhone 17, typical brightness (1,000 nits against 800 nits) for the iPhone 17, claimed video playback (30 h against 26 h) for the iPhone 17, fast charging (40 W against 20 W) for the iPhone 17 and Geekbench 6 (CPU, multi-core) (8,276 against 7,217, both from Geekbench Browser) for the iPhone 17. The differences in weight and battery capacity are below the thresholds you would notice. Both state the same HDR peak brightness, RAM, battery per charge and battery lifespan. The other 35 rows have no threshold or no direction to judge by, so nobody wins them.
- Peak brightness: 1,200 nits → 3,000 nits
- Storage (base): 128 GB → 256 GB
- Wireless charging: 7.5 W → 25 W
- Display size: 6.1 in → 6.3 in borderline; marginal — most people won’t notice.
- Typical brightness: 800 nits → 1,000 nits borderline; marginal — most people won’t notice.
- Claimed video playback: 26 h → 30 h borderline; marginal — most people won’t notice.
- Fast charging: 20 W → 40 W borderline; marginal — most people won’t notice.
- Geekbench 6 (CPU, multi-core): 7,217 → 8,276 borderline; marginal — most people won’t notice.
Other makers at the price
Phones from other makers released within a year of the iPhone 17 and priced within a quarter of its £799, nearest price first, each judged the same way against your iPhone 16e — or, where that pair is not one this site indexes, against the iPhone 17.
What yours is worth
Our reading of the figures
Apple publishes no end date for the iPhone 16e’s security updates, so support is not a reason to move until it is.
The iPhone 17 clears our noticeable threshold on 3 rows: peak brightness, storage (base), wireless charging. 5 more gaps are borderline, which most people would not notice. Nothing goes backwards.
At £799 new, less the £261 CeX was paying for a grade A iPhone 16e on 2026-02-20, the move costs about £538.
Every sentence above is built from the figures on this page by a rule, not written for this phone: a support date, the rows that clear a published threshold, a price and a trade-in. There is no score and no recommendation. The methodology page has the thresholds and where they come from. Every phone’s version of this page is listed at All upgrade questions.