Apple has launched the iPhone 17e , a cheaper version of its flagship phone.
The new device includes an updated chip and better wireless charging, alongside other hardware improvements. Those also allow for new features, such as Apple’s updated portraits feature, which recognises animals and saves depth data so that the photos can be blurred after the fact.
It still retains a number of notable drawbacks from the more expensive iPhone 17 and 17 Pro, including the fact that it has only one camera.
The announcement of the new phone comes at the beginning of a week of product launches for Apple, which is also expected to announce updated MacBooks and other devices.
Apple has also been long working towards an improved version of Siri, which will borrow technology from Google and be able to answer questions using the personal context it has about its owner. It remains unclear whether that will be a part of this week’s announcements.
The price of the iPhone 17e starts at the same $599 or £599 as its predecessor, though it doubles the starting storage to 256GB. It comes in three colours: black, white, and pink.
It comes with a 6.1-inch screen, the same as the iPhone 16E that was released last year. But that display has been upgraded with Ceramic Shield 2 glass, which Apple says is three times harder to scratch and shows less glare.
It also gets an upgraded modem – the C1X, which is one of the first made by Apple itself – as well as improvements to that one camera.
