Technologies
iPhone 16E vs. iPhone 16: How Apple’s Phones Compare
The $599 iPhone 16E scales back on some features, but shares many similarities with the $799 iPhone 16. Here’s everything to consider.

The $599 iPhone 16E is Apple’s most affordable iPhone, and it shares many features with the $799 iPhone 16. But there are also features you’ll have to sacrifice for that $200 discount.
While some core components like the A18 chip, iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence are on both devices, there are differences across cameras, design and battery.
Here’s how the iPhone 16E compares to the baseline iPhone 16.
Display and build
The iPhone 16E and iPhone 16 both have a 6.1-inch OLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The 16E has a peak brightness of 1,200 nits, while the 16 reaches 2,000 nits. A ceramic shield front and glass back are featured on each phone.
The devices have an aluminum design and are about as heavy as each other, with the iPhone 16E weighing in at 167 grams and the iPhone 16 at 170 grams.
Both phones also have an Action button, but only the iPhone 16 has a Camera Control button. The Dynamic Island feature is also limited to the pricier model. The devices each have an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.
Apple drops the home button on its new budget phone in favor of Face ID, just like the iPhone 16. Both devices also have a USB-C port, and neither has a headphone jack.
The iPhone 16E comes in black and white, while the iPhone 16 comes in black, white, pink, teal and ultramarine.
Battery and storage
Both the iPhone 16E and 16 come in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB options. Apple boasts that the 16E can get up to 26 hours of video playback and 21 hours of streamed video playback, while the 16 will last for up to 22 hours of video playback and 18 hours of streamed video playback.
One of the reasons behind the cheaper iPhone’s longer battery life is because it runs on Apple’s very first 5G modem, called C1. The company says its C1 modem is the «most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone» and as a result helps increase the phone’s battery life.
They each support 20-watt wired charging. The iPhone 16E supports 7.5W Qi wireless charging, while the iPhone 16 is capable of 15W Qi2 charging, as well as MagSafe wireless charging up to 25W with a 30W adapter or higher.
Cameras at a glance
You’ll find a 48-megapixel wide camera on both the iPhone 16E and iPhone 16, as well as a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera on the 16. To make up for its lower camera count, the 16E uses sensor cropping to get a 2x magnification for better zoomed-in shots (as does the iPhone 16). Both phones have a 12-megapixel front-facing camera.
You can shoot 4K video at 60 frames per second on each device. On the iPhone 16, you can shoot 1080p spatial video, but only at 30 frames per second.
Apple Intelligence for all
One of the biggest upgrades to Apple’s lower-priced iPhone is the inclusion of Apple Intelligence, which was previously confined to iPhone 15 Pro models and the iPhone 16 lineup. Now you can spend less and still get access to features like a smarter Siri, writing tools and the Clean Up tool in photos.
This move signals Apple’s eagerness to get its AI suite into more people’s hands, and indicates that AI is now a core component of any iPhone, from the cheapest option to the most premium.
Check out the spec chart below for more details on each phone.
Apple iPhone 16E vs. iPhone 16
Apple iPhone 16E | Apple iPhone 16 | |
---|---|---|
Display size, tech, resolution, refresh rate | 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display; 2,532×1,170 pixels; 60Hz refresh rate | 6.1-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display; 2,556×1,179 pixels; 60Hz refresh rate |
Pixel density | 460ppi | 460ppi |
Dimensions (inches) | 5.78×2.82×0.31 | 5.81×2.82×0.31 |
Dimensions (millimeters) | 146.7×71.5×7.8 | 147.6×71.6×7.8 |
Weight | 167 grams (5.88 ounces) | 170 grams (6 ounces) |
Mobile software | iOS 18 | iOS 18 |
Camera | 48 megapixel (wide) | 48 megapixel (wide), 12 megapixel (ultrawide) |
Front-facing camera | 12 megapixel | 12 megapixel |
Video capture | 4K at 60fps | 4K at 60fps; spatial video at 1080p at 30fps |
Processor | A18 | A18 |
RAM/storage | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB |
Expandable storage | No | No |
Battery | Up to 26 hours video playback, 21 hours streamed video playback, 90 hours of audio playback. 20-watt wired charging, 7.5-watt Qi wireless charging | Up to 22 hours video playback; up to 18 hours video playback (streamed). 20-watt wired charging. MagSafe wireless charging up to 25 watts with 30-watt adapter or higher; Qi2 up to 15 watts |
Fingerprint sensor | None (Face ID) | None (Face ID) |
Connector | USB-C | USB-C |
Headphone jack | No | No |
Special features | Action button, Apple C1 5G modem, Apple Intelligence, Ceramic Shield, Emergency SOS, satellite connectivity, IP68 resistance. Colors: black and white. | Apple Intelligence, Action button, Camera Control button, Dynamic Island, 1 to 2,000 nits display brightness range, IP68 resistance, Ceramic Shield. Colors: black, white, pink, teal, ultramarine. |
US price starts at | $599 (128GB), $699 (256GB), $899 (512GB) | $799 (128GB), $899 (256GB), $1,099 (512GB) |
UK price starts at | £599 (128GB), £699 (256GB), £899 (512GB) | £799 (128GB), £899 (256GB), £1,099 (512GB) |
Australia price starts at | AU$999 (128GB), AU$1,199 (256GB), AU$1,549 (512GB) | AU$1,399 (128GB), AU$1,599 (256GB), AU$1,949 (512GB) |
Technologies
For CNET’s Daily Tariff Price Impact Tracker, I’m Watching 11 Key Products for Inflation
With the reality of tariff-driven inflation arriving in earnest, it’s more important than ever to keep tabs on the prices that most impact you.
The question of how new tariffs will affect prices is more relevant than ever, with President Donald Trump punting another major deadline down the road and a new Consumer Price Index summary showing that the inflation rate was 2.7% in June, the biggest jump since February. It’s enough to get anyone concerned about affordability in the US, as if we all weren’t worrying about it already.
To help manage those worries, I’ve been tracking prices every day for 11 key products likely to be hit by price increases from tariffs, and the answer I’ve come to so far is this: Not so much, at least not yet. The winding road of tariff inflation still stretches before us into an uncertain future, so the threat of price hikes continues to cloud the horizon.
To date, I’ve seen two noteworthy price increases, one for the Xbox Series X and the other for a popular budget-friendly 4K TV. Some other products have gone on sale for brief periods. Notably, other outlets have caught a number of major retailers hiking prices across the board, with CNBC finding some substantial inflation at Walmart specifically.
CNET Tariff Tracker Index
Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 products included in this piece over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked. Based on the numbers so far, the average has gone up noticeably since the start of the year, but this has been driven mostly be a big shifts for a few products, as most price are still stable.
We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.
Methodology
We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month.
In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price-tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering of the iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.
The 11 products we’re tracking
Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.
The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.
- iPhone 16, 128GB
- Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
- Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
- Xbox Series X
- Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
- HP 962 CMY Printer Ink
- Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
- Bose TV speaker
- Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
- Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
- Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee
Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product, and stick around till the end for a rundown of some other products worth noting.
iPhone 16
The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.
Something to note about this graph: The price listed is the one you’ll see if you buy your phone through a major carrier. If you, say, buy direct from Apple or Best Buy without a carrier involved, you’ll be charged an extra $30, so in some places, you might see the list price of the standard iPhone 16 listed as $830.
Apple’s been taking a few steps to protect its prices in the face of these tariffs, flying in bulk shipments of product before they took effect and planning to move production for the US market from China to India. A new Reuters report found that a staggering 97% of iPhones imported from the latter country, March through May, were bound for the US. This latter move drew the anger of Trump again, threatening the company with a 25% tariff if they didn’t move production to the US, an idea CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly shot down in the past. This came after Trump gave a tariff exemption to electronic devices including smartphones, so the future of that move seems in doubt now.
Duracell AA batteries
A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.
Samsung DU7200 TV
Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.
After spending most of 2025 hovering around $400, this item has now seen some notable upticks on Amazon, most recently sitting around $450. This could potentially be in reaction to Trump’s announcement of 25% tariffs against South Korea this week.
Xbox Series X
Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories also were affected and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.
Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.
AirPods Pro 2
The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales.
HP 962 CMY printer ink
This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.
This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.
Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers.
Bose TV speaker
Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose.
Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.
This product hasn’t seen its price budge one way or another most of the year, but while Prime Day might have come and gone, there’s still a $10 coupon listed on Amazon right now, letting you save a little bit of money for the time being.
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook
Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.
For now, its price has been largely unchanged in the last few months. You can, however, grab it on Amazon right now at a $20 discount, but we’ll have to see how long that actually lasts.
Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)
Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.»
Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.
All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs. While this particular bag of beans from Starbucks hasn’t seen its price budge for most of the year, in recent days it ticked up by less than a dollar on Amazon, which could be a sign of further increases to come.
Other products
As mentioned, we occasionally swap out products with different ones that undergo notable price shifts. Here are some things no longer featured above, but that we’re still keeping an eye on:
- Nintendo Switch: The baseline handheld-console hybrid has held steady around $299 most places — including Amazon — since it released in 2017. Whether that price will be affected by tariffs or the release of the Switch 2 remains to be seen. This product was replaced above with the Xbox Series X.
- Overture PLA 3D printer filament: This is a popular choice on Amazon for the material needed to run 3D printers. It has held steady around $15 on Amazon all year. This product was replaced above by the HP 962 printer ink.
Here are some products we also wanted to single out that haven’t been featured with a graph yet:
- Razer Blade 18 (2025), 5070 Ti edition: The latest revision of Razer’s largest gaming laptop saw a $300 price bump recently, with the base model featured an RTX 5070 Ti graphics card now priced at $3,500 ahead of launch, compared to the $3,200 price announced in February. While Razer has stayed mum about the reasoning, it did previously suspend direct sales to the US as Trump’s tariff plans were ramping up in April.
- Asus ROG Ally X: The premium version of Asus’s Steam Deck competitor handheld gaming PC recently saw a price hike from $799 to $899, coinciding with the announcement of the company’s upcoming Xbox-branded Ally handhelds.
Technologies
Tea App Breach Exposes 72,000 Selfies, ID Photos and Other User Images
The images had been in a «legacy data system» that contained information from more than two years ago, the company says.

Tea, a women’s safety dating app that surged to the top of the free iOS App Store listings this week, has been the subject of a major security breach. The company confirmed Friday that it has «identified authorized access to one of our systems» that exposed thousands of user images.
According to Tea’s preliminary findings, the breach allowed access to approximately 72,000 images, broken down into two groups: 13,000 images of selfies and photo identification that people had submitted during account verification and 59,000 images that were publicly viewable in the app from posts, comments and direct messages.
Those images had been in a «legacy data system» that contained information from more than two years ago, the company said in statement. «At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that current or additional user data was affected.»
Earlier Friday, posts on Reddit and 404 Media reported that Tea app users’ faces and IDs had been posted on anonymous online message board 4chan.
Tea requires users to verify their identities with selfies or IDs, which is why driver’s licenses and pictures of people’s faces are in the leaked data.
The premise of Tea is to provide women with a space to report negative interactions they’ve had while encountering men in the dating pool, purportedly to keep other women safe. The app hit the No. 1 spot on Apple’s US App Store this week, drawing international attention and sparking a debate about whether the app violates men’s privacy. If the reports of a breach turn out to be true, it will also play into the wider ongoing debate around whether online identity and age verification pose an inherent security risk to internet users.
In the privacy section on its website, Tea says: «Tea Dating Advice takes reasonable security measures to protect your Personal Information to prevent loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration and destruction. Please be aware, however, that despite our efforts, no security measures are impenetrable.»
Tea said it has launched a full investigation to assess the scope and impact of the breach.
Technologies
Invincible Vs Adds Fan-Favorite Battle Beast, and He’s Not Holding Back
The upcoming tag-team fighter gets a violent new trailer during San Diego Comic-Con 2025.

Invincible Vs is an upcoming tag-team fighting game revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, based on Robert Kirkman’s Invincible comic and show. As San Diego Comic-Con is underway, it made sense for a new character to be revealed, and this one is quite the fighter.
Battle Beast is the latest addition to the Invincible Vs roster. The big, blue barbarian cat is quite the brute with his mace. He does some brutal damage, causing blood to splatter everywhere. His super combo exemplifies his violent nature as he sends his opponent far into the sky only to smash them into the ground, creating a rain of blood that he revels in.
Battle Beast joins the previously revealed characters for the game, including Invincible, Omni-Man, Atom Eve, Rex Splode, Bulletproof and two Viltrumites, Thula and Lucan.
Invincible Vs is the first game from developer Quarter Up and published by Skybound Games. Quarter Up is a new studio but members of the team created 2013’s Killer Instinct. As a tag game, players will form a three-person team and battle against other teams in a similar style to the Marvel vs. Capcom series. Characters can unleash long, powerful combos and tag in other team members to extend them. Each fighter also has their own super combo to deal massive damage.
The game takes place in Robert Kirkman’s Invincible universe, so expect to see more characters from the show and comics. Kirkman revealed Battle Beast during his panel at Comic-Con on Thursday.
There is an expected public demo of Invincible Vs next month at the Evolution Championship Series Aug. 1-3 in Las Vegas. The event brings the best fighting game players from around the globe to compete in various games. This event is also a time for new fighting games to be showcased so it’s likely that there will be playable versions for those in attendance, as well as a possible exhibition by pro players to show off the game.
Invincible Vs will be released sometime in 2026 for PC and Xbox Series consoles.
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