Engadget Podcast: iPhone 16e review and Amazon's AI-powered Alexa+

Devindra: [00:00:00] What's up, Internet, and welcome back to the Engadget Podcast. I'm Senior Editor Devindra Hardawar.

Cherlynn: I'm Managing Editor Cherlynn Low.

Devindra: This week, it's the iPhone 16e, which Cherlynn has reviewed. We're going to get her full thoughts on that thing. And also, Amazon held an AI event this week. We expected a lot of devices, but they spent 75 minutes talking about Alexa plus, which is the AI powered Alexa.

You know, that they,

Cherlynn: we expected a lot of devices. We have one.

Devindra: I expected one device, maybe

Cherlynn: one, at least one it's been a while.

Devindra: Mr. Panos Panay was there, the father of the service and no devices, just him talking about AI. So that's weird.

Cherlynn: Oh, and stay tuned at the end of this episode. Uh, I, we included an interview that I did with, um, the vice president of Alexa to talk more about the new Alexa plus.

Devindra: Anyway, folks, if you're enjoying the show, please be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes or your podcaster of choice, leave us a review on iTunes and drop us an email at podcast@engadget.com. You can also join us on our live [00:01:00] stream on Thursday mornings, typically around 11 a. m. Eastern. Um, you'll see our faces.

Sometimes we'll do Q& A and show off devices as well. This week, uh, Sherilyn has the iPhone 16e, which is the least, um, impressive thing to show off. It's just like, Hey, you have an iPhone from 10 years ago, five, a while ago,

Cherlynn: when, when

Devindra: last, was there a single camera back iPhone?

Cherlynn: Oh God, before that was 11. I think so.

Devindra: Yeah. Like a while ago. So, you know, it's like a flashback. All right. So let's talk about this thing, Sherlynn. And I checked out your review. First of all, you gave it a really, um, I think serviceable score. Like you're saying 77 out of 100. Your title is what's your acceptable compromise. And really when we were talking about it last week, it really was like compromise seemed like the key word.

The thing we kept coming back to was like just one camera, no mag safe, no fast wireless charging. What are your overall thoughts on this thing?

Cherlynn: I mean, so that headline is like all thanks to our EIC, Aaron [00:02:00]Souppouris, because I was like, where, where do I go from here? How do I, so, so he's right. It is like, instead of what's in your wallet, it's like, what are you willing to take out your wallet?

I don't know. Um, okay. I'll tell you the story. Okay. So yesterday I was at the Amazon devices and services event where there were no devices and A bunch of other reporters had gathered and we were all like, you know, the, like, review's going up soon, right? And so we were all talking about our thoughts on the 16E.

Uh, I was with Lisa Eadiccico, who's now at CNN and Julian Chokkattu from WIRED. And like, they were both going off about their own, like, grievances first. Julian was the first to be like, I can't stand that there's no magsafe. And I was like, huh? I almost like, was like, oh, I didn't really. And then Lisa goes, oh, I didn't mind that so much, but I can't stand that there's no dynamic island.

And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I pointed out that I didn't care about either of those, but I care that there's only one camera because there's so many. So all three of us had different things we couldn't.

Devindra: I mean, you're all power reviewers, right? We are. Um,

Cherlynn: but we, so, [00:03:00] so I can understand that like a lot of the little, you know, the things that we find to be compromises are very unique to like each person's use case.

And I think that that's the thing and that's why I went with that headline in the end. It is ultimately like you are the one that accepts these compromises. You are the one as a person considering an iPhone that has to decide what's a, an okay compromise for yourself. Um. And for me, the, the single camera is just, I can't, I can't abide, I can't live with it.

So, um, I, to me, the lack of ultrawide initially was just like, all right, well, I mean, I don't, you know, maybe I don't need an ultrawide. Maybe that's okay. Maybe my parents will need an ultrawide. But I didn't realize until spending more time with the phone that it's not just that, right? Like the lack of a second camera or a second, like, source of data for Apple to pull information for photography, computational photography stuff means that a lot of other things are just poorer than what you actually already have out there.

So portrait mode was for me the biggest deal. Um, [00:04:00] there's also like you can't do the same photographic styles as you get on the regular iPhone 16s. Uh, there's just. Yeah, even when it does apply portrait mode, it's, it's just less accurate. Um, the sort of where they draw the line as to where to apply the blur is a bit messy because there's just one camera and it's doing face detection.

So yeah, look, the, the other intriguing things about the iPhone 16E or like to, to kind of give it a few. You know, here's your positives. Um, affirmations, I guess it's like, yeah, it looks like right. And iPhone 16, it doesn't seem to deviate too far from this year's lineup. And that's like for the first time in a long time has an entry level iPhone, like an S E.

Looks so similar or like the gap between the iPhone 16 E to the iPhone 16 is not as far as the iPhone SE 2022 was from the iPhone 13, and that's a point that like Aaron pointed out [00:05:00]as well. So that closeness to the iPhone 16 lineup is largely, I think. Due to, I mean, what you can't see is the A18 chip inside, right?

They have the same chip across the entire iPhone 16 lineup, which is kind of bonkers to me. And then there's also the fact that it looks externally quite similar, unless you open the screen, then you see the notch, and then you see the thicker bezels. And then it's like, all right. And also like, don't go look at the rear, right?

The camera is just like a dead giveaway. But otherwise, if you're just kind of like staring at someone on the train, holding onto the iPhone 16e, it's not easy to tell which model they have if you're Not immediately looking at their camera. Um, so yeah, I mean, those are some good things about it, right? The display is an OLED, and like, yes, I know that of all the choices they could have made, an OLED's not necessary.

Like, for an entry level iPhone, but the, it is very bright. Um, it doesn't get quite as bright as iPhone 16 or even iPhone 15, but it's nice. I don't like that it refreshes only at 60 [00:06:00]Hertz, but it's just much more vibrant. So

Devindra: does the base iPhone right now still. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The non

Cherlynn: pro phones don't have ProMotion, which is 120 Hertz or up to 120 Hertz refresh rate.

So, you know, you would need to like shell out quite a lot more money for 120 Hertz refresh rate on an iPhone. Um, and I guess. That's just what you gotta live with. And also to be fair, it probably impacts battery life in a way that you wouldn't enjoy anyway, because I feel like the pro phones last about a day.

Yeah.

Devindra: They have variable, like, refresh rates too. So it's like, it slows down depending on like how fast you're doing shit. Right. I feel like an LCD that was a higher refresh rate would be an overall better looking experience than just, you know, putting OLED at 60 Hertz, but yeah.

Cherlynn: Yeah, I think that's like a personal thing.

I like OLED. So like, I like the look of it. I really enjoy. Yeah. Not a fan of the LCDs, honestly, but here's the thing. Um, when I said battery life, also one of the great things about [00:07:00]the iPhone 16 is its battery life, right? Like I think it does last a lot longer than the iPhone 16. Um, Partly because I don't know, maybe because it doesn't get quite as bright, but like partly because it has a bigger battery.

And I think all of us reviewers were kind of hesitant to be like that modem. Is it going to work or not? Cause it's like very hard to say. Um, I think most of us were supplied with the, like with service for our review units and it was like, And for me, it's really hard to be like the C1 modem works better than my iPhone 16 pros, like whatever modems in there, because it was AT& T versus T Mobile, right?

It really wasn't down to the Hardaware. It was down to the fact that my carrier just. doesn't have as good coverage as AT& T, sad to say. Um, so I can't tell you, I, I wrote down like, yeah, I did the speed test and fast. com like testing on both phones, but it's just not. And we can't just throw

Devindra: over a SIM card anymore because there are no more physical SIM cards in iPhones.

So we used it's just not,

Cherlynn: I mean, it could support a dual SIM, like I could. [00:08:00]you know, support, like, uh, I could have set up a different SIM card in there to just to really do the, you know, apples to apples testing on an Apple phone. Haha. I get it, but I can't

Devindra: move it as easily as you used to be able to.

Cherlynn: Yeah.

Yeah. I, it's like give up my own phone for hours or it's just not, it wasn't like super easy to do within the span of like a week that I had the phone. So anyway, it could be due to the C1 modem that battery life was better, but in general, like I just find that the non pro phones. All kind of last longer than the pro phones the pro phones have always on display Which is one thing that I think drains the battery, too And to be clear the 16e 16 or 15 don't have always on display either So there's a lot of like little things that you have to consider you're doing a lot of Specs sheet peeping.

I mean, I think we pointed out last time when we were talking about the iPhone 16 E that like, you know, you don't have wifi seven, you don't have a thread, you don't have ultra wide band. And that's not just in millimeter wave 5g, but also in like locating things precisely, right? Like when you're [00:09:00] using find my, and also you don't have max safe.

Um, 5 Watts as opposed to 15. So there's a lot of these little things. And depending on the audience, it may or may not matter. I don't know that my mom will care.

Devindra: Um, For the people who don't know what they're missing, basically. Right.

Cherlynn: But then for those people is 5. 99 the price point, right? Like it's,

Devindra: I don't, yeah,

Cherlynn: I don't, I don't think

Devindra: so.

Like given all the compromises you're listing, um, This is such a, Apple has put us in a weird spot, right? Because like 599, it is the cheapest iPhone, but used to be, I wrote a whole thing last year is why the base iPhone 16e was actually a pretty good deal, given everything they put in there, and it was cheaper than the pros, and that thing is what, 800?

The base

Cherlynn: iPhone 16?

Devindra: The 16. Yeah. Just the 16. Yeah. Um, and to me that felt like given everything they put in there, it seems good. This one at 600 does not seem like a big enough difference cost wise to like turn [00:10:00]people. Yeah, that's the main thing. And also I think, so I set up an iPhone 14 plus for my mom.

I was talking about last week and she loves it, but also she really needs that bigger screen. You know, um, even though it's slightly harder to hold, like it is much easier once you're dealing with, you know, um, older eyes, basically, you kind of need bigger screens to use these devices correctly without like putting on reading glasses every single time.

And that's why the plus end up being a good one. So I don't, I see people saying like, this is a good cheap one for your parents or something. A lot of people may actually find this even too small or harder to use.

Cherlynn: And so, so when you're considering that, right? Like. You want a big screen on an iPhone, the cheapest one you're going to get is the 15 I think.

And that one is going to start at the same price No, wait, uh, same price as the iPhone 16, um, smaller one. So, no matter what that decision is, whether you're going for iPhone 16 16 or 15 plus versus 16 E. The difference is [00:11:00] 200. And if you're financing your phone over two months, that is like a few dollars a month over 24 months.

Aaron and I were talking this out and Aaron was like, I'm happy to eat two ramen meals instead of like going out every month, just to save that money and make up for it, it's like, it's quite easy to do the math here and, and. And go for something better instead of the 16 E, like for me. If you like taking photos at all, don't do the 16e to yourself.

I mean, again, it's going to be a huge improvement in quality over the iPhone 11 and up, but even the iPhone 11 onwards has dual cameras.

Devindra: Yeah.

Cherlynn: Quality itself is the same, but versatility is different, you know, so.

Devindra: I mean, I kind of feel that, like, I don't want to sound like, Hey, just put everything on credit or installment plans, right.

Or deal with your carrier payments. But that is kind of the way costs break down, at least in the U S I'm sure in other countries where you're not paying, you know, monthly, or if you're paying like all up front, A lot of people just want to buy their phones out right then. Yeah, this is legitimately cheaper and you'll feel that in your [00:12:00]pocketbook.

But I also agree that, um, the smartest thing to do is not to give away all your money, right? But also not to pay extra interest on it. So the carrier payment plans are actually pretty good. And if you do, if you throw in an upgrade in there, that's how they juice you, right? Like, that's how they get to they're like, Oh, we're going to give you 800 in credit for this very, very old phone.

But yeah, the trade is like that credit is useless outside of paying for a phone. But if you care about paying for your phone, then it's actually pretty useful. So that's how I ended up getting like the 16, not the 16, the 15 pro max for like, not much because I just traded in an earlier iPhone and you have a good phone for like

Cherlynn: two years.

Yeah. Yeah.

Devindra: Yes. Play the system, folks. Like, play. These carriers want to give you money. They want to tempt you with things. Um, the cheape