Apple just released the new iPhone 16e. And we'll... you know what time it is. Get your own smartphone plan starting at $5 with Tello HERE: https://bit.ly/jrextello huge thanks to Tello for sponsoring this video and making inexpensive smartphone plans! The iPhone 16e has just been released by Apple. Its basically the most basic iPhone you can get... while still paying almost flagship prices. I do wish Apple would toss some innovation into the 16e lineup of phones... it would for sure make my job easier. Or maybe even just drop the price to a more reasonable 200 bucks or something instead of 600 bucks. But what do i know.
Get my Teardown skin or dbrand Grip Case for your phone here: https://www.dbrand.com/teardown
Get my Teardown skin or dbrand Grip Case for your phone here: https://www.dbrand.com/teardown
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00:00When Apple doesn't tell us what the letter E stands for in the new iPhone 16E, it's kind
00:05of just up to us to guess.
00:07Some people think it stands for essential, or economical, or entry level.
00:11And some people, definitely not me, think the E in iPhone 16E stands for egregiously
00:18expensive.
00:19Apple's been building these slightly less expensive earmarked E letter Frankenstein
00:23together smartphones all the way back since the first iPhone SE in 2016.
00:29That was 9 years ago.
00:30And you might think that since Apple didn't have to design all new components, that the
00:33price would be more palatable.
00:35But you forgot who we're talking about.
00:37It does come in all your dog's favorite colors though.
00:40Let's see if the iPhone 16E can hold it's own on the outside.
00:44And see, of course, if Apple included the big metal battery again on the inside.
00:49One thing I am impressed with is Apple's ceramic shield, which this 16E, which is shaped like
00:54an iPhone 14, does come installed with.
00:58Working our way through Mohs scale of hardness, we do start seeing very light scratches at
01:02a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7.
01:05Even though it technically ranks the same as other smartphones, it does feel different.
01:10And my personal opinion is that ceramic shield is indeed better than regular tempered glass.
01:15The scratches are less pronounced.
01:17The 12 megapixel front facing selfie camera is off center, but that's normal for Apple.
01:22It's protected by the same ceramic shield as the rest of the phone.
01:25We have a small metal earpiece grill, which is in the center of the phone above the notch.
01:30Making our way over to the frame rails of the iPhone 16E, instead of titanium like on
01:35the flagships, this expensive budget phone is made from aluminum.
01:39Pretty normal.
01:40You might be wondering why I have a cool band-aid on my finger.
01:44It's because I got a Ka-chow-ee.
01:48The iPhone 16E does feel lighter than other phones I've held recently, but that might
01:52be because we're missing the mag-safe magnets on the back.
01:55The volume buttons and action button are made from metal and are not removable.
01:59Thanks to Samsung, these are things we now have to test for.
02:03The USB-C 2.0 charging port can charge at 20 watts.
02:06And thanks to the wire mesh over the speaker grills, it is also IP68 water resistant.
02:12Remember though that water damage is still not covered under warranty.
02:15Making our way to the soft-touched etched glass back panel, which hopefully is removable.
02:19We'll find out in a second.
02:21The main 48 megapixel camera lens is scratch resistant.
02:25The biggest L on this phone though is not having multiple camera lens perspectives like
02:29wide angle or telephoto.
02:31I personally use those all the time.
02:33The singular lens does not pop off though, which, again, thanks to Samsung, is now something
02:38we have to test for.
02:39Zooming into the Apple logo stencil on the back, it looks like Apple absolutely nailed
02:43the placement this time around.
02:45Glad to see the attention to detail has improved from the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
02:50Flipping the phone back around to test the pixels, with portfolios as torched as they
02:54are, a little more flame won't hurt.
02:56The 6.1 inch Super Retina XDR OLED display has a 60 hertz refresh rate.
03:01And let's be honest, nobody's going to notice.
03:03It does last for about 20 seconds before going white, and this time freezing the display.
03:09But after a quick power cycle, the screen is back to working like normal with only a
03:13slight blemish.
03:14Again, all pretty regular stuff.
03:16Even the bend test.
03:17The Apple design is unflexing, unbending, unchanging, and unaffected, despite my attempts
03:23to snap it in half.
03:25Apple has survived yet another jerry-rig everything durability test.
03:28However, while the exterior is rather bland and boring, one place that Apple has changed
03:33things up is on the inside.
03:35The iPhone 16E is supposedly more repairable than most while utilizing the new electrically
03:40assisted battery removal procedure.
03:43I'll remove the two pentalobe screws at the bottom, which are very uniquely colored.
03:48Most likely a patina effect from the custom machining process.
03:51These are the fun things you notice when you're looking.
03:54One thing you also might have noticed lately is that contractual smartphone data plans
03:58have become just as egregiously expensive as smartphones themselves.
04:02But it doesn't have to be that way.
04:04I'll tell you about today's sponsor, Tello, as I try not to break the back glass of my
04:08iPhone.
04:09A Tello smartphone plan can start as low as $5 a month, and you can keep your same number
04:14and usually your same phone if it's unlocked.
04:17Getting reliable 4 or 5G LTE coverage without a crazy monthly price tag is refreshing.
04:22You can change your plan whenever you want, and there are no long term commitments or
04:26contracts.
04:27Just how we like it.
04:28Get unlimited text, calling, and data – 35 gigs of which are at high speed – for just
04:32$25 a month, along with free international calls to 60 different countries.
04:37And free Wi-Fi calling in hotspots.
04:39It's a crazy good plan that just sells itself.
04:42Tello even sells new smartphones on their website, which might make more sense economically
04:46than this phone we're currently taking apart.
04:48I'll leave a link for Tello down in the description.
04:50And huge thanks to Tello for having extremely reasonable prices, and for sponsoring this
04:54video.
04:56With the iPhone 16e opened up, just like it looked, I can start unscrewing the single
05:00tri-point screw, removing a metal bracket, and disconnecting the Lego style ribbon connectors.
05:05I do make a mistake here.
05:07See if you can figure out what it is before I figure out what it is.
05:10I'm a huge fan of the 16e's glass being removable.
05:13This solves one of the biggest gripes I've had with Apple since they started gluing the
05:16glass to the phone.
05:18Apple did remove the MagSafe magnets from the 16e, but honestly I'm not too worried
05:22about that.
05:23The wireless charging is still here, and you can always get MagSafe back by just buying
05:27a case with magnets in it, like the dbrand grip case.
05:30I'm also extremely happy with Apple's new battery removal process.
05:34I do personally need to find a better solution than a stripped down 9 volt battery with alligator
05:38clips, but it's also super cool that you can remove the whole battery with just a 9
05:42volt battery and some alligator clips.
05:44No prying.
05:45No alcohol.
05:46Just electricity.
05:47The battery has to be connected for about a minute and a half for the adhesive to finally
05:51release.
05:52The positive electrode is connected to the tab on the battery, and the negative alligator
05:55clip is just tacked onto a screw near the charging port.
05:58And voila, the battery is free...except for that I forgot that it was plugged in this
06:03whole time.
06:04What I thought was the battery connector earlier was actually not the battery connector.
06:08Fingers crossed that I didn't actually fry the phone.
06:11With two more little tri-point screws removed, we can set aside the second metal bracket
06:14and take a closer look at the electrically bonded adhesive, along with the 4005 milliamp
06:19hour battery.
06:20Thumbs up to Apple for making this thing easy to fix.
06:23Finally, let's take a look at the single 48 megapixel rear facing camera.
06:27I feel a little bad about this one since it's like poking out Cyclops' one good eye.
06:31Apple says this camera has something called OIS, which is optical image stabilization.
06:36It's a pretty normal hardware based lens shifting type of compensation to get more
06:40stable images while recording videos.
06:43But Apple has also invented a type of sensor shift stabilization in some of their other
06:47phones.
06:48And I just want to see if this singular camera lens comes with that feature or not.
06:52Shredding down the camera lens housing reveals that there are indeed some magnets inside
06:55the camera, but only for the lens itself.
06:59So no sensor shift stabilization on this guy.
07:01Which is fine.
07:02Would have been cool to see though.
07:03Now Cyclops has no eye for nothing.
07:06Personally, I just hope I didn't cook this phone with my 9 volt battery while it was
07:09still connected.
07:10I think if Apple wanted to absolutely crush Android and obtain that last 40% market share
07:15they don't have already, they could sell this thing at like 200 bucks and probably still
07:19make a profit while locking even more people into their inescapable ecosystem.
07:24But that would probably be bad for innovation in general, so I'm glad they didn't.
07:28And look at that, another teardown success.
07:31The iPhone 16 EE says it doesn't recognize the camera anymore, which is weird since it
07:35is sitting right here, but it probably can't see it.
07:38The easiest way to see the inside of your own phone is with one of my dbrand teardown
07:42skins.
07:43And of course, if you want to save money on your monthly cell phone bill, Tello is waiting
07:47for you in the description.
07:48Thanks a ton for watching.
07:50I'll see you around.