iPhone 17E Release Date, Price & Specs – News & Rumors

Key Takeaways:

• Features: Apple could install MagSafe on the iPhone 17E.
• Release date: Possibly as early as February.
• Price: There have been no leaks about price increases, which is good news at the moment.
• Design: Could get it Dynamic Island and look more like an iPhone 15.

Apple could continue its lower costs iPhone linewith an iPhone 17E reportedly coming early this year. If true, the sequel to last year’s iPhone 16E has plenty of room to perform.

Some rumors point to improvements borrowed from Apple’s iPhone 15, such as Dynamic Island and MagSafe. If true, it could make the cheaper iPhone 17E an attractive option, requiring fewer compromises to achieve a lower price.

Apple’s $599 iPhone 16E was a bit strange when it was released last year. It replaced Apple’s $429 iPhone SEleaving the older iPhone SE design with a home button with Touch ID. Apple’s new ‘budget’ device was a more expensive amalgamation, with the body of one iPhone 14 with a display notch. It also had the USB-C port from the iPhone 15 and the A18 processor from the iPhone 16 to support Apple Intelligence features.

To save money, Apple scaled back the functionality, adding just a single 48-megapixel main camera and omitting Apple’s MagSafe clip-on capability (though retaining standard wireless charging). While the iPhone 16E is a solid starter iPhone, I found these omissions are confusingespecially considering that Apple has increased the price of this entry-level iPhone from $429 to $599.

An iPhone 17E could follow a playbook closer to Samsung’s Galaxy S25FE. It would have many of the same features as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17, such as the smaller screen notch and an A19 processor, along with smaller steps back to the hardware that might be less noticeable.

Apple hasn’t confirmed whether an iPhone 17E exists yet, but we’ll keep an eye on it. Here are the rumors we’ve heard so far, with features that could help or hinder the more budget-friendly iPhone 17E.

Check this out: iPhone 16E review

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iPhone 17E release date: February 2026

According to Apple, the iPhone 17E could be announced as early as February Mashable report with reference to the Digital Chat Station Weibo account. The phone is said to launch in the first half of the year. This would tie in with the iPhone 16E announcement from February 2025making winter Apple’s preferred launch window for cheaper iPhone models.

There are even rumors that indicate that the basic iPhone 18 is launched in the first half of 2027, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.

iPhone 17E design: gets a dynamic island

One aspect that made the iPhone 16E stand out was Apple’s new design, with the iPhone 14 body, a USB-C port and a single camera.

However, according to the same Digital Chat Station Weibo post, the iPhone 17E will look more like the 2023 iPhone 15, with a smaller Dynamic Island cutout. The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a 6.1-inch display with a cutout, including dynamic format notifications for timers and app alerts, such as Uber pickups.

This design is confirmed by the Smart Pikachu Weibo accountwhich also notes that the iPhone 17E will have a 60Hz refresh rate display instead of the 120Hz display seen on the iPhone 17 line and the iPhone Air. It would be nice to see a 17E with a 120Hz display, which Apple calls ProMotion. But this is an area that will be less noticeable for people coming from a former iPhone SE or an older base model like the iPhone 14.

While Apple’s ProMotion displays have been available for years on Pro models — and on almost every Android phone costing $300 or more — the smoother animations and always-on displays it offers won’t be as noticeable if you’re switching from a phone that never had them.

iPhone 17E features: MagSafe wireless charging

I was surprised that Apple didn’t include MagSafe with last year’s iPhone 16E. The feature, which allows you to attach magnetic accessories such as chargers and wallets without a case, has been on most iPhone models since 2020. It felt like an odd omission, considering Apple contributed MagSafe’s charging and magnetic profiles to the Qi2 standard, both of which Pixel 10 phones from Google, HMD’s skyline, and the next one Click on Communicator.

The iPhone 17E is rumored to have a glass back that will support magnetic wireless charging – which likely means the phone would gain the ability to magnetically attach to MagSafe and Qi2 accessories, according to a report in The information noted by 9to5Mac. This would be a big improvement for someone coming to this phone from an iPhone SE or the iPhone iPhone 11both of which support Qi wireless charging, but don’t include magnets for attaching accessories and cases.

While we need more details, the addition of MagSafe also hopefully means that the iPhone 17E’s wireless charging speed would increase to at least 15 watts, similar to that of the iPhone 15.

iPhone 17E prices

We’ll continue to update this story as more iPhone 17E rumors come in. Although there is not much about the price of the rumored phone, which was last year iPhone 16E starts at $599 for a 128GB model. I hope the iPhone 17E starts with 256GB of storage, just like the base iPhone 17. Apple is still selling both the 16E and iPhone 16 with 128GB, with the latter starting at $699.