iPhone SE (2025) review: The budget iPhone reborn as the iPhone 16e with Apple silicon modem.
The SE becomes the 16e.
Apple's 2025 budget iPhone — marketed as the iPhone 16e — dropped the old home-button SE design for a modern 6.1" OLED, the flagship A18 chip, Apple Intelligence and crucially the first Apple-designed C1 5G modem. A landmark device despite its single camera.
01Display
84/10084/100 puts it above the 81-point average for mid-range phones of 2025.
02Camera
80/100At 80/100 this is one of the strongest camera showings among mid-range phones of 2025 — 9 points above the cohort average.
03Performance
92/100At 92/100 this is one of the strongest performance showings among mid-range phones of 2025 — 22 points above the cohort average.
04Battery
84/10084/100 — right at the average for mid-range phones of 2025.
05Build
84/100At 84/100 this is one of the strongest build showings among mid-range phones of 2025 — 8 points above the cohort average.
- Flagship A18 chip + Apple Intelligence at $599
- First Apple in-house C1 5G modem
- 48 MP camera + OLED + USB-C
- Single rear camera, no ultrawide
- Notch instead of Dynamic Island
- No MagSafe magnets
How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 117-phone cohort of mid-range devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .