The iPhone SE line is dead. Long live the iPhone 17e. Apple's rebranded budget iPhone launched in January 2026 with a starting price of £599 and a specification sheet that reads like a mid-range flagship. After three weeks with one, we can confirm: this is the best cheap iPhone Apple has ever made, by some distance.
What you get for £599
- Display: 6.1-inch OLED, 60Hz (no ProMotion), Dynamic Island
- Chipset: Apple A19 (same as iPhone 17)
- Memory: 8GB RAM, 128GB storage (upgrade to 256GB for £699, 512GB £899)
- Main camera: 48MP Fusion with 2x crop zoom
- Front camera: 12MP with improved HDR
- Battery: All-day (our testing: 8 hours screen-on time)
- Charging: USB-C at 20W wired, 15W MagSafe, 7.5W Qi2
- Modem: Apple C1 (in-house silicon)
- Colours: Black, White, Pink
What it's like to use
The iPhone 17e feels remarkably like using a standard iPhone 17. The A19 chip is identical, so every game and app runs at the same speed. Apple Intelligence runs locally thanks to 8GB of RAM - crucially, the iPhone SE (2022) was excluded from Apple Intelligence because it only had 4GB.
The obvious compromises are the 60Hz display and the single rear camera. Both are more noticeable after switching directly from an iPhone 17 Pro than they would be from a regular iPhone 16. Within a day, we'd mostly stopped noticing.
The 48MP camera is excellent
Apple has been fitting 48MP "Fusion" main sensors across the iPhone line since the iPhone 15, and the one in the 17e is genuinely the same hardware as the standard iPhone 17. That means stunning detail, excellent dynamic range, Night mode, Deep Fusion and sensor-shift OIS. The 2x crop zoom is surprisingly usable thanks to the high-resolution sensor.
You lose the ultrawide and telephoto lenses. For most buyers - including most existing iPhone owners we know - that simply doesn't matter.
Battery life is the pleasant surprise
We consistently got 7-8 hours of screen-on time per charge, with light usage days stretching to two days. That's a significant improvement over the iPhone SE 3 and better than even the iPhone 17 standard model in our testing. Apple's C1 modem is incredibly power-efficient, and the 60Hz display helps preserve battery too.
UK pricing and deals
| Storage | SIM-free | Best contract |
|---|---|---|
| 128GB | £599 | From £23 pm / £0 upfront (Tesco Mobile, 25GB) |
| 256GB | £699 | From £27 pm / £0 upfront (EE, 50GB) |
| 512GB | £899 | From £34 pm / £0 upfront (Vodafone, Unlimited) |
Should you buy it?
If you've been waiting for a modern iPhone at a sub-£600 price point, stop waiting. The iPhone 17e has no serious flaws, will receive the same software updates as the iPhone 17 Pro Max for at least five years, and delivers the core Apple experience at a genuinely affordable price.
Upgrade if you're on an iPhone SE, iPhone XR, iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 - you'll see a transformative jump. If you already own an iPhone 14 or newer, the 17e isn't enough of a step up to justify it.
Our verdict: 4.5/5. The best-value iPhone Apple has made since the original SE.