[DigitalToday reporter Jinju Hong (홍진주)] Apple unveiled the iPhone 17e, updating its budget iPhone line a year after the last release. It significantly strengthened performance, storage and convenience features compared with the iPhone 16e while keeping the starting price unchanged, prompting assessments that it has improved the completeness of a value-for-money model.

On March 2 (local time), IT outlet NineToFiveMac summed up the core of Apple’s upgrade in five points: faster performance, improved camera, stronger durability, MagSafe support and base storage that has doubled.

The iPhone 17e uses an A19 chip instead of the A18 chip. It is in the same family of chips as the iPhone 17, but Apple said it kept a 4-core graphics processing unit configuration while upgrading the Neural Engine to boost performance for processing artificial intelligence models.

The cellular modem was also upgraded from C1 to C1X. Apple explained that C1X delivers up to twice the speed of the previous version and cuts power use by 30 percent. Wireless standards themselves, including 5G (sub-6GHz), Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, are the same as the previous model.

The camera system adds a next-generation portrait photo feature. It automatically recognises not only people but also dogs and cats to save depth information, and users can freely adjust background blur strength or focus in the Photos app after shooting. The feature was not supported on the 16e, prompting assessments that it has raised the camera utility of the budget model by a step.

The front glass uses Ceramic Shield 2. Apple said scratch resistance is three times better than before, and anti-reflection performance has also improved.

The most noticeable change is MagSafe support. With MagSafe, which was missing from the 16e, added back, users can use various magnetic accessories. Wireless charging speed also doubled to 15W from 7.5W, and it supports the Qi2 standard.

Storage is the biggest change. The iPhone 17e offers 256GB as standard and will be released in two options up to a 512GB model. Considering the previous model started at 128GB, the base capacity has doubled. The price is $599 (about 990,000 won) for the 256GB model and $799 (about 1,170,000 won) for the 512GB model. Compared with the previous model, where the same capacities were $699 (about 1,020,000 won) and $899 (about 1,310,000 won), there is an effective price-cutting effect.

Some elements are unchanged from the previous model. The iPhone 17e keeps a 6.1-inch display and a notch design, and it does not support Dynamic Island. Colours are black, white and a newly added soft pink.

Battery life is also the same as the previous model at up to 26 hours of video playback, and it can charge to 50 percent in 30 minutes when using an adapter of 20W or more. Weight increased slightly from the previous model to 169 grams.

According to NineToFiveMac, the iPhone 17e has clear feature differences that make it hard to compare it directly with the higher-end iPhone 17. Still, it assessed that perceived value has clearly risen compared with the 16e, considering the expanded base storage, MagSafe support and the A19 chip.

The industry also raises the possibility that retail inventory prices for the 16e could be cut further because of the change. An analysis also emerged that Apple has begun to push a value-for-money strategy in its budget lineup.