A few months ago, we reported that Apple could launch the iPhone 17e as well as the twelfth-generation base iPad within the first quarter of this year. Now, Japanese blog Mac Otakara shared some alleged details that would contradict what was previously reported.
According to the report, the iPhone 17e will retain the same design as that of the current iPhone 16e, whose design was based on the iPhone 14. This means that the iPhone 17e will continue to have the notch on top of the display, despite previous rumors indicating that it would finally get the Dynamic Island. Other features we can expect for the iPhone 17e are the following:
- A19 chip: This is the same chip that’s used on the base iPhone 17. However, if we take a look at both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16e, they actually use two different variants of the A18 chip. The iPhone 16 has a 5-core GPU, but the iPhone 16e has a 4-core GPU. Furthermore, it’s likely that Apple will use a binned variant of the A19 chip on this upcoming iPhone 17e to reduce R&D costs overall.
- C1X cellular modem: Apple introduced its second-generation C1X cellular modem on the iPhone Air, and the company later brought that modem to the cellular models of the M5 iPad Pro. Apple says that the C1X is the most power-efficient modem ever in an iPhone, which means that the iPhone 17e should see improved cellular speeds, with up to twice as fast speeds as the first-generation C1 modem, and potentially longer battery life when connected to cellular.
- N1 networking chip: Apple introduced its first-generation N1 networking chip on its iPhone 17 lineup and iPhone Air, providing improved reliability when using technologies such as Personal Hotspot and AirDrop. The N1 chip also supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread. The M5 iPad Pro also features this networking chip, so this iPhone 17e should see improved reliability in both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
- MagSafe: The current iPhone 16e lacks MagSafe, and it’s limited to just Qi wireless charging at up to 7.5W speeds, but according to a separate report from Macworld, the iPhone 17e is expected to adopt MagSafe for the first time on an “e” model with up to 20W-25W wireless charging speeds. This would be a warm welcome change. That report also said that not only would the iPhone 17e retain a single rear camera, but it would also be announced on Thursday, February 19. Now, Apple usually doesn’t announce its hardware products on Thursday, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
On the other hand, the current base iPad (11th generation) features the A16 chip, which has 6GB of RAM and lacks support for Apple Intelligence. Although previous rumors indicated that the 12th-generation base iPad would be upgraded with the latest A19 chip, this report contradicts that claim. Instead, the report believes that the next iPad would feature the previous A18 chip instead, which would make sense as using previous-generation silicon would reduce the costs overall. Since the iPad 11 actually uses a binned variant of the A16 chip, the iPad 12 will likely use a binned version of the A18 chip. Most importantly, since the A18 chip features 8GB of RAM, this means that Apple Intelligence could be coming to the base iPad for the very first time, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect considering that Apple is planning to launch its drastically improved Siri around the spring timeframe.
So if you still care about the lower-end iPhone “e” model or think about buying the base iPad, you may want to wait a bit longer, as the next updates could be worth waiting for.
