Apple has officially started shipping the iPhone 16e, the successor to the iPhone SE (3rd Gen) starting today. This time, the phone comes with a major design overhaul.
The new budget iPhone ditches the dated look of its predecessor in favor of flat sides, slimmer bezels, a notch, and even the Action Button. But while the 16e finally feels like it belongs in the modern iPhone lineup, it’s also missing a feature that makes absolutely no sense: MagSafe.
The iPhone 16e does support magnetic wireless charging, but only at 7.5W—and crucially, it lacks the MagSafe ring that lets accessories and chargers snap securely into place. According to Apple, though, this omission doesn’t really matter for the 16e’s target audience.
In a statement to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, an unnamed Apple representative said that “most people in the 16e’s target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging cable.”
That might have been a reasonable argument a few years ago, but at this point, MagSafe is everywhere—not just for charging, but as a key part of Apple’s accessory ecosystem. Leaving it out on a 2025 iPhone feels like an unnecessary compromise.
For a phone that’s supposed to bring the iPhone experience to more people, Apple sure picked a weird feature to cut.
There’s a workaround—sort of
There is a workaround, though, if you still want the MagSafe experience. You can rather buy a Magsafe compatible case which surely won’t boost the charging speed, but at least it’ll let you use MagSafe accessories without a second thought.
The iPhone 16e starts at $599 in the US for the 128GB variant, going up to $899 for the 512GB model. In India, pricing starts at ₹59,999 and tops out at ₹89,900.
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