The Morning After: Apple’s big week starts with the iPhone 17e

We’re at the start of another one of those weeks where Apple announces one or two of its lesser products each day. The first pair to break cover is the iPhone 17e and iPad Air M4, with more due to drop as the calendar rolls forward. The iPhone 17e is by far the more interesting gadget, especially as the price remained the same as for the iPhone 16e. Apple is charging $599 for the 17e, even though the base model storage has doubled to a very welcome 256GB.

The 17e also gains several features that were held back from the equivalent budget handset last year. The most notable is perhaps the addition of MagSafe at Qi2 speeds, enabling users to wirelessly charge their device at 15W. Keen-eyed spec-list nerds will also spot Apple’s C1X proprietary wireless chip, which offers comparable speed to the Qualcomm models it will ...