Apple Denies Speculation Surrounding iPhone 16e's Lack of MagSafe

[cdsapplefan]

So Apple have released a phone in 2025 that doesn't charge wirelessly? It is not something I use myself, but its pretty much a standard on every mobile by now. Magsafe is handy for car phone holders though and I suppose a case can replicate that.

The 16e will charge wirelessly but with a 3rd party MagSafe case and Qi 7.5w charging and not Qi2 15w charging. 🧲 📱

If you don’t like that setup loophole then just pay $200 more for the iPhone 16 Standard which has MagSafe Qi2 25w wireless charging.

The 16e is not designed to Out Do the 16 Standard.

 

[Moukee]

The lack of MagSafe is the biggest downside of the 16e to me.

I get why they did it. Sure it saves a tiny bit of production cost, but they omitted it so enthusiastic people on more of a budget who waited for the 16e can be upsold to the regular 16 (or Pro) more easily. The actual target demographic (so people actually buying the 16e instead of getting upsold) mostly doesn't care about MagSafe anyway.

So no, it won't hurt the 16e sales in any meaningful way and will likely lead to more upsells.

The problem I have with the omission of MagSafe is that there's now even less incentive to invest into the MagSafe/Qi2 ecosystem because a device that'll likely see a lot of sales lacks support for it. Yes, you can add the magnetic functionality via a case, but it's not there by default and that is actually a big deal.

I don't upgrade to every single generation of a given device Apple releases, but I usually buy "Pro" tier devices that are mostly fairly specced out as well.

Part of the reason I buy these devices is the ecosystem with its various subsystems, MagSafe being one of them. This subsystem is weaker if Apple itself doesn't support it on all of their latest devices.

So all these omissions related to ecosystem "subsystems" like MagSafe, UWB and even dynamic island (less incentive for devs to add live activities if fewer users can take advantage of them) are somewhat annoying to me.

 

[mcled53]

No one is gonna pay $599 for this phone. Hopefully if the foldable phones comes out in 2026 or 2027 like weve been hearing hopefully that will be in the $400 range.

wanta bet on that?

 

[Chuckeee]

Max Tech believes the 16e is a worthy buy and a must upgrade from any older SE model or any iPhone older than the iPhone 15.

If Max Tech claims that “water is wet” and the “sky is blue” I would be skeptical.

 

[TokyoKiller]

Folks are forgetting the target market for this release. It's for those who don't splurge on a wireless charger, night stand or even possibly have a car to use a vent charger for MagSafe. It's a budget phone for folks who need a phone and don't necessarily spend more to accessorize or make it more luxurious. It hits the spot and delivers performance people expect in 2025 without all the extra things they don't need or want that add to the cost.

I'll just leave this here since folks decided to shoot me down and say that I was going out of my way to make excuses for Apple: https://www.macrumors.com/2025/02/28/apple-provides-reason-iphone-16e-no-magsafe/

"According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging cable."

These users apparently tend not to use wireless charging at all, and when they do use it, Apple believes the slower 7.5W Qi charging speed compared to MagSafe's faster rates isn't a deciding factor for the customer segment it is targeting with the more affordable device."

The reason I said what I said is from experience. I worked for carriers and for Apple retail for a period of 10 years all together, so I saw with my own eyes which consumers buy what and tends to spend on accessories and peripheral and in this case Apple nailed it. I am not here to debate the pricing.