Probably the most hyped iPhone launch of 2026 is Apple’s first foldable, whose display could have simply been glimpsed at CES in Las Vegas. However much more related to the typical buyer would be the subsequent iteration of the corporate’s “e” line of mid-market smartphones, and based mostly on a brand new report, it may arrive as quickly as subsequent month.
In a brand new posting this week, a leaker on Chinese language social media going by the title of Sensible Pikachu says the iPhone 17e is “about” to enter mass manufacturing “following CES,” which ends on January 9. The system, the leaker says, is “aiming to compete with lower-priced flagship telephones.”
(These quotes, and certainly the leaker’s deal with, come from the Chinese language put up through Google Translate, so some parts might be misplaced in translation. Certainly, the deal with itself can alternatively be translated as “Knowledge Pikachu,” as AppleInsider notes.)
That’s a remarkably shut schedule to the iPhone 16e, which went into mass manufacturing on January 8, 2025. And due to this fact, on condition that the 16e was subsequently unveiled to the general public on February 19 and went on sale on February 28, it stands to cause that the 17e can also be on observe for a February launch, except Apple needs to carry the system again for a spring occasion alongside different merchandise.
As ever with data derived from nameless sources on social media, this report ought to be thought-about unproven till we get corroboration. However whereas Sensible Pikachu doesn’t have a lot of a observe report in the case of Apple product rumors, they’re thought to be an correct supply for Android leaks.
The projected timing additionally is sensible. Admittedly the iPhone 16e was the primary of its line, so we don’t have any historic launch patterns to extrapolate from, however there’s a logic to creating it an annual refresh. The iPhone SE had a much less frequent and extra unpredictable cadence (2016, 2020, 2022) however the iPhone 16e is aiming on the mid-market fairly than funds consumers–as Sensible Pikachu says, the marketplace for “lower-priced flagship telephones”–and due to this fact must be stored extra updated in an effort to justify its price ticket. Most of us would baulk at spending $599 for a telephone that’s 4 years outdated, and wasn’t precisely cutting-edge when it got here out.
Talking of which, the report additionally affords some hints in regards to the iPhone 17e’s specs and have set. Sensible Pikachu predicts it’s going to have a 6.1-inch show with a Dynamic Island (that may be an improve from the notched 6.1-inch display of the 16e), however no 120Hz ProMotion. Maybe the latter was all the time too optimistic, on condition that ProMotion was solely added to the usual $799 iPhone final yr. Lastly, the 17e is predicted to get a “downclocked” A19 processor. A earlier report in The Data additionally predicted the telephone will get MagSafe help, one of many odd omissions within the 1st-gen mannequin.
For all the most recent information and rumors about this essential product launch, bookmark our frequently up to date iPhone 17e superguide.
