The iPhone I’m planning to buy is £100 off with this brilliant Black Friday deal

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

I’ve owned the Apple iPhone SE (2020) for, well, too long really. It’s been a wonderful servant during five years of ownership, but its performance has dropped to the point where an upgrade was probably needed at least a year ago.

The battery now lasts about as long as a Liz Truss’ premiership and it loads apps slower than the time it takes for two pandas to conceive. OK, maybe it’s not that slow, but still, it really is time that I got a new phone.

The iPhone 16e’s 6.1-inch OLED screen has a resolution of 2532 x 1170, and although it has a lower peak brightness compared to the iPhone 16, its 460ppi pixel density is the same as its more expensive sibling. When we tested it back in May, we found the picture “beautifully sharp, detailed and vibrant”.

Its 26-hour battery life when watching videos (90 hours for listening to audio) also exceeds the iPhone 16. In my case, this means I’ll no longer need to bring a charger with me or put my phone on airplane mode when venturing out the house for long periods. For you, it means lots of time spent watching your favourite YouTube videos or listening to music on your streaming service of choice.

If engaging in the latter, this Apple smartphone sounds great, provided you use a pair of quality headphones, which you can connect wirelessly or via the USB-C adapter. During testing, we found the sound “rich and warm but not coloured, brilliantly punchy and rhythmic, and terrifically detailed and dynamic”.

There’s also a 48MP camera on the back for snapping photos, while an IP68 rating means it’s waterproof down to 1m for up to 30 minutes.

The five-star iPhone 16 is also £100 off for Black Friday, with the 128gb version going for £599 on Lebara. That’s worth checking out if an extra 12MP ultrawide camera and a brighter screen are absolute must-haves for you.

But with so little to separate the iPhone 16 and 16e in terms of sound and picture quality, and the latter’s superior battery life, the iPhone 16e feels like a very shrewd purchase, especially with the current discount.

So, if you’re looking for a new smartphone and you’re thinking of upgrading to the latest generation iPhone, why not check out the 16e for £449 at Lebara. I know I will be...

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James Cook is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi?. He spent several years writing for various business publications, before completing a National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Diploma in Journalism. Outside of work, James spends his time playing bass guitar, watching TV and motivating himself to keep fit, often unsuccessfully.

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