My preliminary response to the launch of the iPhone 17e was cautiously optimistic. They’ve added MagSafe and a sooner chip, I famous, precisely as anticipated. However they’ve additionally doubled the beginning storage on the identical worth, made the show extra scratch-resistant, and added a much-needed third coloration possibility.
My optimism didn’t final lengthy, nonetheless. The 17e’s model of MagSafe is capped at 15W in comparison with the iPhone 16’s 22W and the iPhone 17’s 25W. That sooner chip, predictably, is a binned model of the A19 that has one fewer GPU core than the chip within the iPhone 17. And as for the brand new coloration? That’s the actual insult.
Vital background: I’m an enormous fan, you may even say an evangelist, of pink tech. Again within the fall of 2024 I argued passionately for the inclusion of pink and different vibrant colours on professional units, and the next month I praised the new pink of the iPhone 16 Plus, which put its predecessor’s feeble rose blush firmly within the shade.
So I used to be excited to learn that the iPhone 17e now is available in Smooth Pink. Then I noticed it, and nicely, I believe the phrase “Smooth” is underselling fairly how unpink the iPhone 17e seems to be. I would counsel another title, similar to Barely Pink or Not Identifiably Pink, or Off-White.
To present an concept of how a lot Apple’s allegedly pink units can differ in hue, take a look at the iPhone 15 Plus (in pink) and the iPhone 16 Plus (additionally in pink; good easy names, these) sitting aspect by aspect on my armchair. You’ll word that the 15 Plus seems to be nearly white, though there’s a perceptible pinkish tinge in case you slim your eyes. Whereas the 16 Plus is an actual and unmistakable pink, daring and unapologetic.
David Worth / Foundry
It’s price noting that real-world pictures like this have a tendency to undersell the vibrancy of telephone colours, and the 15 Plus doesn’t look fairly so washed out in individual. However for comparability functions, that is an efficient illustration of how a lot much less pink we obtained for our cash within the 15-series era.
Now let’s examine the 15 Plus and the 16 Plus to the newly introduced iPhone 17e, utilizing Apple’s official art work. Always remember what they took from you.
Apple
The 17e, as you may clearly see, doesn’t merely return to the underpowered pink of the iPhone 15 Plus; it manages to be even much less pink. One may even suspect that Apple is utilizing a intentionally half-hearted coloration end as a approach to encourage upsell to a dearer handset, a lot because the black/white choices final 12 months had been one of many 16e’s quite a few small disappointments. The iPhone 17 doesn’t provide pink in any respect, however its sage end is fairly pretty in a extra understated means, and is a minimum of identifiably inexperienced.
One final illustration, so as to add a few older pink iPhones.
Apple
We are able to see that the fantastic iPhone 16 era was one thing of a one-off for Apple. Not even the iPhone XR obtained a vivid pink to go along with its vivid blue, yellow, and coral. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 13 couldn’t be described as sizzling pink by any means. However they had been nonetheless a sight pinker than the iPhone 17e. And I refuse to name that progress.
