The iPhone 16e is a turning point in the history of the iPhone. Not necessarily because of what it has, but also because of what it doesn’t have.
There’s no Lightning port for starters, which further cements the death of the aging port. But crucially the iPhone 16e has also killed two other iPhone staples — the home button and Touch ID.
The home button debuted on the very first iPhone back in 2007, with Touch ID coming 6 years later on iPhone 5s. While both features were eventually stripped from the flagship iPhone, starting with 2017’s iPhone X, they still stuck around on the iPhone SE series. Now, that’s no longer the case — and all iPhones feature gesture control and Face ID instead.
It’s the end of an era for Apple and the iPhone, and while we all saw it coming I can’t help but wonder whether Apple has taken the right path.
It makes sense to kill the home button
Ever since the first full-screen phones arrived it was clear that physical buttons on phones were on borrowed time. The launch of the iPhone X in 2017 made it clear that Apple was going down the same path, even if the anniversary model debuted along two phones that retained the old design — the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
That design then formed the basis for another two phones, the iPhone SE 2 and iPhone SE 3. In fact, the two SE models were so similar to iPhone 8 that you could use the same cases on all three phones.
Whether we’re talking size, shape, or chunky bezels, it would take a lot to differentiate those phones from looks alone. Naturally, this means the home button and Touch ID sensor stick around on a form of life support, lasting over 7 years beyond the iPhone X’s debut.
In the years since 2007 we’ve seen Apple reclaim more screen space from external components. iPhone 13 saw the controversial notch shrink in size, and the following year saw the debut of the Dynamic Island cutout on iPhone 14 Pro.
Recently, there have been rumors that the Dynamic Island could shrink in a future iPhone model too, possibly the iPhone 17 Pro. With all that in mind, it was clear the “cheap” iPhones would get a similar treatment at some point.
The larger iPhone 14-style display offers significantly more screen space than the iPhone SE 3 offered. The iPhone 16e is 0.33 inches taller than the iPhone SE3, but manages to offer a 6.1-inch display inside it. That’s considerably larger than the 4.7-inch display on the iPhone SE 3, and as we all know larger screens means you have so much room for activities.
Plus, after several years of using gesture controls on a variety of phones (iPhone and Android), I can firmly say that I don’t miss the physical buttons at all. I’m clearly not alone in this assumption, and there are plenty of comments on a number of Reddit threads lamenting the loss of that familiar round button on the iPhone 16e.
Touch ID would have been nice to have (in the screen or power button)
The home button had an excellent run, lasting almost 18 years in its different iterations. But it was definitely time to head off into the wild blue yonder. I just wish that Apple had at least considered keeping Touch ID.
Despite the fact that Apple has long-touted the security benefits of Face ID over Touch ID’s fingerprint scanning tech, the tech does still exist on other Apple products.
MacBooks still offer Touch ID as a dedicated button, and is also common on cheaper iPad models. Tablets like the iPad (10th generation) or iPad mini 7 offer a full-screen experience, without the home button, but haven't gone down the facial recognition route. Instead they include a Touch ID sensor in the power button.
Why couldn't the iPhone 16e do the same?
iPad power buttons are much larger than those on the iPhone, which may help discreetly house the Touch ID sensor. But I can’t help but wonder how difficult it would be to offer the fingerprint sensor on iPhones as well. It’s certainly possible, and a variety of non-Apple phones have a similar kind of fingerprint scanner hiding in the power button.
Often these phones are on the cheaper side, like the Moto G 2025, but that description would also be used to describe the iPhone 16e. Ok, so $599 is not cheap, but it is still considerably lower than the $799 iPhone 16.
If you’re going to make a cheaper phone, then there’s no harm in adding cheaper components. Especially since it means Apple could keep talking about how much better Face ID is to try and convince people to cough up the extra cash to buy a flagship iPhone.
The iPhone 16e does seem like an attempt to better unify the cheaper iPhone with the rest of the flagship range — hence the name. So I’d guess that the idea of preserving Touch ID on a full screen iPhone was never in the cards. Bummer.
Bottom Line
There’s a lot to like and dislike where the iPhone 16e is concerned. It’s pricier than people would have liked, but it’s also capable of doing things that the iPhone SE 3 could only dream of. The upgraded design is just one of those things, and it’s undoubtedly good to have. In a world where even the cheapest, sub-$300 phones have full-screen displays, there’s no way Apple could get away throwing out an iPhone 8-lookalike again.
But it wouldn’t be right to celebrate the iPhone 16e without remembering everything that was scrapped in the process of developing it. Whether you’re going to be nostalgic for the home button or not, we can all admit that times have changed and the iPhone 16e needed that modern design refresh.
As for Touch ID, Apple may preach about the benefits of adopting Face ID instead but I still wish it could have stuck around a little longer — even if it was only on the e-series model.
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