Buy the iPhone 16 at $799. It is one of only two iPhones Apple still sells with a starting price under $800, the other being iPhone 17e at $699, and it is the one whose full specification you can read before you pay: an A18 chip, a 48MP Fusion main camera with a 12MP Ultra Wide and a 2x crop, Dynamic Island, Face ID, up to 22 hours of video playback and MagSafe at 25W.
There is a catch, and it is worth $30. Apple’s $799 figure for iPhone 16 includes a connectivity discount that applies to iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 only. The unlocked 128GB configuration is recorded on Apple’s Store page at $829, which is over the $800 line. Both models also cost $100 more than they did on September 8, when the price Apple listed for iPhone 16 was $699 and for iPhone 17e was $599. Apple announced no increase, so the change shows up only in the prices.
Key facts on the under-$800 iPhones
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| iPhones Apple sells starting under $800 | Two: iPhone 17e at $699 and iPhone 16 at $799 |
| The pick | iPhone 16 at $799 |
| The catch | $799 includes a $30 connectivity discount; 128GB unlocked is recorded at $829 |
| Cheapest option | iPhone 17e at $699, with 256GB as its base storage |
| Next rung up | iPhone 17 at $899, or $929 for 256GB unlocked |
| Prices before September 9 | iPhone 16 $699, iPhone 17e $599 |
| Base storage | iPhone 16 starts at 128GB, iPhone 17e at 256GB |
| Apple Intelligence rule | Full features on iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 or later |
| AppleCare+ per-device price | Not published for any 2026 product |
Why iPhone 16 wins at $799
Every figure that decides a phone at this price is published for iPhone 16. The chip is the A18 with a 5-core GPU. The display is a 6.1-inch OLED at 2556 by 1179 and 460 ppi. The cameras are a 48MP Fusion main at 26mm f/1.6, a 12MP Ultra Wide at 13mm f/2.2 with a 120-degree field of view, and a 12MP 2x telephoto taken as a sensor crop at 52mm. Battery is up to 22 hours of video playback, 18 streamed and 80 of audio, with 50 percent in about 30 minutes.
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It also clears the Apple Intelligence bar without argument. Apple’s rule is that full Apple Intelligence runs on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 or later, and iPhone 16 is named in that list. At 170 g and 7.80 mm it is the lightest phone in this guide, and MagSafe at 25W with Qi2 at 25W means standard Apple charging accessories work as designed.
The catches are real and short. There is no ProMotion, so the display stays at a fixed refresh rate rather than the 120Hz you get one rung up. The port is USB 2 at 480Mb/s. The base capacity is 128GB, the smallest in the lineup, and stepping to 256GB is an extra cost Apple’s served page did not show.
When iPhone 17e at $699 is the better buy
Two situations flip the verdict. The first is a hard budget: $699 is the lowest price Apple charges for a new iPhone, and it needs no discount attached to a carrier plan to get there. The second is storage, because iPhone 17e starts at 256GB against the 128GB base on iPhone 16. If you shoot video or keep a large offline music library, the cheaper phone gives you twice the room.
Be clear-eyed about what is not settled. The detailed specification for iPhone 17e is not confirmed here, so its chip, camera count and battery hours are not figures we can put beside iPhone 16’s. What is on record is how the previous e model was positioned: iPhone 16e launched at $599 with a single 48MP Fusion camera and no Ultra Wide, a notch rather than Dynamic Island, Qi wireless charging without MagSafe, and up to 26 hours of video playback. Read Apple’s iPhone 17e page for the current sheet before deciding the $100 saving is free.
The $100 above the line, and whether to cross it
| Spec | iPhone 17e | iPhone 16 | iPhone 17 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple’s starting price | $699 | $799 | $899 |
| Unlocked price recorded | Not confirmed here | $829 (128GB) | $929 (256GB) |
| Base storage | 256GB | 128GB | 256GB |
| Chip | Not confirmed here | A18, 5-core GPU | A19, 5-core GPU with Neural Accelerators |
| Display | Not confirmed here | 6.1-inch, no ProMotion | 6.3-inch, ProMotion to 120Hz |
| Ultra Wide camera | Not confirmed here | 12MP, 13mm f/2.2 | 48MP Fusion, 13mm f/2.2 |
| Front camera | Not confirmed here | 12MP f/1.9 | 18MP Center Stage f/1.9 |
| Video playback | Not confirmed here | Up to 22 hours | Up to 30 hours |
| Port speed | Not confirmed here | USB 2, 480Mb/s | USB 2, 480Mb/s |
If your ceiling is soft, $899 is the best hundred dollars in Apple’s whole lineup. iPhone 17 adds ProMotion, a 48MP Ultra Wide in place of a 12MP one, an 18MP Center Stage front camera, eight more hours of video playback and 256GB as standard. It carries the same $30 discount arithmetic, so the unlocked 256GB figure is $929.
What you should not do is stretch from $799 to the top of the range expecting a proportional gain. iPhone 18 Pro costs $1,199, and iPhone Duo starts at $1,999 and does not ship until October 23.
What has not been confirmed
Apple has not published per-device AppleCare+ prices for the September 2026 products, so budget for protection blind or use AppleCare One at $19.99 a month for up to three devices. Apple publishes a trade-in range of $175 to $885 for an iPhone 13 or later in the US but no per-model table, and the values recorded for individual phones fell on September 9. Apple’s higher capacity prices for iPhone 16 were not present in the served Store page, and it has given no reason for the $100 increases because it announced none.
iOS 27 arrives free on Monday, September 14 and runs on iPhone 11 and later plus iPhone SE from the second generation, so a $699 or $799 phone bought this week starts on the current software. Both models are on sale now rather than on pre-order, unlike iPhone 18 Pro, which reaches stores on Friday, September 18.
