When Apple launched the iPhone 16e this year, it instantly became the talk of the town for featuring the highest ratio of in-house components that brought the cost down massively and helped bring a budget-friendly model. It also featured a C1 modem and strategically reduced its reliance on Qualcomm, further reducing its component costs. While it has not been long since the model came out, reports regarding the iPhone 17e have already started emerging, with the latest one mirroring existing claims of Apple planning on launching the next e model in spring 2026.

A new report suggests that the iPhone 17e would sport the same display size as its predecessor and would come out in the middle of next year

The iPhone 16e brought some major upgrades in terms of a strategy change by Apple. It included opting for more in-house reliance, featuring the C1 modem, and moving away from Qualcomm. This helped the tech giant cut the cost per unit and potentially save up $200 million annually. iPhone 16e featured a 6.1-inch display and shared striking design similarities to the iPhone 14. It looked like the company decided to go back to the earlier models, which helped maintain a lower price for the budget-friendly phone

A new supply chain report has now surfaced about the iPhone 17e, claiming it would be coming out in Spring 2026. It seems to follow the same launch window as the iPhone 16e, which was also a mid-cycle release. It could be that Apple’s e models are establishing a release pattern. While this report is no different from earlier speculations that have been suggesting the same timeline, it is not the launch time that has left us surprised, but rather the display specifications.

It is suggested that the iPhone 17e would not undergo a major overhaul as it would be following the same display size found in the iPhone 16e, which was itself reusing the same screen design of the iPhone 14. This clearly seems to be a cost-cutting strategy, and it looks like Apple is trying to save up on the component costs in order to maintain the lower price for the budget-friendly lineup. We could see some minor internal updates, but the OLED display continuing the same strategy of its predecessor does point towards Apple sticking to modest refreshes for the upcoming model.

We could see the affordable e models that replaced the iPhone SE follow a consistent release strategy and a yearly update pattern similar to regular iPhone schedules, stepping away from the strategy of the iPhone SE, which would come out randomly. The Elec also confirms that Apple might launch the iPhone 17e next year and will have the same OLED display as the iPhone 16e. It also backs up the other report about Apple reusing its components for the upcoming model in order to keep production costs down.

Nonetheless, this would not be the first time Apple has recycled components across generations to reduce production expense, but we hope it does not significantly affect the user experience.