On the one hand, Apple’s latest iPhone is a huge victory. The iPhone 16E comes with most of what you’d want from a smartphone — a modern processor, a good camera, nice design — for hundreds of dollars less than you’d typically spend on a brand-new device. On the other hand, it’s a bit odd that this thing exists at all. It’s missing a couple of the best things about the iPhone ecosystem — MagSafe, multiple cameras — and if you’re already spending $600 on a phone, it’s not clear that another $200 is a particularly huge deal. So why does the 16E exist? And who is it for?

On this episode of The Vergecast, we try and figure it out. With Nilay on vacation, David is joined by The Verge’s Jake Kastrenakes and Allison Johnson to go through all the ins and outs of Apple’s latest smartphone. We talk about the trades Apple made to bring the price down, the ones it maybe should have made instead, and just how big a deal the new C1 modem might turn out to be.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are some links to get you started, first on the iPhone 16E:

And in other gadget news:

And in the lightning round: