iPhone 17e Reportedly Set for Chipset and Wireless Charging Upgrades; No Price Hike Expected

Apple has widely been rumoured to kick off the launch of its 2026 hardware lineup with the introduction of the iPhone 17e. While the Cupertino-based tech giant has yet to announce the handset, the rumour mill has suggested what it could offer in terms of specifications. According to a seasoned journalist, the successor to the iPhone 16e will pack three key upgrades, including a more powerful chipset and a new networking chip.

iPhone 17e Upgrades

In the latest edition of the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote about the iPhone 17e and the potential upgrades on offer. As per the journalist, Apple will market the purported handset in two key areas, where it plans to target aggressively in terms of both hardware and software — emerging economies and enterprises.

The iPhone 17e is reported to be powered by the A19 chip that currently powers the vanilla iPhone 17 and promises up to 40 percent faster CPU performance compared to the previous generation. The Apple silicon comprises a 16-core Neural Engine, which the tech giant claims delivers power-efficient AI inference, increased memory bandwidth, and improved performance.

In addition to a more powerful processor, Apple could also shift to its latest proprietary modem for powering the cellular and wireless features on the iPhone 17e. The journalist claims that the company may bring the C1X modem to the upcoming ‘e' model.

The new modem, notably, was introduced with the iPhone Air in September 2025. As per Apple's claims, the C1X modem can deliver twice as fast networking speeds while being more efficient compared to the C1 modem on the iPhone 16e.

The last notable upgrade that we can expect on the iPhone 17e is reportedly in terms of wireless charging. The tech giant may offer MagSafe charging on the purported handset, potentially offering support for faster wireless charging. For comparison, the iPhone 16e did support wireless charging, but only the Qi standard, which was around 7.5W. With the introduction of MagSafe, the iPhone 17e may support charging power up to 25W, bringing it closer to the rest of Apple's lineup.

Its pricing and design, however, are expected to remain unchanged. As per Gurman, the iPhone 17e will still begin at $599 (roughly Rs. 54,000) for the base variant, though it remains unknown if the tech giant will bump up the base storage to 256GB, as it did for the vanilla iPhone 17 in September 2025.

All reports hint towards February 19 (Monday) being the most likely launch date for the iPhone 17e, exactly one year after the iPhone 16e was introduced. However, Apple has yet to confirm these plans.