Michael Hansen unboxes, sets up, and shares his first hands-on impressions of the iPhone 17E, Apple’s new budget iPhone starting at $599. He outlines the phone’s place in the iPhone 17 lineup, describes the included case and packaging, and walks through the hardware design, including the 6.1-inch display, USB-C port, Action button, MagSafe support, and single camera system. He compares the 17E to his personal iPhone 17 Pro Max, focusing especially on speaker sound, VoiceOver performance, keyboard click volume, and general usability for blind users. He also notes the absence of certain higher-end features such as precision finding support and the camera control button, while emphasizing the phone’s value and practical appeal for most buyers. The episode also includes brief setup impressions, an accidental drop test that highlights the phone’s durability with Ceramic Shield 2 and case protection, and an invitation for listeners to submit questions for a future written review on AppleVis.
Transcript
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI Note Taker – VoicePen, an AI-powered transcription app. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.
Michael: Hello, AppleVis friends. This is Michael Hansen. Thanks so much for joining me. I hope that today finds you well wherever you are. In this podcast, I'm going to be unboxing, setting up, and giving my initial first hands-on impressions of the all-new iPhone 17E. The iPhone 17E is Apple's new budget iPhone. It starts at 599 US dollars. For that price, you get an A19 series processor. You get 256 gigabytes of storage. You get MagSafe charging up to 15 watts. You get a phone with a 6.1 inch display. You get a whole lot more. And all of it, again, for the same starting price of $599 as last year. Looking at it kind of in terms of the other iPhone 17 models, we, of course, we have our iPhone 17E, which is kind of the entry level. the the basic iphone at 599 us dollars you have your iphone 17 which is 200 more at 7.99 you have your iphone air at 9.99 your iphone 17 pro at 10.99 and you have an iphone 17 pro max at 11.99 Now, my personal device is an iPhone 17 Pro Max. I like big phones. I like big batteries. And so... It's not lost on me that the phone that we're looking at here is half the price of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. And last year I reviewed the iPhone 16E and I really had a blast with it. Battery life was really good. Speakers were really good. It did not have MagSafe, which of course this year's model does. Apple has corrected that. It also does not have the precision finding support. So for precision finding for your air tags and things like that. And I don't think this year's model does either from what I was able to see. And it doesn't look like this one has dual frequency GPS. Whether or not that is important to you is totally a personal thing. Just giving you information here so you kind of know what's going on. But in many other ways, I really, really, really liked the iPhone 16E. And so I kind of am going into this review with some expectations. I'm expecting and thinking that the iPhone 17E is going to be a year's newer iPhone 16E with MagSafe and a newer processor. And so I'm really excited about this to kind of see where this goes, because I think this and the lower cost iPhone is going to be what a majority of people are probably going to want to buy. So as much as I like my big, super big phones with super uber big battery, I also like to kind of look at the other end of it, the basic model to know who can I, you know, who is this phone for and who can it be recommended for? And can I recommend this to just somebody who just wants a good iPhone for years to come that will last a long time? So Apple was kind enough to loan me an iPhone 17E in black. It is the 512 gigabyte model. You can get your iPhone 17Es, by the way, in white, black, or soft pink. You get cases, MagSafe cases, they've got crossbody straps, they sent me a crossbody as well. We're gonna go ahead and open up the case first so that when I take the phone out of the box, I can just I can just put it right in the case. I don't have to send it anywhere while I take the case out. So got the case in the box right here. And this will, of course, you open up a case and it will give you your first look at the actual size of the device. So I've opened up the case packaging here. And I'm going to go ahead and take the case out. It's kind of in this little insert and put the insert back into the packaging. Well, maybe we're not going to do that. Let's try to put this in there. All right. By the way, all of the packaging for the iPhone 17E is completely fiber-based and is recyclable. So that's kind of cool. And in my hand now, I have the case for the iPhone 17E. It is a silicone case. It is a blue silicone case. And it's a typical Apple silicone case. I... It feels, I'm guessing since this phone has MagSafe, that it does have the magnets inside for that. And on the front edges of the case, just on either side of the speaker and microphone areas there, we have the connections to attach the crossbody. What you do with that is you put the attachment strings through the loops on the case and then you attach your crossbody that way. Um, but there's no, uh, let's see on the back of the case here, there's no real bump. I'm guessing that this phone will sit flat when it's in a case. There's a tiny little lip around. I kind of stand corrected here. There's a tiny, very, very tiny little bump. lip around the camera cutout but this phone doesn't have a plateau like like the 17 Pro Max sitting right here next to me um it i think it only has i we're gonna we're gonna find out in just a second but um i think it's only got one one camera it's a two in one camera system so um nothing this phone should be able to sit flat on any surface that you want to put it on Okay, so what I'm going to do now is I've got the iPhone box and picking this box up in my head, it's a little bit heavier than what I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting, but just picking it up, it just feels a little bit heavier. It is your typical Apple product box. On the top of the box, on the lid, it feels like what's like an embossed, my guess is it's an embossed iPhone, I don't know. It is sealed. Seals are on the bottom underside of the box. And so we're gonna go ahead and open that up now. And we will go ahead and unseal, take off the seal. I think there is a second seal on the opposite side. And there we've done that. And now, for the moment that everybody, well, not quite, we're not quite to the moment everybody came here for, I don't think yet, so. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and open up the lid, and inside the box, the phone is face down. Phone is sitting face down, camera pointing up, and I can feel here the back of this phone, It has a smooth portion. Of course, you've got your back of your phone. You also have like this smooth portion that I don't know if this is an Apple logo or what this is or if this is where the alignment magnets will connect when you're using your MagSafe. We will find out about that. i guess when we try that if i can get something i don't have any magsafe stuff but um i will try and get some so lifted out the phone from the box there's a little screen there's a little protective cover over the screen and there's a little tab that you can pull to kind of pick up the phone and so what i'm going to do is take off that cover and holding the iPhone 17E in my hand facing me like I'm gonna unlock it with face ID we have on the top right hand side of the device we have the side button which of course you know doubles as your power button and your Siri button going all the way down you know to the edge of the device we have we have on the bottom at bottom edge of it here we have either speaker or microphone port. I don't know which is which yet. We're going to find out when we turn the thing on and we start hearing it talk. We have a USB-C port. If you're coming to this from an iPhone 15 or older, you will need a new set of cables. Apple does include a USB-C cable in the box. But you will need your own power adapter that connects to a USB-C cable. Like basically all recent iPhone models, Apple does not include a power brick in the box, but you do get a USB-C cable. Going back to the phone, we've got our USB-C connector, USB-C port rather, another speaker microphone hole, I don't know which is which yet. Coming up the opposite side of the phone, we have our volume down, volume up buttons, and we have our action button. There is no camera control button on the E models like there is on the 17 Pro and Pro Max. But being a blind user, I don't have much need for it. It doesn't do anything that I need. So practically speaking, that's not much of a loss for me. So backside of the phone and the sides are aluminum, except for there's a place on the back, kind of the middle of the phone. I'm guessing that's probably where the Apple logo is. We have a 6.1 diagonal, 6.1 inch display, and that is 6.1 inches diagonally. Going back to the back of the phone, we do only have one little tiny little camera. So there's no huge camera bump, nothing like that. And I suspect that this thing is gonna sit just perfectly when you put it on the table. I'm gonna go ahead and put the lid back on the box and set the box down. Now, as I hold the iPhone 17E, a couple of things come to mind. You know, in my head, I seem to remember last year's iPhone 16E being smaller. I loved the iPhone 13 mini. I tried it for a couple of weeks. It was not for me because of the battery size, but I love the iPhone 13 mini and I would love Apple to make a new E model now with better battery and or a mini, a new mini model rather, with better battery and all the things, I think it'd be really, really cool. But I seem to remember the iPhone 17E being smaller, or the 16E being smaller than what this is. Of course, that is not the case. They are the same size. But that's just the first impression I got holding it. It feels a little bit bigger than what I was remembering from last year's model. But an important note, it is not any bigger. It's just my imagination. All right, we're going to go ahead and put this in the case. and it snaps in the case. And I'm gonna just set it down so we can know, does it move? No. So it does not, it sits flat on a surface. So now we know. So I've got the phone mostly set up now. Still got a couple of things that I need to finish or let the system kind of finish in the background. But I've been able to make some phone calls and spend some time with the phone. Even, unfortunately, sadly, dropped it once. No, I'm not kidding. It was an accident. It just slipped out of my hand. And so that is score one for the more durable glass on the front cover, Ceramic Shield 2, that is up to three times more scratch resistant than the previous model. The case saved the phone, so we are very, very glad about that. So now that I've done everything, including drop the phone, I can kind of come to some conclusions about it and just some initial firsthand impressions. So first thing I noticed really kind of off the bat when I started using it is the sound profile. Now, granted, I'm comparing it to an iPhone 17 Pro Max and the 17 Pro Max is bigger, but what i'm noticing is that the 17E the sound is more consistent and it is uh less fluctuation with the timbre so uh iPhone 17E certainly i think probably sounds a little bit more bassy um but it also kind of got more high end whereas on these uh 17E, it's more consistent. Sound doesn't get as loud per se, but it's still plenty loud. But what you hear at lower volumes is also what you hear at higher volumes. So I'm going to go ahead and pick up the 17E here and give a demonstration as I... Navigate around my home screen. We'll do this a few times. I'm holding the phone right in front of me so that you can hear it. I'm going to try and hold it in the same spot as I do the 17 Pro Max and try and hold them in the same spots. Try and give as close of a comparison as I possibly can. So here we go. Thanks. Okay, we're going to swipe to the right here.
VoiceOver: Okay.
Michael: We're going to go ahead and try the Tom voice so you can hear that.
VoiceOver: Okay. Tom. Enhanced. Settings. Double tap to open. Okay. Bible. Reese. Weather bug. WX. Clock. Camera. Photos. Notes. Liray. Facebook. Reminders. Passwords. Wallet. Chase. T-Life. User. Fry. Watch. YouTube. Slack. Scanner. Radio. Bard. Mobile. Flytrider. Be my eyes. App store. Search. Doc. Phone. Messages. Mail. Safari. Mail. Messages. Phone. Search. Apps. Be my. Flood. Bard. Sketch. Slack. YouTube. Watch. User. T-Life. Chase. Wallet. Pass. Remind. Face. Liray. Note. Phone. Camera. Clock. W. Weather bug. settings. Double tap to open.
Michael: Now we're going to try the Alex voice.
VoiceOver: Head actions. Head containers. Voices. Talk. Alex. Settings. Bible. Weather. W. Clock. Camera. Photos. Notes. Layer. Facebook. Remind. Password. Wallet. Chase. T-Life. Use. Watch. YouTube. Slack. Scanner. Board. App Store. Search. Talk. Messages. Mail. Safari. Safari. Mail. Messages. Phone. Search. App Store. Be my. Flight. Board. Scanner. Slack. YouTube. Watch. Use. T-Life. Chase. Wallet. Password. Remind. Base. Layer. Notes. Photo. Camera. Clock. W. Weather. Bible. Settings. Head containers. Head actions. Contain. Voices. Okay. That was the iPhone 17E.
Michael: We're going to do the same thing now on the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
VoiceOver: Voices, primary voice. Tom, enhanced.
Michael: Switching to Tom.
VoiceOver: Settings. Double tap to open. Bible, weather bug, W, clock, camera, photo, notes, Liray, Facebook, reminder, password, bullet, chase, T, like, user, watch, YouTube, Slack, scanner, card, mobile, Fletcher, email, app store, search, doc, phone, messages, mail, Safari, Safari, mail, message, phone, search, apps, email, flat, bar, skip, Slack, YouTube, watch, user, T, like, chase, bullet, pass, remind, face, lyric, note, phone, camera, clock, W, weather, Bible, settings, settings. Okay. Double tap to open.
Michael: We're going to switch to Alex.
VoiceOver: Head container. Containers. Voice speaking. 55%. 60 words. Speaking rate. Word. Characters. Actions. Headings. Voices. Tom. Alex. Settings.
Michael: Okay. Here we go.
VoiceOver: Double tap to open. Bible. Weather bug. WF. Clock. Camera. Photo. Notes. Layer. Facebook. Remind. Password. Wallet. Chase. Daylight. Uzi. Watch. YouTube. Slack. Scanner. Bar. Flight rate. Be my app. App store. Search. Doc. Phone. Messages. Mail. Safari. Safari. Mail. Messages. Phone. Search. Apps. Be my. Flight. Bar.
Michael: Okay. So what I hear, I hope that it comes across on the recording, but what I'm hearing is that the sound on the 17 Pro Max is much more inconsistent. There's certainly much more higher end, but kind of especially in the mids, it kind of feels like or sounds like voiceover. It's not a very particularly full-bodied sound. So here's our... That's our 17E. And here's our 17 Pro Max. Another interesting kind of tidbit about the sound is I've noticed that keyboard clicks are louder on the 17E, certainly, which I know has been a concern with keyboard feedback and that it's quiet. It's certainly louder on the 17E for whatever reasons. I don't know if the device has a different sound profile or it's configured differently, but it sounds... It kind of sounds to me like there's less dynamic range with the 17E sound and maybe the quieter sounds are being boosted. uh kind of lower maybe the whole the whole range is kind of compressed so the the quiet is louder and the louder is quieter um not sure what i think you know which i think sounds better i'm kind of leaning towards i kind of like the more consistent uh profile of the 17e sound but we'll kind of have to play with that and try it Voice over performance seems to be pretty similar. I am noticing so far a little bit of lag in Facebook where I'm not seeing that on the 17 Pro Max. They're both running just your stock iOS 26.3.2. Don't know what to attribute that to. Another thing that I am also kind of noticing is that when we toggle the focus on the iPhone 17E, VoiceOver does not say what your focus status is. I have it set to do not disturb, and on my 17 Pro Max, you'll hear it. It reports that.
VoiceOver: Focus mode, do not disturb, off. Focus mode, do not disturb, on. Focus mode, do not disturb, off.
Michael: Oh, now it's not doing it. And on the 17E when we try that. Hold on. Just pressing it, nothing. Don't know why the 16E did that last year as well too. So again, I have no idea why or what is going on with that. Just something that I noticed. In terms of voiceover performances moving around the home screen, it seems about the same in terms of how fast can you swipe, how responsive is the voice going to be. Okay, that's the 17E. Let's try this one. Okay, that was the 17 Pro Max. Let's try the 17E again. about the same so no real difference um with that um the rest of it is going to be i think things that are only going to kind of be apparent in the review i've had it plugged in so far because i wanted it to finish the background syncing of my messages in the background so i haven't really had a chance to test out the battery Phone calls sound good. No real difference in call quality there. Haven't tested out the camera yet or anything like that to kind of know any differences or anything like that. If you have any questions for me or things that you want me to address or talk about in my written review, feel free to post a comment on the podcast page on AppleVis. Or if you just have questions that you want to know right now about the model because the review, I like to really take time and really spend some time with the model before I put something out. So if you just have a question that you want to know the answer to right now or something that you want me to review, go ahead and put a comment there or you can send me an email at Michael, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, at AppleVis, A-P-P-L-E-V-I-S.com. All right, that is going to be about it for right now. We'll certainly have much more in our review in the coming weeks. Plus, if you have any questions, again, be sure to give us a post or send me an email. Be happy to answer any and all questions, comments, feedback that you have. Until next time, thanks so much for listening. I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Comments
Interesting
Hi Michael,
I think your review on the 16E last year was the same, regarding the audio quality and consistency. I have to say from your test on this podcast, the 17E sounds really, really good. Truthfully, I think this is the first time I've ever thought the Tom voice sounded.. good.
I'm also personally glad it does not have a camera button. I've not been a fan of that since it's debut last year. I'm thinking, if I end up sticking with Apple, this may be my next smart phone.
I'm curious, would you consider doing a side-by-side comparison of the 16E and 17E ?
17
People just get the 17 and you will be happy. If you want a better phone 17 pro max. Heard so many good things about the pro max. Long live cats.
voice configuration
Hi there. I was listening to the podcast, and noticed you were using Eliquence. I was wondering what you have yor pitch, rate, and inflction set to, as it sounds very much like the eliquence in jaws, an I can't seem to replicate it on my phone.
Biometric authentication
hello dears
i'm wondar why apple removed touch-ID! i think its better in accessibility and security for totally blind users.
now, as a totally blind, how i set face-ID and use it in a secure way?
wish they could add touch-ID in addition to faceID.
specially as a totally blind, what's your experience in this matter?
thanks
Face ID works fine
It just works. Touch ID is gone.
Finger print
The new foldable phone might have touch ID. Anyone has over 2000$?My birthday is coming so just saying. Long live cats.
Face ID is totally optional. I use a passcode.
Face ID is totally optional. I don’t like the idea because I’m totally blind too. So I just created a passcode to unlock my phone. But yes, touch ID is gone now. It’s not coming back most likely so you could just set up a passcode if you want. But people have successfully created a Face ID as totally blind people if that’s something that you want to do.
Irony
Touch ID is only gone for iPhones. It still exists on iPads, and Mac computers.
Yet, the one device where it would be most welcome, is the device Apple decided to permanently remove TouchID from.
Go figure...
The iPhone 15 does have USB-C charger
Just FYI, the iPhone 15 does have a USB-C charger. I have an iPhone 15 right now is my primary device. So anything older than that would have the lightning cables still.
Brian
You know why apple did so, they do not like me. Long live cats. The Neo looks nice. Does anyone have a nice podcast on using the keyboard on the MAC? I might get it if I knew how to open file, print, save, open setting, go to search in a browserand in youtube how to get to the search. Know how to do in windows 10.
Answers
Hi all,
First, thank you to everyone for checking out the podcast. Below are some answers to questions asked:
FaceID
I’m just curious, for those who complain about FaceID, have you ever actually used it?
I feel like there are so many misconceptions and myths spread about it around the blind community, about how it’s difficult for blind people to use, touch ID is easier when that’s just not the case at all for anyone who has actually used it.
I am completely blind, and I’ve been using FaceID since the iPhone X in 2017.
Never had a problem, never had an issue. You lift the phone to in front of your face, as if you’re taking a selfie, it unlocks. Boom! Done.
Granted it *does* fail or present difficulty in specific situations, but touch ID does as well. It’s always going to be a series of trade-offs.
But please, remember what they say about assumptions. Because it’s true.
If you have literally never used FaceID on a regular basis, it seems completely ridiculous to just assume that you won’t be able to use it because, um, blind?
Sight doesn’t affect the usage of it at all.
macOS_Skyline
No issues, Even in bed where is dark, it works well, and when it does not the pass code works well. Deal with other bugs but face ID is not buggy. Long live cats.
Issues with FaceID
Can't speak for anyone else, but for me FaceID is actually a downgrade in usability compared to TouchID, since in order for it to be reasonably safe you need to have attention-aware enabled, meaning you have to have your eyes open, look at the phone from a certain distance that may not be comfortable to sighted people with impaired vision acuities, and sometimes even blink once or twice in order to authenticate, which is not the natural way in which I use my phone anymore. Not only that but FaceID also tends to fail under very bright light conditions, like in plain sunlight, requiring entering a passcode in places where I am most vulnerable to eavesdropping. Fortunately Apple Watch does mitigate this problem, by making it possible to authenticate using the watch when FaceID fails, but even then this doesn't work for payments as I mentioned on another thread, so requesting an Uber under those conditions, for example, always requires typing a passcode in public, a problem that Apple could easily tackle by making the lock button a TouchID sensor as is the case on iPad. Also, and while my optic nerves no longer work, I do still have my natural eyes, which may or may not be the case with other blind people to whom the FaceID experience may feel even worse than it does for me.
João Santos
Do not have it on. If the scan is done well, there should not be an issue. Long live cats. Sorry I feel for you.
Re: FaceID
For me, FaceID is simply not as convenient as TouchID ever was. For example, if I'm out in the really real world, and I get a notification or something, instead of taking my phone out, making sure my face is evenly lined up with the screen or whatever, and then listening to the notification, I simply put my hand in my pocket, use my thumb to unlock my device, and listen to the notification without ever taking that advice out of my pocket. Yes, I currently rock an iPhone SE 2022, and I am proud of it.
Sure, I will have to upgrade eventually, but for now I have one of the most conveniently designed iPhones ever conceived. 🤷
Brian
Yet that was nice, did not need to take phone out just use finger and with a bluetooth you could hear the notification or tell Siri to send a message. Long live cats. PS. Maybe the next phone that is coming out this year?
Other fun FaceID fact
Another fun fact about FaceID that I forgot to mention earlier, is that in order to authenticate to make payments using it, one is required to physically double-press the side button on iPhone, whereas on iPad is just touching that same button because it also happens to house the TouchID sensor, so to me it makes zero sense for Apple to not include the TouchID sensor along with FaceID on at least the pro iPhone models, and let people decide whether to use either or even both for authentication.
I agree face ID is perfectly useable
It is perfectly useable. no issues even in a totally dark room or out in the sun.
Face ID is just something I choose not to bother trying to use
I have been totally blind since birth. Face ID is something. I just choose not to bother learning how to use. I do just fine unlocking my phone with the passcode and I will keep it that way. I think it’s anybody’s choice what they want to do with their phones and nobody should be looked down on for not using Face ID or made to feel like email. What they’re doing as a bad choice just because it doesn’t work for them. Everyone uses their devices differently and everybody will do whatever works for them. Same thing for settings and any other ways to use the devices.