Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17e this month, with February 19th being the speculated date, nearly a year after the iPhone 16e was launched. The new iPhone 17e is expected to be announced via press release. The iPhone 17e is rumored to have four key upgrades.

The iPhone 17e will likely include the A19 chip. The A19 chip that also powers the iPhone 17, promises CPU performance that is 40% faster compared to the previous generation. The A19 chip has a 16-core Neural Engine that delivers efficient AI inference, increased memory bandwidth, and improved performance. It is expected to have similar CPU performance results as the standard iPhone 17, which received a multi-core score of 9,360 and a single-core score of 3,680 on Geekbench 6.

Another key upgrade is the addition of MagSafe charging. The iPhone 17e may support charging power up to 25W with MagSafe. In contrast, the iPhone 16e only supports the Qi standard, with wireless charging limited to 7.5W.

The iPhone 17e is also expected to feature Apple's latest cellular modem, the C1X chip, and the N1 chip for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Thread connectivity. The C1X modem can deliver twice as fast networking speeds with more efficiency compared to the C1 modem on the iPhone 16e.

Despite these upgrades, the iPhone 17e is expected to maintain the same $599 starting price as the iPhone 16e. Apple may market the iPhone 17e aggressively to users in emerging markets and enterprises.

Other potential features of the iPhone 17e: * Design: The iPhone 17e is expected to have a similar overall design to the iPhone 16e. The device will likely continue to have a notch instead of the Dynamic Island. * Display: There is a possibility that the iPhone 17e might have Dynamic Island. The refresh rate is expected to stay at 60Hz. The display will likely be 6.1 inches. * Camera: The iPhone 17e will likely have a single rear camera. * Storage: It's unclear if Apple will increase the base storage from 128GB to 256GB, as they did with every other iPhone 17 model.