The big American Fruit Company kicked off the week by announcing the new iPhone 17e, its next shot at capturing the mid-range smartphone market. It follows the iPhone 16e, which launched around this time last year and replaced Apple’s previous mid-range SE devices. The big news this time around is that the new device will land locally with a lower launch price than its predecessor.
iPhone 17e available for pre-order
The new iPhone 17e is already available for pre-order from iStore, Apple’s ‘premium partner’ in South Africa, with prices starting from R14,600. That’s a whole R1,400 cheaper than what the iPhone 16e launched for last year, and before any trade-in rebates.
Not only will Saffas get the new iPhone for cheaper than last year’s, but they’ll also get double the storage. The 16e launched with 128GB of storage for R16,000. The 17e gets 256GB for at least R1,400 less. On paper, that seems like a pretty good deal.
Read More: Apple quietly unveils the iPhone 17e with an A19 chip and MagSafe
The deal could be made even more appealing if you have an older iPhone to trade in. Doing so could drop the effective price down to R7,100 in some cases. Purchases also include free iCare Plus, which could be necessary if you’re prone to dropping your devices.
The local mid-range smartphone market (and low-end laptop market) has become increasingly competitive, but only really among Android (and Windows) devices. With the cheaper iPhone 17e closing the gap (however slightly) between it and Apple’s more expensive devices, along with the new wallet-friendly MacBook Neo, it’s never been cheaper to buy into Apple’s ecosystem. Before you know it, you’ll be rocking Mac-everything, and saying things like “I don’t even care that I have to charge everything every day.” The grass in the walled garden has always seemed greener from the outside.
