Apple launches lower-cost iPhone 17e and new iPad Air

Apple opened its week of product launches Monday morning with an updated, low-cost iPhone and a faster iPad Air, as it begins what appears to be a broader multi-day hardware push.

The flagship device is the new iPhone 17e, a budget model in the iPhone 17 lineup that starts at $599 and is down from the standard $799 iPhone 17.

That makes it an important product for Apple in the mid-tier smartphone market, where it competes more directly with lower-priced devices from Samsung, Googleand Chinese phone makers, particularly in more price-sensitive markets.

The 17e keeps the same 6.1-inch size, but adds stronger glass, Apple’s A19 chip, the newer C1X modem, MagSafe charging, and 256GB of starting storage, double the base capacity of last year’s model. It also adds support for Apple Intelligence, giving the lower-cost model more feature parity with the rest of the lineup.

The unchanged starting price of $599, even with more storage and additional features, suggests that Apple is trying to make the entry-level iPhone more attractive without lowering the price of its flagship line.

This stands out at a time when rising memory costs are squeezing the broader smartphone market, making the 17e a more aggressive value option for Apple as it seeks to attract price-conscious buyers.

The new phone comes in pink, black and white, with pre-orders starting March 4 and availability in stores starting March 11.

Apple also updated the iPad Air, which maintains the same design and price but moves from its M3 chip to the M4.

The 11-inch model still starts at $599, while the 13-inch version is still $799. Apple said in the statement that the new processor is up to 30% faster than the previous generation. Apple said the new iPad Air gets faster wireless performance and improved cellular connectivity on models with cellular data.

The iPad refresh helps Apple build on momentum in a category that outperformed in the holiday quarter, as the company looks to maintain demand for tablets with faster chips rather than a major redesign.

That could matter especially if Apple continues to see strong demand from first-time buyers in the category: In its most recent holiday quarter, the company said that about half of iPad buyers were new to the product.

The company has product announcements planned in the coming days. Apple has told stores to prepare for a huge rush, Bloomberg reported.

That level of retail readiness suggests Apple hopes at least one of this week’s launches will have broader mainstream appeal, not just incremental interest from existing users.