According to Bloomberg’s Apple scoop-getter Mark Gurmanthe iPhone 17e is “coming soon.” The “e” means, as you know, it’s the cheaper, entry-level iPhone in the latest numerical series, and Gurman says it’ll set buyers back $599—the same price as the current bottom-end phone from Apple, the iPhone 16e.

Tom’s Guide previously wrote about the rumors that the release Thursday, February 19exactly one year after the release of the iPhone 16e.

The 17e is reported to receive the same A19 chip as the iPhone 17, a formidable processor with better specs—I’m willing to bet—than your laptop: 6-core CPU configuration and 6-core GPU configuration. Last year when it came out, it was the absolute top of the line smartphone processors, but soon it will be surpassed by the performance of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on the phones like the Samsung Galaxy S26 if it turns out to be true.

The iPhone 17e also, says Gurman, has additional upgrades in the form of the latest Apple cellular modem and the latest connectivity chip (presumably meaning the C1X and N1).