iPhone 17e: Unboxing, First Impressions, and Hands-On with VoiceOver

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…