'Apple has dug a hole for itself': why the iPhone 17e has been overshadowed by the Nothing Phone (4a)

Tech fans who keep a close eye on their Google News feeds will have seen that it's been an overwhelmingly busy week for new smartphones. We started with the annual smartphone conference MWC 2026 (here's my pick of the best smartphones of MWC 2026), and quickly moved onto the unveiling of the iPhone 17e. But they were all of them deceived, for another phone was made.

In any usual week, an iPhone release would be big news, but this wasn't that week. Shortly after the iPhone 17's budget cousin dropped, we saw one other phone which completely stole Apple's thunder: the Nothing Phone (4a).

Not everyone has heard of Nothing, and that's okay. It's a fairly new company, founded by the co-founder of another phone brand, OnePlus, and it's been slowly making a name for itself by releasing reasonably-priced yet powerful Android phones (as well as some great headphones, like the recent Nothing Headphone (a)).

I'm sure the iPhone 17e will be popular with certain users, specifically Apple diehards on a budget. But I can't help but recommend the Nothing Phone (4a) as the new budget blower to beat.

Getting pricey

Let's set some things straight before we get into why I prefer the Nothing Phone (4a). Firstly, the handset isn't going on sale in the US. It's not quite clear why, but Stateside buyers will have to opt for its Pro model instead.

The Nothing Phone (4a) starts at £349 / AU$649, while the Pro begins at $499 / £499 / AU$949. So they're both more affordable, to varying degrees, than the $599 / £599 / AU$999 of the iPhone 17e.

To be more inclusive, I'll talk about the Pro model for the rest of the article, which is quite similar to the 'vanilla' one but has a slightly better chipset, misses out on one color model, has a slightly bigger screen and offers wireless charging. We have only reviewed Nothing's base model so far, not the Pro or iPhone 17a.

It's all about cameras

The Nothing Phone is bigger than the iPhone, with a more advanced display, while the iPhone 17e has a chipset that'll perform better. Functionally, though, they're going to feel pretty similar in most departments (other than the software, of course).

In most specs departments, then, there's nothing that would cause me to opt for one phone over the other.

However, that's not the case in the cameras department. Apple's long been insistent on only offering a single rear camera on its budget phones, however the Nothing (4a) and Pro both have three: a 50MP main, 50MP periscope for 3.5x zoom, and 8MP ultrawide.

Not all mid-range or low-cost phones have telephoto cameras, but it's a feature that I'd deem mandatory for a handset to be a good camera phone. It allows you to engage in optical zoom, which is great for long-distance photography as well as macro and portrait shots. A few Nothing (a) phones have had triple-camera set-ups like this, and I'd consider them the best budget camera phone brand as a result.

While the iPhone may have all of Apple's fancy software and post-processing, the fact that it offers only a single camera means I just wouldn't pick it up for photography. On paper, it's night and day between the two.

Neo-thing new under the sun

There are a few other reasons I'd buy the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro over the iPhone 17e: it'll undoubtedly last a lot longer on a single charge, it'll power up quicker, it has a fun mini-LED array on the back and, to my eyes, it looks nicer. But I'm an Android user, so I'm biased.

It feels hard to deny, though, that the iPhone 17e has flown a little under the radar. This is partly because of the battle royale for phone fans' attentions this week, and partly because Apple itself seemed to use its announcement simply as a warm-up for the MacBook Neo.

This new laptop from Apple costs the same as the iPhone 17e: that's cheap for a MacBook. It's something totally new for Apple, as opposed to 'yet another mid-range iPhone', so it's only natural that the new handheld has been a little overlooked.

But that attention cannibalization has worked the other way for the Nothing Phone (4a). The company has announced it won't be releasing a top-end phone this year, so the affordable model is even more important for fans of the brand.

As an Android user, take this next statement with a pinch of salt: I think Apple has dug a hole for itself. Neo notwithstanding, too many of its mobile devices over the last few years have felt iterative, with a new chip and not much else changed.

It's as though the company feels compelled towards annual releases, dropping the same product with tweaked specs, and it's stopped new iPhones and iPads feeling special like they did a few years ago.

Compare it to AirPods: their slower release means the unveiling of a new model is a more important event. E-series iPhones were more interesting when they came about every few years.

So it's hard to say if the iPhone 16e's successor would be an exciting release on any given Sunday, but it's certainly not when the week began with top-end super-cameras, folding mobiles and concept phones, and wrapped up with the new best cheap phones to beat. But then again, Apple's hardly alone in boring us with iterative updates these days...