Six Products in Three Days. MKBHD Was There for All of It.
Apple dropped six products across three consecutive days in early March 2026: the iPhone 17e, iPad Air M4, MacBook Pro M5/M5 Max, M5 MacBook Air, a new Studio Display, and the Studio Display XDR. Then, on Wednesday, they saved the actual headline act for last — the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop built on an iPhone chip. The WVFRM Podcast, Marques Brownlee's long-running tech show alongside co-hosts David Imel and Andrew Manganelli, dropped a full breakdown of the entire launch this week [1]. If you're trying to cut through the press release language and figure out what any of this actually means for real people, this is where you go. MKBHD attended Apple's hands-on events in New York and had eyes on the hardware before it shipped. What he came back with is a nuanced, honest read that most launch-day coverage skips. The short version: Apple finally fixed the 17e, the MacBook Neo is a genuine market disruption waiting to happen, and yes — they're still holding the iPad back on purpose.
iPhone 17e: Apple Finally Did It Right
The iPhone 16e was a product that made almost no sense. Six hundred dollars for 60Hz, no MagSafe, a single camera, and baseline storage at a time when Apple's own base iPhone 16 was actually great. As Brownlee put it on the pod: "It was a $600 iPhone with a 60 Hz display and no MagSafe... which is the worst of all worlds" [1]. The iPhone 17e fixes everything that was broken. Same $599 price. Doubles base storage to 256GB — directly outclassing the Pixel 10a, which still ships at 128GB. Adds MagSafe. Gets the A19 chip and the C1X cellular modem, Apple's newest and most advanced wireless silicon. Ceramic Shield 2 is in there, and they added a soft pink color. What didn't change: single rear camera, 60Hz display, and the notch — which is now nine years old and still not Dynamic Island on this model. If you care about the notch, this still isn't your phone. But Brownlee's read is accurate: this is the phone the 16e should have been. For the people who walk into a carrier store and ask for the cheap iPhone without knowing anything else, they're no longer getting ripped off. That's progress worth acknowledging. The caveat, and it's a real one: if you're the kind of person who reads tech coverage — you, right now — Brownlee says just go buy a refurbished iPhone 17 instead. "If you're subscribed to tech channels, this isn't for you" [1]. The 17e is designed for people who don't comparison shop. For everyone else, last year's flagship refurbished is almost certainly a better deal.





