Why wait for iPhone 17e when the iPhone 15 is even cheaper right now

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The iPhone 15 is an incredible phone, especially at this price

iPhone 15 shown from behind
(Image credit: Future)

iPhones are expensive, and even the cheaper models will set you back several hundred dollars. But you don't actually need the latest model to have a great iPhone experience — and picking up an older model can save you quite a lot of money. Especially since "older" doesn't actually mean "old."

Take this deal on the iPhone 15, a phone that is barely 18 months old. You can pick up an iPhone 15 for $399 in the Best Buy Presidents' Day Sale, which is $130 off the usual price — and $400 cheaper than you'd have paid at launch. You do have to lock into AT&T or Verizon for that price, but the alternative is paying $499. Either way, that's significantly less than the $599 you'd have to pay for a "cheap" upcoming iPhone 17e.

Apple iPhone 15
Apple iPhone 15: was $629 now $399 at Best Buy

Grab the iPhone 15 for half the original price in Best Buy's Presidents' Day sale. Provided you're willing to sign on with Verizon or AT&T during the purchase, you can get the phone for half its original price. But if you'd rather have the unlocked appearance, you can still pick it up for a very reasonable $499.

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Back in our iPhone 15 review, we declared that the phone is "the best value" iPhone model, and that's doubly true at this price point.

The jump between iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 was pretty big, and means the 2024 model misses out on a lot of great features like the 120Hz ProMotion display and 256GB of storage as standard. But this is still an iPhone, and a former flagship at that, which means there's still a heck of a lot to love about this phone all these months after release.

One of our favorite things about the phone is the camera performance. The iPhone 15 finally upped the resolution to 48MP and offered a new 2x "optical quality" zoom despite only having two camera lenses. It was one of the best camera phones at the time of release and manages to work well regardless of the lighting conditions, so there's not much more you can ask of it.

Battery life is excellent for a phone of this size, lasting 11 hours and 5 minutes on our custom battery test. It may not be competing with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but that should be enough to get you through a typical day of use. There's also 20W wired charging, powered by USB-C, and MagSafe for all your accessory and wireless charging needs.

The one thing the iPhone 15 doesn't have is Apple Intelligence. Despite the performance prowess of the A16 chipset, Apple didn't include enough RAM to make AI work on this phone. Though, depending on your opinion of Apple Intelligence and AI in general, this may not be a bad thing.

At least you still get all the benefits of an iPhone, like iMessage, FaceTime, Apple device compatibility, and access to (almost) everything iOS 26 has to offer. And all for just $399 if you're willing to forgo the unlocked phone experience.

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Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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