Love Shooting Photos With Your iPhone? Don't Buy the iPhone 16e

Detailed explanation of the lack of iPhone 16e camera function: Save money or worry?

The iPhone 16e repackages many of the standard version features, but also sacrifices some features. If you're considering an upgrade, here are some of the high-end dual-lens iPhone camera features that the iPhone 16e is missing.

1. Lack of ultra-wide-angle lens: a big regret

The most significant lack of the iPhone 16e is the ultra-wide-angle lens. The standard iPhone 16 is equipped with a 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens, while the iPhone 16 Pro is equipped with a 48MP ultra-wide-angle lens. While some people may not care about the lack of ultra-wide-angle lenses on the iPhone 16e, those who are used to using ultra-wide-angle lenses to take landscapes, cityscapes, panoramic photos or multiple people take photos, the iPhone 16e may not be suitable because the lack of ultra-wide-angle lenses means no macro photography.

One of the disadvantages of ultra-wide-angle lenses is image distortion, especially at the edges of the image, where straight lines appear curved. To minimize this impact, try to avoid the subject being close to the edge of the lens during shooting, or cropping after shooting.

On iPhones with ultra-wide lenses, macro mode automatically starts when you are very close to your subject. This allows you to take amazingly clear close-ups, close to 2 cm from the lens without distortion or blur. This is not limited to photos; the ultra-wide lens also allows you to capture macro Live Photos and macro videos, including macro slow motion and time-lapse videos.

Once you experience the microscopic world brought by macro photography, you can never go back. The first time I took macro photos with an iPhone’s ultra-wide-angle lens made me recall the amazing feeling of using a microscope when I was in school.

Unfortunately, macro photography is not the only missing feature. Without an ultra-wide-angle lens, the iPhone 16e cannot take spatial photos or record spatial videos to watch on the Vision Pro headset. Space capture requires a dual-lens design to get stereoscopic information from the camera; therefore, it only works on other iPhone 16 series and iPhone 15 Pro.

The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are the best choice for spatial photography with a 48MP sensor on wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle cameras.

2. 2x telephoto zoom is not a real optical zoom

Apple claims that the iPhone 16e offers 2x telephoto zoom "with optical quality", but that's a bit exaggerating. This phone does not have a dedicated 2x telephoto lens for this. Instead, the iPhone 16e cuts the 48MP screen into 12MP images for 2x zoom. Apple even created a new word for this: Fusion Camera.

The iPhone 16 press release also calls it a "two-in-one camera system." However, despite the marketing hype, cropping sensors to achieve 2x zoom with "optical quality" doesn't produce the same satisfying image as dedicated 5x quadric prism lenses with different focal lengths - even if it lets less light in.

If you have to have a true optical zoom, you need to buy an iPhone Pro with a dedicated telephoto lens. Ordinary models like the iPhone 16e, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus all use sensor cropping.

However, if you only need 2x zoom instead of 5x zoom, the iPhone 16 might actually be a better choice. Don't just listen to me, ask professional photographers who know high-end photography, such as Sebastiaan de With, who co-created the excellent Halide camera app with Ben Sandofsky.

In his detailed test of the iPhone 16 camera, he found that the virtual 2x fusion camera "produces 2x better results than in the past physical". In this regard, we have reached a similar conclusion in our review of the iPhone 16 Pro.

3. Missing camera control function

The iPhone 16e has no camera control, a dedicated touch-sensitive capture button that can be found on other models of the iPhone 16 series. The camera control feature allows you to quickly launch a specified camera app from the lock screen, turn on the visual intelligence of Apple Intelligence, use two-stage shutters like SLRs in the built-in camera app, and take advantage of other shortcuts in third-party camera apps that are compatible with the camera control feature.

The visual intelligence function can be called by pressing and holding the camera control button. However, Apple says iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users will be able to bind visual intelligence to action buttons in a future iOS 18 update or launch it through a dedicated control center widget.

If you care about any of these features, the iPhone 16e may not be for you. Even if you don't find the camera controls useful at the moment, you should consider that Apple has been and will continue to extend its usefulness with future software updates.

4. Lack of the latest generation of photography style

The photon engine of the iPhone 16e (Apple's computational photography algorithm) supports regular photography style features rather than the "latest generation photography style" found on the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Both versions allow you to apply presets to quickly change the overall look of your photos, but the latest generation of photography styles is more flexible in tweaking.

Photography style is Apple's response to some people complaining that photos taken by iPhones look over-processed.

This feature is not just a filter; it directly affects the image processing flow. When you apply a photography style, the image processing flow intelligently enhances specific features in the scene instead of adjusting the image in post-production.

5. Missing sensor displacement anti-shake

After testing the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple has started using sensor displacement optical image stabilization in all models starting with the iPhone 13 series (2021). The iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro series use the second generation of this technology. Sensor displacement stabilization is the obvious winner because it produces clearer and smoother images.

For handheld videos that quickly pan moving, you need to use any latest iPhone instead of the iPhone 16e that uses the old optical image stabilization feature.

Optical image stabilization function, also known as the in-lens optical stabilization function, moves the entire lens barrel to compensate for camera shake. In contrast, the sensor displacement stabilization function, also known as the on-chip sensor stabilization function, moves the actual camera sensor, which captures photons based on gyroscope data.

Since the camera sensor itself is much lighter than the lens barrel, sensor-based stabilization is more accurate than traditional video stabilization—even if both methods are optical rather than digital.

The iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro series have used Apple's second-generation sensor displacement optical image stabilization function.

6. Missing movie mode and action mode

The iPhone 16e does not support movie mode and action mode in the built-in camera app. It's no big deal, as both features are designed for very specific situations. Only hardcore iPhone photography enthusiasts will miss them; if you are one of them, many third-party camera apps on the App Store offer similar or better shooting features.

My favorite third-party apps are Halide, ProCamera, Kino and Final Cut Camera. For other recommendations, browse Apple's summary of the best iPhone camera apps.

Movie mode automatically changes focus to help you record videos of Hollywood-style people, pets, and objects, with a much more noticeable depth of field effect than what smartphone cameras usually see. Even though it's great, I'm sure I won't miss movie mode on the iPhone 16e.

I only shoot ordinary boring videos because I am not an internet celebrity and have never encountered a scene where I want to use the axis shift focus. In fact, there are only a few movie mode videos on my iPhone that I took as a test, which clearly illustrates how often I use iPhone movie mode.

On the other hand, I will miss the action mode. I stopped using stabilizers on my iPhone after realizing that action mode has miraculous effects on unstable handheld videos. When recording videos, I usually walk around. Action mode uses tight cropping to eliminate intense camera shake when jogging or running. So the maximum capture resolution for Action Mode is 2.8K, but I don't mind because Action Mode obviously works miraculously for video stability.

You might think this phone can handle both modes easily, and more importantly, the imaging process has a very powerful camera sensor and certainly has enough processing power. For example: Movie mode debuted in the iPhone 13 series (2021), while Action mode has been around since the iPhone 14 series (2022).

This seems to be the case where Apple deliberately turned off certain features to distinguish the new iPhone 16e from existing models. From a hardware perspective, the iPhone 16e runs the latest Apple A18 chip, which performs well enough to handle portrait mode images taken at 60 fps and 4K HDR Dolby Vision video.

Apple may not have time to optimize movie modes and action modes for the release of iPhone 16e in time. If this is the case, we may eventually get these features through future software updates. But don't have too much hope.

Movie mode and action mode have been around for years, and applying them to devices that are basically simplified versions of the iPhone 16 should not be a problem. Additionally, if the company did not intentionally turn off these features in the software, it would have long since publicly stated that movie mode and action mode would be launched later.

7. Lack of a new generation of portrait mode

The iPhone 16e supports classic portrait mode with depth of field control, rather than the "new generation portrait mode with focus and depth of field control" found on all other iPhone 16 models and iPhone 15 series. According to Apple, the new generation of portrait mode brings clearer details, brighter colors and improved low-light performance.

You don't even need to manually select portrait mode in the camera app; the device automatically captures depth information, so you can convert a normal snapshot to a depth of field photo and adjust focus after taking a photo. If high-quality portrait photography is your top priority, consider using an iPhone 15 or iPhone 16.

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If you need the latest camera features, the iPhone Pro is better than the non-Pro model. For those who just want to take beautiful photos with ease, I highly recommend the regular iPhone 16 or even iPhone 15 instead of the iPhone 16e.

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  iPhone 16e

  The iPhone 16e is an affordable model in the iPhone 16 series, and the price is $200 less than the basic iPhone 16.

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  Apple iPhone 16

  Apple's latest iPhone, with camera buttons, programmable action buttons and artificial intelligence capabilities.

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  Apple iPhone 16 Pro

  Apple's latest iPhone version has a larger screen and features camera buttons, programmable action buttons and artificial intelligence capabilities.

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