The iPhone 16e is Apple’s only iPhone with a single-lens rear camera, and while it has the same 48-megapixel Wide lens as the iPhone 16, it is lacking several of the iPhone 16 camera features.
With the 48-megapixel Fusion lens, the iPhone 16e camera has a standard 1x field of view, and a 2x zoom option. It has no Telephoto lens, so there are no other zoom options, nor is there an Ultra Wide camera for wide-angle shots and macro images. Since there’s just one lens, there’s also no option for spatial image and video capture.
It offers the same True Tone flash, Photonic Engine, Deep Fusion, and Smart HDR 5 options, but it does not support next-generation portraits with Focus Control or the latest Photographic Styles.
When taking Portrait shots, there is an option to adjust focus afterward, but there is no option to tap to change the subject of the photo like there is on the iPhone 16.
The newer Photographic Styles are also only for the iPhone 16, 16 Pro, and Pro Max. With Photographic Styles, the iPhone 16 models released in September feature an option to set an overall look for all images captured with the iPhone camera, but this doesn’t exist for the 16e. Older style filters are available, however.
There are also several missing video recording features, including Cinematic mode and Action mode, but the new Audio Mix feature is supported.
As for the front camera, the iPhone 16 and 16e have an identical feature set with the exception of support for Cinematic mode, Photographic Styles, and Depth Control for Portrait shots.
