I briefly tested the iPhone 16e camera and it surprised me

It’s time to buy a new iPhone, and the camera isn’t that important to you, but you’d love to still take great photos on those special occasions. Chances are that if this is you, you’ll likely be considering the iPhone 16 Pro thanks to its three-camera setup.

However, considering that the camera may not be as important as battery life, you may also be considering the new iPhone 16e. However, when looking at it, you realize there’s only one camera. In 2025? Really? Yes, it’s a 48MP Fusion main camera that offers 2x telephoto zoom, but surely, more cameras will be better.

Apple has surprised me before with its cameras, so naturally, I needed to put this camera to the test. The short version is that the iPhone 16e camera has surprised me, and in a good way. The long version is that it depends on what you plan to do with the photos. Here’s why.

A first test of the 2x zoom

The iPhone 16e’s single camera offers 2x optical zoom through sensor cropping and a maximum of 10x digital zoom. Like other phone makers, Apple claims the in-sensor crop is optical quality and uses the same sensor crop on all cameras in the iPhone 16 lineup.

Naturally, this means you can expect some consistency in the overall photos, and the 2x is very similar to the 2x on the iPhone 16 Pro.

This test was particularly interesting as the iPhone 16e seems to do better in both photos compared to its more illustrious sibling. This is most noticeable when considering the edges of the shop sign and the colors throughout. There are more people in, and the cropping is slightly different on the iPhone 16 Pro samples, but the iPhone 16e seems to be a clear winner here.

Comparing the iPhone 16e camera to the 16 Pro

I also wanted to test the full capability of the zoom and compare it to Apple’s best zoom on the iPhone 16 Pro. A point to note is that the iPhone 16e matches the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus with a maximum zoom at 10x, while the iPhone 16 Pro has a longer 25x maximum zoom, although it’s mostly unusable at this distance.

Let’s first take a look at the 1x, 2x, 5x and 10x photos capttured on the iPhone 16e:

Now, let’s look at the same photos captured on the iPhone 16 Pro:

I was particularly impressed by the iPhone 16e in the first two of these photos. The photos are crisp and vibrant and have strong color reproduction, and while the iPhone 16 Pro has better dynamic range, the iPhone 16e photos are perfect for posting to social media. The iPhone 16 Pro also clearly has better zoom at 5x and 10x, but I think the iPhone 16e is good enough to post, perhaps with a few edits.

This was one scene where I instinctively tried to test the ultra-wide on the iPhone 16e, only to be reminded that there isn’t an ultra-wide camera. This isn’t a dealbreaker for some — the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 doesn’t have an ultra-wide and is perfectly fine — but it also means you may need to take a few steps back at times.

More iPhone 16e testing at 1x, 2x and 10x

I had planned for much more testing and comparisons for this piece, but a late delivery by the courier left me with limited time. Nonetheless, I was able to further test the 1x and 2x photos on the iPhone 16e, with a secondary focus on how often I felt like something was missing.

Our first test shows that the iPhone 16e camera can take great photos at 1x or 2x. There is a slight haze with the sun’s rays, but the iPhone 16e seems mostly impervious to it. There’s a missing sharpness around some of the details in the poster, but if you don’t look too closely, it looks great.

Here’s another test that provides similar results. The 2x looks capable, but much like the other photos captured on the iPhone 16e, the finer details are missing. That’s probably to be expected from a single-camera smartphone, but it’ll be interesting to test this further against the competition. The 10x is surprisingly useful at reading big words but is ultimately unusable when looking for detail. Nonetheless, there are times that this could still be useful.

The same trend continues here with the 10x proving to be completely unusable. That said, the 1x and 2x photos are perfectly usable, especially the contrast in the latter. This is the type of photo that I would happily post to my Stories or Feed.

iPhone 16e camera conclusions from a brief test

Ask me a week ago if I would happily use a single-camera phone, and the answer would have been no. Ask me now, and after using the iPhone 16e, I’m not sure the answer would be the same.

The iPhone 16e camera is objectively not as good as the iPhone 16 Pro, but from my brief testing, there are times when it seems to outperform its Pro cousin. Of course, this only applies at 1x and 2x zoom, but it’s nonetheless impressive.

Also interesting is that I didn’t miss the ultra-wide that much. Human nature means it’s intuitive to know to step back, but I would probably miss the ultra-wide if this was my single daily driver phone.

This leaves me with a lot more testing to do, especially as I haven’t even tested the night mode yet, but overall, I’m quite surprised by the iPhone 16e camera. It’s better than I had expected, and while it won’t replace the rest of the series, it’ll be good enough for the casual photographer upgrading from an older phone. Let’s see if my opinion changes as I spend more time testing the camera.