Helping you to get the most out of your iPhone 16e and take your game to the next level

The iPhone 16e, in my mind, is misunderstood.

You’ll hear plenty of folks telling you it’s overpriced, old tech or that it’s simply a parts bin. In truth, though, once you spend time with it and use it, you start to realise that it kind of represents what an iPhone was meant to be about.

Do you remember Steve Jobs quote when he first launched the iPhone? He sauntered on stage and said;

iPhone – it’s an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator.

Well, that is the iPhone 16e in a nutshell! If you’ve recently bought one or been given one to use by your company, it’s possible you don’t realise quite how much that little phone in your pocket is capable of.

I’ve fallen head over heels in love with my iPhone 16e , and in this story, I wanted to share with you some of the hidden, almost Pro features that the 16e is packing. It is so much more than just a starter iPhone. Some of the features on here are lifted directly from the 16 Pro Max – you just need to know where to look.

iPhone 16e and Audio Mix

Artificial Intelligence and I aren’t the best bedfellows. I don’t use it a great deal, and given the state of Apple Intelligence, maybe that’s just as well!

But when Apple gets AI right, they do a great job of it, and audio has historically been one of their strong suits. Audio Mix is both genius and simple to use. Go to any video that you’ve shot in the native camera app and then tap on the three little blue slider lines underneath to start to edit it.

There you’ll find the Audio Mix feature, and once you tap on it, you’ll unlock some simple options. The basic idea behind them is to recover & enhance audio, reduce wind and ambient noise and add clarity to your voice.

As with everything audio – less is more, so don’t overdo the adjustments. Small tweaks are all you need. I’ve played around with them all – Standard, In-Frame, Studio and Cinematic and my favourite and go-to is the In-Frame option. I typically drag the slider to the left and aim for 65. For me, that’s the sweet spot of giving good audio without it starting to sound too artefacty. Hit ‘done’ at the top, and your clip is saved.

I love this feature and use it all the time.

The Action Button

The Action Button first came to the iPhone in 2023 on the iPhone 15 Pro range, but it’s now available on the 16e.

Out of the box, it’s set to the Silent mode, but you can play with it to customise it as best suits you. Go to Settings and scroll down to Action Button. There you’ll find all sorts of options you can map it to, such as Focus (which is what mine’s set to), Camera, Torch, Visual Intelligence, Shortcuts and plenty more.

It’s super handy, and once you train yourself to use it, you’ll find it’s a great shortcut to launching your favourite app or action.

Camera goodies – Photographic Styles

Once you’re inside the Camera app, you’ll find a host of toys that have trickled down from the Pro range of phones. Without overcomplicating things, because that’s not what the iPhone 16e is all about, let’s look at some of the camera features you should take a moment to look at.

If you don’t want the hassle of editing your photos every time but want a more Pro look to your photos, well, the iPhone 16e has something called Photographic Styles. These Styles are more than simple filters.

There are some presets, such as Cool, Warm & Vibrant, to get you going. You’ll find them in Settings and then the Camera app, and then choose Photographic Styles. Choose the one you like the best and you’re set.

With your Photographic Style chosen, when you next open the Camera app, you’ll find an icon at the top right of the screen that will let you select what tone and warmth values you want so that you can finely adjust them to your taste.

Whilst in the Camera settings, it’s worth toggling on Preserve Settings too. That’ll mean every time you go back to the Camera, it will remember what settings you previously used.

Burst Mode

Did you know that you can shoot in burst mode on your iPhone 16e?

Again, you need to head to the Camera app in Settings and enable ‘Use Volume Up for Burst’. Once that’s set, just open the Camera and then hold down the volume up button to rapidly shoot a series of photos. Burst mode is great if your kids play sports, for instance, or if you’re out with the dog or watching live sport.

Once you’ve taken a burst mode picture, you’ll see an icon at the top to open up the burst to find the image you want to keep. Tick the circle at the bottom, and it’ll be saved to your album.

Long Exposure

Have you ever wondered how you get that ‘pro’ look of streaks of light trailing from objects in your photos that suggest speed and motion?

Well, you don’t need to spend thousands of pounds on a fancy mirrorless camera or even buy an iPhone Pro – nope, you have that feature in your iPhone 16e. All you need to do before taking a shot is to make sure you turn on ‘Live’ in the Camera app. The icon for that is next to the Photographic Styles icon, top right on your camera display.

Take a photo of something in motion, then go find that photo in your album. You’ll notice that there’s an icon on the picture that says ‘Live’. Tap that, and it will open up a list of choices, one of which is Long Exposure. Tap it and your 16e will do its magic.

This look can be really creative and give you some great images – just play around with it and have some fun. I tend to leave Live toggled on all the time, as that way it will give me the option to try out the Long Exposure look on any of my photos in the future.

Time Lapse and slo-mo

If you are looking to take your videos to the next level, your iPhone 16e has a couple of simple-to-use, cool, dare I say ‘Pro’ features.

You know those lovely videos you see of dusk turning to evening, a sunrise, clouds moving or even those YouTube videos where somebody is assembling something at rapid speed, well, that effect is called Time Lapse – and you have that on your iPhone 16e too!

With the Camera open, you’ll probably notice that at the bottom of your screen, it likely says Photo or Video. Well, scrub to the right and there you’ll find Time Lapse. Set your iPhone up on a tripod, hit record, and wait! You’ll need to be patient, but the result will be worth it. It starts off recording at 2 frames per second, so 15x real time, and it doubles after every 10 minutes.

Next to Time Lapse is Slo-mo, which will add that dramatic cinematic favourite look to your videos. On the iPhone 16e, you have two options for slo-mo recordings. At the top of the screen, you’ll notice that you can record in either 720P at 240FPS or in full HD at 120FPS.

You just need to spend some time with these Photo and video features to get the most out of them, but your iPhone 16e has all the tools you need to create some real gems!

Just a couple of basic suggestions for you to get the most out of your camera, though. First, always tap the screen to lock focus and exposure, and wherever possible, try not to meddle with manual zooms – you’ll get the best results by far by simply leaving the focal lengths at the 1x (26mm) or 2x (58mm). If you need to zoom, it’s best to edit the crop later in the Photos app. Also, turn on the Grids to help you compose your photo better, too.

The bonus balls

There are a few other little features that are worth drawing your attention to as well.

If you’re videoing something, did you realise you can take a picture (only at 8MP though) whilst still recording? Well, you can – just tap the shutter button on the right of the screen! You can also pause your video recording with the button to the left, which is another win.

If you want to get a large video file from your 16e rather than relying solely on AirDrop, you can hook up an external SSD to your phone via the USB-C port. To find the drive, go to the Files app, and you’ll see it there under the Locations tab. If you want to save a video to it, in the Save options in the Photo app, choose Files and then you’ll see your external SSD.

That port is more than simply a way of charging your phone!

And it’s worth paying some attention to Control Centre as well. There’s more to it than just that first page. Scroll down and you’ll start to find all sorts there, and by long pressing on the last screen, you can add apps to the Control Centre. There are some gems there like Screen Recording, the Magnifier, Visual Intelligence and Vehicle Motion Cues, which help with travel sickness.

All you need to do is peel back the wrapper just a little bit, and you’ll find there is so much to the iPhone 16e than you have at first realised. There are some Pro features just waiting to be used.

The iPhone 16e is more like an iPhone 16 Pro Lite! Unleash your creativity and have some fun.

The iPhone 16e packs quite some punch – without emptying your wallet!