Apples recently announced iPhone 16e hit store shelves yesterday morning. It serves as a new entry point to the iPhone lineup, and replaces the iPhone SE family. While the iPhone 16e has a number of big upgrades over the iPhone SE 3 that it replaced, there are some smaller ones that mightve slipped under the radar.iPhone 16e starts at $599 with 128GB of storage. It brought a 6.1 OLED display, Face ID, USB-C, Apple Intelligence, the action button, and much more down to Apples entry level iPhone. Its a flashy new phone with a number of great upgrades over its predecessor. However, Id like to focus on the smaller ones.Satellite connectivityIntroduced with the iPhone 14 lineup, iPhone 16e now supports Apples full suite of satellite connectivity features. That includes Emergency SOS via Satellite, Roadside Assistance via satellite, and Messages via satellite.These are features that ideally youd never have to use, but if you do its incredibly handy to have. iPhone SE 3 never supported this feature set.With the purchase of an iPhone 16e, you receive 2 years of free satellite connectivity. Unfortunately, we still dont know what itll cost after the free trial period. Apple opted to offer an additional free year for those who purchased an iPhone 14 early on.Crash DetectionContinuing the theme of just in case safety features that youll hopefully never need to use iPhone 16e also supports crash detection. Thanks to the high-g accelerometer, Apple can now tell when youve been in a car crash, and call emergency services for you if youre unresponsive. This feature can save lives.Water resistance improvementsiPhone 16e features IP68 water resistance, allowing you to use your iPhone underwater up to 6 meters deep for 30 minutes or less. This is a vast improvement over the iPhone SE 3, which only supported IP67. With IP67 water resistance, you could only use your iPhone up to 1 meter underwater for up to 30 minutes.Optical zoom supportiPhone 16e equips an all new 48MP sensor. Ever since Apple introduced the first 48MP sensor on iPhone 14 Pro, its supported a feature to take 2x optical zoom photos with the main sensor.Essentially, Apple crops in on the middle 12MP of the larger 48MP sensor, allowing for each pixel to be properly represented in a photo. You may disagree on whether or not this methodology should count as optical zoom, but one way or another, its a lot better quality than a normal digital zoom photo, which would ordinarily be under 12MP.Night mode photographyApple debuted night mode with the iPhone 11 lineup. This allowed users to take better photos at night, thanks to a longer processing algorithm. Despite the second and third generation iPhone SEs debuting after the introduction of this feature, they never gained support for night mode.iPhone 16e does support night mode though, allowing Apples latest entry-level iPhone to take much better photos when its dark out.What do you think of Apples new iPhone 16e? Let us know in the comments.My favorite iPhone accessories on Amazon:Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel