Updated August 23 with another big design change: the new cameras expected on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16.
When Apple unveils the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max this fall, and you can read about exactly when that will be here, the handsets will come in new colors. One of them will be entirely different from the current iPhone 15 Pro range. It’s not the only change drawing attention, with a new report of design changes coming to the cameras also front-and center.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro introduced titanium to the iPhone range. The iPhone 16 Pro will come in … [+]
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will stick with two cameras, according to an extensive report at Apple Insider which covers many aspects of what’s coming.
The main 48-megapixel camera will be unchanged and the 12-megapixel ultra wide snapper will have a faster aperture, up from f/2.4 to the wider f/2.2. It’s also thought there were will be macro capability on the regular iPhones, too.
But the bigger changes will come in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. As reported elsewhere, the 5x zoom equivalent on the telephoto will be on both sizes of Pro (it’s currently an iPhone 15 Pro Max exclusive, for space reasons, I’m told). The main camera will remain the same as it is on the current Pro models, with 48-megapixel resolution.
But the most striking news is the arrival of a second 48-megapixel sensor. The ultra wide camera on the Pro and Pro Max will switch to this and offer the same capability as the main camera, that is, the ability to shoot at full resolution as well as combining adjacent pixel sites to create better 12-megapixel images.
Alongside all these updates is the widely predicted Capture Button which the report says is coming to all iPhone 16 models, Pro and non-Pro. It’s used to take a shot or start a video and because it’s a capacitive button, it can’t be triggered accidentally in your pocket.
Back to the new shades the Pro iPhones will be modeling. The four colors in the range have been described by regular leaker Majin Bu who has recently been caught up in a controversy having posted a supposed invite to the event when the iPhone will be announced. The invite was fake (as I talked about here) and Majin Bu quickly set the record straight.
They are on more solid ground here, I suspect, when saying the colors will be will be white, black, gold and gray, but Apple won’t call them that. Majin Bu posted on the topic on X. The current Pro model colors are named Natural Titanium, Blue Titanium, White Titanium and Black Titanium. The most eagle-eyed will have spotted that Apple is keen on promoting the fact that the iPhone 15 Pro has titanium in its build.
The new range seems similar, with gray likely to be a new version of Natural Titanium. And the gold? According to the leak, it’s going to be called Desert Titanium. Majin Bu says, in a separate post, “The desert titanium color is kind of dark gold, similar to the old purple color, relatively discreet and deep.”
Deep Purple was a color in the iPhone 14 Pro range and was indeed dark enough to be discreet. The new color is thought to be a warmish brown color, though the real thing could be different. Predictions of the exact shades that Apple will use are rarely absolutely spot-on.
But the name, if it proves correct, gives us a clue and it suggests something light and gaudier than the rest of the range.
This fits with a series of other rumors and dummy versions of the iPhone 16 Pro series released recently. As always, just because several commentators predict the same details doesn’t make it true, though weight of numbers sometimes adds to likelihood.
The new report also chimes with others which say that the blue iPhone in the current Pro range will be dropped, to be replaced with the new color.
Majin Bu has more recently posted again, with an image of what could be the new color, saying, “This image could resemble the new Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro, what do you think?” They also slightly hedged their bets by going on, “The image is based on rumors, it is not certain that the official coloring will reflect this 100%.”
One other detail, in the earlier post, Majin Bu showed camera rings for the iPhone 16 Pro in the four colors. The rings looks shiny, perhaps indicating the brushed-finish titanium of the 15 Pro series could be replaced with something more polished.
By this time next month, the iPhones will be on sale, so we’ll know more soon.