This week was the annual iPhone launch. The announcement was on Monday, pre-orders started on Friday, shipments and open sales will kick off next Friday. Will you be among the people who upgrade to an iPhone 16?
Let’s start with an overview. The 16-series brings more powerful Apple A18 and A18 Pro chipsets that can run AI, Apple Intelligence specifically. However, that won’t be out for at least a month and, if you are in the EU or China, it might take much longer.
The other major change this generation is the Action Button, which is a configurable shortcut button that replaces the Alert Slider, and the Camera Control. That last one is a multi-function capacitive touchpad. Both will be adopted by third-party apps and companies, e.g. unlocking your Ford with the Action Button or adjusting share settings in Snapchat with the Camera Control.
There are camera improvements, but they are relatively small. The Pro models have a new 48MP ultra wide camera, but the telephoto module still uses a 12MP sensor. At least the small Pro now matches the big Pro Max with a 5x periscope (up from 3x zoom on the 15 Pro).
The iPhone 16 family
“Small” and “big” are relative. The two Pro models now have 6.3” and 6.9” displays, while the two vanilla ones stayed at the old sizes of 6.1” and 6.7”. One more thing worth mentioning is that the the 16-sereies phones have higher charge rates – 45W peak over USB-C and to 25W with MagSafe.
The two vanilla phones now have more RAM (needed for AI) and also have new cameras – it’s just autofocus and macro mode for the ultra wide (still at 12MP), there’s no telephoto lens. Apple added spatial video and photo modes, so you can create content for the Vision Pro, but who buys a $3,500 VR headset and cheaps out on their smartphone? Oh, well, spatial capture is there if you want it.
We would be remiss if we didn’t include the pricing information. Long story short, these are the same prices as last year (except the 16 Pro models are cheaper in India than the 15 Pro last year).
| iPhone 16 | iPhone 16 Plus | iPhone 16 Pro | iPhone 16 Pro Max | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | USD 799 | USD 899 | USD 999 | USD 1,199 |
| UK | GBP 799 | GBP 899 | GBP 999 | GBP 1,199 |
| Germany | EUR 949 | EUR 1,099 | EUR 1,199 | EUR 1,449 |
| India | INR 79,900 | INR 89,900 | INR 119,900 | INR 144,900 |
| China | CNY 5,999 | CNY 6,999 | CNY 7,999 | CNY 9,999 |
| Japan | JPY 124,800 | JPY 139,800 | JPY 159,800 | JPY 189,800 |
Okay, let’s head to the polls. First is the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max. Now measuring 77.6mm wide and weighing 227g (compared to 15 Pro Max’s 76.7mm and 221g), has the big iPhone gotten too big? Or is the added screen real estate a bonus?
Next, the Apple iPhone 16 Pro. Its predecessor was one of the best small flagships of 2023 – not that there was much competition – but now Apple says that Pros have to be bigger than their vanilla counterparts. What do you think?
The Apple iPhone 16 Plus (like its smaller sibling) is still stuck on a 60Hz display. Only Apple can get away with this – or can it?
Finally, the Apple iPhone 16 is the cheapest iPhone with an OLED display. We specify this to exclude the old SE – we hear that the new SE will have an OLED display too. So, if you just want a small, cheap iPhone is the 16 the one to get or would you consider waiting to see what the new SE is like?