Verdict
While I am yet to be sell on Apple Intelligence , the iPhone 16 Pro is still a very good iPhone with upgrade in most of the proper places . It should n’t interest those who plumped for the iPhone 15 professional , but if you ’re coming from an older machine this click all the right corner .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
2024 is the class of AI – and with the iPhone 16 Pro , Apple is go headfirst into a new era .
Let ’s dismiss for a moment that the iPhone 15 Pro serial can also utiliseApple Intelligence , and that many of those AI features are n’t available yet – this is the first iPhone Apple is pushing as an AI car .
centre too much on AI and you might miss raise in other area , though . This is the fully grown ‘ small ’ Pro iPhone to date , with a afterthought of the television camera operation and a whole newCamera Controlbutton .
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So , with the same £ 999/$999 price shred as theiPhone 15 professional , is the iPhone 16 Pro a step forth ? Or has the focus on AI hampered progress elsewhere ?
Design
Apple used to update its phone plan on a fairly regular docket , typically every couple of eld . That ’s not been the case for a while now , with the iPhone 16 Pro still carrying many of the characteristic from the iPhone X – the last immense redesign .
Yes , since then we ’ve had the sides flatten , the notch pluck and the materials change but the design is still much the same . I mean Apple has found a strong aim for the phone , however I would n’t deplore a afterthought as even if you ’re upgrading after a 24 - month declaration hertz the difference here are minimum .
The iPhone 16 Pro is slightly large overall than the 15 Pro . It ’s a few millimetre taller , about 13 g heavier and very marginally wider . You have to put the two earphone next to each other to notice and the welfare of the larger cover outweigh the altered dimension .
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I ’d guess many will be amount from an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 13 Pro , and if that ’s you then the switch to atomic number 22 here makes for a lighter speech sound with softer edges . It ’s a really easy sound to hold .
The Pro compass stay devoid of any of the shiny , more ‘ fun ’ color option found on the standard iPhone 16 range . All the Pro hues are muted and kind of obtuse – and there ’s no tangible standout colour this class .
There ’s a new Desert Titanium – the flagship colour observe in most of the marketing – which is far more subtle than previous gold iPhone colours with no bright face to excogitate lightness like jewellery . Other colour options are fateful , white and silver .
Rumours a few year ago suggested Apple was planning on doing away with physical buttons and ports on iPhones , replace them with capacitive choice . In truth , thing have terminate up go in the complete polar instruction – there are now more buttons on the iPhone than ever before .
With the iPhone 15 Pro , the Action Button was added – a shortcut key that could be program to open up gear up apps or ordain sure routine . This remains on the 16 Pro ( and has been added to standardiPhone 16and iPhone 16 Plus ) and it ’s been connect by Camera Control .
Camera Control sits below the power key and provides a nimble way to control the iPhone 16 Pro ’s various tv camera attainment . A single press from anywhere open up the camera , another imperativeness takes a photo and a long one starts record video recording .
The release is capacitive , so when you ’re in the photographic camera you’re able to tap it lightly to chute into a new options menu , and scroll to change electron lens , depth , photograph and so on . It does n’t just work with Apple ’s nonpayment television camera app , with alternatives like Halide able-bodied to apply it .
It ’s a very ingenious estimation and the tech behind it is typically Apple . There ’s nice feedback from the key when it ’s constrict , it ’s cover in sapphire to avoid damage and it ’s a quick way to jump into the camera from wherever .
After using Camera Control for about a calendar month though , I ’m still not completely betray on its execution . For instance , the position is just a little too high up the side of the phone and I am always shifting my finger around to find it . I ’d much prefer it to be lower down , like where the camera shutter button on theSony Xperia VIsits .
It ’s also by and large quite fiddly . It ’s large to unfold the camera , but trying to maneuver through the options with swipe and wiretap is wearisome and not very intuitive . It ’s far easy , quicker and more honest to just apply the touch covert .
Camera Control is a gracious idea , just one that needs a little more thought process before it becomes one of the reason to upgrade .
Elsewhere , the iPhone 16 Pro really feels like a phone worthy of its high price . It ’s built from grade 5 titanium with a 100 % recycle aluminium caloric substructure , has anIP68rating for shelter from water for 30 minutes and totes a long-lasting Ceramic Shield over the show .
The promotional material is , according to Apple , made from 100 % fibre - based materials for the first time , with no plastic constituent and the iPhone 16 Pro on the whole uses more recycled theatrical role than previous entries . There ’s 95 % recycled lithium in the battery and 100 % recycled gold in the USB - 100 connective and camera telegram .
Screen
The ‘ smaller ’ Pro model has a more or less prominent screen this year , moving from the 6.1 - column inch size of it used antecedently to 6.3 - in . It ’s a minor variety , albeit one that I am full on dining table with .
It does n’t make the phone much bigger than the 15 Pro – most of the variety comes from a more or less slimmer bezel running around the display itself – but it does give the stamp the screen is a footling roomy . It ’s not a monumental change , and I would n’t be surprised if many did n’t even notice , but coming from a 15 Pro Max I do value the change .
Still , theiPhone 16 Pro Maxis the one to choose if you want a vast canvas for game , media or just flicking through your photos .
Aside from the sizing , both version of the 16 Pro have all the same show trick and skills – so you are n’t missing out if you , like me , simply prefer the smaller , more manageable descriptor factor .
ProMotionremains a feature limited to the Pro range – although rumours have suggested it ’ll ultimately trickle down to thestandard models with the iPhone 17 – and it allows the refresh rate of the screen to move between 1Hz and 120Hz . It ’ll strike down down to that 1Hz when the always - on display is enable , throw you an outline of the clock even when the phone is locked .
It ’ll then rage up when you ’re scroll or gaming . Whether the phone systematically reaches 120Hz is beside the level , as it always abide smooth and fast . I ’ve always said while you might not notice ProMotion and faster refresh screens in general now , after weeks of use it can be grueling to interchange back to anything slower .
The Super Retina XDR control board is sharp and while it ’s mostly the same as the one on the 15 Pro , it remains one of thebest phonedisplays on the market . Fire upDolby Vision HDRcontent from Netflix and the people of color expect utterly fantastic . It can getreallybright outdoors too , and importantly it can get very dim too – so discharge it up in a coloured way wo n’t trouble everyone .
At the top of the screen is the Dynamic Island – a pill - shaped cutout that is both a place for the front 12MP photographic camera and various FaceID depth sensor to sit , and sort of a subaltern area for certain presentment .
This is the third clock time we ’ve had phones from Apple with the Dynamic Island and while it ’s clearly a stepping Harlan F. Stone between the Old snick and a possible future of under - sieve photographic camera , I like it and would authentically miss it if it was n’t there . Or at least I would miss some of the functionality pop the question .
you could pin thing into the Dynamic Island , like sports scores ( both from Apple ’s own Sports app or third - political party offering , like FotMob ) and intellectual nourishment delivery apps can show the remaining prison term until an order is dropped off . It commit quick access to currently playing music and podcasts , too . Not have to jump-start between apps – or to the lock screen – to see this info is groovy .
Apple ’s hesitancy to shift deeper notifications – like those from Messages – into the Dynamic Island says to me the long - term plan is still to chuck it completely in the next few geezerhood when the technical school is more advanced .
There are , of course , benefits to having a screen free of any notch . The Dynamic Island can get in the way , specially in games , where you do n’t get that proper full - screen experience .
Performance
A new iPhone think a new chip to power it . The A18 Pro , predictably , come with a centering on AI performance and it powers everything the speech sound offers , from the Camera Control to Apple Intelligence .
According to Apple , the A18 Pro packs a new 16 - core neural locomotive , 6 - core GPU and 6 - core central processing unit plus an increment to the full system retentiveness bandwidth . There ’s also 8 GB RAM ( less than thebest Android earphone , but do n’t let that incommode you ) and storage options swan from 128 GB to 1 TB .
I find it frustrating Apple is still put up a 128 GB pick for a phone like this , as such meagre storage will quickly find restrictive . If you ’re spend this calendar month on a speech sound , either in one single upfront payment or monthly , pay the extra and get at least the 256 GB oblation .
In my calendar month of testing the iPhone 16 Pro with hundreds of apps , games and benchmark tests I have been impressed . It ’s not a vast jump over the already first-class A17 Pro – see the benchmark graphs below for a deeper aspect – but Apple has cornered itself by continually relinquish telling silicon on a yearly base .
You ’ll have no problem playing anything from the App Store , from AAA titles like Death Stranding and various Resident Evil titles plus Apple Arcade titles . Those AAA games still suffer from some bugs – the text is so small on the display – and maybe they ’re not quite as optimised as they could be .
In regular use , the iPhone 16 Pro is seriously quick – although I would n’t expect anything less and it ’s been a long clip since a unexampled iPhone feel slow . If you ’re upgrading from an iPhone 13 series gadget , for instance , you will really discover the difference .
The chip also enables you to utilise Apple Intelligence . While both iPhone 15 Pro good example also support this service , no other iPhones do – so this could be an lure for some to kick upstairs .
WiFi 7 support is swell for those with support router and I noticed expectant improvements in speeds between the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro when run speed tests on a new router . eSim persist the only pick for US vendee while other region retain the strong-arm SIM expansion slot .
Camera
With the arrival of Apple Intelligence , the iPhone 16 Pro feels like the first iPhone in years that does n’t lug the tv camera as the biggest ‘ feature ’ . There ’s still plenty of camera changes and additions here and it makes for quite a dissimilar candidate .
Before I get into how the three camera perform , permit ’s run through the hardware . The primary photographic camera stay at 48MP , the ultrawide jump-start from 12MP to 48MP and the 5x visual zoom that was previously exclusive to the larger 15 Pro Max is now the same across both 16 Pro earpiece .
Thankfully , you do n’t have to go handsome to get a better rapid climb . The 5x soar shots were a huge step up over the 3x from the 15 Pro .
While there are a few welcome hardware upgrades – the high res ultrawide is majuscule – for me , the braggart rising slope for the 16 Pro are the total controller you get about what your shaft look like thanks to the novel Photography Styles .
If you do n’t wish the nonpayment look of an iPhone 16 Pro photo , you’re able to fine-tune it : make it warmer , cool , more amber , alter the shadows and so on . you could even set these style as a default , so all your guessing will be work on on the dot the way you want them . It ’s quite the interruption from iPhones of erstwhile .
As someone who loves pick off and tinkering with photos , I love this raw steering . However , if you ’re less inclined I think it make the whole cognitive process severely to control . If you just point and fritter away , you might no longer be getting the good of what the camera can offer in specific place .
I have probably assume over 1000 piece of cake during the review outgrowth , and aside from the variety enabled by the styles I do n’t think there are anyhugecamera upgrades here .
shot from the main photographic camera are colour - accurate , with realistic tegument spirit and not too heavily - handed with colours . Sometimes shots , peculiarly landscape , depend a little flat due to an unmatched lack of shadow and highlights – so I often pushed these up afterwards to add more life .
At night , the iPhone 16 Pro execute well in my test – although not noticeably full than the iPhone 15 Pro . There remain a tendency for reflections to appear when shooting bright light sources at nighttime , and the night mode can still be a piddling slow . I much choose nighttime shots from the Pixel 9 Pro .
Arguably , it ’s the picture side of thing that has got big upgrades . you may now spud wonderfully silky video at 4 K 120fps . Capture , for instance , motivate animals in this mode and the results look very cinematic . There are a handful of audio tools too , designed to rivet in on specific speech sound when you ’re shoot television . One modal value in particular did an excellent job of reduce background knowledge audio and making my phonation more prominent .
Overall , the iPhone 16 Pro photographic camera package is splendid – if you ’re willing to put some clock time into crafting styles that produce image you like . Left on default , some pictures look flat and these might give the impression this is n’t one of the best camera speech sound around .
Software and AI
It ’s fair to say that the rollout of Apple Intelligence – the brand ’s flashy first endeavour at AI – has n’t been the smoothest , and I ca n’t opine it ’s been released the way Apple had primitively intended .
It ’ll be over six month after this phone ’s spillage by the clip the initial set of promised features have full come , with the scheme itself absent at launch and not formally arriving in UK English until December . I have been refresh the iPhone 16 Pro across its initial iOS 18 waiver , and the US English interlingual rendition of Apple Intelligence within iOS 18.1 .
It ’s grueling to properly pass judgment Apple Intelligence because , well , there is n’t much to it – yet . Of the promise feature article announced at WWDC , none of what I would call thetentpoleadditions are here yet . There ’s no ChatGPT integration , no Gemmoji or Image Playground and Siri is still lacking its true facelift .
Instead , Apple Intelligence is currently made up of a few skills to aid your piece of writing , some very canonical photograph redact trick and a hit - or - neglect summarising feature that shortens e-mail and stacked notifications into manageable chunks of information .
Clean Up is a number like Google ’s Magic Eraser , letting you remove errant subjects or items from images – with the AI masking the area to give the imprint nothing was ever there . I ’ve removed people encroaching upon my landscape painting shots and it can produce good results , but it ’s not as true yet as Google ’s interpretation .
My issue with Clean Up is that unless you ’re trying to remove something very obvious from a photograph that the app is suggesting – usually a person in the screen background – the results are poor .
I ’ve had more winner , and deal of unintended laugh , from the Summaries feature . This works in various apps , distill verbose messages into little bites of schoolbook . But the real hotshot is how it sum message notifications , crush together multiple text from group schmoose .
The idea is smart – instead of reading 20 messages from an overactive group , the AI will give you all the details in one apprisal . Sometimes in my testing it worked great , but most of the time it contend with the perceive wit ( or lack thereof ) and frantic group chats – often producing satire as fact and in the main missing the power point . As Lewis put it in his iPhone 16 review – “ there ’s nuance to human communication that Apple Intelligence on the face of it does n’t quite sympathise . ”
Most earphone - based AI systems we ’ve tested so far , whether it be from Samsung or Google , have include some sort of writing guidance feature of speech . Apple Intelligence is no different , with it capable to rewrite textual matter to check for errors , alter the smell and so on .
The results are … hunky-dory ? No AI piece of writing engine is very good , and stuff tends to that abnormal tone . But , if you ’re not a writer and want some reassurance , either over spelling or tonus , it can help oneself .
The final part of the currently available Apple Intelligence feature set is Siri enhancements . Siri has a fancy Modern liveliness when it kicks into cogwheel , pulsating the sides of the exhibit with a red glow . Apple ’s voice help has also absorb loading of How To guides , so you could require it ‘ How do I grow on glum mode ’ and it ’ll lean the steps . More Siri features are coming down the line , too .
While Apple Intelligence is the newspaper headline grabber , iOS 18 is a self-aggrandizing update elsewhere . There ’s a young Passwords app , RCS support and a far more customisable home screen . you’re able to now pull off image color , tint them dour or make them braggart .
There ’s also Apple ’s impressive long - condition computer software support to take into account . The iPhone XS – released six years ago – receive the iOS 18 update , to give you an theme of how well Apple treat its long - condition support .
Battery Life
The iPhone 16 Pro ca n’t rival the 16 Pro Max or iPhone 16 Plus for see-through survival as Apple ’s larger phones always win out but because they have more way for a bigger battery . For a modest iPhone though , the 16 Pro is one of the more impressive .
How long the phone last is always going to count on how you apply it . I ’ve always said the iPhone Pro Max range can be a two - day phone for lighter users , with premature Pro phones coming closer to requiring a charge every night .
I think , and my eternal examination proves , that the iPhone 16 Pro can be as close to a two - day phone this size iPhone has ever been , if you ’re a lighter user . For me , I still have be given to require to turn on every nighttime , with the phone unremarkably pose between 20 and 10 % at the end of the day .
Battery life-time is for certain improved over the iPhone 15 Pro by a mates of minute . Probably not by enough to upgrade , but good to hump anyway .
There ’s , of row , no charger in the box and no huge update to overall charging pep pill . If you ’re charging the wired way , with a plug capable of outputting 30w a full explosive charge will take around 90 minute , and you could get 50 % in between 25 - 30 minutes .
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Should you buy it?
The iPhone 16 Pro is one of the few phones on the market that is both small ( ok , maybe not as small as the Mini serial publication , but it ’s still comparatively small ) and seriously brawny . Unlike in previous years , you ’re not miss out on full-grown features by not going for the Max .
Apple intelligence operation is categorically , at this stage , not a reason to buy an iPhone 16 Pro . That tactual sensation might commute down the job , but if you ’re expecting a consummate experience at the beginning you ’re going to be let down .
Final Thoughts
With or without the full cortege of Apple Intelligence feature , the iPhone 16 Pro is a very good phone . It ’s not without its missteps though , and for the first time I recall the photographic camera scheme is in reality less visceral , with more work needed to attain really special photos .
There ’s still a mess to wish , and if you ’re come from anything but aniPhone 15 Prothe welfare are here . It ’s a better size than old ‘ modest ’ Pro iPhone model , it has good battery aliveness and the areas that were already very good remain so , include the marvellous CRT screen .
Go for theiPhone 16 Pro Maxif you ’re after the good choice for media – that immense concealment is ridiculously good – and go for the iPhone 16 Plus if battery is more crucial than fancy camera extras . Still , with everything considered , this is in all probability thebest iPhonefor most people .
Trusted Score
How we test
I have been using the iPhone 16 Pro as my primary feather for the past calendar month , beginning with the pre - Apple Intelligence release of iOS 18 and then moving across to iOS 18.1 . I have benchmarked the gadget using standard exam , put its presentation to the test with HDR video and taken over 1000 photos with the camera scheme . I have also compared it to the iPhone 15 Pro , some of the top Android devices and the iPhone 16 .
FAQs
Apple Intelligence is also uncommitted on the iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max plus various iPads and Macs with M - series chips .
Until iOS 18.2 arrives , it ’s in US English only . Additional countries and part , let in the EU , will go far in 2025 .
Test Data
Full Specs
