Apple’s iPhone 16 Series are impressive phones with incredible performance and capabilities. It’s not about one big feature, but how innovations like the Camera Control Button and last year’s Dynamic Island seamlessly work together to enhance the experience. Our iPhone 16 series review covers all 16 iPhones. As these share the different performance and features also for display size and battery life, so let’s explore.
Apple Intelligence:
Apple Intelligence is a key new feature in the iPhone iOS 18.1 operating system. Apple’s Artificial Intelligence holds great potential, offering features such as Notification Summaries for a quick overview of alerts, improved Siri capabilities, Writing Tools to refine communication tone even on WhatsApp. Visual Intelligence to provide information about objects in your environment, and integration of ChatGPT directly into iOS, among other enhancements.
So far, the standout feature of Apple Intelligence is Writing Tools, which excels at summarizing emails and notifications. It’s also incredibly useful for refining an email before sending, allowing you to adjust the tone, whether keeping it as is or modifying it to be more friendly, professional, or concise.
Apple also says Writing Tools is accessible in third-party apps, which is mostly accurate. Another notable feature of Apple Intelligence is Clean Up. An AI-powered photo editing tool designed to eliminate unwanted objects and subjects. It performs impressively well at removing smaller, unwanted elements from photos.
The reason the iPhone 16 can deal with Apple Intelligence is because it has the A18 chip. That chip is also 60% faster than the A14 Bionic in the iPhone 12.
iPhone 16 Pro New Cameras & Photographic Styles
The iPhone 16 series comes with the expected next-generation camera upgrades, including macro mode support. An enhanced ultrawide camera for better low-light photography, and a 48-megapixel Fusion camera that delivers a 2x optical-quality zoom.
What truly stood out to me about the iPhone 16’s camera wasn’t just the hardware, but the revamped Photographic Styles. These visual effects, introduced with the iPhone 13, have now been updated to better capture skin undertones, colors, highlights, and shadows, resulting in a significant improvement. You can easily cycle through various Photographic Styles while previewing a shot using the Camera Control button or apply them afterward.
This update makes the previous version of Photographic Styles seem basic in comparison. As someone without much experience in photography or video editing, this feature enabled me to create bold and striking images with just a simple button press. I especially enjoyed the more dramatic options, like the vibrant style and the bold black-and-white effect.
| iPhone 16 | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions: | 147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8mm |
| Weight: | 170g |
| Display: | 6.1-inch OLED |
| Resolution: | 2556 x 1179 pixels |
| Refresh rate: | 60Hz |
| Chipset: | A18 |
| Rear cameras: | 48MP main (26 mm, f/1.6), 12MP ultra-wide (13 mm, f/2.2) |
| Front camera: | 12MP (f/1.9) |
| Storage: | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB |
Ultrawide Camera
The iPhone 16 Pro has a new 48MP ultrawide camera compared to the 12MP ultrawide from previous iPhones. There isn’t a perceivable improvement in good lighting conditions
While most of its features cater to general photography, one aspect of Camera Control shows significant promise for the blind and low-vision community: integration with third-party apps. For example, in the Be My Eyes app, which includes the Be My AI feature for image description, the Camera Control button can be used to take pictures. This eliminates the need to locate an on-screen “Take Picture” button, making the process more seamless.
The potential for deeper integration with AI-based description apps is enormous. Imagine opening your favorite image description app and capturing photos while simultaneously receiving descriptions. All through a single press of the Camera Control button. With developers embracing this feature, it could unlock new possibilities for accessibility and user convenience.
Faster A18 chip with excellent Performance
The iPhone 16 is powered by the new A18 chip, which is 30% faster than the A16 in its predecessor, with 40% faster graphics. This makes the device feel quicker and more responsive, ensuring it remains fast for years to come while also enabling upcoming AI features.
The iPhone 16 Pro models offer enhanced overall performance, especially for demanding tasks such as video editing. Apple also highlighted that the new models feature twice the ray tracing performance compared to the iPhone 15 Pro models. However, we haven’t noticed a significant difference in lighting quality while playing games with ray tracing enabled on either generation.
Additionally, the A18 chip is more power-efficient, contributing to impressive battery life for a phone of its size. The iPhone 16 can last over 48 hours on a single charge with typical usage. Including a combination of 5G and Wi-Fi, while actively using the screen for more than seven hours. It’s designed to handle even the most demanding days with ease.
Design: Introducing the new buttons on the iPhone 16
The iPhone 16 introduces redesigned buttons as a new Camera Control, enhancing functionality and offering a fresh user experience. A new feature across all models that allows users to take photos and access camera functionalities with a dedicated physical button. Eliminating the need for on-screen controls. Positioned on the right side of the device below the Side Button. Camera Control offers customizable settings and functionality, enhancing the photography experience.
The Camera Control on the iPhone 16 is a versatile hybrid of a button and touchpad. A firm press opens the camera app, another press captures a photo, and holding it down records a video.
The innovation lies in its lighter touch functionality: a gentle press reveals a carousel of settings and shooting modes. By sliding your finger across the button, you can navigate options like exposure, depth, zoom, lens selection, and photographic styles. Once a specific setting is selected, you can fine-tune it by swiping your finger along the Camera Control area, offering seamless and intuitive customization.
The concept of using a button as a shortcut to launch the camera isn’t groundbreaking. You could already do this with the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro. Similarly, Samsung’s Galaxy phones allow you to double-press the side button to access the camera, and certain Sony Xperia models include a dedicated shutter button.
What sets Camera Control apart, however, isn’t just the ability to open the camera but the ease of swiping through various options and modes. It simplifies adjusting settings without disrupting your shot. Your finger stays off the screen, preserving visibility, and you don’t need to move your other hand to switch between shooting modes. Offering a more fluid and intuitive photography experience.
Display: Still the top-tier iPhone screens
Another area where the iPhone 16 Pro outshines the iPhone 16 is its display. Not only is it slightly larger, but the visual experience is noticeably superior.
The iPhone 16 Pro features Apple’s ProMotion OLED display, with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz for smooth animations and gaming. It can also drop down to 1Hz for static images and the always-on display to conserve battery life. With ProMotion technology and the always-on display, the Pro models continue to distinguish themselves from the base iPhone 16, which still uses an older 60Hz display.
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