iPhone 16 & iPhone 16 Pro Announced with Faster Chips & Apple Intelligence Support
Apple has announced the all new iPhone 16 series, including iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Each new iPhone supports Apple Intelligence, the upcoming AI feature suite debuting in October.
As is expected with the annual iPhone update cycle, each new iPhone offers faster performance with improved cameras, and include a variety of other marginal improvements to things like the microphone and power efficiency, compared to the prior model iPhones they are replacing.
We watched the keynote and waded through all the aggressive Apple marketing language and buzzwords, and the gist of the new iPhone 16 series is as follows:
iPhone 16 Pro
The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max feature an A18 Pro chip that is “built for Apple Intelligence” (Apple Intelligence is Apple’s AI feature that is set to debut in October, which is a combination of local AI capabilities and ChatGPT integration).
Perhaps most notable about iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are that the displays are slightly larger, coming in at 6.3″ and 6.9″ display sizes, respectively.
Additionally, iPhone 16 Pro series features the typical three lens rear-camera system, with a 48MP camera, ultra-wide, and a 5x telephoto lens.
A new “Camera Control” feature offers a new button that is able to quickly launch the iPhone camera to take a shot, start video recording, or to perform “visual intelligence” tasks using Apple’s AI tools that allows for things like quickly identifying an animal or tree, or see the hours and menu of a restaurant you take a photo of.
iPhone 16 Pro continues to use the new USB-C charging port as well, which is apparently faster now as well.
iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are available in black titanium, white titanium, natural titanium, and a new desert titanium color option.
Pricing for iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max begins at $999 for the Pro and $1199 for the Pro Max. Available storage sizes are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.
Pre-orders begin Friday, September 13, and iPhone 16 Pro ships on September 20.
iPhone 16
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus come with the new A18 chip, improvements to battery life, and support for Apple Intelligence AI features (this is particularly relevant because the prior-gen iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus do not support Apple Intelligence AI features, so if you recently spent nearly $1000 on one of those and you want Apple AI, you’re going to need to upgrade to a new and better iPhone).
iPhone 16 has a 6.1″ display, while the iPhone 16 Plus has a 6.7″ display.
The iPhone 16 series also includes a 48MP camera that doubles as a 2x telephoto camera, and an ultra-wide camera.
The iPhone 16 series also includes the “Camera Control” feature which is a button that can be used to quickly access the Camera app and take photos or record videos.
iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are available in black, white, pink, light green, and light blue.
Pricing for iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus starts at $799 and $899, and is available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512gb storage sizes.
Pre-orders begin on Friday September 13, and the iPhone 16 will ship on September 20.
Separately, Apple also announced the Apple Watch Series 10, which is slightly redesigned and a little thinner, as well as AirPods 4 and AirPods Max.
iPhone 16 launch event was a bit of a disappointment since other than the new A18 6-core chipset + 48MP camera + wifi 7 and 4k @ 120fps recording (Samsung already had it on S24 Ultra) we did not get anything else… And the whole AI is not even live…And that camera button that is very uncomfortable for portrait shots. One major camera improvement – low light photo performance!
Unless you are upgrading from iPhone 11 or earlier models, it does not make sense to go for 16 pro models this time. Wait for another year.
Love the always overhyped Apple events for what are mostly evolutionary products not revolutionary products. They don’t spark my impulse buyer in me in the least anymore. Slap a new and improved label on it Apple and call it another product cycle.