It’s September, so it’s time for a new iPhone. During Apple’s “It’s Glowtime” event, the company unleashed its new iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Here’s what’s new, what has changed, how much they’ll cost, and everything you need to know.
As expected, Apple took the stage and unveiled the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, the fancy iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max, AirPods 4, Apple Watch Series 10, AirPods Max with USB-C, a black Apple Watch Ultra 2, iOS 18 features, and more. It was a busy event, but most people want to know about its latest flagship phone.
iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max
Apple’s latest high-end smartphones, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, are bigger and better than ever. They feature the latest and greatest A18 Pro silicon purpose-built for Apple Intelligence, bigger screens, and significant camera upgrades.
As many rumors suggested, these phones have screens that are .2 inches larger than the previous generation. The iPhone 16 Pro has a beautiful new 6.3-inch screen, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max has a 6.9-inch screen. That’s more space for playing games, scrolling TikTok, or editing video captured from those powerful camera sensors on the back.
Speaking of cameras, both Pro models have notable improvements in the camera department. I’m talking about a 48MP “Fusion” primary lens with a second-gen QuadPixel sensor and zero shutter lag. You’ll enjoy an improved 48MP Ultrawide lens and a similar 5x “Tetraprism” zoom camera from the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Better yet, the iPhone 16 Pro can even record 4K video at 120fps, a first on iPhone. And yes, 4K 120FPS has frame-by-frame color grading, slow-mo controls, and more.
Perhaps the biggest change is the dedicated “Camera Control” button, available on all four iPhone 16 series devices. To be clear, the iPhone 16 Pro still has the action button, which replaced the mute switch, but now it also has a capacitive “camera” controller that’s amazingly cool.
With Camera Control, one finger tap can fire up the camera, swipe to zoom, or switch between shooting modes, color grading, and more. Then, you can press a little harder, and it’ll snap the photo. No more fumbling around with the on-screen controls, allowing you to easily get the perfect shot. More importantly, a software update later this year will allow the capacitive button to double as a two-stage shutter similar to SLR cameras, getting focus and snapping the photo or recording video.
Under the hood, Apple has a newly designed Apple A18 Pro 3nm chipset built from the ground up for the iPhone 16 Pro and Apple Intelligence. With a 16-core Neural engine, Apple promises 15% faster performance than last year’s A17 Pro, 20% better gaming performance, 10-15% improved AI performance, and faster ray tracing, to name a few.
It wouldn’t be a product event in 2024 without artificial intelligence. As expected, we saw all sorts of AI goodies, from generative emojis, AI camera features, and everything else announced with iOS 18. Apple also added a new feature called Visual Intelligence. This is basically Google Lens, but it uses Apple’s “AI” and your camera, where you can point your phone at something and learn all about it—from restaurants, animals, street signs, events, and other information.
Other notable hardware changes include four studio-quality microphones in the iPhone 16 Pro/Max for better audio and video recording or spatial audio capture. There’s also Wi-Fi 7 support and USB-C with USB 3. It still rocks a durable and lightweight Grade 5 Titanium frame in a familiar design, only now with improved thermal management, and comes in four stunning colors.
As we see every year, pricing and pre-orders are a familiar affair. The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be available for pre-order this Friday, September 13th, and will arrive a week later, on September 20th. The iPhone 16 Pro remains $999 with 128GB of storage, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max packs 256GB and will start at $1,199.
Source: Apple
