The iPhone 16 Pro has the same larger screen and 5x tetraprism zoom as the Max model without the price increase. Add in the promised Apple Intelligence features, smarter Siri, and longer battery life, and it's a compelling flagship phone.
iPhone 16 Pro release date
The iPhone 16 Pro goes on sale September 20 and starts at $999 for 128GB of storage. The storage options for the iPhone 16 Pro are as follows:
| Memory | Reference price |
| 128GB | $999 |
| 256GB | $1099 |
| 512GB | $1299 |
| 1TB | $1499 |
Specifications
| Price | $999 |
| Screen | 6.3 inches (2622 x 1206) |
| Chip | A18 Pro |
| Rear camera | 48MP main camera (f/1.78), 48MP ultra-wide-angle camera (f/2.2), 12MP telephoto camera (5x, f/2.8) |
| Front camera | 12MP (f/1.9) |
| Video | 4K Dolby Vision up to 120fps |
| Battery | Up to 22 hours of video streaming |
| Color | Black, White, Desert and Natural Titanium |
| Size | 5.89 x 2.81 x 0.32 inches |
| Weight | 199g |
Design
The iPhone 16 Pro is still a compact phone, but at the expense of a larger screen. It's now more like a mid-sized phone than a small phone, thanks to its increased size and weight.
The phone measures 5.89 x 2.81 x 0.32 inches and weighs 200g, so the new iPhone is tall, wide, and thin, but heavier.
The good news is that the iPhone 16 Pro is still easy to use with one hand because Apple has made the bezels thinner. The design will also be more durable because Apple claims the Ceramic Shield display is 50% more durable. Plus, the case is still made of titanium, which is stronger than aluminum.
The colors of the iPhone 16 Pro are not too outstanding compared to the regular iPhone 16. There are White Titanium, Black Titanium, Natural Titanium and a new Desert Titanium color, which is like a light rose gold.
Screen
Don’t expect much new from the iPhone 16’s display. The only real news, aside from the 6.3-inch size bump for this OLED display, is that it can be dimmer. The minimum is now just 1 nit (down from 2 nits on the iPhone 15 Pro).
You can use the phone in bed without disturbing your partner, and if you're using Standby mode, the iPhone 16 Pro won't be as bright as when used overnight as an alarm clock.
You’ll get the same 120Hz refresh rate and peak brightness on this ProMotion display. Apple claims a peak brightness of 2,000 nits outdoors and 1,600 nits for HDR content.
Camera Control
Apple added a new button to the iPhone 16 Pro, but it’s not technically a button. Camera Control is a recessed capacitive switch that provides haptic feedback. Press it once to launch right into the camera, and press it again to take a photo. It’s simple and works well in both landscape and portrait mode.
Camera Control has a bunch of tricks up its sleeve, including the ability to zoom in and out by sliding your finger left and right on the button. And a light double-tap will bring up a small menu that you can scroll through to adjust things like exposure, depth, and choose a shooting style.
Camera Control also frees up the Action button on the left side of the iPhone 16 Pro to program other shortcuts.
Camera
The iPhone 16 Pro has some key upgrades: It has a sharper 48MP ultra-wide camera, a faster 48MP main Fusion Camera with "zero shutter lag."
Plus, Photographic Styles are built directly into the Camera and Photos apps, so you can change the skin tone and mood of your photos instantly. Plus, you can edit after you shoot.
Video
Video on the iPhone 16 Pro is improved, as you can now shoot in 4K and 120fps (up from 60fps). So not only does video look smoother on the 120Hz display, but you can also adjust the playback speed on the fly for impressive slow-motion video.
Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence won't officially arrive on the iPhone 16 lineup until October, but you can already try out some of the features ahead of the official launch as part of the iOS 18.1 developer preview.
Writing Tools can be quite useful, like summarizing a long note in the Apple Notes app. One Apple Intelligence feature I love is Memory Movie. You can give the Photos app a prompt and the AI will start sifting through all your photos and videos.
The iPhone 16 Pro also has a Clean Up button, which is essentially Google's Magic Eraser on iOS. Apple's version of the feature is smart enough to identify objects or subjects you might want to erase and works quickly.
Siri is definitely the biggest upgrade with Apple Intelligence. The new Siri in Apple Intelligence is also better with follow-up questions. Another plus is that you can talk to Siri just by typing.
Efficiency
The iPhone 16 Pro is powered by Apple's new A18 Pro chip built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology, as well as 8GB of RAM. Based on testing, this is indeed the fastest chip out there, but not in every test.
On Geekbench, which measures overall performance, the iPhone 16 Pro is 50% faster than the Galaxy S24 Ultra's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip in single-core performance and 15% faster in multi-core performance. On the graphics side, the iPhone 16 Pro has a 6-core GPU, compared to 5 cores on the regular iPhone 16 models. Apple says you'll get 20% faster performance than the iPhone 15 Pro.
Battery life and charging
The iPhone 16 Pro gets a big boost in battery life, thanks to a larger battery and other improvements. In Tom's Guide's battery life test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness, the new iPhone 16 Pro lasted 14 hours and 7 minutes, a significant increase from the iPhone 15 Pro's 10 hours and 53 minutes and enough to make it into the list of phones with the best battery life.
The bad news is that the iPhone 16 Pro has the same 20W charging speed as before, so it's no surprise to see it hit 56% capacity in 30 minutes. The good news is that MagSafe wireless charging power increases from 15W to 25W if you use a 30W charger.
Overall, the iPhone 16 Pro is arguably the best flagship phone under $1,000. You get the same great cameras as the iPhone 16 Pro Max for $200 less, and the screen is big enough at 6.3 inches while still being easy to use with one hand.
Battery life is also improved, Camera Control is handy, and Audio Mix is a cool feature for videos. Apple's Intelligence capabilities—like Writing Tools, Siri, and the new Cleanup—show promise, but some of the more exciting features, like ChatGPT integration, Image Playground, and Google Lens-like Visual Intelligence, are coming later.
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