Apple has announced the iPhone 16 Pro. Here’s everything you need to know

The biggest Apple event of the year finally happened, and as expected, the major innovation highlights are the iPhone 16 Pro and its Max version. Once again, we are treated to the same fundamental design and familiar colors.

Last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max were among the best phones released last year. How do this year’s models stack up? Are they worth upgrading to? Let’s break it all down.

iPhone 16 Pro: price and release

The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999 for the base variant with 128GB storage. Trims with 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage are also available. In the U.S., the iPhone 16 Pro Max will set you back $1,199. The storage tier for this one starts at 256GB and climbs up to 1TB.

Preorders of the iPhone 16 Pro duo go live on September 13, while sales kick off on September 20. The new Qi2 MagSafe charger with 25W output costs $39 in the U.S.

iPhone 16 Pro: specs

iPhone 16 Pro: hands-on

It’s one thing to explain a new phone’s features, specs, etc., but it’s another to actually use one. The iPhone 16 Pro looks impressive on paper, but how does it hold up to real-world testing?

While we need a lot more time before our full review is ready, we did have an opportunity to go hands-on with the iPhone 16 Pro. We tested the phone’s new Camera Control button, saw its improved display, and got to look at the controversial Desert Titanium color.

iPhone 16 Pro: design and display

The iPhone 16 Pro now relies on a Grade 5 Titanium with a sandblasted texture. Apple claims the next-gen screen protection on the iPhone 16 Pro and its Max trim is stronger than the first-gen Ceramic Shield display protection.

The most notable hardware change, however, is the new physical shutter button, which lets users customize various camera features for quick access. It’s called the Camera Control button, and it supports tap and slide gestures, thanks to a capacitive surface and a taptic engine underneath for vibration feedback.

In addition to capturing pictures, it also pulls up a quick control slider in the camera viewfinder to adjust metrics such as exposure, zoom, and depth of field. In the coming months, Apple will update the camera app to add a two-stage shutter click functionality for locking focus and exposure.

Notably, Apple has bumped up the screen size, putting a 6.3-inch panel on the iPhone 16 Pro and a 6.9-inch display on the Max variant. The resolution has also been slightly increased, but the pixel density remains identical at 460ppi across both models and their respective predecessors.

Once again, Apple is serving the Super Retina XDR OLED display with a peak 120Hz refresh rate and 2,000 nits of peak brightness. Interestingly, the iPhone 16 Pro’s screen can reach a brightness output as low as one nit. The overall build still serves an IP68-level protection, which means the new Apple flagships can handle immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 6 meters.

iPhone 16 Pro: internal hardware and software

Apple says the new iPhones have been designed from the ground up to get the best out of Apple Intelligence, the suite of generative AI features that includes everything from Writing Tools to a more conversational Siri with deeper app integration.

Powering the iPhone 16 Pro duo is the new A18 Pro processor, built atop an updated 3-nanometer processor. The company says it borrowed tech from Apple silicon powering its Mac lineup to boost the graphics output, bringing a sizeable improvement in raw performance as well as power efficiency.

It delivers a 20% lift in system memory bandwidth, a 2x boost at hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and up to 20% improvement in sustained performance. The six-core architecture includes two performance cores and four efficiency cores, surpassing the A17 Pro’s raw performance by around a 15% margin at CPU performance while also delivering a graphics performance lift worth 20% compared to its predecessor.

The most notable software-side upgrade is Visual Intelligence, which is tiled to the Camera Control button. Think of it as Google Lens, but supercharged with the new Siri AI chops as well as seamless offloading to ChatGPT for more complex queries. Visual Intelligence works in the same vein as GPT-4o vision capabilities but with the added benefit of local integration with tools such as the calendar app.

Apple has also enhanced the charging speed, taking it to 25W with a MagSafe wireless adapter. In addition to improving the thermal architecture, Apple also claims that the new Pro models offer the “best iPhone battery life ever.” iOS 18 runs out of the box, and its biggest draw will be Apple Intelligence.

iPhone 16 Pro: cameras and features

Apple has kept the 48-megapixel primary camera but has upgraded the ultrawide camera to a 48MP sensor while keeping the telephoto camera at a 12MP resolution. Notably, the 5x optical zoom capability enabled by the tetra prism lens architecture is now available on the iPhone 16 Pro and the Max version.

In terms of camera capabilities, the most notable one is the ability to shoot 4K Dolby Vision videos at a 120fps frame rate, complete with the convenience of ProRes and LOG capture directly onto external storage. Notably, it can be used for both normal capture as well as slo-mo video recording.

Apple claims that users can now perform professional-grade color grading on individual frames of 4K video recorded at 120 frames per second in Dolby Vision. The high-res, high frame rate capture combo applies to regular and slo-mo videos. Notably, users will have the option to change the playback speed post-capture to a film-like 24fps mode.

The upgraded ultrawide camera will also capture 48MP ProRAW files. Thanks to Apple Intelligence, Siri will also help with image and video editing. There are also many new Photographic Styles to play with, alongside a new control pad for more granular control over tone and color intensity while adjusting photo moods.

Apple is making the best of the onboard studio-quality mics for vlogging professionals. Take, for example, Audio Mix, which apparently does the same thing with sound signals as Cinematic Mode does with focal adjustment in videos during post-edits.

The new tool lets users modify audio tracks after filming, enabling them to isolate and enhance a speaker’s voice, simulate a professional studio recording environment, or separate vocal and ambient sounds for a surround sound experience. Apple is throwing wind noise reduction into the mix.