Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro quick review: All the changes you cannot see

NEW DELHI, SEPT 10 : As I have often written here on these pages, Apple doesn’t do drastic. If it is not introducing an entirely different product, then most of the time — although there are exceptions — it tweaks and improves and makes subtle but significant changes to its products. The iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro phones, which launched last night at Apple’s Glowtime event at Steve Jobs Theatre, exemplifies this approach. As I looked at them in the demo zone and used them briefly, very briefly, my impression of the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro was that: okay, they don’t look all that different. Yet, these are phones with some significant upgrades.

First, what has not changed. If I compare with the iPhone 15 phones, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro don’t seem much changed in terms of looks and design. Same flat sides, similar aluminium and titanium frames, similar ceramic shield on both the screen and the back. The differences, when there are a few, are fairly minor in terms of looks and feel. The iPhone 16 now has vertically stacked camera lenses, so when the phone is held in landscape mode and its camera is used to record video, the two lenses can work together to capture spatial footage.

The iPhone 16 also gets two new buttons — the action button, which was earlier available on the Pro models. And the camera button — Apple is calling it Camera Control — which is new to all iPhone 16 phones. The screen size and resolution is the same, although Apple says that the ceramic shield on the front is now 2X stronger than what Android phone makers use and 50 per cent stronger than what Apple used earlier.

So, in terms of looks and feel the iPhone 16 is the same good ol’ iPhone. Inside, however, there are two big changes: One, the iPhone 16 has 8GB RAM. This is presumably needed by the phone to run Apple Intelligence aka Apple’s generative AI tools. And two, the phone is powered by the A18 chipset, which is 30 per cent faster in general computing and 40 per cent faster in graphics workloads compared to A16 chipset. Apple says that the iPhone 16 also comes with improved cooling, which should help with sustained performance. While we will get to know of the iPhone 16 performance once we — and users in general — start using the phones, Apple highlights it supports Ray Tracing in games. Now, ray tracing is a demanding workload and if a chipset can support that it is fairly safe to assume that it is a fast chipset.

Apple has also highlighted how the rear camera system in the iPhone 16 now supports zoom level from Macro to 2X, although there is no telephoto lens. Instead, for its zoom Apple is using the same cropping and software tricks that Google uses in the Pixel 9. Again, this is something we will explore in detail in the full review.

The other big change with the iPhone 16 are its new colours. As I looked at them in the demo zone, the one I absolutely loved was the ultramarine. But I am assuming that teal and pink will also prove popular with users.

The iPhone 16 Pro, meanwhile, has the same camera module that we saw with the previous Pro phones. But in terms of its design and looks, the changes are more, ahem, upfront. The screens are bigger. Although the size is kind of not. This is something Apple is doing by reducing the bezels around the screen. The iPhone 16 Pro Max now sports a 6.9-inch screen. It is also marginally heavier than the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The iPhone 16 Pro sports a 6.3-inch screen.

The 16 Pro too gets the Camera Control button, which is another physical element that makes it different from the iPhone 15 Pro phones. And then there is the new colour — the desert titanium. It is not gold, or loud like gold. It is a rather muted colour, closer to how sand looks like. Although there will be fans of desert titanium I feel that the natural titanium with its brushed look remains the best-looking iPhone.

In terms of its contours, shape and size, the 16 Pro phones look similar to their predecessors. As always, the iPhone Pro phones continue to be the best built phones in the market. The craftsmanship and the materials — tougher ceramic layers and Titanium Grade 5 frames — remain matchless.

Just like the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16 Pro too has a few internal upgrades. The most significant of these is the A18 Pro chipset, which I believe is based on the same architecture that we first saw in the M4 chips inside new iPads. The M4 is brilliant in every way so I feel that the A18 Pro too is going to be an impressive chipset. It is also likely more power efficient, something that Apple highlights by mentioning that the battery in the iPhone 16 Pro Max is rated to run for 33 hours under typical usage. This is a tremendous claim, but this too we will double-check as we used the phone once it is out in the market.

Two big features of the iPhone 16 phones this year are the Apple Intelligence and the Camera Control.

In my brief use, I found the Camera Control in the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro to be something that is incredibly powerful, but it may also need a bit of effort from users before they can fully utilise it. You see, this is not a simple button to open the camera app and click a photo. It supports multiple touch gestures and has a multi-click mechanism. Single click, double-click, swipe up on its touch surface, or swipe down — all of them enable one or two distinct camera features. Not all users will be able to master the Camera Control button all that well, but those who do will get rewarded immensely.

The other big story of the iPhone 16 this year is the Apple Intelligence. This, however, at this point of time remains more of a work-in-progress. The features surely are impressive — creating emojis on the fly or using Visual Intelligence through the iPhone camera to let AI decode the world for you — but they are not arriving next week when the iPhone 16 phones become available. Instead, some Apple Intelligence features will come next month with a new beta update, while some will only be coming later this year or earlier next year.

Like I noted in the beginning, Apple rarely does drastic. More than ever it is true with the iPhone 16 devices. They are a continuation of a design language Apple started a few years ago. But here is something important I want to note: The Apple iPhones look unremarkable because we have become used to them. Because if you look at them with a fresh set of eyes, you will realise that the Phone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro are phones with unmatched build quality and a refine-ness to the design that no other phone except an old iPhone can match. The hardware, including the screen and camera system, look top notch. There is a ridiculous amount of raw power in their A18 and the A18 Pro chipsets. Again, if the chipset doesn’t impress you that is because the A17 Pro or A16 were no slouch.

Instead of some big bang, with the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro Apple is doing what it has done so often in the last few years: refine a product to perfection. And the iPhone 15 phone users may not find that appealing, I have a feeling that people who are still on the older iPhones such as iPhone 13 or older will appreciate it much.

-The India Today