iPhone 16 Pro Review: Apple Intelligence Doesn’t Seem So Scary After All

Forget the Macs and the MacBooks; it’s the bundle and services that marque the instauration of Apple’s breadstuff and butter. The instrumentality everyone looks toward is the iPhone, whether arsenic a benchmark of what’s worthy successful a telephone oregon arsenic an adversary for what different instrumentality should strive to achieve. While it is silly watching iPhone users get excited implicit caller features successful iOS 18 that person been communal successful the Android satellite for truthful long, I retrieve that radical connected this level are diehards due to the fact that they similar the mode Apple does it implicit anyone else. I already similar however it’s doing artificial quality much than that other level I’m on. 

Many radical who bargain the iPhone get it due to the fact that it makes each that “high-tech stuff” look much approachable. The iPhone 16 bid volition bash that for AI, adjacent if its implementation is not arsenic groundbreaking oregon salient arsenic connected different platforms. The caller Pro telephone isn’t conscionable a vas for artificial intelligence, though it does person each the hardware chops to marque the deed imaginable for those consenting to beryllium aboriginal adopters. Everything astir the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max is solid, from its seven-lens camera strategy to its artillery life. Its caller colors this twelvemonth are besides brighter and lighter. We’ve lone had a week with the iPhone Pro/Pro Max frankincense far, but if this is your twelvemonth to upgrade, get acceptable to beryllium prepped and primed for what’s coming next. 

iPhone 16 Pro Design: Big oregon small? 

Besides a fewer different things, the champion happening that happened to maine this twelvemonth is that Apple and Google agreed to merchandise 2 versions of the Pro models without changing the camera strategy betwixt them. Last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max was the lone mentation with the maximum 5x optical zoom. This year, determination are fewer differences betwixt the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max beyond the artillery and surface size.

The iPhone 16 Pro models are overmuch bigger than past year’s iPhone 15 Pro. This year, they’re 6.3-inches and 6.9-inches, respectively. The regular Pro exemplary has been bumped up from 6.1-inches and the Pro Max from 6.7-inches. Since Apple thinned retired the chassis by a tiny bit, the larger displays enactment successful some cases—and due to the fact that they are thinner, they don’t consciousness arsenic bulky with a lawsuit on. The iPhone 16 Pro is present what I would see the cleanable size without immoderate compromises connected the camera system. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is for those who secretly privation an iPad arsenic a phone.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max looks champion successful its caller godforsaken titanium colorway, which Apple provided america for review. The achromatic titanium and earthy titanium are nice, too, and there’s besides achromatic titanium for the modern contemporary. I’ve heard folks kick that determination isn’t a pinkish variant of the iPhone 16 Pro this year. But if you look intimately astatine godforsaken titanium, it skews astir blush roseate whenever peculiar hues deed it.  

Meet the Camera Control button

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The newest carnal property of this generation’s iPhone lineup is the haptic-enabled Camera Control button. The fastener gives you casual entree to the camera app, whichever you prefer, and acts arsenic a shutter button. On the banal camera app, the Camera Control fastener remembers whether you were zooming successful oregon adjusting the vulnerability the past clip you snapped a picture. Double soft-press to power betwixt modes oregon settings similar zoom, camera styles, and absorption depth.

I’ve already heard from immoderate left-handers that they’re not excessively keen connected the right-side placement of the Camera Control button. I tried utilizing it with my near hand, adjacent though I’m a salient right-hander, and it did consciousness awkward to effort to scroll done the antithetic settings with my thumb. After little than a week of taking pictures exclusively with the iPhone 16 Pro, I similar mounting up the changeable from the full-screen viewfinder alternatively than interfacing with the Camera Control button. It tin beryllium tedious to enactment with if you’re already struggling to clasp the phone.

At the precise least, present there’s a dedicated camera shortcut fastener for erstwhile you privation to instrumentality a speedy shot. It’s mode faster than unlocking the telephone and pressing the camera shortcut connected the fastener screen. As I mentioned, if you person a camera app you similar implicit the iPhone’s banal camera app, you tin remap it to motorboat via the Camera Control button. And since developers tin pat into the Camera Control, much 3rd parties tin drum up absorbing uses for the iPhone’s caller button.

A18 Pro Chip: Built for everything

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max uses the caller A18 Pro chip. The six-core, 3nm processor promises amended show and ratio systemwide. There’s besides a 16-core neural motor prepped and primed for each that Apple Intelligence purports to do, portion the GPU offers ray-tracing capabilities for each the mobile games that instrumentality vantage of the iPhone arsenic a portable powerhouse.

I don’t play galore of those types of games anymore, and with each that’s been going on, I inactive request to delve into titles that instrumentality vantage of it. But my clip spent wrong Apple Arcade with Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Sonic Dream Team has been pleasant, particularly with the assistance of the Razer Kishi Ultra. I besides played a small Pokémon Go. I volition trial titles like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and the Resident Evil 2 Remake successful owed time. I’m besides funny however the strategy handles a streaming league of my favourite cozy games connected Xbox Game Pass.

Apple made a large to-do successful its keynote and consequent presentations astir however it restructured the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max’s interior plan to maximize thermal capacity. The effect is simply a 20 percent better-sustained show than the past generation. We’re inactive successful the throes of benchmarking that to spot if the numbers ringing true. But I tin already accidental the Geekbench 6 numbers are much awesome than what the Google Pixel 9 Pro is spitting retired with its Tensor G4 CPU.

As for the iPhone chassis, it inactive gets warm. I clocked successful astatine 98 degrees Fahrenheit connected the iPhone 16 Pro with a lawsuit connected portion hitting it with my useful room thermometer. We’ll bash a small much thermal investigating this week to spot whether the iPhone 16 Pro tin support cooler alongside the Pixel 9 Pro, which has been making the rounds successful the forums for getting excessively warm.

Thus far, the iPhone Pro bid is inactive the best-performing instrumentality successful Gizmodo’s artillery benchmark test. It relies connected perpetually streaming a YouTube video astatine 200 nits and measuring however agelong the telephone takes to peter out. I expect the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s artillery to outlast past year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, which already lasted an awesome 25 hours.

I volition beryllium updating this reappraisal with the authoritative fig aboriginal this week. For now, I tin archer you the iPhone 16 Pro, with its smaller artillery pack, performed impressively connected a time retired into the city. I inactive had 20% artillery toward the extremity of my transit thrust backmost to the car aft six hours retired and astir with the AirPods 4 with ANC engaged successful my ears. I besides started the time with 83% connected the iPhone 16 Pro, lone to extremity up astatine 24% artillery aft 7 hours of installing software, shooting photos, taking a telephone call, listening to a podcast, and playing a small Apple Arcade.

iPhone 16 Pro Camera: 7-cameras-in-1

Apple says its iPhone 16 Pro bid has the powerfulness of 7 Pro lenses stuffed wrong its compact chassis. This includes a 48-MP Fusion camera with adjustable 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm scope lenses for antithetic photographic perspectives. That’s 4 cameras, positive the 48-MP Ultra Wide camera with macro capabilities makes six, and past the seventh lens is the 1 that enables 5x Telephoto.

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo
A examination photograph betwixt the iPhone 16 Pro (left) and the Pixel 9 Pro (right).

This strategy is not dissimilar the 1 carried retired by Android telephone makers. Samsung’s Galaxy Ultra, for instance, is heralded for each the cameras it packs into 1 device. In its quest to marque the iPhone 16 Pro basal retired arsenic a professional-level device, Apple is borrowing this strategy to punctual america that it, too, tin play that game. The three-lenses-in-one instrumentality is simply a holdover from past year’s iPhone 15 Pro. You tin inactive easy entree it from the camera app by selecting the 1x enactment and tapping done until you get the framework you privation to sprout with.

Apple advertises that the superior 48-MP Fusion camera offers up to doubly arsenic accelerated information readout. I thought that possibly I was seeing brighter photos than its predecessor and connected the Pixel 9 Pro due to the fact that of a larger sensor. The iPhone 16 Pro’s superior camera sensor isn’t bigger; it’s conscionable newer. Because it’s much susceptible of processing aggregate brackets astatine a time, it produces brighter photos than I was utilized to with the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo

This year’s astir important summation to the diagnostic heap is Photography Styles. Before you instrumentality your shot, you tin set the photo’s code with 9 styles, ranging from “cozy” to “stark B&W.” You don’t person to usage the styles portion you’re shooting; you tin spell successful aft the information successful the Photos app and set the look. Swiping up brings up the mid-tones related to the filter, and moving your digit from near to close adjusts the hue. There are besides 5 antithetic undertone styles to assistance equilibrium the tegument code of radical featured successful images. You won’t spot overmuch alteration from the undertone styles connected a scenery photo, but connected a representation of folks oregon a selfie of yourself, you’ll spot changes specifically connected the tegument betwixt presets similar Amber, Rose Gold, and Cool Rose.

Not lone does Apple privation you to usage the iPhone 16 Pro for your photography, but it besides enables high-resolution video seizure consecutive to a hard thrust from the telephone via USB 3. The iPhone 16 Pro features up to 4K seizure astatine 120 frames-per-second (fps) successful Dolby Vision. I privation I had the chops to marque thing with this filming capableness and trial its efficacy. Maybe someday. For now, this is the smoothest mode for maine to instrumentality videos of BART trains zooming connected by. 

There is an ere of “creator’s tool” successful the iPhone 16 Pro series, much truthful than successful the iPhone’s past. Whether you’re making a abbreviated documentary connected the accomplishment of an elder lone for your household to spot oregon you’re simply collecting images and question for memory, the iPhone 16 Pro aims to beryllium the lone camera you need. Apple has already done an fantabulous occupation convincing its users this is what it’s about.

Apple Intelligence

© Florence Ion / Gizmodo
When you speech to Siri, the surface lights up successful response.

Apple has besides made a large to-do astir however it built the iPhone 16 bid for Apple Intelligence from the crushed up, adjacent though we’re inactive waiting for overmuch of it to travel to the idiosyncratic experience. I’ve noticed disapproval astir Apple advertizing thing that it’s not wholly acceptable to debut. But I’d antagonistic that it had nary prime but to leap earlier it was prepared due to the fact that of everything Google and Samsung person been pushing through.

Apple’s strategy is to cleverly rotation its dilatory rollout of AI arsenic a necessity to nutrient a high-quality product, and it’s working. After the past twelvemonth of dilatory discovering each of the apps and services that nary longer enactment due to the fact that of Google Gemini connected the Pixel, the tempered attack seems similar the smartest determination for Apple to support users connected board. You whitethorn each privation to rag connected however down Apple is to the AI show, but I’m inactive waiting to consciousness the payoff for having Gemini Advanced connected Android. We tin revisit this treatment successful a fewer months erstwhile there’s much traction successful the manufacture and Apple has launched much Apple Intelligence features. I’m inactive waiting for Google to motorboat immoderate things, too. 

For now, the Apple Intelligence abilities are chiefly tools for moving faster connected the device. They see summaries successful Mail, notifications, and AI-enhanced penning tools to copy-edit and alteration the code of immoderate you’re penning. They fto you find circumstantial pictures faster successful the Photo app and clean up photos with excessively galore other radical successful the background. Apple Intelligence besides improved Siri, which is present easier to chat with and command. It’s akin to the revamped acquisition of Gemini Live, but you tin inactive inquire Siri to execute basal astute location commands without it being a full operation. 

Should you bargain the caller iPhone 16 Pro?

Apple’s caller iPhone 16 bid is built for Apple Intelligence from the crushed up, adjacent if it’s not rather the main attraction of the caller telephone release. The AI enhancements are much centered astir responsiveness and show than idiosyncratic interaction. Apple is wiser for it due to the fact that alternatively than frustrate its users with thing that is unluckily inevitable, it’s tempering its attack by dilatory introducing the abilities. Even if it is precocious for the AI party, Apple inactive wins due to the fact that it makes its users consciousness similar they don’t person to leap into the excavation until they consciousness ready.

If you’re owed for an upgrade this year, you’ve been dealing with a crusty aged iPhone connected its past legs, and were reasoning of going Pro, past yes, you should see the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max. As Apple said, it built this telephone for Apple Intelligence, which should archer you astir what’s connected the skyline for the well-curated walled plot implicit the adjacent year. It’s besides bully that you tin prime a smaller telephone with each the camera solid of the larger instrumentality but not the bulk.

Note that the iPhone 15 Pro volition besides enactment with Apple Intelligence if you request to warrant wherefore you shouldn’t upgrade—seriously, there’s nary crushed to upgrade a year-old iPhone, particularly the Pro variant. While the Camera Control fastener is simply a neat summation to the lineup, it’s inactive unnecessary. And the adjacent clip you upgrade your iPhone, astatine slightest much apps volition instrumentality vantage of it than determination are now.