After months of rumors, the iPhone 16 has finally arrived. And though Apple may once again have showered its iPhone 16 Pro models with more upgrades, the entry-level flagship still can boast enough enhancements to attract would-be buyers — especially anyone intrigued by the prospect of Apple Intelligence features coming later this year.
The iPhone 16 features design changes in the form of new buttons on the side plus a redesigned camera layout. There's a new chipset, too — and it isn't one that's already been used in last year's Pro models. Apple also promises bigger batteries and an improved ultrawide camera. And these changes are coming with no change in price for either the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus. (In fact, all four iPhone 16 models will cost the same as their iPhone 15 predecessors.)
You can read our full thoughts on the new phone in our iPhone 16 review. We've also got a closer look at what's new with the iPhone 16, when you'll be able to get your hands on the new phones and what you'll have to pay.
iPhone 16: Price and availability
The iPhone 16 starts at $799/£799/AU$1,399 for a 128GB model. The iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899/£899/AU$1,599. U.S. shoppers will recognize those as the same prices for the comparable iPhone 15 models.
You can upgrade to 256GB on either phone for an extra $100 while 512GB of storages costs $300 on top of the base model price.
The iPhone 16 preorders went live starting on September 13, but the lineup was initially revealed at Apple's 'Glowtime' event on September 9. Apple's promising a trade-in credit of up to $650 depending on your phone. The phones hit stores the following Friday, September 20. If you intend on picking any of them up, we've curated all the best iPhone 16 deals for greater savings.
iPhone 16 cheat sheet: Biggest upgrades
- Pre-order date: September 13, 2024
- Release date: September 20, 2024
- Price: $799 for iPhone 16, $899 for iPhone 16 Plus
- Design: 6.1- and 6.7-inch screens for standard iPhone and Plus model, respectively; Action and Camera Control buttons on both phones
- Cameras: Spatial video support; updated 12MP ultrawide camera with autofocus and macro mode
- AI features: Supports Apple Intelligence
- Specs: A18 chipset, with 128GB of storage in base model
- Battery: Larger battery of unspecificed size
- Software: iOS 18
iPhone 16: Specs
iPhone 16: What's new
The iPhone 16 doesn't change things up too much from the iPhone design that came before it, but there are some significant design tweaks. For starters, the rear cameras are now stacked vertically, reverting to a design Apple last used with the iPhone 12. The new arrangement lets the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus capture spatial video, which requires both cameras to record video simultaneously for the necessary depth effect.
A bigger change involves the mute switch on the left side of the phone. As with the iPhone 15 Pro last year, that switch has given way to an Action button that you can use as a shortcut for anything from launching apps to turning on your phone's flashlight.
On the opposite side of the phone, you'll find the new Camera Control — a dedicated button that launches the Camera app with one press and then snaps a photo with the second press. A press and hold captures video and because the button include a capacitive sensor you can scroll on it to do things like change the zoom or adjust the background blur in a portrait shot.
The last two iPhone updates have used a split processsor approach where the standard model relied on the system-on-chip used by the previous year's Pro phone. All iPhone 16 models are using an A18 chip, though the Pro models have an A18 Pro chip with an additional graphics.
Still even, with only five graphics cores in its GPU, the A18 powering the iPhone 16 is powerful enough to run AAA titles that used to be limited to Apple's Pro phones. Additionally, Apple is promising performance improvements from both the CPU and GPU over the A16 Bionic in the iPhone 15. The neural engine is more powerful, too, which will be helpful for running Apple Intelligence features on the device.
Apple made very few camera changes, though the ultrawide lens now uses a different sensor that adds autofocus capabilities as well as a macro mode. That camera should perform better in low light.
Apple never releases battery size numbers — we have to wait for teardowns to glean that info — so we'll just have to take the company's word for it that the batteries are bigger than before. Apparently this has been partly accomplished by "redesigning" the iPhone 16's interior, which is also supposed to make the battery much easier to replace should the need arise.
The larger battery pack, coupled with the rumored power efficiency of the A18 silicon should help the iPhone 16 improve on the iPhone 15's battery life. In its specs table for the iPhone 16 battery life, Apple claims longer video playback and video streaming times for both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus over their predecessors. Since the iPhone 15 Plus still holds a spot on our best phone battery life list, that's a bold claim.
iPhone 16: How it compares
The iPhone 16 figures to face its stiffest competition from the Galaxy S24 and the Pixel 9, with both those phones matching its $799 starting price. Even without major camera improvements, the iPhone figures to fare well in any head-to-head photo comparisons given Apple's reputation for building strong camera phones.
Likewise, the promised performance improvements from the A18 chipset should allow the iPhone 16 to gain some ground on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Galaxy S24, particularly when it comes to graphics.
It's less clear how the iPhone 16 will measure up on AI features. Even when Apple Intelligence arrives — Apple says there's a beta coming to the public next month — it's still not going to be as polished as the Galaxy AI features on the S24 or the Pixel's very advanced AI capabilities. The 2,000-nit brightness of the iPhone 16's display is unchanged from last year's model, and the super-bright Pixel 9 quite clear outshone Apple's phone in our testing.
iPhone 16: Outlook
We've only just gotten our hands on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, so serious analysis will have to wait until we do more testing. The Camera Control feature intrigues us, though, and we're looking forward to seeing if that simplifies or speeds up our photo capture sessions.
A lot of our assessment of the iPhone 16 will ultimately hinge on how Apple Intelligence features perform. It's clear that Apple is making this a central part of this year's phones, so there's a lot riding on the writing tools, image generating capabilities and Siri revamp.
The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max offer the more substantial changes from previous models and will probably garner more attention from anyone who can spend $1,000 on a new phone. But by keeping the iPhone 16 starting price at $799, Apple figures to attract a lot of more budget-minded shoppers who may be impressed with some of the changes in this year's phone.
