Apple’s iPhone 16 Is Cuter and More Practical Than the iPhone 16 Pro

The one overwhelming piece of feedback I’ve seen about the new iPhone 16 is that it looks pretty. The new teal, ultramarine, and pink colors are more vivid than previous ones, thanks to a new manufacturing process, which Apple says infuses color throughout the glass back of the phone. The iPhone 16 Pro colors are boring, and I agree.
There are no sweeping changes to the iPhone 16 over its predecessor. Yes, there’s a new Camera Control button, and the Action Button has trickled down from the Pro, but nearly every other part of the device is an iterative upgrade. I’ve also now been living with Apple Intelligence for a few weeks—at least, a beta version of it with some missing features—and it’s safe to say that while there are a few features that will be very helpful day-to-day for some folks, it is not a reason to upgrade, especially if your iPhone is functioning fine.
All that said, this iPhone has a beefier battery and a more powerful processor, and it is easier to repair. Its cameras are more than capable. Combined with the fact that Face ID is still unrivaled, the Dynamic Island has grown on me, and I’m still waiting for MagSafe-like charging to make its way to Android phones. It doesn’t feel like the iPhone 16 needs much more.
Apple spends a lot of time on prosumer features in its iPhone Pro models, but very few people will use them. ProRes? Log video recording? Academy Color Encoding System? If none of those words matter to you, then there are only a few reasons to get the iPhone 16 Pro this year.
The main things have to do with the display. The iPhone 16 Pro models have bigger screens now, one-upping the 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch OLED screens on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. This change is more effective on the iPhone 16 Pro, but it makes the iPhone 16 Pro Max too unwieldy. The screen sizes on the non-Pro iPhones never leave me wanting. On the non-Pro iPhone, you don’t have the always-on display, but I don’t mind that it’s not here.
Apple’s more serious omission is the lack of ProMotion on the cheaper iPhones. This means you are stuck on a 60-Hz screen when almost every other smartphone at this price has a 120-Hz refresh rate. Maybe I’m nitpicking, but the first thing I said after switching from the iPhone 16 Pro to the iPhone 16 was, “Why is it laggy?” It’s not that the phone performs poorly. The display refreshes 60 times per second, and when you move from screens that refresh 120 times, you’re effectively seeing slower animations throughout. This tech will likely get ported down in 2025, but it’s past due at this price.
The entire iPhone 16 lineup has Apple’s new Ceramic Shield glass, which is supposedly twice as strong as the previous generation, but remember: Glass is still glass. I dropped the iPhone 16 Plus onto the pavement (a 4-foot drop), and the display cracked; business as usual. Get a case and screen protector! Build-wise, the Pro phones have a titanium frame versus aluminum on the standard iPhones, but durability-wise, they’re all glass sandwiches. Titanium does make the Pro phones lighter, but the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus still weigh less.
Camera Control is the new button on the iPhone 16 range, and I’m getting used to it. I prefer to use it as a dedicated camera launch button, freeing up the Action Button (also new on a non-Pro iPhone) to trigger something else, like Silent mode. But you can put some light pressure on the Camera Control button to cycle through camera modes or scroll through different Photographic Styles—the revamped color-grading filters that let you add a look to your images pre-capture. I use the sliding function here and there but prefer to select the mode I want to shoot in by tapping the screen.
In recent years, Apple started giving the iPhone Pro models a significant chip upgrade to increase the performance gap between the phones, but this year they’re all on the same starting point: the A18 chipset. The iPhone 16 Pro devices have the A18 Pro, which features larger CPU cache sizes and an extra graphics core for slightly better overall performance. That said, in my benchmark tests, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are just behind the Pros and still more powerful than any other phone on the market.
I played AAA games like Resident Evil and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, though I did run into a few more stutters than on the Pro models (and just as many crashes, though this could have been because I was running a developer beta of iOS 18.1). I want to note that these games are currently the cream of the crop in graphical fidelity, so I’m purposefully stress-testing. Most of the titles you’ll play will run perfectly. The Pro models this year have improved thermal performance, but Apple made some tweaks to improve the heat dissipation on the standard iPhones too, and I have not noticed the phones getting significantly hot.
More importantly, every iPhone 16 model will be capable of running Apple Intelligence, the suite of artificial intelligence features coming in an update in October. I go over exactly what’s included in Apple Intelligence in my iOS 18 guide, and have broadly evaluated the current experience in my iPhone 16 Pro review. There are some helpful day-to-day features, like real-time transcriptions in Voice Notes or call recordings, but we’ll have to wait until Apple brings the full kit.
Battery life is a high note. I eked out better battery life on the iPhone 16 Plus than on the Pro Max, hitting more than seven hours of screen-on time with 36 percent left in the tank at 1 am. The iPhone 16 is no slouch, giving me six hours of screen-on time with around 20 percent remaining. And that’s with a mix of doomscrolling on Instagram, picture-snapping, navigation, and music streaming. These devices will get you through a full day and then some. Speaking of the battery, it’s easier to replace on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus (not the Pro models), and iFixit gave it a 7/10 in overall repairability, which is a huge improvement over prior years.
It’s a shame Apple did not bring an updated spec for the charging port. When Apple switched to USB-C last year, it kept the same data transfer speeds for the iPhone 15—480 megabits per second. The Pro, on the other hand, has USB3 speeds of up to 20 gigabits per second. It’s a massive difference (and an unnecessary one), but this only matters if you find yourself moving files from your iPhone to another device with a cord.
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus hold their own in the camera department. I found no significant differences even in low light when shooting with the main camera and the ultrawide. The Pro phones edge them out here and there, but the gap is small. Autofocus is new in the 12-MP ultrawide, so you can take macro photos. I can’t stop taking close-up shots of my pup’s nose. Boop!
I do miss the telephoto camera, and that is the number one reason to buy a Pro iPhone. You get a 2X zoom on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, and the quality is OK, but it’s not as satisfying as the 5X optical zoom on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Their cameras can capture much sharper photos of subjects further away.
I was surprised that Apple brought Audio Mix down to its cheaper iPhones. This feature lets you change the audio quality of your videos—Studio mode, for example, cuts out all background noise and makes you sound like you’re in a studio; Cinematic mode, on the other hand, focuses on the people in the center of the frame and sprinkles in some background chatter as ambient noise. It’s effective, and technically this works a bit better on the iPhone 16 Pro because it has better microphones, but again, the gap isn’t wide.
That’s pretty much the theme for the iPhone 16 range. The gap isn’t that wide between this version and the Pros, which means you can get a great, well-rounded iPhone for $799. Get the Plus if you like bigger screens and want longer battery life. But as always, ask yourself if you really need to upgrade first.