AI was a major part of tonight’s Apple event – and the new iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are designed for the computational demands of Apple Intelligence (that’s what Cupertino calls its AI) with a new 3nm chipset. The Action and the Camera Control will change how you interact with your iPhone too, these are design elements shared with the Pro.
Let’s start with the display. The panels
are the same size as before, 6.1” for the iPhone 16 and 6.7” for the iPhone 16
Plus, which makes them 0.2” smaller than the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max,
respectively. They still run at 60Hz (no ProMotion here) and can go from as
high as 2,000 nits in the sun to as low as 1 nit in the dark (this part hasn’t
changed either). The latest Ceramic Shield protection is 50% tougher than the
original formulation and (Apple says) is twice as tough as the strengthened
glass used by other phones.
The big upgrade this year is the Apple A18
chipset, which is two generations ahead of what the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus had
(i.e. A16). This is a second-gen 3nm chip that is both more powerful and more
efficient. Long story short, the A18 CPU is 30% faster than the iPhone 15 CPU
and 60% faster than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU is 40% faster than the iPhone 15
and twice as fast as the iPhone 12. Focusing on comparing just the iPhone 16
and 15, the 2024 phone can offer the same CPU performance while using 30% less
power and the same GPU performance while using 35% less power. Apple also
improved the system memory bandwidth by 17%.
Apple improved the thermals of the iPhone
16 and 16 Plus and says that they achieve 30% higher sustained performance.
This included reworking the motherboard and including a thermal substrate made
from 100% recycled aluminum. Remember Resident Evil 7 Biohazard? That is a
triple-A game that only ran on iPhone 15 Pro, iPads and Macs, but not the
vanilla iPhone 15. Well, the Apple A18 GPU is fast enough for Biohazard and you
can include Assassin’s Creed: Mirage on that list too. Honor of Kings: World will
be available next year with an ultra graphics mode optimized for iPhone 16. The
GPU also has hardware accelerated ray tracing, for games like War Thunder
Mobile. Controllers are supported too.
The NPU is even more impressive – the
16-core design is twice as fast at machine learning tasks and is what will
enable Apple Intelligence to run on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus whereas it can’t
run on the 15 and 15 Plus. Here we want to mention the so-called Visual
Intelligence – it’s instantly accessible with a tap and hold on the Camera
Control. Just point it at something and tap the Control again. It can recognize
buildings, objects and even pets and bring up relevant information. It’s smart
too, if you point it at a poster for an upcoming event, the date and other details
will be automatically added to your calendar. And that’s just one of the things
that the Camera Control can do. It’s a capacitive touchpad protected by
sapphire glass and made to feel like a real button with Apple’s excellent
haptic feedback.
You can tap it to launch the camera and
tap again to snap a photo. If you tap and hold instead, it will record a video.
There’s more – a light press hides almost all UI elements so you can focus on
the framing. All that’s left is the zoom control, which you can dial in by
sliding your finger. Alternatively, you can use the touch control to switch to
other settings and change the depth of field, exposure and so on. Don’t worry,
European Commission, this isn’t an Apple-only feature – apps like Snapchat are
already building new experiences with the Camera Control.
Let’s talk about the cameras themselves.
The 48MP main camera hasn’t changed much, it has an f/1.6 26mm lens and a
sensor with 1.0µm pixels, plus sensor-shift OIS. What has changed is the
imaging pipeline behind it. Apple has introduced an intermediate mode that
captures 24MP photos – they offer more detail than 12MP shots combined with
smaller file sizes than 48MP images. Also, it can record 4K video with Dolby
Vision at 60fps. The new AI features also include wind noise reduction for
videos. There’s no dedicated telephoto lens yet, but instead the main camera
and processing pipeline offer 2x zoom with optical quality at 12MP or you could
choose a high-resolution 48MP option.
There is a new ultra wide camera – or
should we say new for the vanilla phones. It’s the same 12MP module with a 13mm
lens as last year’s Pros have. It has autofocus, which enables a macro mode.
Also, the brighter f/2.2 lens allows it to capture 2.6x more light than before
for better nighttime images. If you bought the pricey Apple Vision Pro, you can
still capture Spatial Videos (and now Spatial Photos too), even if you picked
an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus instead of one of the Pros. iOS 18 brings a revamped
Photos app that can automatically organize your photos by grouping them based
on who is in the shot or based on a trip you took. This is fully customizable,
of course. Apple Intelligence will also include Cleanup, which can remove
people that walked into your shot (including their reflections and shadows).
Next, let’s talk about the Action Button.
No, let’s start with saying goodbye to the Alert Slider. Goodbye. The Action
button is a shortcut – it can start a voice memo recording, identify a song,
launch a voice translator, turn on the flashlight, you name it. This button is
available for in-app actions too. For example, it can lock and unlock your car,
if your vehicle supports it (Apple demoed the FordPass app). With iOS 18, the
satellite connectivity feature is not just for emergencies – you will be able
to chat with friends and family and even send tapbacks. This feature will
launch in the US and Canada first (as did the original satellite SOS feature).
The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus frames are made
from aerospace-grade aluminum (85% recycled material in the enclosure). For a
more vibrant hue, the back glass has the color infused into it. You can pick
between Ultramarine, Teal and Pink, along with the stalwart White and Black.
The two new models will be available from September 20, pre-orders will start
on the 13th (this Friday). Both phones have 128GB base storage and you are
looking at the same prices as last year – the iPhone 16 starts at US$ 800 and the
iPhone 16 Plus at US$ 900.
58 countries and regions, including
Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico,
South Korea, Türkiye, the UAE, the U.K., and the U.S. are in the first wave to
get the new iPhone 16 and 16 Plus on September 20. The second wave of countries
include Macao, Vietnam, and 19 other countries and regions and they will get
the new iPhones starting from Friday, September 27.
