iPhone 16 brings AI, always-on display and improved camera

Apple's iPhone 16 is a much bigger upgrade than it first seemed at the September iPhone launch event . While the iPhone 16 Pro brings even greater features, this 'entry-level' option has a feature set that really impresses.

The chip inside the iPhone has jumped from the A16 to the new A18 in the 16, bringing it more in align with the 16 Pro's A18 Pro chip. This chip allows the 16 to process all those Apple Intelligence features, such as the system-wide writing tools, summaries and image generation.

It also allows the super retina display for the first time to be always on – though not with the ProMotion adaptive refresh rates. As before it comes with a 6.1-inch display, or with a 6.7-inch display in the iPhone 16 Plus.

There are some big changes with the camera system on the iPhone 16, which will please photographers. Notably the rear camera array now has both lenses in line. This is in fact to allow the 16 to shoot Spatial images – 3D pictures and video that can be viewed on the Vision Pro.

The rear main camera is now referred to as a Fusion camera, as it combines two images(a fine detail 48MP and a light capture 12MP image) to generate that 48-million pixel image. This is once again paired with a 12MP ultra-wide camera, rather than the 48MP ultra wide on the Pro models.

The ultra-wide camera also now provides macro photography options for close up shots, while the main camera can crop in to provide a 2x zoom equivalent. That means that you essentially have four main camera options here: a 0.5x, 1x, 2x and Macro camera.

There's a new camera control button on the side of the iPhone 16 too, which allows two levels of press. A hard press takes a picture, while a soft, or half press, brings up a menu to allow access to functions like aperture and zoom.

The other piece of big news here is that the battery life has been improved on the iPhone 16. According to the specs, it will do up to 22 hours of video playback or 18 hours of streaming playback – that's two hours longer than the iPhone 15.

For charging the iPhone 16 also now supports up to 25W MagSafe wireless charging, using one of the new 30W chargers. This allows the phone to charge up to 50% in around 30 minutes.

The iPhone 16 starts from £799 / $799 / AUD$1,399 for the 128GB version and up to £1,099 /$1,099 AUD$1,949 for the 512GB version. It comes in five new colours including ultramarine, teal, a brighter pink, white and black. It is available to pre-order from this Friday (13th Sept) and ships from 20th September.