iPhone 16 Pro: Everything you need to know

Apple has officially unveiled the iPhone 16 series, including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

This year, the Pro and Pro Max are bigger, faster and smarter than ever. We’ve rounded up everything you need to know about the two high-end iPhone 16 Pro models, including key facts regarding their price, design, cameras, performance and battery life.

Scroll down to learn more about the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, or check out our versus guides to see how they compare to other iPhones in the series as well as the biggest Android competition. These include the iPhone 16 vs iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 16 Pro Max and the iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

iPhone 16 Pro at a glance

• 6.3 and 6.9-inch sizes available
• A18 Pro chip
• Apple Intelligence support
• Camera Control and Action Button
• 48MP ultra-wide camera
• Improved mics
• Larger battery with faster wireless charging

Release date and pricing

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max were announced on September 9 2024 and will be available to buy from September 20. Pre-orders begin September 13.

Prices for the iPhone 16 Pro start at $999/£999 for 128GB of storage, while the 16 Pro Max starts at $1199/£1199 for 256GB.

Design and screen

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have more spacious screens this year, with the 6.1 and 6.7-inch displays increasing to 6.3 and 6.9 inches, respectively. Despite the larger displays, the size of the phones has only increased by a few millimetres thanks to most of the space being created by the slimmer bezels that surround each screen.

The resolutions of the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have also increased to 2622 x 1206 and 2868 x 1320, while the latest-generation Ceramic Shield claims to be 2x tougher than any other smartphone glass.

The 16 Pro models are once again crafted from titanium but with a new, refined micro-blasted finish and with a new Desert Titanium colour replacing last year’s Blue Titanium shade.

Apple says the internal design has also been improved to better dissipate heat for up to 20% better sustained performance than the iPhone 15 Pro.

Cameras

The iPhone 16 Pro also sees several improvements in the camera.

First up is the new Camera Control button, making it easier to access the camera, snap a photo and even control the zoom, exposure and depth of field by sliding your finger and selecting different settings.

The secondary ultra-wide camera has seen a resolution increase from 12-megapixels to 48-megapixels, meaning sharper, more detailed wide angle shots. Meanwhile, the telephoto camera can capture sharper close-ups from further away with the 120mm 5x zoom setting.

Video has also been given a boost with 4K video now supporting a 120fps frame rate with Dolby Vision. You can also adjust the playback speed after capturing the video to make the video appear more cinematic.

It’s also worth noting that the audio performance has been improved, too. The new mics have a lower noise floor to deliver more accurate sound, while wind noise reduction ensures the audio is clear. The mics also offer Spatial Audio capture, making your audio and video recordings more immersive.

Performance and software

Performance-wise, the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are equipped with the new A18 Pro – Apple’s most powerful smartphone chip yet.

The A18 Pro includes a 15% faster 6-core CPU, a 20% faster 6-core GPU, a faster 16-core Neural Engine and a 20% higher memory bandwidth compared to the A17 Pro found in the iPhone 15 Pro.

Not only does this new chip improve gaming with up to 2x faster hardware-accelerated ray tracing than its predecessor, but it also powers the extensive suite of Apple Intelligence features arriving with iOS 18.

This includes system-wide Writing Tools, Notes and phone call transcripts and summaries, Image Playground and Genmoji image generators, Clean Up photo editing and ChatGPT-backed Siri.

Battery

The A18 Pro and optimised internal design also make space for a larger, more power-efficient battery. This means you can expect to get four more hours of battery from the phones for a total of up to 27 hours on the iPhone 16 Pro or 33 hours on the 16 Pro Max.

MagSafe has also seen an upgrade, with the iPhone 16 Pro now supporting up to 25W wireless charging with a 30W power adapter. This means you can expect to hit 50% in 30 minutes of wireless charging.