Apple iPhone 16 Plus vs. iPhone 15 Plus

The iPhone Plus is the least favourite iPhone on the market for being too near the Professional price-wise, however with much less options and the notoriously crippled OLED at 60Hz refresh charge. Nonetheless, its skinny and light-weight design and wonderful battery life has made sense to some patrons and they might most likely need to know the way the brand new Apple iPhone 16 Plus compares to the earlier iPhone 15 Plus.

Desk of Contents:

For starters, you may evaluate the entire specs sheets or instantly proceed with our editor’s evaluation within the following textual content.

To sum issues up, the iPhone 16 Plus arrives with a brand new chip with the promise of AI capabilities down the road, an improved display screen glass, expanded digital camera capabilities, and quicker wi-fi charging. There’s additionally the added Motion key and the brand new Digital camera management. However all this suits on a specs web page – let’s examine how totally different the 2 units actually are in real-world use.

Measurement comparability

The iPhone 16 Plus has an similar footprint to the iPhone 15 Plus, which has hardly shocking. Each telephones measure 160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm. The iPhone 16 Plus is 2g lighter than the iPhone 15 Plus at 199g.

One distinction is that the brand new iPhone 16 Plus ought to have improved sturdiness in response to Apple. It incorporates a new era of Ceramic Defend entrance, which is meant to be 50% harder than the earlier one on the iPhone 15 Plus.

There are additionally two new buttons on the iPhone 16 Plus that are lacking on the iPhone 15 – the Motion key was an unique to iPhone Professional’s and there may be additionally the brand new Digital camera Management right here.

Show comparability

The iPhone 16 Plus has the identical show as on the iPhone 15 Plus – a 6.7-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED with wonderful HDR capabilities and excessive decision, however a regular refresh charge of 60Hz. Each panels are marketed as able to 1,000 nits of typical and as much as 2,000 nits of most brightness.

Nicely, as per our show measurements, the iPhone 16 Plus display screen is brighter than the iPhone 15 Plus – it provides 180nits extra in Auto Brightness (1823 vs 1642), and 70nits extra in guide mode (891 vs 820). Not that large of a distinction, however nonetheless.

Battery life

The iPhone 16 Plus boasts a much bigger battery than its predecessor – 4,674 mAh from 4.383 mAh. It is a fairly modest enhance of round 7%, however we’ll take it.

The extra important change, nonetheless, comes from the improved effectivity of the brand new Apple A18 chipset and doubtless some under-the-hood enhancements in iOS 18.

Consequently, the brand new iPhone 16 Plus achieved a record-breaking Energetic Use Rating of 18:49h. It is a chart-topping battery endurance and it reveals the brand new Plus mannequin provides 10 extra hours on voice calls, 2.5h extra net time, and 1 extra hour of video streaming when in comparison with the iPhone 15 Plus. It is most likely secure to say that it is the iPhone with the most effective battery life so far.

Charging pace

The iPhone 16 Plus helps quick wired charging, although Apple by no means reveals the utmost energy score. The corporate quotes a 50% cost in 30 min when utilizing a 20W USB-PD charger.

There’s additionally assist for quick wi-fi charging for as much as 25W by way of the brand new MagSafe charger when plugged right into a 30W+ energy adapter. When you’ve got a suitable Qi2 charger, then the iPhone 16 Plus will max out at 15W. In the meantime, the iPhone 15 Plus MagSafe wi-fi charging maxes out at 15W.

We carried out our charging assessments with a 45W PD charger to provide the iPhones the most effective likelihood. Each telephones took about the identical time to cost. An hour on that charger refilled 85% of the iPhones batteries’ and the final 15% took over half-hour.

Speaker take a look at

The iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 15 Plus characteristic similar stereo audio system. They’re of the hybrid selection the place the earpiece is among the audio system. The opposite speaker is on the backside of the telephones, subsequent to the USB-C port.

The iPhone 16 Plus scored a Very Good mark on our loudness take a look at, whereas the iPhone 15 – a Good mark. The distinction will be heard by way of our audio playback software, although you’ll have laborious time doing so in actual life.

Efficiency

This 12 months’s large improve for the iPhone 16 Plus is the Apple A18 chipset, which is 2 generations forward of what the iPhone 15 Plus had – the A16. It is a second-gen 3nm chip that’s each extra highly effective and extra environment friendly.

The Apple A18 has a quicker six-core processor, higher 5-core GPU with assist for improved {hardware} raytracing. It additionally comes with extra RAM, now 8GB.

The A18 CPU is marketed to be 30% quicker than the iPhone 15 Plus CPU and 60% quicker than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU ought to be 40% quicker than the iPhone 15 Plus and twice as quick because the iPhone 12.

Benchmark efficiency

In our assessments the brand new Apple A18 CPU contained in the iPhone 16 Plus does rating about 20% greater than the A16 contained in the iPhone 15 Plus. There’s additionally between 30% and 60% leap in GPU efficiency relying on the 3D take a look at.

The A18 chip has a brand new NPU, which scores about twice as excessive the NPU contained in the iPhone 15 Plus.

The brand new iPhone chip permits all these high-end video games that have been incompatible with the iPhone 15 Plus to run fairly properly on the iPhone 16 Plus and that’s most likely essentially the most notable improve, in case you are a gamer that’s.

Due to the brand new chipset, you’d additionally get entry to the Apple Intelligence characteristic as soon as they’re launched – so long as you reside in a supported area (outdoors the European Union and China).

Digital camera comparability

The iPhone 16 Plus virtually borrows its essential digital camera setup from the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s fairly potent – a 48MP sensor with 1/1.56″ measurement, 1.0µm particular person pixels and sensor-shift OIS. There’s a vivid f/1.6 lens in entrance of it. The identical goes for the selfie digital camera – the 12MP shooter has already confirmed its salt and is supplied with section detection autofocus as properly.

The one improve is the brand new ultrawide digital camera. It’s nonetheless a 12MP unit. Nevertheless, this 12 months, there’s a brighter lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Plus, most likely better of all, it now has autofocus, which permits it to double as a macro digital camera for close-ups.

After all, there may be additionally the brand new Digital camera Management. It’s an precise bodily button with actual journey when pressed. It additionally integrates a capacitive sensor that permits for contact and swipe interactions in addition to a high-precision pressure sensor that detects gentle presses.

Picture high quality

There’s hardly any enchancment within the daylight photograph high quality, regardless what Apple might attempt to persuade you. The iPhone 16 Plus captures the identical images because the iPhone 15 Plus. They’re detailed, with pure colours, low noise, and nice dynamic vary. The foliage rendition shouldn’t be our favourite – particularly when you shoot within the default 12MP.

The samples beneath have been taken on the similar areas however at totally different instances.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

The iPhone 16 Plus can now additionally take macro images with its new ultrawide digital camera.

iPhone 16 Plus – macro with UW digital camera

The images from the primary cameras we took in low-light circumstances, each in 1x and 2x modes, are largely similar. The digital camera app didn’t go for Night time Mode on the iPhone 15 Plus, however nonetheless, the standard stays comparable.

The brighter aperture on the ultrawide digital camera does have an impact at evening and the ultrawide images from the iPhone 16 Plus are brighter, with extra element and fewer noise.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

iPhone 15: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

Video high quality

New video choices have been added to the iPhone 16 Plus – studio-grade microphones for higher audio high quality, plus capabilities for spatial video and audio recording.

Aside from that, the video high quality stays the identical throughout all cameras.

The daylight movies from all three cameras are wonderful throughout the board, together with stabilization.

Under we’ve got a couple of framegrabs from the movies taken by the 2 telephones at every focal size so it is simpler to check them.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

The low-light movies from the ultrawide digital camera are actually higher – they’re higher uncovered, with extra element and fewer noise.

iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x

Verdict

The iPhone 16 Plus is a superb premium smartphone with flagship-grade options and it delivers in all areas that matter – design, display screen, battery life, audio system, efficiency, and digital camera.

The iPhone 16 Plus is the quicker telephone of the 2 with a greater ultrawide digital camera and quicker wi-fi charging. The battery life has gotten higher, too, and the sturdiness has been improved if we consider Apple. You now additionally get the Motion key and the Digital camera management.

Regardless that it supplies roughly the identical person expertise, the iPhone 16 Plus is objectively the higher telephone in comparison with the iPhone 15 Plus.

Nevertheless, the iPhone 15 Plus is about €250 cheaper than the 16 Plus nnow and it carries a lot of the identical qualities. Selecting between the 2 would rely in your price range and whether or not you worth the additional options that the iPhone 16 Plus can present.