The iPhone 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max are Apple’s new flagship smartphones, no less than till September 2025. On the skin, hardly something has modified: The design and show stay equivalent to their predecessors, and there are additionally few to no modifications by way of colours and titanium as a cloth.
Beneath the hood, nevertheless, issues are totally different: The iPhone 16 Professional presents some notable new options, notably in the case of the processor. Sure, the iPhone has been outfitted with a brand new button as properly. Is it value upgrading to the iPhone 16 Professional and for whom? Discover out in our evaluation.
Good
- Excessive-quality workmanship with extra strong materials
- Improved digital camera, particularly at evening
- Noticeably longer battery life
- Digicam Management button is absolutely enjoyable
- Highly effective A18 Professional chipset
Unhealthy
- No main modifications in comparison with the iPhone 15 Professional
- No Glowtime with out Apple Intelligence
Apple iPhone 16 Professional: All offers
iPhone 16 Professional Design & Show: Strong Titanium, Elegant however Boring Colours
Should you have been to carry the iPhone 15 Professional and the iPhone 16 Professional underneath your nostril, you in all probability would not be capable of inform the distinction at first look. It is a bit like equivalent twins. they’re every totally different after spending numerous time, though it may be very troublesome to inform initially.
Talking of “interior, invisible values”, Apple redesigned the chassis to optimize warmth dissipation. The aluminum construction on the within, along with a particular graphite coating, ensures as much as 20 % higher thermal efficiency, which is especially useful for intensive duties similar to cellular gaming or extended use of the digital camera.
The gadget can also be IP68-certified, which not solely ensures mud resistance, but in addition in a position to final for half-hour underwater at a depth of as much as 6 meters with out affected by any harm.
In any other case, Apple stays true to the profitable design of the iPhone Professional sequence of current years. The design is angular with rounded corners, the body is fabricated from titanium, which isn’t solely very sturdy and scratch-resistant in comparison with different supplies, but in addition very gentle and appears rattling good. It is a disgrace that you simply virtually all the time carry your iPhone in a protecting case.
Talking of protecting circumstances: If you’re the proud proprietor of an iPhone 15 Professional protecting case and are already trying ahead to the truth that it’d match as I used to be simply speaking about just about equivalent units, I’m sorry to disappoint you. The scale measuring 149.6 mm x 71.5 mm x 8.25 mm have elevated barely and can sadly stop you from utilizing your previous case.
The brand new mannequin will not be solely a tad bigger, however at 199 grams, it’s also marginally heavier than earlier than. The bezels have shrunk, so the show space of the small Professional now measures 6.3-inch diagonally—whereas the iPhone 16 Professional Max has a full 6.9-inch.
The show actually is a feast for the eyes. It has 460 ppi, excessive coloration constancy, and nice distinction. The 120 Hz refresh charge ensures buttery clean scrolling. Because the brightness of the OLED show ranges from 1 nit to 2,000 nits, you’ll be able to learn properly each in shiny sunshine and underneath the comforter.
The again of the iPhone is fabricated from roughened glass and is coated with a cloth Apple calls “Ceramic Defend”. That is used each on the entrance of the show and on the again in an additional improved kind and makes the iPhone much more resistant than earlier than. Apple even claimed that is the “hardest glass of all smartphones” and is extraordinarily resistant to break from drops and scratches.
I do not actually wish to drop my iPhone on the ground or drag it throughout a sand-covered flooring. Nonetheless, even after a great 4 weeks of use, the iPhone 16 Professional nonetheless seems to be like new.
What I discovered to be a pity is how just a few brighter colours would additionally look good on the Professional line. You may at the moment select from Desert, Pure, White, and Black Titanium shades. Please—do not get me fallacious. The colours underline the minimalist but elegant look of the gadget, however you could possibly maybe be somewhat bolder. In any other case, it is the identical as calling chinos “cheeky trend”.
iPhone 16 Professional Efficiency
The guts of the iPhone 16 Professional is the brand new A18 Professional chip, which makes use of TSMC’s second-generation 3 nm course of. As ordinary, this chip delivers extra highly effective CPU and GPU performances and is as soon as once more on the forefront of efficiency this 12 months.
The six-core CPU consists of two efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores, and is touted to be as much as 15 % sooner than the A17 Professional. The effectivity cores are notably energy-efficient, so demanding duties might be carried out with out straining the battery an excessive amount of.
The brand new 16-core Neural Engine ensures that duties primarily based on machine studying and Apple Intelligence are executed even sooner. That is notably useful for speech processing and picture enhancing. In comparison with its predecessor, Apple has been in a position to enhance efficiency by as much as 15 %, which is especially noticeable in purposes similar to AI-supported picture enhancing.
For players, the six-core GPU with 2x sooner ray tracing supplies a good smoother gaming expertise. Due to the optimized thermal structure, the gadget stays pleasantly cool even throughout longer gaming classes. Total, the A18 Professional presents efficiency that may fulfill even probably the most demanding customers with out compromising battery life.
For the overwhelming majority of duties that a median person (like me) performs day-after-day, the iPhone 16 Professional is overpowered. That is very true as a result of Apple Intelligence will not be but obtainable.
Nonetheless, the producer has promised that Apple Intelligence will roll out to extra areas in 2025 in some unspecified time in the future. Within the worst-case state of affairs, we can’t get the replace till we’re already holding the iPhone 17 in our arms.
Expressed in sober figures, the efficiency of the iPhone 16 Professional in comparison with its predecessor and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 as represented by the Galaxy S24 Extremely (evaluation) listed here are as follows:
| iPhone 16 Professional (Apple A18 Professional) |
iPhone 15 Professional (Apple A17 Professional) |
Galaxy S24 Extremely (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 3DMark Wild Life Excessive Stress Take a look at |
|
|
|
| 3DMark Photo voltaic Bay stress check |
|
|
|
| Geekbench |
|
|
|
In most benchmarks, Apple manages to tug forward of the competitors with its newest flagship chip. In fact, MediaTek has simply adopted swimsuit on this division and introduced its high-end processor for 2025, which is predicated on the identical TSMC node as Apple’s A18 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit is going down subsequent week. Therefore, it stays an thrilling race within the chip enterprise.
For on a regular basis use specifically, nevertheless, this must be stated: Each the iPhone 16 Professional and its predecessor and direct opponents provide greater than sufficient efficiency for the overwhelming majority of duties and there’s hardly any efficiency distinction in actuality.
How Good Is the iPhone 16 Professional’s Digicam?
As with each successive iPhone era just lately, the iPhone 16 Professional is on par with the Professional Max in the case of the digital camera. This implies identical to the Professional Max, it now has 48 megapixels for the ultra-wide-angle lens, 48 megapixels for the principle digital camera, and 5x zoom with 12 megapixels. This makes the iPhone 16 Professional partly worse than the iPhone 15 Professional and partly higher, in fact.
Unsurprisingly, the iPhone 16 Professional delivers nice picture high quality that’s on par with the opposite present prime smartphones from Google, Samsung, and Xiaomi.
In shiny daylight, pictures are razor-sharp, with stunning, largely correct, and nonetheless practical colours even when the pattern in direction of “Instagram overcolor” has not fully handed Apple by. With photographic types, you’ve gotten the choice to additional customise outcomes to your style and, as an illustration, make the pictures seem somewhat hotter or colder by default.
What’s noticeable in comparison with the iPhone 15 Professional is how the digital camera has improved considerably. The distinction is especially noticeable when photographing transferring objects in lower than excellent lighting situations.
As an example, a frolicking little one in a room. With the iPhone 16 Professional, the prospect of capturing a pointy picture is just barely higher. However nonetheless, even in 2024, the mix of low gentle and motion stays a poisoned chalice for smartphone cameras.
Talking of low gentle situations: At nighttime, it’s the robotically activated evening mode that delivers nice pictures. Nonetheless, you actually have to carry the handset fully nonetheless right here: The publicity time is three seconds by default, and the outcomes, assuming you maintain your breath, are very spectacular. Even in poor lighting situations, Apple managed to seize respectable colours and good particulars within the pictures.
Now we come to the zoom and the typically poorer picture high quality than the iPhone 15 Professional. The distinction might be seen from the technical specs.
After Apple “extends” the telephoto digital camera within the iPhone 16 Professional from 3x to 5x, the iPhone 16 Professional nonetheless has to digitally zoom into the sensor of the principle digital camera earlier than switching to the 5x lens, and simply earlier than 5x, the place there’s lack of house. The iPhone 15 Professional, then again, can already swap to a devoted sensor at 3x.
Certainly, the distinction reveals at occasions. As you’ll be able to see within the following picture gallery, the iPhone 15 Professional has the sting in picture high quality between 3x and 5x. The distinction is most noticeable in low gentle situations. As an example, in the event you actually take many portraits on this focal size vary and picture high quality is necessary to you, then you definately may truly wish to think about the earlier iPhone era. Choose for your self right here:
In fact, at magnification ranges above 5x, the iPhone 15 Professional runs out of steam in a direct comparability. What’s extra important to you right here? You may learn extra in regards to the variations in picture high quality between the 2 iPhone Professional generations in Stefan’s detailed article: iPhone 15 Professional vs. iPhone 16 Professional digital camera comparability.
Lastly, there’s the brand new button for Digicam Management. You need to use it to launch the digital camera app, take pictures and use swipe gestures to make varied settings, together with publicity compensation or photographic types.
You actually must get used to the brand new management aspect at first, however ultimately, I virtually use it to take pictures even when there’s an unintentional press right here and there. That is in all probability the value you pay for the truth that the button is definitely reachable.
Longer Battery Life & Quicker Wi-fi Charging
Apple talked about the battery efficiency of its iPhones has improved considerably this 12 months. Due to the A18 Professional chip and optimized energy administration, the gadget can simply final an entire day in a mixed-usage state of affairs. It is a nice benefit, particularly when utilizing processor-intensive duties similar to gaming or video enhancing.
MagSafe wi-fi charging has been elevated to 25 W, which fees the iPhone 16 Professional considerably sooner than its predecessors. Should you’re in a rush, you’ll be able to cost the gadget to 50 % inside half-hour utilizing the MagSafe charger.
It is a welcome enchancment for customers who are sometimes on the transfer. Sure, the competitors can do that a lot sooner. Nonetheless, Apple talked about in an interview that battery longevity was prioritized right here and so they have been taking a look at different metrics than simply quick charging.
Even when Apple doesn’t absolutely exploit the advantages of quick charging, the modifications are noticeable. Relying in your utilization sample, you’ll be able to go as much as two days with out a cost.
iPhone 16 Professional Technical Specs
| 2024 Professional Mannequin | |
|---|---|
| Product | |
| Image | |
| Show |
|
| SoC | |
| Reminiscence | |
| OS | |
| Digicam |
|
| Selfie Digicam |
|
| Battery |
|
| Connectivity |
|
| IP Certification |
|
| Dimensions and weight |
|
Ought to You Purchase the iPhone 16 Professional?
“It is Glowtime”—that was Apple’s slogan for this 12 months’s iPhone occasion, which was additionally purported to be the beginning sign for the period of synthetic intelligence. It’s now clear that Apple will ultimately ship AI features to areas outdoors the US.
The shock that sure nations in Europe weren’t included within the listing of areas that might ultimately obtain Apple Intelligence was initially profound. Furthermore, I used to be extraordinarily skeptical as as to whether the iPhone 16 Professional may provide any added worth in comparison with final 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional mannequin.
I used to be confirmed fallacious!
The worth of the iPhone has elevated as soon as once more in comparison with final 12 months. It feels nice, there aren’t any or hardly any fingerprints left behind on the titanium body. Due to Ceramic Defend, the iPhone 16 Professional can also be properly protected in opposition to any unintended drops or scratches.
The brand new Digicam Management button is far more sensible than anticipated, and I used it to launch and function the digital camera. The ability of the A18 Professional chip additionally permits for some new video features, that are extremely sensible for individuals who shoot many movies in several environments.
The battery life has improved noticeably on this iteration. Should you actually need most battery life, you must go for the iPhone 16 Professional Max. This mannequin beats all its opponents by way of battery life.
In my view, the iPhone 16 Professional is as soon as once more top-of-the-line smartphones of the 12 months. Nonetheless, it’s at the moment lacking out on what might be a very powerful operate: Apple Intelligence. Apple already talked about in the course of the presentation that the iPhone 16 (Professional) was constructed for the brand new AI features. The truth that these options are lacking led to a half-star deduction within the ranking.
Anybody utilizing an older iPhone ought to think about an improve. Homeowners of an iPhone 15 Professional must weigh up whether or not the brand new options are definitely worth the value and whether or not the previous digital camera is definitely higher for his or her wants.
The place to Purchase the iPhone 16 Professional
Should you’re trying to buy the iPhone 16 Professional, you’ve gotten a number of choices. It’s obtainable straight from Apple’s web site and retail shops, the place you can even reap the benefits of trade-in presents and financing plans.
Main carriers similar to Verizon, AT&T, and T-Cellular provide the iPhone 16 Professional with varied contract choices and cost plans. Moreover, yow will discover it at fashionable electronics retailers like Finest Purchase. Make sure you examine for promotions and reductions, particularly throughout vacation gross sales or provider offers.
The iPhone 16 Professional begins at $999 albeit with a measly 128 GB storage capability in 2024. From 256 GB upwards, issues begin to get enjoyable, and that is exactly the place the iPhone 16 Professional Max begins.
Comparability of iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max costs and colours
| iPhone 16 Professional Max | iPhone 16 Professional | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 TB | $1,599 | $1,499 |
| 512 GB | $1,399 | $1,299 |
| 256 GB | $1,199 | $1,099 |
| 128 GB | ❌ | $999 |
| Colours | Pure Titanium Black Titanium White Titanium Desert Titanium |
Pure Titanium Black Titanium White Titanium Desert Titanium |
