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In the past few years, Pro iPhones settled on one screen size: 6.1 inches, but the new iPhone 16 Pro changes that with a slighty larger, 6.3-inch display, in line with our increased smartphone use. However, thanks to smaller borders around the screen, its physical size has not changed much at all.
There are other cool new additions: the iPhone 16 Pro is also the first compact iPhone to get a 5X tetraprism zoom camera, and it comes with a slightly bigger battery. Other highlights include a tweaked ultrawide camera, faster MagSafe wireless charging and a useful new Camera Control button.
What has been kind of missing, though, is Apple Intelligence. Despite all the noise around the launch, the most important Apple Intelligence feature have been delayed indefinitely and that includes the much-awaited smarter Siri.
Get the iPhone 16 Pro at Apple.com for up to $650 off
$349
$999
$650 off (65%)
The latest AI-enhanced iPhone 16 Pro is available for purchase at the official store. To save on the smartphone, you must provide an eligible trade-in. That saves you up to $650.
Slightly bigger size and a cool new Camera Control
iPhone 16 Pro in Natural Titanium (gray) and 15 Pro on the right in blue (Image by PhoneArena)
The big design change in the iPhone 16 Pro is the larger 6.3-inch screen size and the reduced bezel around that screen.
All of that makes for a more futuristic look for the new model, while staying in line with the mostly compact dimensions these iPhones are known for. However, in terms of overall styling, the 16 Pro looks a lot like the iPhone 15 Pro.
The 16 Pro (on the bottom) is slightly taller and has the Camera Control (Image by PhoneArena)
Here is the size of the new model vs the old one:
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro
Height
149.6 mm
146.6 mm
Width
71.5 mm
70.6 mm
Thickness
8.25 mm
8.25 mm
Weight
199 g
187 g
Bezel size
1.2 mm
1.71 mm
In summary, if you really value a smaller phone, you might notice the slightly smaller size of the iPhone 15 Pro, but for most people it is not a big difference.
Materials are the same — both models have that fancy titanium frame with a new, supposedly twice as durable "Ceramic Shield" front glass on the 16 Pro.
iPhone 16 Pro colors
You still get four color options and they are still not very vibrant or inspiring. On the 16 Pro, you can opt for a black model (slightly darker than the 15 Pro), a white model, a natural (Gray) model and a Desert (gold) version.
The other exciting design change is the new camera Camera Control button (available on all four iPhone 16 models).
It is tied exclusively to camera features, but not just to the Apple-made camera app – you can also start a third-party camera app with it.
Since it has a capacitive surface, it also acts like a trackpad, so when you slide your finger across you can zoom in and out, quickly cycle through photo filters, or perform various other functions. This is a cool gimmick, but the key word here is gimmick and most of the time controlling those features is actually easier on the bigger display than with this new button.
As for the rest of the design details, they remain the same. This means you get an IP68 water and dust protection, USB-C port for charging (USB 3 speeds for data transfer), and the Dynamic Island with Face ID in it.
The unboxing experience changes a bit with a slimmer box made entirely of recycled materials, but you still don't get a charger in the box, in case you were wondering.
The 16 Pro (on the left) has slimmer borders around the screen (Image by PhoneArena)
A 6.3-inch screen size is probably the sweet middle ground for many people, and we are glad that Apple has recognized that and is moving to a slightly larger form factor.
We also have slimmer screen borders, but the maximum screen brightness remains the same. Interestingly, the minimum brightness can now drop lower than before to just 1 nit, great for bedtime use at night.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
In our benchmark tests, both devices feature very similar display properties, with little to no difference outside the statistic error. Peak brightness at both regular and HDR modes, as well as the color accuracy and gamma are similar. It's noteworthy to say that the iPhone 16 Pro has a display that goes lower in terms of minimum brightness, and it has slightly better white balance right out of the box.
One feature that is NOT present, but we think Apple should seriously consider for the future, is a type of coating that would reduce the reflectivity of the screen outdoors. Samsung uses this in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and it's been a revelation, but so far, there are no rumors about it, so it's probably not happening. You could achieve a similar effect with a screen protector, though.
There are no major changes to Face ID, either. Apple is said to be working on an invisible front camera and that might arrive one day in the distant future, but it also may not, so don't hold your breath for that.
Performance and Software
New A18 Pro chipset is a big deal
This new chipset is more efficient (Image by PhoneArena)
Apple has done impressive things with its A series iPhone processors and the M series chips in MacBooks, but new Qualcomm Snapdragon chips have caught up recently.
Last year's Apple A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro could not overpower its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 rival in gaming performance, and its power use could be better. So, the new A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro has something to prove. Luckily, Apple makes the jump to second-gen 3nm tech with the A18 Pro. It delivers significant improvements to CPU and GPU performance, and the chip is built with AI in mind.
As per our benchmark tests, it's naturally the newer iPhone that pulls ahead. It achieves higher scores in both the single- and multi-core Geekbench 6 tests, as well as higher in the 3DMark test. However, it's also quicker to throttle down, giving an advantage to the iPhone 15 Pro in terms of gaming stability in the long run.
Apple also has better thermal management with 20% improved heat dissipation, great for gaming and other demanding tasks. Both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro have the same 8GB of RAM, which is also the minimum requirement for Apple Intelligence (AI).
So, about Apple Intelligence... it's been a slow trickle of features.
iOS 18.1 arrived first in October 2024, a month after the launch of the iPhone 16 series, with notification summaries, writing tools and the Clean Up tool in Photos.
More features arrived with iOS 18.2 in December, bringing ChatGPT Siri integration, Visual Intelligence, as well as Image Playground, Genmoji and the Image Wand features.
However, the best features like the new and smarter Siri are now delayed indefinitely. It turns out many of the advertized features were never available and that is one massive blunder.
There is one more upgrade that might go a bit under the radar, and that is a new modem (the Qualcomm Snapdragon X71), which should help with connectivity and ensuring you have better signal in more places.
Along with this modem, the iPhone 16 Pro also supports Wi-Fi 7 compared to Wi-Fi 6E on the iPhone 15 Pro, which is particularly helpful on crowded networks. The benefits are theoretically 2.4X faster speeds and lower latency, if you have an ideal connection.
Camera
A new zoom camera and impressive 4K120 slow motion
The 16 Pro is the first Pro model with a 5X zoom lens (Image by PhoneArena)
The iPhone 16 Pro has three cameras on the back, similar to the iPhone 15 Pro. For the most part, the two camera setups are mostly identical, but there are two big upgrades.
First is the switch to a longer, 5X telephoto camera, a change from the 3X zoom on the 15 Pro. And second, is the new 48MP sensor for the ultra-wide camera. The obvious benefit of a longer zoom is you get improved detail at 5X, 10X and further, great if you film concerts or anything far away really.
One of the big changes comes to the way you edit the look of your photos with improved Photographic Styles. These are Apple's advanced filters, and they debuted a long time ago, but previously, you had to select a Style when you take a photo, and you could not change it afterward.
With the 16 Pro, you can now change the look of a photo with a style after it's captured, which makes this feature much more useful. The Styles themselves now offer more controls, and you can get just the right look for a photo easier.
Apple iPhone 16 Pro
PhoneArena Camera Score
BEST 158
154
PhoneArena Photo Score
BEST 165
158
Main (wide)
BEST 87
82
Zoom
BEST 29
25
Ultra-wide
BEST 26
24
Selfie
BEST 30
28
PhoneArena Video Score
BEST 155
150
Main (wide)
BEST 83
76
Zoom
BEST 27
24
Ultra-wide
BEST 24
23
Selfie
BEST 28
27
Apple iPhone 15 Pro
PhoneArena Camera Score
BEST 158
153
PhoneArena Photo Score
BEST 165
156
Main (wide)
BEST 87
82
Zoom
BEST 29
23
Ultra-wide
BEST 26
23
Selfie
BEST 30
27
PhoneArena Video Score
BEST 155
149
Main (wide)
BEST 83
78
Zoom
BEST 27
22
Ultra-wide
BEST 24
23
Selfie
BEST 28
27
In our dedicated camera test, the overall performance of either phone is pretty similar, but the iPhone 16 Pro pulls a little ahead thanks to a stronger telephoto performance.
Now let's take a gander at some samples, shall we?
Main camera
< iPhone 16 ProiPhone 15 Pro >
There seem to be no big hardware changes to the 48MP main camera. Both phones take virtually the same photos, so no upgrades here. Did we need major changes here? Probably not, but still, an improvement across the board would have been nice.
Zoom Quality
< iPhone 16 Pro 3XiPhone 15 Pro 3X >
However, you are also losing a useful 3X optical zoom option, great for portrait mode shots. A 5X portrait is essentially a face shot and not quite as versatile or useful in real life, so we have mixed feelings about this.
Ultrawide camera
< iPhone 16 ProiPhone 15 Pro >
However, we have a new 48MP ultra-wide camera on the iPhone 16 Pro, and that change is absolutely welcome. Expect improved low-light performance and better detail.
Selfie camera
< iPhone 16 ProiPhone 15 Pro >
Selfie shots look identical, and pretty good! The newer iPhone tends to give a slightly more exposure to the face, while the older iPhone goes for a more averaged exposure.
iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 15 Pro camera samples
On the video front, we have a major new feature: 4K120 slow motion.
Previous iPhone models could only record 120fps at 1080p quality, not nearly as sharp as 4K. This is great news for creators. Apple paired the announcement with a music video for The Weeknd shot entirely on an iPhone in 4K120, and this just goes to show how impressive the quality is. 4K120 looks very cinematic and we cannot wait to test this more.
The 16 Pro also gets four studio quality mics for the first time and this helps not only with audio quality during calls, but also while recording video. Additionally, Apple has baked in improved wind noise reduction.
When you edit videos, you will notice a new Audio Mix feature, which allows you to isolate voices better from the background noise.
Finally, you have something called Visual Intelligence, which you bring up by long pressing on the Camera Control. This acts in many ways like Google Lens, so it can recognize an object in the frame and tell you more about it, or give you the opening hours of a restaurant and contacts to make a reservation.
The difference in the way Apple approaches this compared to Google Lens is just how easy it is to bring up this feature with the Camera Control.
Battery Life and Charging
A significant battery life improvement and faster MagSafe
Charging speeds are the same via wire, but the 16 Pro supports faster wireless charging (Image by PhoneArena)
A physically larger iPhone such as the iPhone 16 Pro sounds like the perfect opportunity to make a leap in battery life, and we get that indeed. Apple rates the iPhone 16 Pro for 27 hours of video playback, a big improvement from the 20 hours that the previous model is rated for.
The iPhone 16 Pro has a 3,582mAh battery, nearly 10% bigger than the previous model, which had a 3,274mAh battery.
We run our in-house battery tests on the iPhone 16 Pro and here is what we found.
We had big hopes for faster charging on the 16 Pro, and we kind of get some of that, but not everything.
Wired charging remains disappointingly the same at around 20 watts. The iPhone 16 Pro, however, has one new trick: if you play a graphically-intense game while charging, you will notice that charging does not slow down, like it used to do before.
Apple can detect that and if you have a powerful enough charger, the iPhone will draw up to 40W of power, but only when you game, so that this does not slow your charging process. However, if you just leave your phone on the charger, the charging speeds are the same as before.
The iPhone 16 Pro also has much faster MagSafe at 25W, up from 15W on the 15 Pro.
Specs Comparison
And here is an overview of the iPhone 16 Pro vs iPhone 15 Pro specs in a table:
Specs
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro
Dimensions
149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25mm
146.6 x 70.6 x 8.25mm
Weight
199 g
187 g
Screen
6.3-inch OLED 120Hz
6.1-inch OLED 120Hz
Processor
Apple A18 Pro New 3nm tech
Apple A17 Pro 3nm
RAM, Storage *Price expectations
8/128GB for $1,000 8/256GB for $1,100 8/512GB for $1,300 8/1TB for $1,500
The iPhone 16 Pro is clearly not a huge update, and it doesn't help that the Apple Intelligence roll-out has kind of stalled in 2025.
The 16 Pro has a bigger screen and slightly longer battery life, plus you get a new 5X zoom camera and a new Camera Control button and the faster chipset.
With better sustained performance, it's a better phone for gaming as well.
Is it a game-changer compared to the iPhone 15 Pro? Not really. But it might just tickle the right places for those eager to get the latest and greatest. Don't feel obliged to upgrade, though, if you own the iPhone 15 Pro. However, those on an older model should consider getting the iPhone 16 Pro.
Next year, Apple is expected to introduce an all-new design to the iPhone 17 series, so keep that in mind.
Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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