Apple iPhone 16 Pro review: The long-life legend

Is the Apple iPhone 16 Pro strictly necessary? To be brutally honest, probably not. We don’t really need an iPhone update every year; Apple’s smartphones are so good these days that every two years would suffice. Imagine the hype Apple could build for that device whenever it rolled around. Imagine if the iPhone 16 Pro was the first phone Apple had introduced since the iPhone 13 Pro.

Now that would be a significant update: a big leap in camera features and quality, a major step forward in battery life and repairability. As it is, there are improvements with the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max but they’re not required reading, as it were. If you already own an iPhone 15 Pro, you can keep using it without suffering too much in the way of FOMO.

Even iPhone 14 Pro owners might want to wait until the next generation, with the caveat that you’ll have to do without Apple Intelligence.

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Apple iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max review: What you need to know

So what’s new? Well, let’s start with the physical changes: the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max both have larger screen sizes than last year, growing from 6.1in to 6.3in on the Pro and from 6.7in to 6.9in on the Pro Max.

Apple has made the bezel surrounding the display slightly slimmer, however, so there isn’t much difference in overall size. The Pro is 3.3mm taller and 0.9mm wider than last year, while the Pro Max is 3.1mm taller and 0.9mm wider. Both phones are heavier, by 12g for the Pro and 6g for the Pro Max. Both have new tougher, more scratch-resistant “Ceramic Shield” glass.

That’s not hugely significant and, once you’ve popped the phone in a case, you’ll probably not notice the difference. The same goes for the screen resolution, which has been increased on both phones to maintain the same pixel density of 460ppi.

There’s a new Apple A18 Pro chipset, built on the latest 3nm manufacturing process from TSMC, which delivers faster speeds, better battery life and improved AI-based performance compared with the A17 Pro.

Apple has also upgraded the ultrawide camera, giving us a 48MP f/2.2 unit with autofocus for sharper macro shots. The telephoto camera (5x 12MP f/2.8), main camera (48MP f/1.4) and selfie cameras (12MP f/1.9) are all the same as they were in last year’s 15 Pro Max, however.

Oh, and let’s not forget the new Camera Control button, designed to sit under the index finger of your right hand as you hold the phone in landscape orientation, and Apple Intelligence. The latter is not here yet – it will arrive on UK iPhones in December – and you don’t have to own an iPhone 16 Pro to get it. Last year’s Pro models will also support the new AI features.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro review: Price and competition

Configuration tested: Apple iPhone 16 Pro, Desert Titanium, 8GB RAM, 512GB storage. Price: £1,299

Prices for the iPhone 16 Pro start at £999, with the cheapest Pro Max costing £1,199. Those prices are for the models with 128GB storage and rise by £100 to £1,099/£1,299 if you want 256GB, another £200 for 512GB and a further £200 for 1TB.

Those prices are pretty high but that’s to be expected. If you’re looking at Android handsets at this end of the smartphone market, there are plenty of strong rivals. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is a decent option, especially given its age, and can be had for a lot less than the 16 Pro Max. Performance levels are great, it has a longer optical zoom range and comes with stylus support for note taking and jotting, not to mention a selection of AI features that Apple’s phones have yet to gain.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro comes a very close second, mainly for its camera quality and seven years’ worth of software support (prices start at £999), while the Honor Magic 6 Pro (from £1,099) gets the nod for exceptional battery life, advanced cameras and unique features like high-frequency PWM dimming.

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Apple iPhone 16 Pro review: Design and new features

So, the new iPhone 16 Pro has a bigger screen and a separate camera button, but that’s pretty much it for visible differences. The tougher Ceramic Shield glass should mean fewer scratches on your screen in the long run, but I’ve no way of testing that beyond deliberately damaging the display on my review sample, which does have to go back. JerryRigEverything has done the necessary work, though, and wasn’t hugely impressed.

In my opinion, the difference these make to the user experience is marginal. In fact, in some respects, I think the ergonomics of the iPhone 16 Pro are worse than before.

The main culprit is the new camera button. Don’t get me wrong, it works and it works very well. It’s topped with sapphire crystal glass and has a touch-sensitive surface that allows you to swipe your finger right and left along it to adjust various functions. By default, it’s set to zoom, but with a light double-press of the button, you can switch that to exposure, depth, camera selection, styles or tone.

All good stuff. However, I find the location of the button problematic in two ways. First, its position on the right-hand edge – and the button’s sensitivity – means it’s quite easy to press by accident when you pick up the phone. This is surprisingly aggravating and even though I’ve been using the phone for several weeks now, it continues to happen.

Second, the button is quite hard to reach when you pick up the phone in landscape orientation – to use it as you might a proper camera. It would make sense for it to fall neatly under the tip of your index finger, with that finger wrapped around the frame of the phone, but bizarrely this isn’t the case.

To get to the button either requires a change of grip, which involves your finger obscuring the top-right corner of the screen, or reaching around the corner of the frame uncomfortably. Your mileage may vary but I’ve found myself using the regular camera control. This just doesn’t cut it.

Most other stuff is, fortunately, pretty much the same as last year. The frame is made from the same titanium and it has the same slightly soft rounded design, not that most people will notice this once they’ve popped it into a case.

The camera housing looks the same to my eye as well, its three chrome-rimmed cylinders jutting out just as brutally as before from their square raised housing in the top left corner of the rear panel. The rest of the buttons are scattered around the edges of the phone in the same location, too, with the Siri button on the right edge, the volume buttons on the left, alongside the customisable Action button and SIM tray, and the phone’s USB-C port and speaker grilles.One note, though: the USB-C port is capable of USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speeds (10Gbits/sec) and DisplayPort video output, but Apple only provides a USB 2 cable in the box.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max review: Display

The larger screen does make a small difference to the way the phone feels to use, particularly in the smaller iPhone 16 Pro. The thinner bezels contribute to the feeling that you’ve a little more space to tinker with and mean the phones don’t feel a whole lot bigger in the hand, either.

Display quality is exactly as you’d expect given the technology itself hasn’t changed at all. The 120Hz refresh rate keeps things looking lovely and smooth and the 1,206 x 2,622 resolution ensures razor-sharp imagery with a pixel pitch of 460ppi. The OLED panel reached a peak brightness of 868cd/m² when I measured with SDR content and auto brightness turned off. With auto brightness enabled, it reached 1,087cd/m2, and with HDR playback enabled I measured brightness reaching 1,621cd/m². These numbers mean that the screen is bright enough to be readable in pretty much any lighting conditions, and will look stunning with all HDR content.

Meanwhile, colour accuracy was as good as expected. I tested it against an sRGB target in a browser and measured the average Delta E colour accuracy at 0.46, which is superb. It’s a great display and whether you’re playing games or watching movies in HDR10 or Dolby Vision, you will not be disappointed with it. Indeed, the likelihood is that the screen on this iPhone is better quality than the one on your TV – its specifications are certainly right up there with the very best TVs.

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Apple iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max review: Cameras

Whether the cameras are better than what you can buy elsewhere is another question. On paper, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max can’t compete with the best the Android competition offers and haven’t moved much on last year, either. Here, we have a 48MP f/1.4 main camera, a 12MP f/2.8 5x optical telephoto and a new 48MP f/2.2 13mm ultrawide shooter with phase detect autofocus.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra has a more capable telephoto setup with not one but two zoom modules – one 3x and one 5x optical zoom – plus a 200MP main camera. The Honor Magic 6 Pro, meanwhile, has a 50MP camera with variable aperture, allowing you to take some control over depth of field, and a 180MP f/2.6 2.5x telephoto, accompanied by a 50MP f/2 13mm ultrawide camera.

– Apple iPhone 16 Pro: Ultrawide camera @ 12MP (click to enlarge)

– Apple iPhone 16 Pro: Main camera @ 12MP (click to enlarge)

– Apple iPhone 16 Pro: 5x telephoto @ 12MP (click to enlarge)

None of the iPhone’s rivals can compete with its Dolby Vision video recording capabilities, which enable it to capture at 4K resolution up to 60fps (and non-Dolby Vision at up to 120fps now). Nor can rivals match its ability to record in ProRes or with a Log colour profile natively, although the latter can be added via third-party software. However, its rivals can beat it for sheer resolution. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra can record in 8K at 30fps, which is great if you own an 8K TV, or you need room to crop your video after the fact.

There’s no doubt the iPhone has a top-tier main camera. It’s great in all scenarios: low light, bright light, portraits and landscapes. The new ultrawide camera does make a difference to wide-angle shots and macros, but you have to enable the ProRAW and resolution control in camera settings to unlock it. If you leave the camera in default mode, the 12MP images are virtually indistinguishable from those produced by the iPhone 16.

In summary, the camera on the iPhone 16 is great in places, and competent in others. It isn’t the best smartphone camera out there but neither will it let you down.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro / Pro Max review: Performance and battery life

It could be argued that the biggest leap forward for the iPhone this year is one you’ll only begin to appreciate after a week or so of using it: battery life. I’ve already experienced this on the iPhone 16 Plus, which has the best battery life on any iPhone so far. It regularly lasts me into day three without needing a charge.

It’s early days for me and the iPhone 16 Pro in real-world use, but it outperformed the Plus in our battery tests, lasting 28hrs 56mins to the Plus’ 27hrs 3mins. That’s great news for heavy users and indicates that this is a phone that will comfortably make it through a day and more before needing a top-up.

What’s even more impressive is the progression Apple is making on battery life over previous iPhone Pro models. It’s better not only than the iPhone 16 Plus, but also the 15 Pro and a huge advance over the iPhone 14 Pro, which lasted a mere 20hrs 40mins in this test – more than eight hours short of the 16 Pro.

When you do eventually need to connect the phone to the mains, however, you might be disappointed with charging speeds, which remain in the Dark Ages compared with phones from the likes of Honor and OnePlus. The iPhone 16 Pro supports USB PD 2 wired charging, which will get you a 50% charge in 30 minutes, it also supports 25W wireless MagSafe charging and 15W Qi2 charging, while reverse charging is available at up to 4.5W.

To put this in context, the Samsung Galaxy S24 supports 45W wired charging and will reach 65% in 30 minutes, while the Honor Magic 6 Pro charges at 80W wired, and the OnePlus 12 at 100W, which charges to 100% in around half an hour.

Raw speed is improved as well, with the expected bump in both single-core and multi-core CPU performance and GPU speed, and not by a small margin. We’re looking at around a 14% uplift for the CPU in the Geekbench 6 multicore and single-core tests, and 6% for the GPU. This is a quick phone and it’s currently the fastest on the market, beating phones based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 across the benchmarks.

What’s potentially more interesting is the big bump the NPU has received compared with previous editions of the phone. With the iPhone 15 Pro scoring around 3,800 in the Geekbench AI single precision benchmark and the iPhone 16 Pro at 4,458 in my tests, that’s a boost of around 19%. Whether that leads to a noticeable improvement in performance across the new Apple Intelligence features or not remains to be seen, however.

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Apple iPhone 16 Pro review: Verdict

There isn’t much to get excited about from the standpoint of new features with the Apple iPhone 16 Pro. The really interesting stuff surrounds Apple Intelligence and those features aren’t arriving straight away anyway in the UK, not to mention that they’ll also be arriving on the cheaper iPhone 16 range and the older iPhone 15 Pro. The new ultrawide camera is nice to have but I’d have preferred to see more development of the telephoto camera.

What’s perhaps more significant is the mundane aspect of battery life; this is the best-performing iPhone to have undergone our battery tests. It still can’t match the very best Android handsets, but it’s highly competitive and will be a huge step forward for iPhone owners moving up from older iPhones.