The Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are STILL stuck at 60Hz

At first glance, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus don’t look like what I’ve come to expect from Apple’s smartphones. While the pricier Pro models stick with the tried-and-true square camera module, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have both seen their rear camera lenses rearranged into a smaller vertical alignment, tucked away in the top-left corner.

That’s not the only change, either; over on the left edge, the mute slider is now replaced by the multi-function Action button. We saw this last year on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max but now it’s trickling down to the non-Pro models, as well. Completely new for this generation is the Camera Control button on the right edge, which all four iPhone 16 series handsets are getting at the same time. We’ll get more into that a little further down, but first let’s have a look at the specs.

Want to see more from Apple’s event? Check out our previews of the Apple AirPods 4 and the Apple Watch Series 10

Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus: Specifications

Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus: Design, key features and first impressions

It might be because this phone is still sitting on my desk but I can’t look at the iPhone 16’s new camera module and not think of the Nothing Phone (2a). The pill-shaped housing with two lenses plonked in like eyes is startlingly similar, just tilted on its side here for a vertical alignment. It’s not a bad look but – similar to my concerns over the redesigned camera housing on the new Google Pixel 9 series – it does feel like a step away from Apple’s unique identity in the space of camera aesthetics.

Otherwise, it’s business as usual on the design front, with flat edges and rounded corners, just like the last few generations of iPhone. We do have a new swatch of colours, however, with the standard black and white colourways joined by Aquamarine, Teal and Pink styles.

The OLED displays are both the same sizes as last year – 6.1in on the iPhone 16 and 6.7in on the iPhone 16 Plus – but the panels have apparently been tweaked to offer a higher peak brightness of 2,000 nits. What has unfortunately not changed is that Apple is once again digging its heels in and stubbornly keeping both non-Pro phones locked at 60Hz refresh rates. This is beyond ridiculous for the kind of money we’re talking about here, with phones a quarter of this price now offering 120Hz displays. 

Apple started fitting its Pro and non-Pro models with different chipsets last year and that continues here, with the Pros getting the appropriately named A18 Pro chip and the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus running on the A18. Backing this up is the same selection of storage options we saw last year – 128GB, 256GB and 512GB – and a boosted 8GB of RAM. 

The 16-core NPU has also apparently been improved, readying the phones for the upcoming “Apple Intelligence” AI features. These are all variations on things we’ve seen from the competition, including email summaries, image generation and Apple’s answer to Google’s Circle to Search – Visual Intelligence. This will work from the new Camera Control feature, and can provide additional information on objects in your photos, showing a restaurant’s opening hours, the breed of a dog or adding an event on a flyer to your calendar.

The iPhone 16’s battery gets a minor bump, now a 3,561mAh cell, but the iPhone 16 Plus has a smaller 4,006mAh battery this time around. This is an unusual (though not completely unheard of) approach for a generational upgrade but it doesn’t automatically mean that the iPhone 16 Plus will suffer on the stamina front compared to the iPhone 15 Plus. We’ll have to see how the new handsets do in our testing before we know the effects of these changes.

The same holds true for the cameras. Tucked into that neat rear housing, we’ve again got a 48MP (f/1.6) main camera and a 12MP ultrawide shooter. The lead lens is technically identical to last year’s but the ultrawide gets a slightly wider f/2.2 aperture, which should help with detail capture, especially in low-light conditions. 

Finally, the new Camera Control button on the right edge has plenty of interesting features on offer – at least, it will later on this year when the update drops. Tapping it will open the camera, at which point you can tap again to take a photo or press and hold to start a video. You can also run your finger sideways along it to perform actions like adjusting the aperture, changing the exposure levels or zooming in and out of the image.

Apple iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus: Early verdict

Every year, it’s a disappointment to see the standard iPhones dragging out tired and slow 60Hz displays, when competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 9 use 120Hz panels, and even phones below the £200 mark are at least offering 90Hz screens. The fact that one of the leading manufacturers of flagship smartphones refuses to offer any advancement in this area, purely to artificially widen the gap between the Pro and non-Pro phones, is extremely frustrating.

Which is a shame as, otherwise, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus both look decent enough for what they are. The new chipset promises a decent uptick in power, the external buttons are both interesting and offer useful functionality and the upcoming Apple Intelligence looks to be roughly on par with the competition. We’ll have more to say on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus very soon but, in the meantime, the return of 60Hz displays ensure that we’ve got our first entry for the Cons column.