There are only some hours left till “It’s Glowtime”, so let’s do a recap of what to anticipate. In case you missed it, we already coated the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus rumors and leaks, right here we’ll go over all the pieces we (assume) we all know concerning the two Professional fashions.
The occasion begins at 5 PM UTC and we can have protection of all the brand new launches. Till then, here’s a recap of all the pieces that occurred in the previous few months.
The launch
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max will begin tomorrow if not later right now. We’re most likely two weeks of pre-orders, so the primary shipments and in-store availability needs to be on September 20 (Apple at all times picks a Friday).
Apple Intelligence, the most important improve for iOS 18, has missed the deadline and can arrive later as a part of iOS 18.1. For this reason Apple has two beta branches being examined concurrently. Apple apparently didn’t wish to delay the iPhone launch till Intelligence was prepared, however we anticipate that it will likely be a significant a part of the presentation.
The design
This part will likely be temporary – we’ve seen photographs of iPhone 16 Professional Max dummies and if not for the brand new coloration (Gold, not Brown), we would have been fooled into believing that these have been simply iPhone 15 Professional Maxes. Talking of colours, there are Titanium Black and Titanium White, in fact, in addition to Titanium Silver and Titanium Gold. There was a rumor of a Rose choice, however there isn’t any photographic proof of such a hue. If you’d like colours, you’d might wish to get an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus as an alternative.
iPhone 16 Professional Max dummies in White, Black Silver and Gold
The Gold coloration mannequin additionally appeared in a brief unboxing video the place it’s labeled “Desert Titanium” (the hue was apparently impressed by the sands of the Sahara desert). This video presents the briefest glimpse of the entrance of the cellphone – effectively, the entrance of the retail field, which has a picture of the entrance of the cellphone – which reveals that nothing a lot has modified. The Dynamic Island is in place, apparently no smaller than final yr.
Measurement comparability between the 4 iPhone 16 fashions
Apple did tweak the design barely, nevertheless it’s not instantly apparent. The iPhone 16 Professional Max will allegedly have the world’s thinnest bezels, besides, the cellphone will likely be barely bigger. The explanation why will change into apparent once we get to the show part.
| Dimensions | iPhone 15 Professional | iPhone 16 Professional | iPhone 15 Professional Max | iPhone 16 Professional Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 146.6mm | 149.6mm | 159.9mm | 163.0mm |
| Width | 70.6mm | 71.5mm | 76.7mm | 77.6mm |
| Thickness | 8.25mm | 8.25mm | 8.25mm | 8.26mm |
| Weight | 187g | 194g | 221g | 225g |
Bigger shows
Each iPhone Professionals retain exclusivity on the ProMotion panels, i.e. if you need 120Hz LTPO, you get a Professional mannequin. The 2 vanilla telephones will hold utilizing outdated 60Hz tech for yet one more yr. However this yr the 2 pairs will diverge even additional as they are going to now not supply the identical display screen sizes.
iPhone 16 Professional Max retail bundle
The iPhone 16 Professional will go as much as a 6.3” show, whereas the vanilla 16 will stick to six.1”. The iPhone 16 Professional Max would be the greatest iPhone but with a 6.9” show – up from the 6.7” of the earlier Professional Max and the upcoming Plus. The resolutions will most likely be bumped up barely to maintain the pixel density the identical as earlier than.
Within the earlier part we talked about that the bezels will likely be thinner to offset a few of the development from the bigger shows – not sufficient to completely cancel it out however nonetheless. The iPhone Professional bezels will shrink from 1.71mm to 1.2mm in comparison with final yr’s mannequin, whereas the Professional Max bezels will go from 1.55mm to 1.15mm.
Right here’s a mockup that Ice Universe made to indicate off the distinction:
iPhone 16 Professional Max (left) vs. iPhone 15 Professional Max (proper) bezels
We’re unsure why there are so few leaked photographs (or movies) that present the entrance of the iPhone Professionals, nevertheless it’s clear that any main adjustments across the Dynamic Island should wait till subsequent yr (it should allegedly get narrower).
Motion and Seize buttons
Facet views of dummies present the tentatively named Motion and Seize buttons, which is able to set off customized actions and can act as a digicam shutter key, respectively. This does imply that the Alert Slider will likely be eliminated, nonetheless.
All 4 iPhone 16 fashions can have an Motion button
And a seize button
Apparently, the Seize button will likely be extra of a capacitive trackpad than a bodily button, permitting swiping gestures – this might be used to manage zoom, for instance.
Apple A18 chipset and AI for all
Final yr the 2 Professional telephones have been powered by the Apple A17 Professional chipset, whereas the 2 vanilla fashions needed to reuse the A16 from the yr earlier than. This and the smaller quantity of RAM implies that the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus won’t get Apple Intelligence.
Once more, we suspect this will likely be a significant a part of the presentation later right now and a significant a part of the advertising and marketing for the brand new 16-series, so all 4 fashions need to have it.
Which means that all 4 iPhone 16 fashions will run an Apple A18 chipset. They will not be equivalent, the Professional fashions may have extra GPU cores, for instance. The NPUs will possible be equivalent in order that on-device AI duties really feel equally snappy.
They could have the identical quantity of RAM too, 8GB. We’ve seen leaks that declare this capability for the 2 vanilla fashions and no credible rumors that the Professionals are getting 12GB. 12GB might need to attend for the 17-series and even then it is likely to be reserved for the iPhone 17 Professional Max. AI fashions want loads of RAM to run and Google has even reserved a portion of the additional RAM on the Pixel 9 telephones to maintain the mannequin loaded always. We are going to see how Apple approaches this drawback.
5x tele digicam for the iPhone 16 Professional, minor upgrades
Very like ProMotion, telephoto cameras are unique to iPhone Professionals. This would be the case for this technology as effectively, however at the least the 2 Professionals will likely be introduced nearer collectively. Beforehand, solely the Professional Max had the lengthy 5x tele lens.
Now, each Professional and Professional Max can have a 5x telephoto digicam – the identical one as final yr, apparently, with a 12MP sensor and an f/2.8 aperture. The principle digicam will stay unchanged as effectively, a 48MP sensor with 0.7µm pixels (and binning to 1.4µm). It should supply a 48MP ProRaw mode, there’s speak of JPEG-XL (as different to HEIF) and a brand new video mode – 3K at 120fps with Dolby Imaginative and prescient.
Apple iPhone 16 Professional Max
The extremely extensive digicam can have the identical 12MP sensor however is getting a brand new lens on the vanilla fashions – it should have a wider f/2.2 aperture (up from f/2.4) and it’ll have autofocus, identical to on the Professional fashions.
We already talked about the Seize button above. Because it’s a capacitive button, it should assist swipes (e.g. for zooming out and in) and it will likely be strain delicate too, so there will likely be a digital half-press for focusing.
Batteries and charging
Apple, like Samsung and Google, simply isn’t a fan of quick charging for telephones. Each the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max charged at a sedate 27W over USB-C and 15W over MagSafe. This yr’s fashions will enhance the facility limits noticeably, although nothing too loopy.
The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max telephones will reportedly assist 40W wired and 20W MagSafe charging. Okay, that doesn’t sound like a lot, however this represents a rise of 48% and 33%, respectively. That’s greater than the Pixel 9 Professional XL improve (23% wired, no improve for Qi charging), Samsung didn’t change the cost charges for its flagships in any respect (and it hasn’t shortly).
Because the two Professional telephones are bigger, we anticipate to see bigger batteries too, proper? Properly, sure, however solely simply – the desk under has a comparability with the earlier fashions and reveals solely minor enhancements.
| Capability | Wired charging | MagSafe charging | |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 15 Professional | 3,274mAh | 27W | 15W |
| iPhone 16 Professional | 3,355mAh | 40W | 20W |
| iPhone 15 Professional Max | 4,441mAh | 27W | 15W |
| iPhone 16 Professional Max | 4,676mAh | 40W | 20W |
Elevated manufacturing, Professionals from India
You could or might not care about this one, nevertheless it’s price mentioning. Apple is predicted to proceed to develop its manufacturing base in India and this yr, for the primary time, Professional fashions will likely be constructed within the nation. Beforehand, the Indian factories solely made vanilla iPhones. As early as subsequent yr, India is predicted to account for as a lot as 25% of the whole iPhone manufacturing.
This transfer will assist enhance gross sales within the nation but in addition the whole manufacturing volumes too – Apple allegedly plans to provide extra iPhones this yr, principally specializing in the iPhone 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max. The objective is round 90.1 million complete, up from 86.2 million final yr. The non-Professional duo will apparently account for round 33% of manufacturing with the remaining going to the Professionals.
The expectations are for the iPhone 16 Professional Max alone to make up 37% of the whole (33.2 million items, up from 24.2 million for the earlier Professional Max), whereas the 16 Professional ought to make up 30% of the combination with 26.6 million items (up from 21.8 million for the 15 Professional).
What comes subsequent
Since we all know most of you don’t improve your cellphone yearly, it’s essential to say what’s going to come subsequent – in fact, that is simply pure hypothesis, however some may determine to carry on for an additional yr.
The iPhone 17 Professional Max may get a 48MP periscope digicam for superior zooming. This leak was from late 2023, although, so plans might have modified since then – it additionally mentions that the iPhone 16 Professional telephones can have 48MP extremely extensive cameras and that isn’t occurring. All 4 iPhone 17 fashions are anticipated to have 24MP selfie cameras, up from the present 12MP.
As talked about above, the iPhone 17 Professional Max might get 12GB of RAM (however not the smaller 17 Professional). The Professional fashions may additionally get an unique chipset, the very first chip from TSMC’s 2nm foundry.