Knowledgeable’s Score
Professionals
- Digital camera Management may be very helpful
- Improbable battery life
- Outrageous efficiency
Cons
- Digital camera Management can be finicky
- Apple Intelligence is just not but out there
- Heavy and dated design
Our Verdict
This yr’s flagship iPhones are a modest enchancment over final yr’s Professional mannequin. Digital camera Management and the large enhance in battery life are good, however you don’t want to purchase a Professional cellphone to get them. However they’re a piece in progress—Apple is in a months-long technique of ending this iPhone’s core software program options, and when that’s executed maybe they are going to stand out extra from the iPhones of prior years.
Value When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Finest Pricing Immediately
Value When Reviewed
$999
Finest Costs Immediately: Apple iPhone 16 Professional
$999.99
We at the moment are properly into the period wherein yearly smartphone updates have turn into quite bizarre. The place the Apple Retailer strains would as soon as stretch across the block and entice native information crews, immediately the primary query everybody asks is, “Should I upgrade this year?”
The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max match into this zeitgeist neatly. Sure, they’re higher. They’re quicker, have higher cameras, and embody one new function (the Digital camera Management button). However for many of the issues most individuals use their iPhones for, many of those enhancements received’t make a lot of a distinction over final yr’s mannequin, or the yr earlier than.
Enter Apple Intelligence. When {hardware} fails to excite, it’s as much as slick new software program to make you are feeling such as you simply must get the brand new iPhone. And with all the excitement round generative AI currently, Apple Intelligence is that gotta-have-it software program. It’s a set of recent AI options that summarizes notifications and emails, makes Siri lots smarter, permits you to generate customized pictures and emojis, transcribe calls, and extra.
So essential is that this AI stuff to the iPhone 16 that Apple’s advertising calls them the primary iPhones “built for Apple Intelligence.” (Sure, the iPhone 15 Professional works with Apple Intelligence however Apple now not sells that mannequin.) There’s only one drawback: Apple Intelligence isn’t out but, and it’s going to dribble out in a number of phases over months. It’s additionally coming to common non-Professional iPhone 16 fashions.
So, why purchase and iPhone 16 Professional or Professional Max? Let’s see if Apple’s newest Professional iPhones could make a case for themselves.
Be aware: The iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max have similar options and efficiency, save for the apparent (dimension and battery life). This evaluate covers each fashions.
iPhone 16 Professional design: It’s an iPhone
The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max look very very similar to final yr’s Professional telephones at a look. Technically, each fashions are only a contact bigger and heavier than their predecessors, and mixed with slimmer bezels you get a barely bigger show: 6.1 inches turns into 6.3, and 6.7 turns into 6.9.
The titanium physique and colours are principally the identical. There’s white, black, and pure titanium. Final yr’s particular colour, blue titanium, has been changed by desert titanium, which has a bronze look to it.
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The one factor that basically appears or feels any totally different is the brand new Digital camera Management button, situated about the place the 5G mmWave antenna was on earlier iPhone U.S. fashions and the SIM tray was on some worldwide fashions—about 2/third of the best way down the appropriate facet underneath the facility button. This new function additionally comes with the common iPhone 16.
Regardless of the dimensions distinction, the shows roughly seem like these on the iPhone 15 Professionals, with equal brightness, ProMotion, and always-on capabilities. A small enchancment I actually admire is that the show now goes all the best way right down to a mere 1 nit of brightness. It’s simply the factor for individuals who use their cellphone in mattress with the lights off—however once more, that is additionally out there on the non-Professional fashions.
The dimensions improve over final yr’s iPhones is just not dramatic, however I nonetheless discovered myself gravitating extra to the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional whereas I used to want the Professional Max. The marginally bigger show makes the smaller of the 2 Professional telephones extra usable with out saddling me with the undesirable bulk of Apple’s largest cellphone. In the event you’re a type of who doesn’t love the dimensions of the Professional Max however makes use of it since you want that display dimension, take a detailed take a look at the Professional this yr.
There’s nothing improper with this yr’s design, however the iPhone is in critical want of a refreshed design. Large, heavy, thick steel slabs with giant, offset digicam bumps that make the cellphone wobble in your desk (and make it arduous to seat correctly on some charging stands or wi-fi chargers in automobiles) simply really feel slightly previous and boring in 2024. Not a lot has modified since iPhone 12.
iPhone 16 Professional options: Digital camera Management
Most of what’s new within the iPhone 16 Professional is on the within, however the one large new exterior function for your complete iPhone 16 line is the Digital camera Management button. It’s an actual bodily button set flush with the sting of the physique, contact and stress delicate, with haptic suggestions.
Press the button as soon as and also you open the Digital camera app. You possibly can choose a third-party digicam app to launch in Settings > Digital camera, and and app like Instagram will sometimes launch proper into its photograph/video-taking mode. As soon as within the Digital camera app, a agency press takes a photograph. Press and maintain to take a video for so long as you maintain the button.
Faucet as soon as frivolously and also you’ll pop up a Digital camera Management operate (zoom by default) which you alter by swiping forwards and backwards or dragging the management on the show. Double-tap frivolously for a listing of various capabilities that may be adjusted on this approach: publicity, depth, digicam choice, photographic types, or tone. It does lots—and it’s not all the time apparent what to press to do one thing.
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I’ve combined emotions in regards to the Digital camera Management button. The total press to launch your most-used digicam app is a big boon. It’s quick, you are able to do it with out twiddling with the display, and it means that you can exchange the digicam launch in your lock display with one thing else with out shedding any utility. Urgent the button as a shutter, or holding it right down to take video, works nice. It’s a gamechanger for snapping pictures whereas sporting gloves.
The pressure-sensitive capabilities, then again, are too fiddly. It’s too straightforward to unintentionally do a lightweight press if you imply to click on the shutter, or vice-versa. Sliding forwards and backwards to regulate a management requires a variety of nice motor management in a small area; I usually discovered myself going previous the zoom I supposed and having to fastidiously nudge my finger only a millimeter the opposite approach to go get it proper.
I don’t actually get pleasure from the best way utilizing the Digital camera Management button makes the entire digicam interface go away, both, because it’s not all the time my solely or final adjustment earlier than I take the shot. In the long run, I turned that Clear Preview possibility off in Settings and barely used the Digital camera Management button for changes. I all the time use it to launch the digicam and as a shutter, although.
So far as photograph and video high quality goes, Apple is as soon as once more making small however vital strides. A quicker video pipeline permits as much as 4K at 120fps. The Photographs app permits you to change the playback framerate. Improved microphones enable for wind noise discount and higher total sound high quality. The brand new Photographic Types are slightly extra nuanced with simpler management and may be utilized non-destructively after the shot is taken. The ultrawide digicam has been upgraded to 48 megapixels, although to my eye the pictures don’t look very totally different from the older 12MP digicam. The 5x telephoto lens is now not restricted to the Professional Max mannequin, so those that just like the smaller Professional dimension can get pleasure from zoomier zoom. And it’s clearly the largest improve from customary to Professional aside from titanium.
My favourite new function? The flexibility to vary audio combine on a video with a faucet, between Customary, In-Body, Studio, and Cinematic. They make an enormous distinction. (This function is yet one more that’s additionally out there on the usual iPhone 16.)
However these are comparatively minor modifications. Energy-users making an attempt to movie their subsequent indie epic on iPhone will love these items however the overwhelming majority of customers will discover that, possibly, in the event that they squint excellent, the brand new iPhone takes barely higher footage than the previous one. The most important digicam improve this yr is certainly the devoted button, and the non-Professional fashions get that, too.
If you wish to shield your new iPhone, learn our greatest iPhone 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max case opinions.
iPhone 16 Professional efficiency: A18 Professional
The A18 Professional is much like the A18 discovered within the common iPhone 16, with just a few small upgrades. It’s acquired the identical 2 efficiency and 4 effectivity CPU cores however with bigger caches, which ought to enhance efficiency a bit. There’s a further GPU core. The media engine (video encode and decode, picture processing, and so on.) is beefier.
Each chips are made on an upgraded 3nm manufacturing course of that delivers higher energy effectivity, and Apple has improved thermal design and administration to assist reduce throttling when the telephones get sizzling.
How does all this translate into efficiency? Nicely, this factor is quick. Single-core CPU efficiency is 15 p.c greater than the A17 Professional, and it crushes each different smartphone in the marketplace. Multi-core efficiency is round 10 p.c quicker, and significantly quicker than any Android cellphone. It isn’t a stretch to say this iPhone is like having an M1 Macbook Air in your pocket, and in some methods, quicker.
The GPU will get a pleasant uplift in efficiency, too. In actually superior high-end graphics functions, particularly these with ray tracing, we’re seeing an enchancment of 30 p.c or extra.
New to our testing suite is Geekbench AI, a cross-platform benchmark that performs a set of frequent machine-learning duties like object identification, picture segmentation, and machine translation. It may be run on the CPU, GPU, or Neural Engine; we’re testing the latter to see enhancements in Apple’s devoted AI {hardware} over time.
The Neural Engine within the A18 Professional is anyplace from 10-40 p.c quicker than that within the A17 Professional. It’s arduous to check the identical take a look at on totally different {hardware} when it makes use of totally different software program frameworks, however no different cell machine seems near Apple’s NPU efficiency.
Yearly we are saying Apple has, on stability, the quickest smartphone round. And this yr we repeat that. It’s not what most individuals are shopping for iPhones for–they’ve been greater than quick sufficient for years. There’s something to be stated for the future-proofing of getting an overpowered iPhone immediately in order that it could actually proceed to run highly effective software program for years to come back.
Alternatively, the iPhone 16 Professional has 8GB of RAM, similar as final yr’s iPhone 15 Professional and the usual iPhone 16. That doesn’t look like lots for a $1,000+ cellphone lately. And for those who don’t assume that may matter in just a few years, simply ask the iPhone 15 house owners whose year-old cellphone can’t run Apple Intelligence as a result of it has 6GB of RAM, whereas the iPhone 15 Professional house owners can.
iPhone 16 Professional battery: An enormous enhance
Maybe the very best enchancment of the iPhone 16 Professional {hardware} is its unbelievable battery life. Apple stuffed in barely bigger batteries this time round, however battery life is a mixture of so many issues—processor and RAM effectivity, energy utilization of wi-fi chips, effectivity of the show, and extra. And all of it’s higher.
We use Geekbench 4’s previous battery rundown take a look at, which loops the Geekbench 4 CPU and GPU assessments (with brief breaks between) till the battery dies. We do that after setting the show to a continuing brightness of 200 nits with all adaptive brightness options off. That’s about as shiny as you’d set it in a standard workplace atmosphere.
We anticipated and enchancment, however not this a lot of 1! The iPhone 16 Professional lasted 54 p.c longer than the iPhone 15 Professional, and the 16 Professional Max saved working for about 43 p.c longer than the 15 Po Max! We acquired virtually 19 hours on the Professional Max and about 16.5 hours on the Professional.
I can’t say I skilled a 50 p.c enchancment in battery life in my day-to-day use, however it undoubtedly lasted hours longer. For a number of days, I took my iPhone 16 Professional off the charger within the morning at 90 p.c (the place I set my cost restrict with iOS 18’s new choices) and completed the day with 40 p.c. Solely once I ran by a number of strenuous benchmarks or performed a high-end 3D recreation for hours on finish did I ever come near working by the battery.
Everyone loves longer battery life, and the iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max ship a giant enhance over final yr’s mannequin. And for those who’re coming off a cellphone that’s two or three years previous, it’s going to really feel like your new iPhone is lasting actually twice as lengthy.
iPhone 16 Professional Apple Intelligence: Not included
If the brand new iPhone just a bit quicker, or takes slightly bit higher pictures or movies, it’s not going to encourage customers to improve. Battery life may, however what we’re in search of are main new options. Digital camera Management is one, however the large one, the one which’s speculated to promote you on the iPhone 16, is Apple Intelligence, Apple’s identify for its home-grown suite of generative AI instruments.
The advertising tagline for the iPhone 16 Professional is “Hello, Apple Intelligence.” Apple calls it “the first iPhone built for Apple Intelligence.” It’s going to summarize all of your notifications! It’s going to make pictures and customized emojis! It’s going to erase folks from the background of your pictures! It’s going to remodel Siri into a brilliant good private assistant that truly understands you! The Digital camera Management button will launch a brand new Visible Intelligence function that provides you AI-powered data on no matter you level your digicam at!
You’ve most likely seen the advertisements showcasing these superior options. They might make you wish to run out and purchase an iPhone 16.
There’s just one drawback: It isn’t out but. And it’s not going to be out quickly, probably not. Apple Intelligence is coming to iPhone 16 in bits and items over the subsequent half yr, or longer for those who don’t reside in an English-speaking area. Apple isn’t even clear about whether or not your complete European Union will get Apple Intelligence in any respect.
We’ve got a breakdown in our information that describes the options and when they’re coming, however solely the primary tranche of AI options can be found for us to check in beta: notification/electronic mail summaries (very helpful), writing instruments (much less helpful), and a Siri replace that makes it perceive you slightly higher (meh) and offers the display a full glowing edge (good).
In different phrases, the promoting level of iPhone 16 is nothing greater than a pinky-swear from the world’s most precious megacorp. It is a cellphone designed to run, and marketed on, untestable guarantees.
We’re moderately certain in regards to the high quality and value of the AI options coming in iOS 18.1 as a result of we’ve been testing it for weeks, however with out the flexibility to totally take a look at the others, we will’t presumably take into account them as a feather within the iPhone 16’s cap. So take into account this half one in every of our evaluate.
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Do you have to purchase the iPhone 16 Professional?
Greater than ever, it’s arduous to advocate the Professional mannequin iPhone over the non-Professional mannequin. It’s a tiny bit quicker, has a devoted 5x telephoto digicam, and may take some actually fancy high-end video in codecs that solely professionals will care about. It has ProMotion and an always-on show, however frankly, it’s sort of loopy that Apple doesn’t embody these issues on the common iPhone at this level.
The massive promoting factors—longer battery life, the Digital camera Management button, Apple Intelligence (ultimately)—are all out there on the non-Professional mannequin which additionally now has the Motion button, the brand new Photographic Types, and macro images, too.
In benchmarks and specs sheets, the iPhone 16 Professional is clearly higher than final yr’s iPhones, however if you use it every single day, does it actually really feel totally different? With out Apple Intelligence, essentially the most substantive enhancements are longer battery life and the Digital camera Management, each of that are on the common iPhone 16.
Maybe, when all the main Apple Intelligence options are literally out there, our suggestions will change. However for now, the iPhone 16 Professional, for nearly as good as it’s, won’t be value your cash. Our advice is to hold on to your present iPhone if it’s solely a yr or two previous. In the event you’re coming from an iPhone 13 or earlier, it’s time to improve, however even then, the iPhone 16 or 16 Plus is a greater deal than the iPhone 16 Professional for all however essentially the most demanding and choosy iPhone photographers and videographers.