If you’re used to Apple’s claims, you’ll know that they sometimes get a touch… grandiose. Frequently the company can back it up and the new iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are possibly the most advanced consumer smartphones ever made. This isn’t just born from the internal component upgrades.
Apple’s AI implementation is also key. Everything you’ve seen announced for the iPhone 16 is implemented here but the dedicated camera and audio recording upgrades are also phenomenal. Assuming they work the way Apple says they will. They probably do.
Look outside
This year’s Pro smartphones are the largest examples of their type from Apple (so far). The 16 Pro features a 6.3in display, the Pro Max raises that to 6.9in, and both feature the skinniest bezels ever to grace an iPhone. Apple has updated its CeramicShield glass but you probably already know what an iPhone screen looks like. It’ll be gorgeous.
As will the iPhone 16 Pro’s body. Grade 5 titanium makes up each model, with four different shades to choose from. Black, White, Natural, and a sandy Desert hue are set to launch in the next few weeks. As with the Watch Series 10, the chassis plays a role in facilitating some of the new features these devices carry around. It’s an engineering thing, which some Apple Genius will be happy to explain.
Oh, yes, and the 16 Pro series features Apple’s best battery ever. What that means, we’ll likely only discover when the phones are out in the wild.
Look inside
The iPhone 16 Pro lineup gets a brand-new A18 Pro processor. It is, obviously, better than the iPhone 16’s vanilla A18 and is aimed at AAA gaming. Whether this matters for users is up for debate but the capability is an effective benchmark for power. Apple calls this its fastest processor, with a faster GPU, enhanced NPU support, and upgrades to every part of the chipset. It might well be the fastest processor in any phone on the planet, Apple’s current boast.
How can we believe the company? Well, all of its performance increase data is compared with this chipset’s immediate predecessor, the A17 Pro. When Apple is being sneaky its stats look back a little further than that.
What can the iPhone 16 Pro do?
As mentioned, there are a ton of Apple Intelligence features coming to the whole iPhone 16 range. The Pro phones form part of that but there are additional skills inbound to justify the significant premium Apple is about to charge everyone.
The new 48MP wide-angle sensor brings a range of camera skills to the iPhone. It’s not dissimilar to the iPhone 16’s new capabilities but both the Pro and the Pro Max get Apple’s tetraprism. The major photography change is fielded by Apple Intelligence. Smarter tone and colour changes using AI (of course) are available, both post-shot and in real-time. It’s like a wholly customisable Instagram filter but it’ll intelligently upgrade the entire image instead of just slapping a funny gradient over everything. So… nothing like an Instagram filter, then.
iPhone 16 Pro users get 4K video recording at 120fps, a feature Apple punted as “cinema-grade slow motion”. It was one of the few instances of actual humour in the entire presentation but the feature also looks pretty slick. There are several playback speeds selectable post-recording that offer different effects. Oh, yes, and it’ll do all of this while recording in HDR.
Apple is also punting its audio upgrades. Four studio-quality mics, coupled with Apple Intelligence, let users capture Spatial Audio content (Apple still assumes more folks will be buying an Apple Vision Pro) while Audio Mix lets users isolate captured audio in ways that might make Hollywood (and certainly Sony) very jealous indeed. But it might be the humble Voice Memo app that has the coolest upgrade. Using the voice recording app, it’s possible to record a track and then layer a second recording on top of it. This recording — a vocal track in Apple’s example — is automatically isolated and separated when you’re done. That… could be handy.
Want one? Of course you do. Can you afford one? We’ll see closer to the time. The international launch is 20 September, and we’re guessing we’ll see it here in SA about a week later. Pricing will probably turn up between now and then. For now, you’ll have to make do with the US pricing, starting the iPhone 16 Pro off at $1,000 for 128GB (R17,000) and its 128GB Pro Max sibling at $1,200 (R21,430).
