The highly anticipated Apple event has arrived, and as expected, the spotlight is on the iPhone 16 Pro and its Max counterpart. While maintaining a familiar design aesthetic, Apple has packed in numerous upgrades to its latest flagship phones. Let’s dive into what makes these new models stand out from their predecessors.
One of the most noticeable changes is the introduction of a physical shutter button, replacing the digital one on previous models. This new button, featuring a capacitive surface and taptic engine, allows for both tap and slide gestures for quick access to various camera functions. Beyond taking pictures, it also brings up a control slider in the camera viewfinder for adjusting settings like exposure and depth of field.
Apple has revamped the iPhone 16 Pro’s build using Grade 5 Titanium with a sandblasted texture. This not only improves thermal performance but also contributes to what Apple claims is the “best iPhone battery life ever.” The display sizes have been bumped up as well, with the iPhone 16 Pro featuring a 6.3-inch panel and the Max version sporting a 6.9-inch display.
Powering these impressive features is the new A18 Pro processor, built on an updated 3-nanometer process. Apple has incorporated technology from its Mac lineup’s Apple silicon to enhance graphics output, resulting in significant performance boosts and power efficiency gains. The A18 Pro delivers a 17% increase in memory bandwidth, a 2x improvement in hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and up to 20% better sustained performance compared to its predecessor. The 6-core architecture, comprising two performance cores and four efficiency cores, outperforms the A17 Pro in raw performance by around 15%.
The most significant software upgrade is Visual Intelligence, integrated into the Camera Control button. This feature, akin to Google Lens but powered by Siri AI and ChatGPT integration, enables users to interact with the world around them in a whole new way. Visual Intelligence seamlessly integrates with tools like Calendar, providing a more intuitive and comprehensive experience.
Apple has retained the 48-megapixel primary camera but upgraded the ultrawide camera to a 48-megapixel sensor while keeping the telephoto camera at a 12-megapixel resolution. Notably, the 5x optical zoom capability, previously exclusive to the Pro Max model, is now available on both the iPhone 16 Pro and its Max variant. In terms of video capabilities, the iPhone 16 Pro now offers the ability to capture 4K videos at 120fps, with the convenience of ProRes and LOG capture directly on external storage.
Despite the impressive upgrades, Apple has kept the pricing unchanged. The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999, while the Max version is priced at $1,199 in the US. Pre-orders begin on Friday, and shipments are scheduled to commence on September 20, 2024.
