iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max assessment: Constructed for Apple Intelligence*

Worth When Reviewed

$999

Finest Costs Immediately: Apple iPhone 16 Professional

We are actually nicely into the period by which yearly smartphone updates have change into quite odd. The place the Apple Retailer traces would as soon as stretch across the block and appeal to native information crews, right now the primary query everybody asks is, “Ought to I improve this 12 months?”

The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max match into this zeitgeist neatly. Sure, they’re higher. They’re quicker, have higher cameras, and embrace one new function (the Digital camera Management button). However for a lot of the issues most individuals use their iPhones for, many of those enhancements gained’t make a lot of a distinction over final 12 months’s mannequin, or the 12 months earlier than.

Enter Apple Intelligence. When {hardware} fails to excite, it’s as much as slick new software program to make you’re feeling such as you simply need to get the brand new iPhone. And with all the excitement round generative AI recently, Apple Intelligence is that gotta-have-it software program. It’s a collection of latest AI options that summarizes notifications and emails, makes Siri lots smarter, allows you to generate customized pictures and emojis, transcribe calls, and extra.

So necessary is that this AI stuff to the iPhone 16 that Apple’s advertising and marketing calls them the primary iPhones “constructed for Apple Intelligence.” (Sure, the iPhone 15 Professional works with Apple Intelligence however Apple now not sells that mannequin.) There’s only one downside: Apple Intelligence isn’t out but, and it’s going to dribble out in a number of levels 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.

Notice: The iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max have an identical options and efficiency, save for the apparent (measurement and battery life). This assessment covers each fashions.

iPhone 16 Professional design: It’s an iPhone

The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max look very very similar to final 12 months’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 mainly the identical. There’s white, black, and pure titanium. Final 12 months’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 actually appears or feels any completely different is the brand new Digital camera Management button, positioned 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 way in which down the appropriate facet below the ability button. This new function additionally comes with the common iPhone 16.

Regardless of the scale distinction, the shows kind of seem like these on the iPhone 15 Professionals, with equal brightness, ProMotion, and always-on capabilities. A small enchancment I actually recognize is that the show now goes all the way in which all the way down to a mere 1 nit of brightness. It’s simply the factor for many 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 enhance over final 12 months’s iPhones just isn’t dramatic, however I nonetheless discovered myself gravitating extra to the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional whereas I used to choose 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 greatest cellphone. For those who’re a type of who doesn’t love the scale of the Professional Max however makes use of it since you want that display measurement, take an in depth take a look at the Professional this 12 months.

There’s nothing unsuitable with this 12 months’s design, however the iPhone is in severe want of a refreshed design. Massive, heavy, thick metallic slabs with massive, offset digital camera bumps that make the cellphone wobble in your desk (and make it laborious to seat correctly on some charging stands or wi-fi chargers in vehicles) simply really feel slightly outdated 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 massive new exterior function for the whole 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’ll be able to choose a third-party digital camera app to launch in Settings > Digital camera, and and app like Instagram will usually 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 perform (zoom by default) which you modify by swiping forwards and backwards or dragging the management on the show. Double-tap frivolously for a listing of various features that may be adjusted on this manner: publicity, depth, digital camera choice, photographic types, or tone. It does lots—and it’s not at all times apparent what to press to do one thing.

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I’ve combined emotions concerning the Digital camera Management button. The total press to launch your most-used digital camera app is a large boon. It’s quick, you are able to do it with out fidgeting with the display, and it lets you change the digital camera launch in your lock display with one thing else with out dropping any utility. Urgent the button as a shutter, or holding it all the way down to take video, works nice. It’s a gamechanger for snapping photographs whereas carrying gloves.

The pressure-sensitive features, however, are too fiddly. It’s too simple to by accident do a lightweight press whenever you imply to click on the shutter, or vice-versa. Sliding forwards and backwards to regulate a management requires a whole lot of advantageous motor management in a small area; I usually discovered myself going previous the zoom I supposed and having to rigorously nudge my finger only a millimeter the opposite method to go get it proper.

I don’t actually get pleasure from the way in which utilizing the Digital camera Management button makes the entire digital camera interface go away, both, because it’s not at all times my solely or final adjustment earlier than I take the shot. Ultimately, I turned that Clear Preview possibility off in Settings and barely used the Digital camera Management button for changes. I at all times use it to launch the digital camera and as a shutter, although.

So far as photograph and video high quality goes, Apple is as soon as once more making small however important strides. A quicker video pipeline allows as much as 4K at 120fps. The Photographs app allows you to change the playback framerate. Improved microphones permit for wind noise discount and higher general sound high quality. The brand new Photographic Kinds are slightly extra nuanced with simpler management and may be utilized non-destructively after the shot is taken. The ultrawide digital camera has been upgraded to 48 megapixels, although to my eye the pictures don’t look very completely different from the older 12MP digital camera. The 5x telephoto lens is now not restricted to the Professional Max mannequin, so those that just like the smaller Professional measurement can get pleasure from zoomier zoom. And it’s clearly the most important 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 one more that’s additionally out there on the usual iPhone 16.)

However these are comparatively minor adjustments. Energy-users attempting to movie their subsequent indie epic on iPhone will love these items however the overwhelming majority of customers will discover that, perhaps, in the event that they squint good, the brand new iPhone takes barely higher photos than the outdated one. The most important digital camera improve this 12 months is unquestionably 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 evaluations.

iPhone 16 Professional efficiency: A18 Professional

The A18 Professional is much like the A18 discovered within the common iPhone 16, with a couple of 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 an extra 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 % increased than the A17 Professional, and it crushes each different smartphone available on the market. Multi-core efficiency is round 10 % 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 purposes, particularly these with ray tracing, we’re seeing an enchancment of 30 % or extra.

New to our testing suite is Geekbench AI, a cross-platform benchmark that performs a collection of widespread 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 % quicker than that within the A17 Professional. It’s laborious to match the identical check on completely different {hardware} when it makes use of completely different software program frameworks, however no different cellular gadget seems near Apple’s NPU efficiency.

Yearly we are saying Apple has, on stability, the quickest smartphone round. And this 12 months 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 mentioned for the future-proofing of getting an overpowered iPhone right now in order that it may possibly proceed to run highly effective software program for years to come back.

However, the iPhone 16 Professional has 8GB of RAM, identical as final 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional and the usual iPhone 16. That doesn’t appear to be lots for a $1,000+ cellphone as of late. And for those who don’t suppose that can matter in a couple of years, simply ask the iPhone 15 homeowners whose year-old cellphone can’t run Apple Intelligence as a result of it has 6GB of RAM, whereas the iPhone 15 Professional homeowners can.

iPhone 16 Professional battery: A large increase

Maybe the most effective 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 mix 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 outdated battery rundown check, 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 relentless brightness of 200 nits with all adaptive brightness options off. That’s about as vibrant as you’d set it in a standard workplace setting.

We anticipated and enchancment, however not this a lot of 1! The iPhone 16 Professional lasted 54 % longer than the iPhone 15 Professional, and the 16 Professional Max saved working for about 43 % longer than the 15 Po Max! We acquired nearly 19 hours on the Professional Max and about 16.5 hours on the Professional.

I can’t say I skilled a 50 % enchancment in battery life in my day-to-day use, but it surely undoubtedly lasted hours longer. For a number of days, I took my iPhone 16 Professional off the charger within the morning at 90 % (the place I set my cost restrict with iOS 18’s new choices) and completed the day with 40 %. Solely after I ran by means of a number of strenuous benchmarks or performed a high-end 3D sport for hours on finish did I ever come near working by means of the battery.

Everyone loves longer battery life, and the iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max ship a giant increase over final 12 months’s mannequin. And for those who’re coming off a cellphone that’s two or three years outdated, 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 photographs or movies, it’s not going to encourage customers to improve. Battery life may, however what we’re on the lookout for are main new options. Digital camera Management is one, however the massive one, the one which’s presupposed to promote you on the iPhone 16, is Apple Intelligence, Apple’s identify for its home-grown suite of generative AI instruments.

The advertising and marketing tagline for the iPhone 16 Professional is “Hey, Apple Intelligence.” Apple calls it “the primary iPhone constructed for Apple Intelligence.” It should summarize all of your notifications! It should make pictures and customized emojis! It should erase folks from the background of your photographs! It should remodel Siri into an excellent sensible private assistant that really understands you! The Digital camera Management button will launch a brand new Visible Intelligence function that offers you AI-powered data on no matter you level your digital camera at!

You’ve in all probability seen the advertisements showcasing these superior options. They could make you need to run out and purchase an iPhone 16.

There’s just one downside: 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 12 months, or longer for those who don’t dwell in an English-speaking area. Apple isn’t even clear about whether or not the whole European Union will get Apple Intelligence in any respect.

We now have 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/e-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 respected megacorp. It is a cellphone designed to run, and marketed on, untestable guarantees.

We’re fairly certain concerning the high quality and usefulness 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 completely check the others, we will’t presumably contemplate them as a feather within the iPhone 16’s cap. So contemplate this half certainly one of our assessment.

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Must you purchase the iPhone 16 Professional?

Greater than ever, it’s laborious to suggest the Professional mannequin iPhone over the non-Professional mannequin. It’s a tiny bit quicker, has a devoted 5x telephoto digital camera, and may take some actually fancy high-end video in codecs that solely execs will care about. It has ProMotion and an always-on show, however frankly, it’s sort of loopy that Apple doesn’t embrace these issues on the common iPhone at this level.

The large 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 Kinds, and macro pictures, too.

In benchmarks and specs sheets, the iPhone 16 Professional is clearly higher than final 12 months’s iPhones, however whenever you use it each day, does it actually really feel completely different? With out Apple Intelligence, probably 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 foremost Apple Intelligence options are literally out there, our suggestions will change. However for now, the iPhone 16 Professional, for pretty much as good as it’s, may not be value your cash. Our suggestion is to hold on to your present iPhone if it’s solely a 12 months or two outdated. For those who’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 probably the most demanding and choosy iPhone photographers and videographers.