10 things to know about the new Apple iPhone 16

Apple held its biggest event of the year at their Californian-based global HQ to announce the iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence. I was lucky enough to be a guest of Apple and inside the Steve Jobs Theatre for the announcement and having gone hands-on with the next iPhone there’s a bunch of things you need to know about iPhone 16!
These are gorgeous phones, no question about it, Apple does design and production like no one else. The five colours of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are a mix of subtle (Black and White) and vibrant (Green, Blue and Pink) though none are outrageous. The Pro and Pro Max models are entirely subdued, even the new Desert Titanium in real life just looks like a slightly more coloured version of the existing Natural Titanium model.
But here are 10 things you really need to know about iPhone 16.
NOTE: Prices are accurate at time of publishing.
Apple famously got rid of one of the original iPhone features last year, the little flick switch we used to put the phone in silent mode. In its place is the “Action Button”. Programmable to do what you wanted, including silence, or even Shazam – that was only in the 15 Pro models.
For iPhone 16 it’s on the whole range!
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In addition to the Action button, we now also have the “Camera Control”. This is a “fake” button. It’s a touch surface that can detect how hard you touch it and is even swipe-sensitive.
One press and the camera opens, press again to hit the shutter and take a photo, or press and hold to record video. But it’s the swipe and touch features that really stand out here. Zoom in with a swipe, or change exposure in global modes.
I had a play around with this today inside the Steve Jobs Theatre at Apple Park and it’s brilliant, though I think it will take some getting used to – the soft touch actions feel strange because it’s not a physical button and there’s a lot of settings hidden behind just a few actions.
I wouldn’t call the camera hardware a generational leap forward, but there’s a lot to love about them. On the base 16 and 16 Plus you can now do Macro photos using the ultra-wide lens, and that lens on the Pro models is now 48 megapixels.
On a Pro level phone you now get video shooting at up to 4K in 120 frames per second, with the option of using a fantastic four-microphone array when shooting to allow for some tricky sound isolation and cinema-style audio editing within a video – they call this Audio Mix.
Plus, the small “standard” iPhone 16 Pro now has the 5x zoom that only the Max had last year. Winning!
In recent years the standard and plus phones would get the previous year’s Pro chip. But this year all phones skip a generation and the iPhone 16 gets the A18 chip, while the Pro models get an A18 Pro chip.
This chip has AI standard levels of performance, including Neural Processing to rival modern laptops. Expect snappy performance from your iPhone 16.
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Now of course I haven’t tested this yet, but the claims Apple make about battery life will appeal to many. Up to 22 hours on the 16 and 16 Plus, while the Pro gets a huge jump to 27 hours – four hours more than last year’s equivalent model – that’s impressive.
Great news for wireless charging fans, the new models are capable of Magsafe wireless charging up to 25W – that’s more juice in a shorter period of time.
Now this won’t be available at launch, but give it to year’s end and you’ll see Apple Intelligence on iPhone 16 – all four models.
I’ve been Beta Testing this, and of all the smartphone-based AIs – it’s by far the best because it’s trying actively to help, rather than sitting waiting for you to ask for help.
Summarising notifications, summarising my inbox messages, helping me write, edit and even create images. Trust me, more people will use AI in their day thanks to Apple Intelligence.
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Not for everyone, but a very nifty feature of Voice notes aimed at musicians, if you have a track, let’s say a piano track, you can sing along to it, and it puts them together so it’s playing out the piano, you sing the vocals and you can listen back adjusting the levels. One for the singer you know.
Wi-Fi 7 is the latest standard in Wi-Fi and iPhone 16 support means if you’ve got a modern Wi-Fi 7 router at home, your iPhone 16 will get fast-lane access to the internet!
The Pro models are out of this world. The “smaller” one has a 6.3-inch screen, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max features a 6.9-inch screen – the biggest ever on an iPhone!
Great news, the iPhone is cheaper in 2024 than the 2023 models. Prices start at $1,399, all phones are available to pre-order this week and go on sale September 20.
Trevor Long travelled to the USA as a guest of Apple Australia.
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