In recent years, Apple has begun giving the iPhone Pro models significant chip upgrades in an effort to widen the performance gap between the phones, but this year they all start from the same starting point: the A18 chipset. The iPhone 16 Pro devices feature the A18 Pro, which features larger CPU cache sizes and an additional graphics score for slightly better overall performance. That said, in my benchmark tests, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus trail the Pros by a mere fraction and are still more powerful than any other phone on the market.

I played AAA games like Resident Evil And Assassin’s Creed MirageEnglish: though I did encounter a few more stuttering issues than the Pro models (and just as many crashes, though this was also due to me running a developer beta of iOS 18.1). It’s worth noting that these games are currently the cream of the crop in terms of graphical fidelity, so I’m purposely stress-testing them. Most of the titles you’ll play will run perfectly fine. This year’s Pro models have improved thermal performance, but Apple has also made some tweaks to improve heat dissipation on the base iPhones, and I didn’t notice the phones getting significantly hot.

More importantly, every iPhone 16 model will be able to run Apple Intelligence, the suite of artificial intelligence features coming in an update this October. I covered exactly what Apple Intelligence is in my guide to iOS 18, and I evaluated the current experience in depth in my iPhone 16 Pro review. There are some useful day-to-day features, such as real-time transcription in Voice Notes or call recording, but we’ll have to wait for Apple to release the full kit.

Battery life is a high point. I got better battery life on the iPhone 16 Plus than I did on the Pro Max, lasting over 7 hours of screen-on time with 36 percent remaining at 1 a.m. The iPhone 16 is no slouch, lasting over 6 hours of screen-on time with about 20 percent remaining, with a mix of doomscrolling Instagram, taking photos, browsing the web and streaming music. These devices will keep you busy all day and then some. Speaking of the battery, it’s easier to replace on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus (not the Pro models), and iFixit gave it a 7/10 for overall repairability, which is a vast improvement over previous years.

It’s a shame that Apple didn’t include an updated spec for the charging port. When Apple switched to USB-C last year, it kept the same data transfer speeds for the iPhone 15: 480 megabits per second. The Pro, on the other hand, has USB3 speeds of up to 20 gigabits per second. It’s a huge difference (and an unnecessary one), but it only matters if you’re moving files between your iPhone and another device with a cable.

Good cameras

Photo: Julian Chokkattu

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus hold their own in the camera department. I found no significant differences, even in low light, when shooting with the main camera and the ultra-wide angle. The Pro phones edge them out here and there, but the difference is small. Autofocus is new on the 12MP ultra-wide, so you can shoot macro photos. I can’t stop taking close-up photos of my pup’s nose. Boop!