Apple iPhone 16 Pro Review: A Professional Camera Phone

People upgrading to this year’s Apple iPhone 16 Pro will be greeted with a (slightly) larger screen, new camera optics, and a new Camera Control (shutter) button. While the individual advancements year-over-year aren’t overly exciting for tech nerds, the sum of the parts equals a highly advanced device capable of keeping people who care about getting good photos happy.

Price and Availability

The iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999 with 128GB of storage and is available in four shades of titanium: black, natural, desert, and silver. It's joined by the iPhone 16 starting at $799 and the iPhone Pro Max at $1,199.

iPhone 16 Pro Overview: Here’s What You Get

Last year, the iPhone 15 Pro’s lightweight titanium frame, Action Button, and USB-C port stood out as the phone’s highlights. Those elements continue to be meaningful in day-to-day use, but this year it’s the 5x zoom and Camera Control button that have stood out to me the most while going hands-on.

This year, you're getting something even more refined. There are no surprises here, but in turn, the iPhone 16 Pro has become one of the most polished phones in history. There are almost no compromises to it. It features speed, optics, and an abundance of other features packed into a sleek package. Even the gold/pink-ish color (Desert Titanium) isn’t offensive. There's a lot here, while also not much to get excited about. The iPhone 16 Pro is a bit of a paradox.

Finally, Real Zoom Comes to the Smaller Pro iPhone

It’s not that last year’s (regular-sized) iPhone 15 Pro didn’t have any optical zoom, but it didn’t have the best reach possible. This year, the iPhone 16 Pro gains a 5x optical zoom thanks to Apple’s tetraprism design.

Let me tell you, it’s a great addition to this year’s smaller Pro phone. The zoom isn’t perfect, of course, it works better with more light, but the advanced zoom is going to help a lot of people capture photos of their kids on a sports field as they’re back on the sidelines.

I was stunned by some of the photos I was able to capture of far-off landscapes from my backyard. It didn’t feel like I was missing this type of zoom before, but almost instantly the feature feels indispensable.

The ultra-wide camera also sees an improvement, going from 12MP to 48MP. It’s not the same lens as the main camera, but it is visibly better. If nothing else, this lens upgrade also helps improve spatial photos and videos if you shoot in the format made for the Vision Pro.

The main camera is roughly the same as last year, but it technically gets better with a two-times faster write speed, which may or may not enable some of the more professional, higher-resolution camera features.

The Camera Control Is Cool, but Tricky

If you need an excuse to upgrade to this year’s iPhone 16 Pro, you can point to the Camera Control as a must-have feature because it's a physical button. Pressing it at any point will launch the camera. Swiping your finger over it will then switch settings.

Before testing it, I was optimistic about the new button for the camera, but after the first few days, my excitement about it has seriously waned.

The button itself feels solid to press. It’s big enough for my finger to find easily. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se. My hesitations are mostly about swiping to change the settings and navigating that small contextual drop-down menu directly under it. You have to apply pressure without actually pressing the button, which I found awkward. It’s also hard to discover how to use it fully, unlike most of Apple’s other interactions.

Not only is it difficult to navigate the menu, but the button's location on the phone's side is not ideal for vertical or horizontal shooting. The button is a little too far from the right side when in landscape and not high enough when shooting in portrait. I don’t expect everyone will feel the same because of different-sized hands and fingers, but there’s a chance you might not find it the most comfortable position.

In the end, I don’t want to give up the Camera Control. But it just didn’t wow me in the way I thought it might. Set your expectations, and you should be happy with it. (By the way, not all case makers handle the Camera Control in the same way.)

The Photo Gallery

Here are some sample photos taken without editing. The first two sets are the progression of available zoom presets.

There are general sample shots taken with the main camera at 1.5x (35mm equivalent) with no edits.

The latest version of the Photographic Styles feature is now prominent in the Camera app. It’s fancier and more complex than a “photo filter,” even if it doesn’t appear much different from one for someone applying it to their picture. Here are some examples of Photographic Styles. The first image is the original, non-edited one.

The 16 Pro Gets Better: Screen, Battery, and Processor

The iPhone 16 Pro technically has a larger screen—6.3 inches compared to last year’s 6.1-inch display. The screen has grown, but the phone’s physical dimensions haven’t ballooned. The 16 Pro is 0.12 inches taller. Without a side-by-side comparison to the iPhone 15 Pro, most people probably won’t be able to tell that the size has changed.

Having a larger screen is always nice for watching videos and viewing photos, but in practice, I only noticed the difference when transferring data from my 15 Pro to the 16 Pro, and they were sitting right next to each other. I’ve mostly forgotten about the larger screen on the new phone.

One subtle change that you might notice more often is an increased battery capacity. Apple quantifies this as four hours longer for video playback time. Of course, I’ve spent more time going through all the ins and outs of the phone, using it more than normal, so it’s harder to tell. Anecdotally, the 16 Pro does seem to be getting a little more life than the previous model. Even better, the new phone doesn’t feel as hot while bouncing back and forth between apps or the more advanced tasks like editing photos.

Another battery tweak is the addition of faster charging. The phone is now capable of 45W fast charging with a high-speed charger. It also gains increased MagSafe charging capabilities, going from a 15W top wireless speed to 25W with a supported charger. At the time of publishing, Apple makes the only MagSafe charger that supports the new 25W output.

The addition of Wi-Fi 7 means that with a supported router and internet connection, your wireless data transfer and internet speeds could be much faster. Again, there are plenty of caveats to get all the pieces in place, but this phone is now closer to the front of the pack regarding technical abilities for streaming and connections.

The A18 Pro system on a chip isn’t unimportant—it helps enable the coming Apple Intelligence and improves battery performance, after all—but there’s not a whole lot to discuss as it pertains to regular consumers. It’s the newest and latest chip that Apple offers, which means it's the best and fastest.

For those curious, it’s a 6-core CPU (two performance cores and four efficiency cores), a 16-core Neural Engine for AI-related tasks, and a 6-core GPU. The regular iPhone 16 has some technical differences, as in, these are not the same processors, but the most notable thing to point to is the GPU, which has one fewer core (5) than the Pro model.

Apple Intelligence: TBD

After seeing Apple’s WWDC keynote in June, I was prepared to dedicate a whole section of this new phone’s review to Apple Intelligence, the company’s AI software. But somewhere between then and now, Apple pushed Intelligence features back to iOS 18.1, which it says will come out in October 2024.

I tried the beta software on an iPad Pro. I like the initial features that are coming, but they aren’t here yet. There’s also nothing particular about this specific 16 Pro that makes it the “Apple Intelligence” phone. All the iPhone 16 models have 8GB to enable AI tasks, but again, that doesn’t make it an AI phone.

Apple Intelligence's arrival should be nice on an iPhone 16 Pro, but it will also come to the non-Pro 16. As of right now, it’s not a reason to buy an iPhone.

Should You Buy the Apple iPhone 16 Pro?

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro is the best phone the company has ever made. It's the most refined version of itself thus far. In a vacuum, it's nearly perfect. However, when compared directly with last year's iPhone 15 Pro, the advancements are minimal. Even compared to the iPhone 13 Pro, there's a deep familiarity that can make it seem less special than coming to the phone would be from never having used an iPhone.

For better or worse, this year's phone is all about the camera. The 5x zoom is a meaningful feature for people constantly pinching and zooming in while taking photos. The advancement in optical reach should provide much better photos in those instances. The Camera Control might be a boon for certain people.

So, on the whole, how could you be disappointed with a great phone? I don't think most people will be. But I also don't think people should be upgrading from the iPhone 15 Pro. Upgrading from an older phone before 2023 will yield a lot more enjoyment, including the USB-C port and Action Button. If you're coming from a really old phone, don't discount the regular iPhone 16—it's a banner year for the regular model.