iPhone 16 Pro vs. 15 Pro vs. 14 Pro vs. 13 Pro: Should You Upgrade This Year?

A new iPhone Pro series often includes a number of additional perks to justify a premium price over the entry-level iPhone. These perks usually include a third telephoto camera -- which has remained exclusive to the Pro series -- and other newer features that debut on a Pro model and roll out to the standard iPhone a year later. For instance, the Action button debuted on last year's iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, but now it's also available on the iPhone 16.

But while Apple keeps its base level iPhone on sale typically for two years after its initial launch, the Pro model usually gets discontinued after one year. That doesn't mean you can't find last year's iPhone 15 Pro -- it's likely still in stock at physical stories while supplies last or available as a refurbished model -- but the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will otherwise displace last year's 15 Pro and Pro Max.

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max each offer a slightly new design over last year's Pro phones that could make a noticeable difference in how you use the phone. Both of this year's Pro devices are shipping with larger screens, with the smaller Pro getting a larger 6.3-inch display (up from 6.1 inches on the 15 Pro) and the Pro Max getting even bigger with a 6.9-inch display (up from last year's 6.7-inch display). 

The 16 Pro now has an identical camera to its corresponding Pro Max model, whereas typically the Pro Max would get a smaller enhancement. This includes a 5x optical zoom, which wasn't available on last year's 15 Pro but was on the Pro Max. All of the iPhone 16 devices, including the base and Plus models, get a new Camera Control button that provides quick access to photo and video modes. 

The iPhone 16 Pro will gain access to various AI features from Apple Intelligence, including a Visual Intelligence feature, which uses the camera and AI to identify objects and places around you. While the iPhone 15 Pro will also gain access to these features, the iPhone 14 Pro and earlier Pro models will not. These features will also include note summarization, an enhanced Siri assistant and Genmoji -- a method of generating new emoji using a prompt.   

Apart from AI-enabled hardware, iPhone 16 Pro also shares features with the iPhone 15 Pro that aren't available on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro. Those premium iPhones have a titanium finish introduced last year, which helps make the phones lighter than most earlier models despite their larger screen size. Both the 15 Pro and 16 Pro have USB-C ports instead of Lightning connectors, and both can record spatial video, which is a type of 3D video that you can watch on the Apple Vision Pro headset. An always-on display, Dynamic Island camera cutout and satellite connectivity for Emergency SOS are features available across all of these Pro models apart from the iPhone 13 Pro. 

We've outlined in the below specs chart all of the other differences between each of these iPhone Pro models, so you can see how the phone has evolved over the years. In recent years, upgrading year over year typically offers small differences, but jumping from an iPhone 13 Pro or earlier to the iPhone 16 Pro would be an impactful change.