That said, the larger iPhones DO tend to have the best battery life. Apple says the iPhone 16 Pro Max offers the best battery life in an iPhone, though we’ll have to test that claim. If battery life is your top priority, choose between the largest models: the iPhone 16 Plus and the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
All of these iPhones have an Action Button, which replaces the Mute switch and is now configurable, so you can replicate the Mute switch’s functionality or perform another action, like turning on the flashlight or activate a shortcut. They all have a new Camera Control button (yes, it’s a button). You can use this to open the camera and take a photo, but a light press will bring up different camera modes, and you can slide your finger left or right across the button’s surface to cycle through different modes, zoom levels, and so on. Finally, you can use this button to activate Visual Intelligence, which is like Apple’s version of Google Lens—point your iPhone at something in the real world to get more information about it.
Photo: Julian Chokkattu
Every iPhone 16 model can now take advantage of a cool video feature called Audio Mix. This lets you change how your videos sound while you’re editing them by choosing an audio profile. These profiles include “In-Frame,” which focuses the audio on anyone in the frame; Studio, which makes it sound like you’re in a recording studio, cutting out any background noise; and Cinematic, which makes sure anyone in the middle of the frame is clearly visible, with a little bit of background noise mixed in. This feature should work better on the iPhone 16 Pro models because they have upgraded microphones.
Redesigned Photography Styles are also available across the board. They’re a bit like filters, but better—instead of changing the look of an entire image, these “Styles” can preserve skin tones so they don’t look weird, and can adjust other parts of the photo like shadows and highlights. Apple also gives you more control over your skin tone, rather than taking more of a one-size-fits-all approach like What Google does with its Pixel phones.
Apple Intelligence is the headline feature, and the only way to try out the new AI capabilities is with a phone that supports it: the iPhone 16, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. I covered these features in more detail in Our iOS 18 guideBut in short, it includes an improved Siri experience, the ability to create emoji (and Genmoji!), and writing support features like proofreading and changing the tone of messages.
