Apple intelligence, new cameras, and a powerful new SoC await!
It’s that time of year again: A brand new iPhone has just launched, paired with a presentation that seems to make your current phone – a 1-year old iPhone 15 – already seem obsolete. The buzzwords are flying – Apple Intelligence, anyone? – there’s talk of entirely new camera capabilities, new buttons, new Siri, powerful new hardware, and so much more!
As an iPhone user, an upgrade seems inevitable. How else are you going to stay relevant and fully in sync with Apple’s vision of the digital world? If you are itching to splurge on that brand new iPhone 16, here’s what you need to know.
Key differences
Before we look at use-cases, here are the upgrades and changes you can look forward to if you pick up an iPhone 16:
Faster SoC: The iPhone 16 now features the A18 SoC from Apple. An SoC or System-on-Chip houses the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other processors that make up the computing heart of your phone. Apple says that the new A18 SoC is up to 30 per cent faster than the A16 in the iPhone 15, with significant improvements to both AI and graphics performance. RAM also gets bumped up to 8GB from 6GB. Translation: Games will run faster and the phone supports Apple Intelligence.
Apple Intelligence: The biggest upgrade to the iPhone 16, per Apple, is support for Apple Intelligence. This term covers a swathe of features that run both locally on your iPhone and also on the cloud. The features that run locally require specialised hardware and are thus only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 16 series models. These features include intelligent summaries of documents and web pages, smarter notifications and notes, and audio transcriptions. You can even generate images from sketches, create unique memoji, and a lot more besides. Only a limited set of these features will be available on the iPhone 15.
Better battery life: One of the bigger upgrades is improved battery life. The iPhone 16 has a larger battery as well as a more efficient SoC, resulting in a claimed 10 per cent improvement to battery life in many scenarios. The phone should also run cooler as the new chip doesn’t get as hot.
Faster charging: The iPhone 15 supports 15W wireless charging and about 25W via a cable. The iPhone 16 upgrades this to 25W via MagSafe and 40-45W via a USB-C cable and compatible charger.
Better cameras: While the primary 48MP camera remains largely unchanged, the 12MP ultrawide on the iPhone 16 now supports macro photography as well as video. The aperture is also larger at F2.2, and both cameras get a new anti-reflective coating and photography style options. Other camera updates include support for 4K60 video with Dolby Vision support via QuickTake – limited to 1080p on the iPhone 15 – and support for spatial video and photos for Apple Vision Pro compatibility.
Faster cellular and Wi-Fi: Both the 5G and Wi-Fi radios have been updated in the iPhone 16. You now go from Wi-Fi 6 to Wi-Fi 7, and there’s a faster and more efficient 5G modem from Qualcomm. Together, this upgrade should result in a faster and more reliable network connection. In addition, the Thread smart home protocol is now supported on the 16. It was previously only available on the iPhone 15 Pro.
New camera controls: Apple has added a dedicated camera button to the iPhone 16. This isn’t a traditional button in that it’s a capacitive surface with haptic feedback that emulates a button. Pressing on it quick-launches the camera app, pressing lightly triggers focus, and pressing hard triggers the shutter. You can also swipe along the button to cycle between different camera modes.
Speaking of buttons, the Action button from the 15 Pro now comes to the 16.
Misc. updates: Other updates include the introduction of a bunch of interesting new colours – white, pink, teal, and ultramarine. The ever-popular Black is still available of course.
While we’ve been hoping against hope, the display still remains a 60Hz model, but gets a minor update in the form of support for 1-nit minimum brightness. This can be useful in the dark or when you’re using the phone as a bedside clock.
Lastly, you’re getting a new ceramic shield glass that’s said to be stronger and more durable than the one on the 15.
Should you upgrade to the iPhone 16?
The answer to this question comes down to several factors. While the number of upgrades is impressive this time around, not everyone wants or uses all those features. If you’re a gamer, the iPhone 16 is worth upgrading to only if you play especially demanding games such as Resident Evil or Assassin’s Creed Mirage. If you love photography and shooting video, the primary camera on the 16 isn’t a significant upgrade but perhaps you’ll enjoy the new macro mode. Spatial video is of course only useful if you intend to get the ridiculously expensive Apple Vision Pro. The new camera controls are also more of a nice-to-have than a must-have. Lastly, the much-vaunted Apple Intelligence features aren’t available yet. We don’t know how useful they are and whether they justify an expensive upgrade to a newer phone. We’d wait for detailed reviews before taking a call based on Apple Intelligence. If you have the money to spare, however, go ahead and upgrade. The iPhone 16 is a better phone than the iPhone 15 and if money is no object the upgrade is a no-brainer!
