By 
At Apple’s iPhone event today, the company announced its brand new iPhone 16 smartphones. If you’re looking for a relatively more affordable iPhone, then maybe the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models are for you. If you’re concerned that they might not be as powerful as the Pro models, it seems that isn’t something you’ll have to worry about.
Hardware
Starting with the chipset, it seems that Apple has decided to give the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus an upgrade in the chipset department. The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus were powered by the A16 Bionic chipset. This chipset is found in 2022’s iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models. But for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, Apple decided to give them a true upgrade by equipping them with the A18 chipset.
According to Apple, the new A18 chipset is built on a second-gen 3nm process. It has a 16-core neural engine that Apple claims is 2x faster when it comes to machine learning. It also boasts 17% more system bandwidth that can help power generative models quickly. The A18 has a 6-core CPU and according to Apple, it is 30% faster than the iPhone 15 and is also more energy efficient, consuming as much as 30% less power.
Apple hasn’t touched the display sizes of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. The base model features a 6.1-inch display, while the iPhone 16 Plus has a 6.7-inch display. That being said, Apple did bring some Pro features to the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, like the Action Button. There is also a new Camera Control button that we’ll cover in the next section.
Cameras
One of the newest features in the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus is the introduction of the Camera Control button. This is a new physical button with a sapphire cover that is also touch sensitive. On the surface it might seem like a shutter button, but it actually does so much more.
It can be used to help access Apple Intelligence features. For example, you can use it to launch the camera app to scan a restaurant’s logo and you can get information like opening hours, reviews, and more. You can also use it to identify objects and animals. If you think it sounds like Google Lens, it is essentially more or less the same conceptually.
It can also be used to access various camera functions by pressing lightly, pressing twice, and so on. This will save users time from having to swipe and tap on the screen.
Speaking of cameras, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus feature a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and a 12MP f/1.6 telephoto camera. However, with some software tweaks, users can essentially get 48MP quality photos.
Apple claims that each sensor has its own dedicated pipeline for image processing. The cameras can also be used to capture stereoscopic photos and videos, which can then be viewed on the Apple Vision Pro headset.
Apple Intelligence
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of focus on AI during the iPhone announcement. We mentioned one of those features above, such as identifying restaurants, objects, and animals, just to name a few. Apple also revealed how Apple Intelligence will be powering Siri. The company claims that Siri will now be more natural sounding as a result. There is also another feature where users can actually type to Siri, similar to how Android users can chat with Google Gemini.
Apple Intelligence will make using the new iPhones easier and more efficient to use. For example, emails and message notifications usually show the first couple of lines in a message. With Apple Intelligence, it will summarize the contents for you so that you don’t have to open the email or message to get an idea of what it’s about.
One thing to note is that Apple Intelligence won’t launch with the new iPhones. Apple says that the beta will launch next month, so we might have to wait a few months before we can access it fully.
Pricing & availability
Despite the massive upgrades in the chipset department and the addition of new buttons, Apple has maintained the price of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. The base iPhone 16 is priced starting at $799, while the iPhone 16 Plus will retail for $899, the same price as their predecessors. They will be released on the 20th of September.
Comments