Apple officially unveiled the next generation of its flagship phones, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, which see major changes with the arrival of Apple’s artificial intelligence technologies for the first time. Despite the company’s delay in introducing a phone with AI features, it is definitely exciting.
Apple held its annual event today at the company’s headquarters in the United States under the title ‘It’s Glow Time’. This event revealed the iPhone 16, along with a new generation of its smartwatches. It is expected that there will also be new wireless earbuds, AirPods.
Overall, the design of the phone looks very similar to the previous generation, with a square body, titanium frame, and a Dynamic Island slot in the screen to house the front camera and Face ID sensors.
The biggest change in design this year is the presence of a new button on the right side of the phone, known as the ‘Capture Button’, which was revealed in many leaks. It is dedicated to actual camera control and is located below the power button.
The phones come with OLED screens, measuring 6.3 inches in the iPhone 16 Pro model and 6.9 inches in the Pro Max model. This is an increase from the previous generation while maintaining the same dimensions, but the expansion is at the expense of the surrounding edges of the screen, making it the smallest ever, according to the company.
In preparation for the AI leap, Apple said that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will come with the new A18 Pro processor, made with 3-nanometer second-generation architecture. The company promises that the processor will be hexa-core with 20% better performance than the previous generation, A17 Pro.
The cores distribution; two for high performance and four for efficiency, as well as an integrated neural chip for AI technologies with 16 cores.
Apple says that the neural chip has been completely redesigned in the phone this year, capable of processing up to 35 trillion operations per second.
Regarding the camera and photography, the iPhone 16 Pro will come with a triple-lens rear camera, with a fourth ‘virtual’ camera intervening through software development to offer the same capabilities as a quad-lens camera.
That ‘virtual’ camera has a 48-megapixel resolution, where the primary camera in the actual cameras is also 48 megapixels, and the second one is ultra-wide with the same resolution. In addition, there is a 12-megapixel zoom camera that supports optical zoom up to 5 times and digital zoom up to 30 times.
Apple says that the zoom lens is now the same in both the Pro and Pro Max models of the iPhone 16, after being exclusively featured in the iPhone 15 Pro Max models last year.
The iPhone 16 lineup also includes the new camera control button, and Apple says that as part of a software update later this year, the button will get a two-stage trigger like professional cameras, with half-press for focus and full press for capture.
Apple introduces new styles for photos, and you can change the styles in photos after capture. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will also be able to record videos in 4K resolution at 120 frames per second, and the video playback speed can be adjusted after capture from the Photos app.
The company also promotes improvements to the sound quality in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max this year, as both models will have four quality stereo microphones. Users will also be able to capture spatial audio when recording video.
In the upcoming update to Voice Memos later this year, phone users will be able to add an audio clip above the recording, which could be useful for music production.
The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will be available in four colors; black, white, graphite (natural titanium), and gold (desert).
The price of the iPhone 16 Pro model starts at $999 for 128GB storage capacity, while the Pro Max model starts at $1199 for 256GB storage capacity.
Pre-orders for the phones will begin next Friday, September 13, and shipping and availability will start in markets from September 20.
