Apple iPhone 16

The iPhone 16 is indiscernible from the iPhone 15 when viewed side-by-side, display up. The only way to tell them apart is by the rear camera alignment and the extra buttons on the sides. The iPhone 16 features a vertical rear camera layout, as opposed to the diagonal layout on its predecessor. Those paying close attention will also notice the Action Button on the left side above the volume buttons and a flush strip on the right side below the power button.Another way to identify the iPhone 16 is by its colours. The base iPhone 16 models now come in more vibrant and saturated colours compared to the subtle, lighter shades of their predecessors. The Ultramarine, Teal, and Pink colours stand out and are likely to be popular among buyers. We received the White iPhone 16, but there's also a Black option for those who prefer more understated tones, which will likely be covered by a case anyway.Speaking of cases, I got the Fuchsia silicone case, which pairs well with the White iPhone and costs Rs 4,900 on the Apple Store. If you're looking for something more affordable, I also checked out DailyObjects' transparent Beam MagSafe case, priced at Rs 999. It offers a smooth feel and nice grip, though the metallic buttons on the sides, while tactile, might seem a bit flimsy. Both the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are water and dust-resistant and come with the latest generation Ceramic Shield.The addition of the Action Button marks the end of the Ring/Silent flip switch era. I'd like to take a moment to appreciate the simplicity of flipping the switch down for silent mode and back up for the ringer. While the Action Button still handles this by default, if you remap it to launch something like the flashlight or magnifier, you'll have to use the on-screen option in the Control Center to switch between ring and silent modes.The iPhone 16 retains the same 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR display as its predecessor. It also shares the same 2,556 x 1,179-pixel resolution, 460 ppi, up to 2,000 nits peak outdoor brightness, and (unfortunately) 60Hz refresh rate. There's no always-on display, again. The only addition is that the minimum brightness can now go as low as 1 nit, which is great for those who like to scroll through social media in the dark before bed. If you can look past Apple's insistence on using a 60Hz display in 2024, every other aspect is excellent, including the screen's sharpness, colours, and brightness under direct sunlight.

Despite coming with only two rear cameras, the iPhone 16 (and iPhone 16 Plus) can actually capture four modes. The 48MP primary 'Fusion' camera can capture 2x optical-quality photos. Note that it is "optical-quality" in that it will give you close to optical zoom photos without a dedicated optical zoom lens. The 2x zoom works quite well and is handy when you want to take close-up portraits. Meanwhile, the 12MP ultra-wide lens with autofocus allows you to take close-up macro shots, which wasn't possible on the iPhone 15.I played with the cameras a lot over the last few weeks, including during my trip to Phuket, Thailand, and I was quite pleased with what the iPhone 16 was able to do in daylight conditions. Photos look sharp and clear, though colours can look slightly muted and less vibrant as Apple tends to go for natural-looking colours. This is where Photographic Styles really help, but more about that later. The iPhone 16 has a fast shutter and quick autofocus to help you capture sharp and blur-free photos.The iPhone 16 gets a smaller sensor than the Pro models but that's a good thing. The iPhone 16 is able to preserve some of the shadows in photos to offer a more contrast-y look compared to the iPhone 16 Pro (or even the 15 Pro) which lean towards brighter photos. 

Photographic Styles gets a major upgrade on the iPhone 16. The previous version, available until the iPhone 15 series, had five basic tones to choose from - Standard, Rich Contrast, Vibrant, Warm, and Cool. The latest generation Photographic Styles gets five new 'Undertones' settings - Standard, Amber, Gold, Rose Gold, Neutral, and Cool Rose; and nine 'Mood' settings - Vibrant, Natural, Luminous, Dramatic, Quiet, Cozy, Ethereal, Muted B&W, and Stark B&W.Additionally, you get more granular controls with each setting, allowing you to tweak the tone, colour, and palette using an on-screen control pad and intensity slider. To put it simply, these pre-set settings and slides allow you to adjust the colour, brightness, and contrast of a photo in real time before tapping the shutter button. So, if you felt the iPhone photos look over-processed, these settings make sure you have greater control with how your photos should look. And it works really well. I mentioned earlier that default daylight shots look muted and dull, as far as colour is concerned, but adjusting the tone and colour can really bring out a dramatically different photo, one that looks more pleasing to the eyes.Much like the Camera Control button, the new Photographic Styles has a learning curve to it and it will take a while to know which setting or filter is right for a particular scene. The mood settings are more like Instagram filters which changes the entire colour profile of the image while undertones are for adjusting skin tones to get the right kind of shade or hue.

All iPhone 16 models are 'made for Apple Intelligence,' even though they don't come with any of the new AI features out of the box. Still, a key benefit is that both the base iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have been upgraded by two generations to the A18 chipset, along with 8GB of RAM, which is fantastic. While the additional RAM is necessary for future Apple Intelligence features, you still benefit from having all that extra RAM for smoother performance in day-to-day non-AI tasks. The A18 SoC performed extremely well in benchmarks, outscoring Exynos 2400, Tensor G4, and MediaTek Dimensity 9300-powered phones in the segment.Suffice it to say that the A18 chipset paired with 8GB RAM breezes through day-to-day tasks without breaking a sweat. The 3nm chipset is extremely power-efficient while handling basic tasks like messaging, browsing through social media, etc. The A18 processor is designed to handle more advanced processing, especially AI-related tasks, but we'll only be able to see what it's capable of once Apple Intelligence starts rolling out.It's quite disappointing to see that the latest iPhones don't ship with the one feature they were made for: Apple Intelligence. You will have to wait for the stable iOS 18.1 update to get the first batch of Apple Intelligence features with more to follow in 2025.The iPhone 16 can be upgraded to iOS 18 during the setup process. While I couldn't test out Apple Intelligence on it, I was able to do it on the iPhone 15 Pro Max on iOS 18.1 public beta. I was able to try out features like Writing Tools which are a set of tools that can be pulled up after highlighting some text on native Apple apps like Notes and Safari. With Writing Tools, you can proofread, rewrite, summarise, and do more with a piece of text, and it works pretty well. I also liked summary notifications, which creates a short summary of a bunch of notifications from an app like WhatsApp or Gmail. It worked well in the case of Gmail, not so much for WhatsApp.iOS 18 brings more ways to customise the iPhone than before. The biggest change can be seen in the Control Center, which allows you to add more controls, including third-party apps, and arrange them however you like. Control Center also gets two more pages to swipe through, one for a dedicated Apple Music card and the other for Network settings. I barely found myself scrolling beyond the first page of the Control Center. The Home Screen gets deeper customisations as well, allowing you to change the icons and widgets to dark or tinted themes and reposition icons and widgets anywhere on the home screen. 

I was floored by the battery life of the iPhone 15 Plus last year. It consistently gave me between 6 to 7 hours of screen-on time, and I continued to get around 6 hours throughout the year. Switching to the base iPhone 16, I knew I wouldn't get the same Plus-sized battery life, but I was still pleased with the results. The iPhone 16 delivered anywhere between 5 to 6 hours of screen-on time during heavy usage, leaving me with about 20 to 30 percent battery by the end of the day. On lighter usage days, the phone can easily last through the day and into the next, thanks to excellent standby time. The iPhone 16 Plus will undoubtedly offer even better battery life. It will be interesting to see how Apple Intelligence will affect battery life in the future.Apple has quietly improved fast charging on its latest iPhones, though only slightly. Apple's claim that the iPhone 16 can charge up to 50 percent in just 30 minutes is accurate. After reaching 80 percent charge, the charging speed tends to slow down, regardless of your battery optimisation settings. In our testing, it took roughly 80 minutes to charge from 20 to 100 percent using Apple's 30W MacBook charger.Battery %Time to charge20 to 70 percent30 minutes70 to 100 percent50 minutes