Apple iPhone 16 review: the basic iPhone got good, really good

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus offer significant upgrades, including the Action Button, A18 chipset, and Apple Intelligence readiness.

• By Sanket Vijayasarathy
Published On: 16 October 2024 | 13:06 IST

For a few years now, Apple has stuck to the formula of releasing two regular iPhones and two Pro iPhones. It used to be that the Pro models for ‘pro’ users would feature all the bells and whistles that users aspired to, while the base models would get some minor upgrades to keep them relevant. With the iPhone 16 series, Apple did something very un-Apple-like and gave the base iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus more than a few iterative upgrades. They’re actually really good now.

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus feature the Camera Control ‘button’, the Action Button, a significantly updated A18 chipset, and are Apple Intelligence-ready. That’s right, they get a lot of the features available on the iPhone 16 Pro models, thereby reducing that gap Apple had created a few years ago.

Verdict

The base iPhone 16 is a wonderfully compact device that packs several Pro-grade features, such as the Action Button, Camera Control button, an attractive design, faster charging, and (eventually) Apple Intelligence. Honestly, the only reasons to upgrade to this year’s Pro model are the telephoto camera, larger displays, and a higher refresh rate. For everything else, the iPhone 16 simply works.

Camera Control

Before I dive into typical aspects like the design, performance, and cameras of the iPhone 16, we need to talk about Camera Control. This brand-new button on this year’s iPhones is something I really tried to like. I really did. And that’s the problem. Apple wants you to train yourself to use a new camera button when we’re already accustomed to multiple ways to open and use the camera: tapping the camera app from the home screen, using the on-screen camera button on the lock screen, mapping the Action Button to open the camera, or simply swiping left on the lock screen.

Being a long-time iPhone user, these alternative ways come naturally to me, so I had to really force myself to remember that we have a new button on the right side to use the camera. And even after remembering it, the bigger problem is that the Camera Capture button is just too finicky at the moment. Apple might make things easier with a future update, but we’re talking about the way things are right now.

Overall, there’s a lot to remember when using Camera Control, and it is a learning curve for those who are patient.

Camera Control has multiple functions depending on how you press it. Pressing it fully captures a photo, while pressing and holding it starts video recording. A light press triggers a haptic click that opens a setting, such as Zoom or Exposure, which you can adjust with a swipe. A double light press allows you to toggle between these settings. Once you select a setting like Depth, it becomes the default each time you use the button. I found this problematic, as I didn’t need Exposure or Zoom as defaults all the time, and going back to select a different setting became tedious. Overall, there’s a lot to remember when using Camera Control, and it is a learning curve for those who are patient.

The placement of Camera Control makes it clear that it is meant for horizontal photography and not vertical, which is weird as we live in a social media age where vertical photos and videos are the go-to choice for a lot of people, especially creators. While the button is great for quickly launching the camera app right out of your pocket, I would usually go to the on-screen shutter and other controls rather than go through the hassle of using Camera Control. And pressing down on the button would end up shaking the device and resulting in a blurry photo. I tried liking the button. I really did.

Design and display

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 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.

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.

Camera

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.

iPhone 16’s cameras produce sharp photos, though colours can look muted at times, which is where Photographic Styles really help.

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.

Macro photography using the ultra-wide lens works extremely well and I was able to take some really good close-up shots with plenty of details and sharpness.

Portraits look much more natural now than they did on the iPhone 15. In the comparison below, you can see the iPhone 16 capturing more accurate skin tones compared to the iPhone 15 Plus (review). Both phones offer almost the same levels of sharpness, but the overall colour rendering land clarity looks better on the iPhone 16.

Here’s a zoomed in look at the portrait shot:

Night photography with the iPhone 16 is quite good. The main camera can take some sharp and clean photos in low light with no noticeable noise unless you really zoom in and pixel peep. Now, because of the sensor being smaller than what you get on the Pro models, night mode tends to automatically kick in quite frequently. When it does, you need to ensure you keep the shot steady for a few seconds to get a blur-free shot. In scenes with a lot of movement, I would disable night mode. One thing that is still very much persistent is lens flare, which cropped up quite a few times, something that wasn’t as prevalent on the Google Pixel 9.

Keeping the lens flare issue aside, the iPhone 16 delivered better sharpness and details in low light compared to the Pixel 9, as you can see in the scene below:

Here’s a zoomed-in area of the temple to compare the sharpness:

Before we get to Photographic Styles, some thoughts on videos and selfies. The base iPhone 16 models can record up to 4K at 60fps. Videos look stunning in daylight, offering good dynamic range and colour reproduction while being extremely stable. The iPhone 16 borrows the 12MP front camera from its predecessor and delivers reliably sharp selfies with ample light around. Selfies start looking softer as you approach nighttime.

Photographic Styles

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.

Performance, software, and Apple Intelligence

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.

It’s quite disappointing to see that the latest iPhones don’t ship with the one feature they were made for: Apple Intelligence.

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.

Battery

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.

A good pro tip on preserving battery health is to set the charging limit to 80 or 90 percent (iOS 18 gives you more charging limit options). Doing so ensures the battery doesn’t degrade even if you leave it charging overnight. My iPhone 15 Plus’ battery health dropped to just 97 percent after a year.

Final verdict

If you’ve been using an older basic iPhone for a few years and are wondering whether the iPhone 16 is the right upgrade, the answer is yes. The iPhone 16 (and iPhone 16 Plus) feature plenty of upgrades this year that narrow the gap between them and the Pro models more than ever before. The base models now include the Action Button, a significantly faster A18 chipset, a finicky Camera Control button, and (eventually) Apple Intelligence. Add in the attractive colour options and the iPhone 16 becomes a very appealing choice.

If you’re an iPhone 15 user, you might want to wait for the next model before upgrading. However, for older iPhone users, the iPhone 16 is an easy recommendation. That said, if the Camera Control button is a key reason you’re considering an upgrade, you might want to skip the iPhone 16. The feature is still a work in progress, and it could be worth waiting for Apple to make refinements before taking the leap.

Editor’s rating: 8 / 10

Pros:

• Powerful chipset, more RAM
• Excellent cameras with useful Photographic Styles
• Solid battery life
• Attractive colour options

Cons:

• Finicky Camera Control
• 60Hz refresh rate
• Charging could have been faster