iPhone 16 5G: Should You Buy? Advice, Features, Ordering

There are antenna bands at the top and sides of the phone, with a power button on the right side and volume buttons and the Action button on the left. The Action button is the same button that Apple first introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro models last year, and now it is also available for the iPhone 16. Also new is a Camera Control button that is located below the power button on the right side, and it is used for capturing photos and videos. Apple removed the distinct 5G mmWave antenna, and it is now built into the frame in the United States. Other countries do not have the mmWave antenna.

Speaker holes, a microphone, and a USB-C charging port are located at the bottom of the iPhone 16 models. In some countries, there is a SIM slot, but the physical SIM has not been included in U.S. iPhones for several years now.

Apple redesigned the rear camera bump, and the iPhone 16 has a two-lens pill-shaped vertical setup rather than a diagonally positioned lens. Apple made this change to enable spatial photo and video recording.

USB-C Port

The iPhone 16 models have a USB-C port and they can be charged with a USB-C cable. The iPhone 16 lineup can charge at up to 45W with a proper power adapter, a significant increase over previous generations that were limited to 25–30W.

USB-C allows an iPhone to directly charge AirPods or an Apple Watch using a USB-C cable, and the iPhone is able to provide up to 4.5W.

On the iPhone 16 models, the USB-C port is limited to USB 2 transfer speeds of 480 Mb/s, the same as Lightning, and there has been no upgrade since last year.

Water and Dust Resistance

The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus have an IP68 rating for resistance to water and dust intrusion. The smartphones are able to withstand a depth of up to six meters (19.7 feet) for up to 30 minutes.

In the IP68 number, the 6 refers to dust resistance (and means the iPhone 16 can hold up to dirt, dust, and other particulates), while the 8 pertains to water resistance. IP6x is the highest dust resistance rating that exists. With the IP68 rating, the iPhone 16 can withstand splashes, rain, and accidental water exposure, but intentional water exposure should be avoided.

Water and dust resistance are not permanent conditions, according to Apple, and can deteriorate over time as a result of normal wear. Apple’s standard warranty does not cover liquid damage, which means it’s best to use caution when it comes to liquid exposure.

Action Button

The Action button on the iPhone 16 models replaces the Ring/Silent switch above the volume buttons on the left side. Apple designed the Action button to be customizable, and it can be set to perform one of several different actions in the Settings app.

• Focus: Activate or deactivate a Focus mode (Do Not Disturb is the default).
• Camera: Take a photo (the default), a selfie, video, portrait, or portrait selfie.
• Flashlight: Turn the flashlight on or off.
• Voice Memos: Start or stop recording a voice memo with the Voice Memos app.
• Magnifier: Activate the Magnifier app to use the iPhone’s camera as a magnifying glass to zoom in on small text or objects.
• Shortcuts: Open your favorite app, or run a shortcut created in or downloaded from the Shortcuts app, such as sending a message, playing a playlist, or controlling smart home devices.
• Control Center: In iOS 18, several Control Center controls can be assigned to the Action button.
• Accessibility: Access to various Vision settings (Classic Invert, Color Filters, Detection Mode, Increase Contrast, Reduce Motion, Reduce Transparency, Reduce White Point, Smart Invert, VoiceOver, Zoom) Motor settings (Switch Control, Voice Control, Full Keyboard Access, AssistiveTouch, Apple Watch Mirroring, Control Nearby Devices) Hearing settings (Background Sounds, Left/Right Balance, Live Captions) and General settings (Guided Access, Live Speech).
• Silent Mode: Like the Ring/Silent switch on existing iPhone models, toggle silent mode on or off, which mutes or unmutes the ringer and alerts.
• Translate: The Translate action launches the Translate app and start a text or conversation translation.
• No Action.

Activating the Action button is done with a long press, which limits it from being hit accidentally.

Apple didn’t make notable changes to display technology, with the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus continuing to have Super Retina XDR OLED displays with the Dynamic Island. The iPhone 16 has a resolution of 2556 by 1179 with 460 pixels per inch, while the iPhone 16 Plus has a resolution of 2796 by 1290 with 460 pixels per inch.

Typical maximum brightness is 1000 nits, while peak HDR brightness is 1600 nits. Apple also says that the iPhone 15 models can reach 2000 nits peak brightness outdoors. New this year is a 1 nit minimum brightness.

There is a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and wide color support offers vivid, true-to-life colors, while True Tone matches the white balance of the display to the ambient lighting for a paper-like viewing experience that’s easier on the eyes. There’s also a fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating and support for Haptic Touch, which provides haptic feedback when interacting with the display.

The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus do not support the ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate or the Always-On display technologies available on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.

The display is protected by a next-generation Ceramic Shield material made by infusing nano-ceramic crystals into glass. The new Ceramic Shield is stronger than the prior version, and Apple says it is “2x tougher” than any other smartphone glass. Despite the new Ceramic Shield, the iPhone 16 models are still vulnerable to damage when dropped.

Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island includes the TrueDepth camera sensor for Face ID and the front-facing camera. The display has a small circular cutout on the right side that’s for the camera, and a pill-shaped cutout on the left side for the TrueDepth system for Face ID. Apple uses software to combine the two cutouts into one pill-shaped cutout that makes up the Dynamic Island.

Apple turned the Dynamic Island into part of the iPhone’s interface, and it is used as a front-and-center information hub for notifications and other at-a-glance information from apps and services. When you make an Apple Pay payment, for example, Dynamic Island expands into a square shape to confirm your Face ID scan, and when on a phone call, it expands so you have phone controls at your fingertips.

The Dynamic Island can display everything from Maps directions to Apple Music, and it integrates with Live Activities. There are no changes to the Dynamic Island with the iPhone 16 models.

TrueDepth Camera and Face ID

The iPhone 16 models continue to use Face ID, Apple’s facial recognition system that is baked into the Dynamic Island.

Face ID is used across iOS for unlocking the iPhone, allowing access to passcode-protected apps, confirming app purchases, authenticating Apple Pay payments, and more.

Face ID works through a set of sensors and cameras. A Dot Projector projects tens of thousands of invisible infrared dots onto the surface of the skin to create a 3D facial scan that maps the curves and planes of each face, with the scan read by an infrared camera.

The facial depth map is relayed to the A18 chip where it is transformed into a mathematical model that the iPhone uses to authenticate identity. Face ID works in low light and in the dark, and with hats, beards, glasses, sunglasses, scarves, masks, and other accessories that partially obscure the face.

Front-Facing Camera

The Dynamic Island also houses the front-facing camera, and Apple is using the same 12-megapixel front-facing camera with an ƒ/1.9 aperture that’s been in iPhones for the last several years.

The front-facing camera supports Night mode, Smart HDR 5 integration, Dolby Vision HDR recording, Deep Fusion to bring out fine details, a Photonic Engine that improves low-light performance, and a portrait feature that lets you take images and turn them into portrait shots later.

4K video recording, QuickTake video, slo-mo video, Portrait mode, Portrait Lighting, and the Photographic Styles feature for selectively applying edits are also supported on the front-facing camera.

The A18 chip is built using a second-generation 3-nanometer process, so it is more efficient and faster than the A16 Bionic chip used in the iPhone 15 models. The A18 chip is capable of handling Apple Intelligence tasks, and it runs the Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.

There’s a 6-core CPU with four performance cores and two efficiency cores, along with a 5-core GPU and an upgraded 16-core Neural Engine optimized for running large generative models. Apple has also upgraded the memory subsystem with 17 percent more memory bandwidth.

Compared to the A16 Bionic chip, the A18 has a 30 percent faster CPU, and it offers the same performance while using 30 percent less power. The GPU is 40 percent faster, offering the same performance while using 35 percent less power. The updated GPU also enables hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Ray tracing is useful for gaming, and the iPhone 16 models can run all of the console-quality games that Apple touted for the iPhone 15 Pro models last year.

New Thermal Design

Apple revamped the internal design of the iPhone 16 model to improve heat dissipation. The main logic board was updated, with Apple adding centralized chip placement while also optimizing the surrounding structure. A recycled aluminum substructure dissipates heat for 30 percent higher sustained performance for gaming.

The new Neural Engine is 2x faster for machine learning than the Neural Engine in the A16 Bionic chip.

Memory

The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus have 8GB RAM, the minimum needed for Apple Intelligence.

Storage Space

Entry-level iPhone 16 models start with 128GB of storage, but there are 256GB and 512GB options available for additional money.

The iPhone 16 models have a Camera Control button on the right side that’s designed specifically for capturing images. The multi-function button has a force sensor and a touch sensor for gesture support, and Apple designed it to work in either portrait or landscape mode.

There’s a sapphire crystal covering with a smooth texture covering the Camera Control button, and it is surrounded by stainless steel trim. It is inset into the iPhone’s frame just a bit, and the force sensor has haptic feedback to make it feel like a DSLR camera shutter.

Camera Control can be used to take a photo with two quick clicks, but there are many more capabilities.

• Single click – Open up the Camera app (or a third-party app).
• Single click, Camera open – Take a photo.
• Click and hold – Open Camera app, start a video recording.
• Light press – Open up controls like zoom or lock focus and exposure for reframing shots without losing focus.
• Double light press – Bring up the camera preview menu to choose different controls like exposure or depth of field.
• Swipe – Swap through available adjustment options, and also change parameters like zoom, exposure, or depth of field when a control is selected.

The button has deep software support, so you can also swap between Camera Control functions without having to adjust settings in the Camera app.

• Adjust zoom
• Adjust exposure
• Adjust depth of field
• Swipe through different stylistic options

Third-party developers can to take advantage of the Camera Control for their apps for adjusting settings, and it works in social media apps like Snapchat.

Visual Intelligence

As of iOS 18.2, Camera Control works with a new visual intelligence feature. Users can open the Camera app and point it at an object to get information about that object with a click and hold gesture. Pointing it at a restaurant, for example, brings up hours and ratings, while pointing it at a plant identifies the plant. Using visual intelligence with something that has a date, such as a flyer, adds the date to the Calendar app.

Camera Control also works as a gateway to third-party tools, such as when users want to search Google for an item to buy or use ChatGPT to solve a problem.

The camera system is largely the same as the iPhone 15 models, but Apple is now calling the 48-megapixel Wide-Angle lens a “Fusion” lens because of its ability to be used for both standard photos and cropped-in 2x zoom photos.

The camera features a 26 mm focal length with ƒ/1.6 aperture that lets in plenty of light for situations where lighting is not optimal. Sensor-shift optical image stabilization cuts down on movement for crisper photos and videos, with the lens supporting both 24-megapixel and 48-megapixel high-resolution images.

With the 24-megapixel option, every two pixels are combined into one pixel, allowing for high-resolution images that have impressive detail and low-light performance without too large of a file size. 48-megapixel images are also supported and can be saved in either RAW or HEIF format.

As mentioned, the 2x Telephoto option uses the middle 12 megapixels on the sensor for full-resolution 2x photos with no digital zoom.

Along with the 48-megapixel Fusion camera, the iPhone 16 models have a new 12-megapixel Ultra Wide camera with an ƒ/2.2 aperture and 120º field of view. The lower aperture lets in more light and enables a new macro mode for taking close-up shots.

Apple says that the dual-lens system’s multiple capabilities mean it’s actually like having four cameras: wide angle, telephoto, macro, and ultra wide. The camera also supports spatial videos and photos for Vision Pro.

New Photographic Styles

Photographic Styles have been an option for some time, but Apple overhauled the feature this year. There are new, more subtle styles to choose from, and Apple is enabling far more control over the way the style is applied.

Photographic Styles can be previewed live before you make a change. You can shift the way a style looks with the control pad that lets you adjust tone and color. The intensity of specific colors and the tone can be changed, so you can make adjustments that don’t affect the entire color scheme of an image.

Apple says that skin tone rendering is more advanced than before, so you can also create a style for dialing in your favorite look and then add it across all of the images that you take. You can also change the Photographic Style after an image is captured, which wasn’t an option with prior models.

Video Capabilities

The iPhone 16 models support up to 4K video recording at 24, 25, 30, or 60 frames per second. HDR recording, ProRes video, Cinematic mode, Action mode, slo-mo video, and time-lapse are all supported.

QuickTake mode, which allows you to capture video by holding down the camera button, now supports 4K at 60 fps in Dolby Vision.

Spatial Audio sound recording is available for more dynamic, immersive sound for videos, and wind noise reduction cuts down on wind sound when recording.

Audio Mix

Audio Mix is a video feature that takes advantage of Spatial Audio capture. You can use it to adjust the way that voices sound in videos, and there are three different options.

• • In-frame – Only captures the voices of people on camera, even if people off camera are talking.
  • Studio – Makes voices sound like the recording was done in a professional studio with sound-dampening walls. A recording sounds like the mic was close to the subject’s mouth.
  • Cinematic – Captures all voices and consolidates them to the front of the screen, which is how sound is formatted for movies.

Other Camera Features

There are several other camera bells and whistles that Apple has been adding to the iPhones over the years.

• • Portrait Features – You don’t need to choose Portrait mode before capturing an image to get a portrait shot. You can just snap a photo, and if there’s a person or a pet, depth information is collected and Portrait mode is enabled automatically with a blurred background. This year, the feature works for Night mode shots and it supports Portrait Lighting.
  • Smart HDR 5 – Recognizes one or more people in a scene and optimizes contrast, lighting, and even skin tones for each person so everyone looks their best.
  • Photonic Engine – The Photonic Engine combines the best pixels from a high-resolution image and an image optimized for light capture, leading to a 24-megapixel image with detail drawn from an image twice the resolution.
  • Night mode – Takes a series of images over a few seconds and aggregates them to allow for photography in extreme low lighting situations.
  • Deep Fusion – Works in mid to low lighting conditions and brings out the texture and detail in the image.
  • Portrait Lighting – Changes the lighting of Portrait mode photos with effects that include Natural, Studio, Contour, Stage, Stage Mono, and High-Key Mono.
  • True Tone flash – True Tone flash is the built-in flash, and it is designed to match the ambient lighting so it doesn’t throw off the white balance of the photo when used.
  • Cinematic mode – A video mode that keeps the focus on the main subject that you’re filming even as you move.
  • Action mode – Enhances image stabilization to improve shaky handheld video.
  • Panorama – Captures panoramic shots up to 63 megapixels.
  • Burst mode – Allows a series of images to be captured all at once, which is good for high-action shots.

With efficiency improvements brought by the A18 chip, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus have longer battery life than the prior-generation models, gaining at least an hour.

• iPhone 16 – 22 hours video playback, 18 hours streaming video, 80 hours audio.
• iPhone 16 Plus – 27 hours video playback, 24 hours streaming video, 100 hours audio.
• iPhone 15 – 20 hours video playback, 16 hours streaming video, 80 hours audio.
• iPhone 15 Plus – 26 hours video playback, 20 hours streaming video, 100 hours audio.

The iPhone 16 has a 3,561 mAh battery, a 6.3 percent increase over the iPhone 15, while the iPhone 16 Plus has a 4,674 mAh battery, up 6.6 percent compared to the iPhone 15 Plus.

Apple made the iPhone 16 batteries easier to remove, using an adhesive that can be loosened using a low-voltage electrical current, like that from a 9V battery. The streamlined repair process allows for easier battery replacements.

MagSafe Charging

The iPhone 16 models support faster 25W MagSafe charging with one of Apple’s new MagSafe chargers and a 30W power adapter or higher. It is the first time that fast charging has been available when charging wirelessly, and iPhone 16 users can expect to see a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes.

Qi2 charging is also supported, but that is limited to 15W, the same as the prior-generation MagSafe charging.