I spent a number of hours with Apple’s new flagship iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Professional Max earlier this week within the Steve Jobs Theater and shortly shaped some first impressions. As I do in my iPhone reviews, I all the time attempt to understand that most iPhone upgraders are coming from a cellphone that is at the least three years previous.
Additionally: iPhone 16 hands-on: So packed with features, I didn’t envy the Pro models
And whereas the very first thing numerous consumers might discover is the 12 months’s new cellphone colour — it is Desert Titanium this 12 months, which is definitely only a shade of gold — the factor that almost all of us barely take note of is the newest advances within the mind that powers the iPhone. It is all the time the case that it unlocks new capabilities, however this 12 months, that feels more true than ever with the brand new A18 Pro. Or at the least it powers my favourite new function — and a bunch of others that show how ridiculously highly effective this gadget is.
And sure, I am going to give up speaking about chips and get to my three favourite options.
1. Digital camera Management
The brand new Digital camera Management permits customers to do extra with the iPhone digicam and do it shortly. This new key sits on the proper facet of the cellphone beneath the ability button, however it’s fabricated from darker metallic and sits extra flush to the facet of the cellphone.
It is also touch-sensitive, which is a feat of engineering. One press opens the digicam app. A second press takes a photograph. Press and maintain and it begins recording video. A light-weight press and a swipe to 1 facet or the opposite enables you to zoom out and in. A double gentle press and a swipe to both facet lets you choose completely different settings from zoom to depth of subject to the brand new photograph kinds to a number of different choices.
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If it sounds a bit sophisticated, it’s not. You will shortly get the grasp of it. I attempted it and it is goes to be tremendous useful for individuals who take a ton of images with the iPhone — and let’s be sincere, there are a number of us as a result of the iPhone is the most used camera in the world. The Digital camera Management button offers the iPhone a function no different cellphone on the earth has proper now. The Sony Xperia 1 V comes the closest with its devoted shutter button, nevertheless it does not do almost as a lot.
Persons are going to like this function.
2. Dimension and end
Each of the professional iPhones bought greater screens and thinner bezels this 12 months, which makes them a bit taller than final 12 months’s professional fashions. The Professional expands from 6.1 inches to six.3 and the Max grows from 6.7 inches to six.9. Each ZDNET opinions editor Kerry Wan and I observed it instantly within the iPhone 16 demo space — and we felt blissful about it as a result of we each are inclined to want the marginally taller and thinner type elements of most Android devices because it makes them a bit simpler to function with one hand.
Additionally: Apple just gave me a compelling reason to buy the smaller iPhone 16 Pro over the Max this year
Nonetheless, there was one other new bodily attribute of the iPhone 16 Professional fashions that bought me simply as excited. The titanium sides have a brand new end that feels far more grippy. Actually, it is so grippy that I am tempted to do the unthinkable and check out utilizing it with out a case. I am additionally tempted to make the smaller 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional, slightly than the Max, my each day driver — particularly because the smaller professional mannequin now has the identical digicam system because the bigger one.
3. Upgrades to video and audio recording
The opposite space the place the brand new A18 Professional chip actually reveals its energy is within the new video and audio recording choices out there within the iPhone 16 Professional. First, now you can file in 4K at 120 frames per second, which provides you the ability to do the type of tremendous sluggish movement you solely see in massive cinematic movies. Even simply a few years in the past, you’d have wanted an costly pro-level digicam and a desktop laptop with a robust video card to shoot and edit pro-level 4K120 video. Now you are able to do it on an iPhone — and the footage Apple has proven up to now appears to be like just about indistinguishable from professional gear.
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Subsequent, Apple additionally upgraded the audio within the iPhone 16 Professional with what it calls “4 studio-quality mics” which are paired with software program and AI to do some loopy issues I have never seen on a smartphone earlier than. With the brand new Audio Mix software, now you can edit audio immediately on the iPhone 16 Professional, which separates foreground and background sounds and allows you to decide from a number of sound profiles, together with a Studio profile that routinely dampens background sounds and a Cinematic profile that makes it sound like a film edit.
It may possibly additionally now seize Spatial Audio encompass sound throughout video recording (which you can even edit in Audio Combine). And the Voice Memos app goes to make use of these upgrades for an replace later this 12 months that can allow you to layer two completely different tracks. These audio options are an incredible instance of the place Apple is placing AI to make use of in sensible, behind-the-scenes methods which are going to be much more approachable than typing in a chatbot.
Extra to come back
Apple known as the brand new A18 Professional chip as highly effective as high-end desktop PCs, which feels like hyperbole, however the above options are convincing sufficient to make me suppose it might be at the least as highly effective as high-end desktops from a few years in the past. After we get our testing units, we’ll run benchmarks and put the telephones by means of some real-world situations to measure and evaluate the efficiency.
Additionally: Every iPhone 16 model compared: Which new iPhone should you buy?
Apple additionally claims the brand new A18 Professional chip is far more energy environment friendly and can end result within the iPhone 16 Pro Max having the longest battery lifetime of any iPhone but. We’ll additionally problem that declare with our personal battery exams.
The digicam system upgrades to a 48 megapixel sensor for the ultrawide digicam, which ought to lead to higher macro images and quite a few different enhancements. We’ll be testing that as properly in a brand new set of ZDNET smartphone digicam exams.
The AI options that Apple talked about this summer time at WWDC, together with the newly upgraded Siri, won’t arrive until the iOS 18.1 update — and even then, they’re going to nonetheless be in beta and a number of the options will not come till iOS 18.2 or later. However when the AI options do lastly arrive, Apple’s new flagship supercomputer in your pocket appears to be like like it is going to have the oomph to run them with out breaking a sweat.