Apple focuses on cameras and customization

It could appear to be Apple is behind the competitors lots of the time. The corporate seemed to be sluggish to developments like widgets, bezel-less shows with digicam notches and screens with excessive refresh charges. And with the iPhone 16 Professional, it seems to as soon as once more be late to the get together, bringing generative-AI options and an actual button for the digicam to its 2024 flagship. However for those who’ll permit me to play therapist for a second, I feel it is not that Apple is sluggish. I feel Apple is cautious. Maybe overly so.

Warning by itself is not a nasty trait — actually, it may very well be thought-about considerate. Fairly than rush to the innovative with its friends, Apple deliberates, normally discovering a barely totally different method that’s usually an enchancment on what’s on the market. Simply have a look at the Imaginative and prescient Professional headset or Apple Silicon. And even the iPod, the iPad and the AirPods, which have been removed from the primary of their sort once they launched.

With the iPhone 16 Professional, the main target is on cameras and Apple Intelligence. The issue is, Apple Intelligence is not fairly right here but. We will take a look at some options within the developer beta that is presently accessible, however that is not essentially the identical because the expertise the general public will get when the replace rolls out in October. It’s not unprecedented for brand new iPhones to launch with out some marquee options, certain, and fortunately there’s nonetheless loads that the iPhone 16 Professional brings. From Digital camera Management, the Fusion Digital camera and different video-related updates to barely larger shows and iOS 18, the iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max are intriguing successors, even absent the vaunted Intelligence options which are nonetheless to come back.

Apple / Engadget

The iPhone 16 Professional Max provides wonderful cameras and enhancing instruments, a big roomy display, lengthy battery life and the perfect that Apple has to supply. 

Editors’ notice: The present rating displays our expertise with the {hardware} and iOS 18 options that will likely be accessible to customers at launch. We’ll consider Apple Intelligence and different post-launch options over the approaching weeks and months, and will modify our evaluate rating if warranted.

Professionals

• Wonderful cameras with minimal shutter lag
• Lengthy-lasting battery
• Nice photograph and video enhancing updates
• Good customization choices all through

Cons

• Digital camera management is not excellent

$1,199 at Apple

Video evaluate of the iPhone 16 Professional

The iPhone 16 Professional’s design and shows

I’m getting deja vu. Wanting again at my evaluate of the iPhone 15 Professional, I see an image of that telephone and its predecessor lined up aspect by aspect to point out simply how a lot thinner the bezels are. Apple has as soon as once more trimmed the borders on its flagship telephones, however whereas doing that enabled it to scale back the handsets’ measurement in 2023, this 12 months it allowed the corporate to cram in bigger screens with out a lot change in footprint.

The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max shows have elevated in measurement from 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches as much as 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches, respectively. Each handsets have grown ever so barely, too, by just below 1mm in width and about 3mm in top.

Principally, the iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max are a hair wider and taller than their predecessors, however preserve the identical 8.25mm (0.32-inch) profile. And but, regardless of this minimal change, you received’t have the ability to hold your outdated circumstances for those who’re upgrading from an iPhone 15 Professional to an iPhone 16 Professional.

Not solely would the circumstances not fairly match, you’d additionally want one thing with both a cutout or a sapphire crystal and conductive layer to have the ability to use the brand new Digital camera Management. In fact, Apple sells appropriate circumstances, as do some third events like Otterbox, so you might have loads of choices.

I’ve spent most of this 12 months’s {hardware} evaluate season remarking how Samsung and Google’s flagships really feel like iPhones, and I’ve now reached a wierd inception level. As I’ve been evaluating competing telephones for this evaluate, I’ve been surrounded by a few dozen handsets from all these totally different firms on my sofa, together with final 12 months’s iPhones, the Galaxy S24 Plus and the Pixel 9 Professional and Professional XL. Attempting to determine which one is the iPhone has grow to be extra complicated than ever, as all of them really feel related in construct. One of the simplest ways to confirm at a look is their digicam arrays or my wallpaper.

All that’s to say that the iPhone 16 Professional feels just like its predecessor, which is what these different firms have been trying to emulate. Apple can be proper to really feel flattered by this imitation, and but I’ve to marvel if it’s time to do one thing totally different. Google’s Pixel 9 Professional is definitely a complete six grams lighter than the iPhone 16 Professional at 221 grams (7.79 ounces), and I’m completely obsessed with its wealthy pink hue and glossy edges. Although I like the brand new golden Desert colour for the iPhone 16 Professional, I do want Apple’s premium flagship had extra enjoyable and vibrant exteriors. That mentioned, I do love the bottom iPhone 16 in pink, teal and Ultramarine.

Digital camera management is (not) only a button

Arguably the most important change to the iPhone 16 lineup, to not point out the iPhone 16 Professional, is the introduction of Digital camera Management. It is a button on the proper aspect of the gadget, which has contact and stress sensors on it to allow higher management with swipes and semi-presses. (That’s along with the Motion Button on the highest left that was added to final 12 months’s Professionals, and carries over to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, too.)

One of many issues this was purported to do was allow you to push calmly on the button to set off focus, just like what half urgent a DSLR shutter button would do. That operate received’t be accessible at launch, so I can’t say if it’s efficient.

However by and enormous, Digital camera Management is a really Apple method to a characteristic that has been round for years. From telephones by Sony and Nokia with devoted shutter buttons to Android handsets with hardware-based double-click shortcuts, the notion of fast entry to your digicam with out having to futz with the display is a well-liked one. For good motive, too — I’ve hated having to swipe or long-press the icon on my iPhone’s lock display previously, and though I might set the iPhone 15 Professional’s Motion button to open the digicam, it simply wasn’t positioned effectively and I’d have to surrender my mute button.

So Apple isn’t breaking new floor with its {hardware} shortcut for a continuously used app. Nevertheless it does do just a few issues otherwise with the contact sensor. You may swipe on it to tweak issues like publicity, zoom ranges and tone, and the half-press nonetheless works as a option to choose choices or return out of menus throughout the new Digital camera Management interface. In idea, it’s a pleasant option to make modifications on the fly.

In actuality, there have been just a few points, and so they largely must do with placement. The button sits just a little farther from the bottom of the telephone than I’d like, so my fingers have to achieve a bit extra to press it, whether or not I used to be in panorama or portrait mode. This wasn’t normally an issue once I had each palms free and will regular the iPhone with my different hand and readjust my grip.

However for those who’re making an attempt to take a fast shot with only one hand, the button’s location can really feel unintuitive. In fact, everybody has totally different finger lengths and ratios, so it’s totally potential that different individuals discover this logical. It additionally will depend on your grip — for those who’re cradling the underside of the gadget in your palm, it’s more durable to maneuver. When you’re masking a part of the display and reaching for the button head on, it’s barely simpler to make use of digicam management.

Nonetheless, even for these with the strongest claws, swiping and half-pressing and double-half-pressing on the sensor is hard. I used to be solely ever actually in a position to try this if I had my thumb holding up the underside edge and my center, ring and little fingers steadying the proper finish of the telephone. Possibly it is a new digicam grip I simply have to relearn for this button.

The awkward placement is a minor gripe in comparison with what I discovered most annoying: the button’s contact sensor. Not solely was it troublesome to swipe by totally different settings when holding the gadget with one hand, it additionally reacts to unintentional touches and swipes. Generally, the telephone would slide down my palm and alter the publicity or zoom stage, fully ruining the vibe. I ought to level out which you can go into accessibility settings to both tweak the swipe sensitivity or flip it off altogether, if it actually bothers you. Actually, for those who’re planning on making changes with Digital camera Management, it’s finest to have time, endurance and each palms free.

In these conditions, I had lots of enjoyable enhancing settings and watching them be mirrored within the viewfinder in actual time. I additionally favored zooming out and in of topics, recomposing a shot and tweaking publicity until I favored what I noticed, earlier than then pushing right down to snap the image. (This motion does result in some small points, however extra on the precise photograph high quality later.) I particularly beloved this whereas recording video, because it makes slowly zooming in or out of a topic smoother than utilizing the onscreen slider.

Then once more, for eventualities the place I simply wish to hearth off a fast shot with out worrying about publicity or zoom settings, the ache of finagling with the sensor principally goes away. In alternate, with the ability to quickly snap footage is a pleasure. I discovered myself taking extra footage than ever due to digicam management, which if me is a feat worthy of the Guinness E-book of Information.

A random individual lower me off in line? Click on. Humorous signal on a constructing I cross by in a Lyft? Click on, click on. Out of your lock display, you’ll must press the button twice — as soon as to wake the telephone up and as soon as to open the digicam. Then press once more to take the photograph. It’s not splendid, however not too far off the identical course of on a Pixel telephone, as an illustration. Plus, you may long-press the iPhone’s button to begin recording a video, and it’ll routinely cease while you let go.

This type of fast entry to the digicam is the perfect factor in regards to the new button, and I might see it being probably helpful not only for shutterbugs like me, however for the upcoming Visible Intelligence characteristic that Apple teased at its launch occasion. The corporate’s model of Google Lens might permit individuals to ask questions on issues in the true world round them. However in fact, since this wasn’t accessible throughout my evaluate interval, I wasn’t capable of take a look at it.

For now, you may go into Settings to both change the variety of clicks it takes to set off the digicam app, remap it to a Code scanner or the Magnifier software or disable it altogether. Since you may as well arrange the Motion button to do this stuff, you might have extra selections now over the place you need your digicam shortcut or liberate the previous quantity slider to do one thing else.

The iPhone 16 Professional: Fusion digicam for quick and sluggish moments

Even for those who’re not a glutton for buttons, there are nonetheless some digicam updates that may intrigue you. This 12 months’s flagships sport what Apple calls a 48-megapixel Fusion Digital camera, which has a quicker quad-pixel sensor. This permits what the corporate describes as “zero shutter lag,” which is wording it has used repeatedly through the years. On this case, it’s referring to how rapidly the digicam will seize a shot after you press the shutter button (onscreen or {hardware}).

I’ll admit I used to be initially confused by this replace, partly as a result of it requires relearning some behaviors I had adopted to mitigate the shortfalls of older cameras. Principally, the iPhone 16 Professional’s cameras at the moment are so quick that once I requested somebody to toss stuff so I might seize it in movement to see how nonetheless the pictures have been, my photographs ended up being of the individual holding the item.

Our video producer and I have been very confused, and it wasn’t till the “zero shutter lag” idea was defined clearer to me that I acquired it. I had grow to be used to urgent the shutter early since cameras, in my expertise, can be fractions of a second sluggish. Apple has grow to be so quick that it really captured the literal second I tapped the button, as an alternative of the cut up second after, when the item was in mid-air.

That is going to alter how individuals take soar photographs, I’m certain, however mainly for those who and your mates are taking footage of yourselves floating within the sky, the photographer doesn’t must hit seize earlier than telling you to leap. I do know it is a very particular and foolish instance, but it surely’s additionally essentially the most relatable illustration of how a lot faster the Fusion digicam is.

Additionally, why can’t digicam tales be foolish and enjoyable? That’s what lots of the perfect moments in life are, and a number of the new options are nice in these conditions. The assist for 4K video at 120 fps in Dolby Imaginative and prescient, for instance, led to some lovely high-quality, wealthy and colourful clips of my buddy’s lovely pomeranian trotting alongside on a stroll. Her little tongue slowly peeking out as she bounded in direction of the digicam regarded crisp and clean once I performed it again at 25 % and 20 % speeds, too.

The iPhone 16’s new Photographic Kinds are wonderful

Relying in your temper, the brand new Photographic Kinds could be enjoyable or critical. Apple’s tweaked the built-in digicam filters to not solely supply extra choices however provide you with higher management. As a consequence of how the corporate has refined its processing every year, there’s additionally an improved depth map captured when it detects a face within the scene. This, mixed with a higher concentrate on colour science round skintone, has led to what may be my favourite new iPhone 16 characteristic.

Whether or not I shot them in Portrait mode or not, photographs of those that I took utilizing the iPhone 16 Professional have been a dream to edit. Merely switching between the Customary, Pure, Luminous, Quiet or Ethereal kinds already resulted in enhancements to the colours and shadow, however I might additionally faucet on every thumbnail to entry the brand new enhancing touchpad and drag a dot round. This let me extra exactly tweak the hues and distinction ranges, and a further slider beneath let me modify how heat the picture was.

An unsightly selfie with my cousin within the hideous overhead lights of a gathering room turned an exquisite snapshot after I switched to the Ethereal or Luminous kinds. Each of these are rapidly changing into my favorites, however I’m extra impressed with how effectively Apple was capable of section the topic from the background. In virtually each shot I edited, adjusting the slider principally solely modified the background, retaining individuals and their complexions throughout the realm of actuality as an alternative of making use of harsh oversaturation or excessive distinction ranges to them. Additionally they added a background blur that lent a pleasing mushy focus impact, and more often than not the system precisely recognized outlines of individuals within the scene.

Maybe my favourite half is the truth that you may change between kinds after you’ve shot the photograph on the iPhone 16. As somebody who dwells on her Instagram filters and edit instruments for a while earlier than every publish, I undoubtedly admire how a lot nicer Apple’s variations are and solely want I might retroactively apply them to photographs I had taken at a latest wedding ceremony. Alas, because the edits are depending on info captured when the photographs have been taken, these new retouching options will solely work for footage taken with an iPhone 16 or 16 Professional.

Audio Combine on the iPhone 16 is… combined

One closing digicam replace I’ll contact on earlier than telling you about precise photograph high quality is Audio Combine. This makes use of the spatial audio now recorded by default with the brand new studio mics on the iPhone 16 Professional (and even the system on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus) to know the course of sound sources in your footage. Then, while you edit the clip, you may select between Customary, In-frame, Studio and Cinematic mixes, in addition to drag a slider to scale back background noise.

You’ll must be recording in pretty particular acoustic eventualities to get essentially the most out of Audio Combine. I examined it in a wide range of conditions, like my cousin speaking on his telephone on a busy New York road, me interviewing my fellow fitness center buddies after a tiring exercise with the background music quietly taking part in or my buddy speaking to me whereas his spouse talks about one thing else off-camera of their pretty quiet kitchen.

For essentially the most half, going to Cinematic or Studio modes from Customary resulted in a noticeable discount in environmental noise. My favourite is Studio, which typically appeared to enhance voice readability as effectively, making individuals sound like they may very well be speaking on a podcast. In-frame, nonetheless, not often did what I anticipated and sometimes produced some warped distortion. It seems there would possibly must be extra distance between numerous sources of sound for this to work finest, and I’ve to spend extra time testing to higher perceive this software. You may take a look at our evaluate video for examples of a clip with totally different audio mixes, however for now, whereas the promised enhancements aren’t what I anticipated, there no less than seems to be some profit to Audio Combine.

The iPhone 16 Professional’s photographs versus the Pixel 9 Professional

On to the precise photographs and the way they maintain up towards the competitors. I’ve lengthy thought-about Google’s Pixel telephones to be the gold commonplace in smartphone images, since I choose the corporate’s colour and element processing. I do know some individuals really feel that Google tends to oversharpen, so keep in mind that, as with most issues, your choice could also be totally different from mine.

After I in contrast photographs I took with each telephones on the identical laptop computer display, the variations have been minimal. Sometimes, Google would expose higher, being extra capable of retain shadows close to a vibrant gentle supply than the iPhone 16 Professional. However the Pixel’s nightscape photographs had extra gentle leakage into the sky, whereas Apple was more proficient at retaining the background darkish towards the define of a skyscraper.

Actually at this level we’re actually nitpicking and pixel-peeping to search out variations. Each firms ship nice cameras, and although I nonetheless choose Google’s method to Portrait photographs, Apple has been slowly however absolutely closing the hole with enhancements to its depth maps yearly.

I’ll point out, although, that much more of the photographs I shot on the iPhone 16 Professional got here out blurrier than the Pixel 9 Professional, and it might need to do with the truth that I used to be utilizing the Digital camera Management to snap them. This was the difficulty I alluded to earlier, the place utilizing a bodily button to take an image is extra more likely to introduce shake than a software program shutter. It’s not like Samsung or Google telephones are proof against this drawback, although I’ll say that the way in which Digital camera Management is constructed, the place the recessed button depresses into the telephone’s body, does go away it a bit extra weak to this than, say, utilizing a quantity rocker would possibly.

Oh and eventually, a fast notice for my Gen Z readers: I understand how a lot you all choose flash images in comparison with night time modes in low gentle eventualities. (Because of my a lot youthful cousin for the precious perception.) I’ve performed the testing and may say that I choose Google’s Pixel 9 Professional for its software program, hotter flash in comparison with the iPhone 16 Professional’s, which is stronger and brighter, resulting in my face wanting washed out.

iOS 18 is right here, however not Apple Intelligence

It’s been about two months because the public beta for iOS 18 was launched, and it was good to get a style of upcoming options like the brand new customizable house pages, expanded Tapback reactions and the redesigned Photographs app. With the iPhone 16 launch, iOS 18 is mainly prepared for primetime… with some caveats.

This 12 months, greater than ever, it’s exhausting to determine what’s coming to your iPhone and what isn’t. With the discharge of Apple Intelligence slated for October, options like writing instruments, Cleanup for photographs and the redesigned Siri received’t be prepared until subsequent month. And even then, your non-pro iPhone 15 received’t be appropriate.

Plus, some options that have been teased at WWDC, like Genmoji, nonetheless haven’t been added to the iOS 18.1 developer beta, which is the place most Apple Intelligence options have been arriving as a preview for app makers. Throughout the iPhone 16 lineup, too, there are issues coming solely to the Professional fashions, like multilayer recording in Voice Memos.

It’s complicated, and may make selecting your iPhone a trickier choice. However for this evaluate, no less than the iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max are getting every thing. I can’t wait to check out multi-track recording in Voice Memos, and I hope Apple sees this craving as an indication that it ought to convey this to extra gadgets.

It was good to get time with iOS 18, even within the absence of Apple Intelligence. Actually, I’m not even certain I’d like these options that a lot. In an analogous manner, Gemini AI was good on the Pixel 9 Professional collection, however didn’t really feel like must-haves.

Among the new iOS 18 touches I observed instantly have been the refreshed Management Heart, which took some getting used to as I needed to re-learn swipe again to the house web page, since there are extra pages to scroll by now. I particularly loved seeing the brand new little chat bubble seem on my voice recordings, indicating {that a} transcript had been generated for them. And although I haven’t exchanged messages with Android-toting mates but, I’m glad to see RCS assist is lastly dwell this week.

Although I used to be excited for the brand new customized routes software in Maps, I struggled to really create them. You may set your begin and finish factors and have the app shut the loop for you, or simply faucet landmarks or factors on the map to get the path to mainly join the dots. Sadly, irrespective of what number of occasions I attempted to get the route to chop by a constructing the place I knew a pedestrian walkway existed, Maps resisted me at each flip, forcing the path to undergo extra established (and subsequently extra crowded) paths as an alternative. It’s not unreasonable, however definitely not the open-world route-creation characteristic I used to be envisioning.

One of the best factor about iOS 18, and likewise some new options within the iPhone 16 lineup (like within the digicam controls) is the customizability. I do admire that for those who don’t like one thing, you may normally flip it off. With the brand new capability to put apps exterior of a inflexible grid, now you can lay your house display out simply the way in which you want. The redesigned Photographs app allows you to create and pin collections so you may extra simply discover the images most necessary to you. And once more, I’m glad Apple is giving individuals the choice to show off Digital camera Management altogether or modify its sensitivity.

Efficiency and battery life

The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max are powered by Apple’s A18 Professional chip, that are constructed on “second-generation 3-nanometer technology and [feature] a new architecture with smaller, faster transistors.” All that is meant to ship “unprecedented efficiency,” in accordance with Apple’s press launch.

Some small software program glitches apart, I’ve by no means run into slowdown on the iPhone 16 Professional, however I used to be definitely stunned by the smaller handset’s battery life. Normally, the iPhone 16 Professional would barely final a full day, which is harking back to the iPhone 15 Professional, too. It’s value noting that earlier than this evaluate I used to be primarily utilizing an iPhone 15 Professional Max as my each day driver, which normally will get by a day and a half with no drawback, so the drop in endurance is much more pronounced for me.

Most days, I’d choose up the iPhone 16 Professional at about 9AM and would get to about 9pm earlier than getting low battery alerts. If I began the day a bit later, nearer to 11AM as an illustration, I acquired to 1am earlier than the iPhone 16 Professional ran fully dry. On Sunday, I unplugged the telephone at about 9:30AM and was shocked on the practice house to get a warning that remaining energy was at simply 20 %. It was solely 6:50PM, and the night time had barely simply began!

You’ll get considerably higher battery life on the iPhone 16 Professional Max, which delivers the identical virtually two-day runtime as its predecessor. And certain, a telephone with a smaller battery not lasting as lengthy makes mathematical sense. However contemplating the Pixel 9 Professional is a comparably sized handset and manages to final about two days, there’s no excuse for the iPhone 16 Professional to conk out earlier than the night time is up.

Which iPhone 16 must you get?

Among the best issues in regards to the iPhone 16 Professional lineup is that, not like final 12 months, there isn’t a lot of a tradeoff in cameras for those who go for the smaller gadget. The iPhone 15 Professional Max had a 5x telephoto zoom digicam, whereas the iPhone 15 Professional solely went as much as 3x. As a budding photographer of skittish wild animals, I opted for the Max, particularly because it was a lot lighter than its predecessor due to the titanium construct.

With the iPhone 16 Professional having primarily the identical digicam system because the Professional Max, I believed it was time for me to return to a measurement that was a lot simpler on my palms. Alas, with the disappointing battery efficiency, I’d simply have to stay with a Max, and also you would possibly too.

There’s additionally the non-Professional iPhone 16 fashions to think about, and you’ll take a look at my colleague Billy Steele’s evaluate of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus for extra particulars. Simply as there have been fewer variations than ever between the Professional and Professional Max, the tradeoffs aren’t as vital this 12 months, both. Apple introduced the beforehand Professional-exclusive Motion button to the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, whereas additionally together with the Digital camera Management on its less-premium telephones.

The most important issues that set the 2 traces aside this 12 months are processors, display high quality, digicam sensors and onboard mics. You’ll lose assist for ProRaw photographs and multi-layer recording by choosing the cheaper gadgets, too. Principally, in order for you all the perfect options Apple has to supply, otherwise you plan on utilizing your telephone to create high-quality movies and get 5x telephoto zoom in your photographs, the Professionals are the way in which to go.

In any other case, you’ll nonetheless have all of the iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence options coming to the Professionals, in addition to spatial audio recording, which permits the Audio Combine I described within the digicam part earlier.

Wrap up

Apple’s warning is usually warranted. Particularly at a time when distrust of AI-generated content material runs rampant, the corporate taking its time to get Apple Intelligence proper is comprehensible. However its deliberation doesn’t all the time result in winners. Whereas I admire the try to differentiate digicam management with the contact sensor for extra versatility, I’m not but satisfied of its usefulness.

The excellent news is, and I can’t stress this sufficient, you might have the choice to tune it to your liking. And that’s a theme I’m seeing in latest Apple options that trace at extra thoughtfulness than typical. When you don’t like one thing, or if one thing isn’t proper on your wants, you may modify or disable it. In iOS 18, you might have higher management over your house display’s app structure and may pin customized collections for simpler attain within the Photographs app. The Motion button launched final 12 months might have been a spectacular fail had Apple not allow you to nonetheless hold it as a mute change, but it surely managed to present individuals extra performance whereas sustaining the established order for many who are simply as resistant to alter.

Change is horrifying. Change is difficult. However with out change there isn’t a progress. Apple’s cautious method is a tough balancing act that’s evident on the iPhone 16 Professional. Some new options, like Audio Combine and customized routes in Maps, ship combined outcomes. Others, like Photographic Kinds, are hits. Then there are the essential elements, like good battery life and sturdy, engaging designs, that Apple can’t neglect.

The iPhone 16 Professional’s subpar battery life holds it again from beating the competitors, which is stiffer than ever this 12 months, particularly from Google. Fortunately for Apple, most individuals who’ve iPhones are going to stay with iPhones — it’s simply simpler. For these already sucked into the ecosystem, the iPhone 16 Professional (and notably the Professional Max) are definitely worth the improve from a mannequin that’s no less than two years outdated. If you have already got an iPhone 15 Professional (or perhaps a 14 Professional), for the sake of our planet and your pockets, you would possibly choose to carry off on upgrading, particularly since this 12 months’s gadgets aren’t that a lot totally different.