The devices were unveiled during an event on September 9, 2024, marking the first time an iPhone release had been announced on a Monday.[5]
Design
Display
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus retain their screen sizes of 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, respectively.
Colors
The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus come in five new colors: Ultramarine, Teal, Pink, White and Black.[6]
Color
Name
Ultramarine
Teal
Pink
White
Black
Hardware
The iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus are equipped with the new A18 chip, designed specifically for this device. The chip is optimized for running large generative models and features a neural engine that is twice as fast as its predecessor.
The iPhone 16 includes a new 48-megapixel camera, offering four times the resolution of the iPhone 14. It also features a new ultrawide camera that will allow for more light capture in low-light situations as well as automatic focus.[7]
All iPhone 16 models have an improved thermal design. The main logic board has been updated, centralizing chip placement and optimizing the surrounding architecture. The recycled aluminum substructure dissipates heat for 30 percent higher sustained performance for gaming.[8]
Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X75 modem brings several improvements, including 5G Advanced support, lower power consumption, and enhanced 5G carrier aggregation for faster upload speeds. These upgrades should increase mobile connectivity by over 20 %.[9]
Every model in the iPhone 16 lineup has support for WiFi 7.[10]
Action button
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus now come with the action button as standard. By default, the action button toggles silent mode. However, users can change the button's feature to do different things outside of silent mode, like take pictures or toggle a focus mode.
iPhone 16 battery
The iPhone 16 has been upgraded in terms of battery capacity.[11]
The base iPhone 16 has duration of video playback up to 22 hours. The iPhone 16 Plus has video playback up to 27 hours, a 22.73 % increase. The iPhone 16 has duration of audio playback up to 80 hours, 20 % less then the iPhone 16 Plus with 100 hours of audio playback.
Enclosure
The enclosure will be made up of 85 % recycled content.[7]
The iPhone 16 also comes with the new Apple Intelligence, a new line of AI, branching off of Siri, Apple's AI assistant. Siri has gotten better, with more features.
In September 2024, Apple announced that the new iOS 18 operating system includes RecoveryOS on the iPhone 16 series that allows users to recover and restore firmware wirelessly using another iPhone.[12]
Specifications
The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus has a vertical camera layout, similar to the iPhone 12, as opposed to the diagonal layout for iPhone 13, iPhone 14, and iPhone 15. USB Type-C port is used, albeit with USB 2.0 data transfer speeds up to 480 Mb/s.[13]
Price
The iPhone 16 has a starting price of $799, while the iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899. Pre-orders began on September 13, 2024, and sales start September 20.[14]