iPhone 16 and 16 Plus get powerful A18 chipset, keep the old screens

2024-09-09

As you can imagine, AI was a major part of tonight’s Apple event – and the new iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are designed for the computational demands of Apple Intelligence (that’s what Cupertino calls its AI) with a new 3nm chipset. The Action and the Camera Control will change how you interact with your iPhone too, these are design elements shared with the Pro.

Let’s start with the display. The panels are the same size as before, 6.1” for the iPhone 16 and 6.7” for the iPhone 16 Plus, which makes them 0.2” smaller than the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, respectively. They still run at 60Hz (no ProMotion here) and can go from as high as 2,000 nits in the sun to as low as 1 nit in the dark (this part hasn’t changed either). The latest Ceramic Shield protection is 50% tougher than the original formulation and (Apple says) is twice as tough as the strengthened glass used by other phones.

The big upgrade this year is the Apple A18 chipset, which is two generations ahead of what the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus had (i.e. A16). This is a second-gen 3nm chip that is both more powerful and more efficient.

Below is a more detailed breakdown and you can read our Apple A18 post for even more details. Long story short, the A18 CPU is 30% faster than the iPhone 15 CPU and 60% faster than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU is 40% faster than the iPhone 15 and twice as fast as the iPhone 12. Focusing on comparing just the iPhone 16 and 15, the 2024 phone can offer the same CPU performance while using 30% less power and the same GPU performance while using 35% less power. Apple also improved the system memory bandwidth by 17%.

Apple improved the thermals of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus and says that they achieve 30% higher sustained performance. This included reworking the motherboard and including a thermal substrate made from 100% recycled aluminum.

Remember Resident Evil 7 Biohazard? That is a triple-A game that only ran on iPhone 15 Pro, iPads and Macs, but not the vanilla iPhone 15. Well, the Apple A18 GPU is fast enough for Biohazard and you can include Assassin’s Creed: Mirage on that list too. Honor of Kings: World will be available next year with an ultra graphics mode optimized for iPhone 16. The GPU also has hardware accelerated ray tracing, for games like War Thunder Mobile. Controllers are supported too.

The NPU is even more impressive – the 16-core design is twice as fast at machine learning tasks and is what will enable Apple Intelligence to run on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus whereas it can’t run on the 15 and 15 Plus.

We will cover iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence in more detail in a separate post. Here we want to mention the so-called Visual Intelligence – it’s instantly accessible with a tap and hold on the Camera Control. Just point it at something and tap the Control again. It can recognize buildings, objects and even pets and bring up relevant information. It’s smart too, if you point it at a poster for an upcoming event, the date and other details will be automatically added to your calendar.

And that’s just one of the things that the Camera Control can do. It’s a capacitive touchpad protected by sapphire glass and made to feel like a real button with Apple’s excellent haptic feedback.

You can tap it to launch the camera and tap again to snap a photo. If you tap and hold instead, it will record a video. There’s more – a light press hides almost all UI elements so you can focus on the framing. All that’s left is the zoom control, which you can dial in by sliding your finger. Alternatively, you can use the touch control to switch to other settings and change the depth of field, exposure and so on. Don’t worry, European Commission, this isn’t an Apple-only feature – apps like Snapchat are already building new experiences with the Camera Control.

Let’s talk about the cameras themselves. The 48MP main camera hasn’t changed much, it has an f/1.6 26mm lens and a sensor with 1.0µm pixels, plus sensor-shift OIS. What has changed is the imaging pipeline behind it. Apple has introduced an intermediate mode that captures 24MP photos – they offer more detail than 12MP shots combined with smaller file sizes than 48MP images.

Also, it can record 4K video with Dolby Vision at 60fps. The new AI features also include wind noise reduction for videos. There’s no dedicated telephoto lens yet, but instead the main camera and processing pipeline offer 2x zoom with optical quality at 12MP or you could choose a high-resolution 48MP option.

There is a new ultra wide camera – or should we say new for the vanilla phones. It’s the same 12MP module with a 13mm lens as last year’s (and this year’s) Pros have. It has autofocus, which enables a macro mode. Also, the brighter f/2.2 lens allows it to capture 2.6x more light than before for better nighttime images.

If you bought the pricey Apple Vision Pro, you can still capture Spatial Videos (and now Spatial Photos too), even if you picked an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus instead of one of the Pros. iOS 18 brings a revamped Photos app that can automatically organize your photos by grouping them based on who is in the shot or based on a trip you took. This is fully customizable, of course. Apple Intelligence will also include Cleanup, which can remove people that walked into your shot (including their reflections and shadows).

Next, let’s talk about the Action Button. No, let’s start with saying goodbye to the Alert Slider. Goodbye. The Action button is a shortcut – it can start a voice memo recording, identify a song, launch a voice translator, turn on the flashlight, you name it. This button is available for in-app actions too. For example, it can lock and unlock your car, if your vehicle supports it (Apple demoed the FordPass app).

With iOS 18, the satellite connectivity feature is not just for emergencies – you will be able to chat with friends and family and even send tapbacks. This feature will launch in the US and Canada first (as did the original satellite SOS feature).

The iPhone 16 and 16 Plus frames are made from aerospace-grade aluminum (85% recycled material in the enclosure). For a more vibrant hue, the back glass has the color infused into it. You can pick between Ultramarine, Teal and Pink, along with the stalwart White and Black.

The two new models will be available from September 20, pre-orders will start on the 13th (this Friday). Both phones have 128GB base storage and you are looking at the same prices as last year – the iPhone 16 starts at $800 and the iPhone 16 Plus at $900.

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