iPhone 16 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro
The 2024 generation of Pro iPhones brings mostly minor changes - refinement and fine-tuning. That includes an even wider range of camera capabilities, a new button (possibly in the camera category, but also kind of its own thing), design tweaks, a tiny bit larger display, a small battery capacity increase. But the 16 Pro in particular can almost claim to have introduced a more principal hardware upgrade - the 5x telephoto camera of the Maxes replaces the 3x unit of the 15 Pro.
So if you had to choose now, should you be getting the new 16 Pro, or maybe save a buck and track down the last stock of the iPhone 15 Pro? Let's find out how they stack up.
Table of Contents:
For starters, you can compare the complete specs sheets or directly continue with our editor's assessment in the following video or in the text further below.
Size comparison
Both sizes of Pros have gotten a little larger this year, and the 16 Pro has grown by about 3mm in height and a millimeter in width. It's always been questionable calling the non-Max 'compact', and with this year's size increase, small as it may be, the phone isn't exactly setting the standard for pocketability. The nearly 200-gram weight isn't helping either.
The point we're trying to make is that the lineup is deviating from the concept of compactness and if that's what you're after, perhaps the 15 Pro remains a better choice. Not that it's 'small', strictly speaking, it's just that the 16 Pro is even larger and heavier. Of course, the whole thing about iPhones' heft leaving a feeling of premium density is still arguably true, but feelings are subjective and weight and dimensions are absolute.
The two phones share more or less the same build, with titanium replacing aluminum for the frame last year and the new 16 Pro adopting it too.
The new model does feature a next generation Ceramic Shield display glass, so it just might be that extra bit more durable against scratches and shattering.
Either way, you'll be getting Apple's overachieving take on the IP68 rating - up to 30 minutes down to as deep as 6m underwater (the standard requires 1.5m).
The two models share 3 of the 4 colorways and you might be saddened to not be able to get a Blue Titanium 16 Pro - you'll have to look back to the 15 Pro for that, the new generation having substituted it with 'Desert' Titanium.
Display comparison
One of the more obvious specs changes on the 16 Pro is the display size - 6.3 inches in diagonal vs. the 15 Pro's 6.1 inches. It's a small 5-ish percent increase in area (depending on if and how you account for the rounded corners and the front camera pill) so it's not a dramatic change, and it's probably a bit more noticeable how the bezels have been slimmed down.
Other than that, the display experience remains largely unchanged. Brightness maxes out at around 1,800nits in auto, while the 900nits vs. 845nits (16 Pro vs. 15 Pro) we've measured in manual mode is not a difference you'll notice. The Super Retina 460ppi density is maintained, the 120Hz ProMotion feels nice and smooth, the HDR implementation is also among the best ones.
Battery life
The iPhone 16 Pro is powered by a 3,582mAh battery - the almost 10% increase over the 15 Pro's capacity being the biggest year on year upgrade among the iPhone 16s. In our testing, it did not result in battery life improvements across the board - video playback and gaming test results were essentially the same. That said, we did get notable increases in web browsing and call times - perhaps not big enough to make a big deal out of it, but a welcome development nonetheless.