I spent a number of hours with Apple’s new flagship iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max on Monday within the Steve Jobs Theater and rapidly shaped some first impressions. As I do in my iPhone reviews, I at all times attempt to understand that most iPhone upgraders are coming from a telephone that is at the very least three years outdated.
And whereas the very first thing a lot of patrons might discover is the yr’s new telephone shade — it is Desert Titanium this yr, 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 at all times the case that it unlocks new capabilities, however this yr that feels extra true than ever with the brand new A18 Professional. Or at the very least it powers my favourite new characteristic — and a bunch of others that show how ridiculously highly effective this machine is.
And sure, I will give up speaking about chips and get to my three favourite options.
1.) Digicam Management
The brand new Digicam Management button is about doing extra with the iPhone digicam and doing it rapidly. This new button sits on the best facet of the telephone beneath the facility button however the Digicam Management button is a darker metallic and sits extra flush to the facet of the telephone. It is also contact delicate, 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 at least one facet or the opposite helps you to zoom out and in. A double mild press and a swipe to both facet lets you choose completely different settings from zoom to depth of subject to the brand new photograph types to a number of different choices.
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If it sounds a bit of sophisticated, it is not. You may rapidly get the grasp of it. I attempted it and it is goes to be tremendous useful for individuals who take a ton of photographs with the iPhone — and let’s be trustworthy, there are plenty of us as a result of the iPhone is the most used camera in the world. The Digicam Management button offers the iPhone a characteristic no different telephone on this planet has proper now. The Sony Xperia 1 V comes the closest with its devoted shutter button, but it surely does not do almost as a lot.
Persons are going to like this characteristic.
2.) Measurement and end
Each of the professional iPhones bought larger screens and thinner bezels this yr, which makes them a bit of taller than final yr’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 joyful about it as a result of we each are likely to choose the marginally taller and thinner type elements of most Android units because it makes them a bit of simpler to function with one hand.
However 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. In truth, it is so grippy that I am tempted to do the unthinkable and take a look at utilizing it with out a case. I am additionally tempted to make the smaller 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional somewhat than the Max my day by day driver — particularly for the reason that 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 exhibits its energy is within the new video and audio recording choices out there within the iPhone 16 Professional. First, now you can document in 4K at 120 frames per second, which supplies you the facility to do the form of tremendous sluggish movement you solely see in massive cinematic movies. Even only a couple years in the past, you’d have wanted an costly pro-level digicam and a desktop pc 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 to date seems just about indistinguishable from professional tools.
Additionally: iPhone 16 hands-on: So packed with features, I almost forgot about its Pro model
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 not seen on a smartphone earlier than. With the brand new Audio Combine software program now you can edit audio straight on the iPhone 16 Professional, which separates foreground and background sounds and allows you to choose from a number of sound profiles, together with a Studio profile that robotically dampens background sounds and a Cinematic profile that makes it sound like a film edit. It could additionally now seize Spatial Audio encompass sound throughout video recording (which you may also edit in Audio Combine). And the Voice Memos app goes to make use of these upgrades for an replace later this yr that may allow you to layer two completely different tracks. These audio options are an amazing 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 return
Apple referred to as the brand new A18 Professional chip as highly effective as high-end desktop PCs, which feels like a hyperbole however the options talked about above are convincing sufficient to make me suppose it might be at the very least as highly effective as high-end desktops from a pair years in the past. We’ll run benchmarks after we get our testing units in addition to working some real-world eventualities to measure and examine the efficiency.
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Apple additionally claims the brand new A18 Professional chip is rather more energy environment friendly and can outcome within the iPhone 16 Professional Max having the longest battery lifetime of any iPhone but. We’ll additionally problem that declare with our personal battery checks.
The digicam system upgrades to a 48 megapixel sensor for the ultrawide digicam, which ought to lead to higher macro photographs and a lot of different enhancements. We’ll be testing that as properly in a brand new set of ZDNET smartphone digicam checks.
The AI options that Apple talked about this summer season at WWDC, together with the newly upgraded Siri, will not arrive till the iOS 18.1 replace — and even then, they will 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 seems like it is going to have the oomph to run them with out breaking a sweat.