Updated August 18 with pricing details.
With the launch of the new iPhone 16 family just a few weeks away, Apple loyalists will soon have to decide which style to switch to. Smartphones will be closer than ever, but there are still some notable differences between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16. pro.
Apple will release four styles in the iPhone 16 family this year. The truth is that the two lines, the popular vanilla line and the pro line, each come with the base phone and a model with a larger screen. I’m on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus together, and the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max together, as our two comparisons.
Unlike previous years, when Apple worked hard to create a difference between the vanilla iPhone and the professional iPhone Pro models, 2024 will see far more commonality between the two handsets. Both will ship with the latest Apple Silicon A18 chipset and have more RAM. The increased power and working space these offer is needed to run the generative AI software (backronymed to Apple intelligence).
Of course, Apple Intelligence will not be available at launch on any of the iPhone 16 family; a limited set of features will be available through an iOS update in October, with the full suite not expected until late Q1 2025. You’ll have to wait for Apple’s iteration on the revolution.
It’s unlikely that Apple will completely sync the two models, it still needs to encourage and upsell to the Pro level, so expect the iPhone 16 Pro chipset to pick up the A18 pro branding and offer more cores (especially graphics cores) and more memory. As always, don’t expect Apple to list the memory in the technical specifications.
While the base iPhone 16 style is expected to start with 128GB of storage and go up to 256GB or 512GB, the iPhone 16 Pro styles are expected to start with 256GB and go up to 512GB or 1TB.
Apple has maintained the price bands on the iPhone family for the last few years. It could maintain the same prices this year or risk moving prices up $100 across the board. With flat year-on-year sales figures, the latter could be a gamble Apple may not be willing to take. Whether they do or not, the price gap between the vanilla and Pro models has been even more consistent. Expect the iPhone 16 Pro to be $200 more expensive than the iPhone 16, the iPhone 16 Plus to sit in the middle of those two, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max another $200 on top of the base iPhone 16 Pro.
Update: Sunday, August 18: Several sources pointed out this weekend Apple’s decision regarding the prices of the upcoming iPhone phones. Apple Hub has selected the entry-level price for all four variants.
It seems that Apple will maintain its costs for another year. The iPhone 16 will start at $799 and the iPhone Plus at $899. The iPhone 16 Pro will start at $1,099 and the iPhone 16 Pro Max will start at $1,199. Additional costs are not listed for larger garage variants of each style.
The price of iPhones is one of the easiest things to replace in the short term, so discussions are likely still ongoing within Apple. However, with year-over-year sales figures looking like flat expansion at best and the absence of immediate generative AI to sweeten the purchase, there’s an admonition not to increase the value of this year’s new iPhones. .
There is one apparent difference between the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro, and that is the camera. The iPhone 16 will adopt a new camera lens orientation to facilitate stereoscopic video recording. Even so, it will still be a two-lens affair compared to the iPhone 16 Pro’s three-lens setup. This third lens will be a telephoto lens that will allow the iPhone 16 Pro to offer 5x optical zoom. This is the same tetraprism periscopic lens that appeared in the iPhone 15 Pro Max last year. . . It remains to be seen if the iPhone 156 Pro Max will get its own optical zoom upgrade.
Last year, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max introduced the action button that allowed users to choose one of the many movements or app launches that can be activated. This was a key difference last year, as it was only available on Pro models. This year it will be available across the range, as will the new capture button connected to the camera functions. There is no difference.
Apple has replaced the proven length of the iPhone or iPhone Pro from the iPhone 12 family. The iPhone 16 is expected to have more than just the same 6. 1-inch display as previous models, while the iPhone 16 pro is expected to see a slight increase in length to a 6. 3-inch display.
The refresh rate on the two phones will remain the same, with the iPhone 16 running a slower 60hz refresh rate than the 16 Pro’s 120hz.
The iPhone 15 family currently offers wired charging at 27W and wireless charging at 15W. There are reports that Apple is looking to increase these numbers, but all of the signs point to the new power solutions only being applied to the Pro models. In this case, wired charging could rise to 40W while wireless charging moves to 20W.
Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 16 family on Tuesday, September 10, with US sales beginning on Friday, September 20.
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