It's that time of the year again where we get our first look at this year's range of flagship iPhones and it turns out, the rumours and leaks were fairly spot on this time around. In the early hours of the morning (for us in Australia,) Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 10, new 4th generation AirPods, the iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro.
As always, there are a few nifty upgrades to the iPhone 16 Pro but the highlight here has got to be the display. At 6.3 inches for the iPhone 16 Pro, and 6.9 inches for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Apple's most expensive phones this year are also it's biggest yet.
Besides the bigger OLED displays (with ProMotion 120Hz refresh rate,) the bezels on the iPhone 16 Pro range are also thinner than ever. In fact, Apple claims the screen bezels are the slimmest found on any Apple product.
There's also a new side-mounted Camera Control button that, while not exclusive to the Pro phones, gives you quick access to your camera's features. The touch-sensitive button is multifunctional, with various gestures used to initiate different commands (like zoom.) Speaking of zoom, both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max get the upgraded 5x optical zoom this year, something that was reserved for the 15 Pro Max last year.
Elsewhere in the camera department, the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will feature an upgraded 48MP ultra-wide lens that will deliver cleaner snaps and better low-light photos.
As expected, Apple Intelligence did take up a fair amount of airtime during the iPhone 16 announcement but thankfully it wasn't the only talking point. One by-product of Apple Intelligence is the 16 Pro's souped up A18 Pro chipset. We could spend all day rattling off Apple's performance numbers but the highlights here are the 20% increase in GPU speed, ray tracing that's twice as fast at recreating realistic lighting and shadows, and improved CPU efficiency that Apple claims is not only 15% faster (compared to the A17 Pro) but also 20% more energy efficient. Combined with a bigger battery on both phones, Apple is spruiking a "huge leap" to battery life on the iPhone 16 Pro range, a claim we're looking forward to putting to the test.
Titanium returns as the material holding the Pro range together, while the standard iPhone 16 models are still supported by aluminum frame.
The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are available in Black Titanium, Natural Titanium, White Titanium and Desert Titanium. That last one isn't quite as bronze as we'd hoped but it's still as close as we've had to a bronze iPhone so far.
As with the iPhone 16 range, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are actually cheaper than every equivalent iPhone 15 Pro model at launch. Here's how much each iPhone 16 Pro will cost in Australia at launch:
- iPhone 16 Pro 128GB: $1,799
- iPhone 16 Pro 256GB: $1,999
- iPhone 16 Pro 512GB: $2,349
- iPhone 16 Pro 1TB: $2,699
- iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB: $2,149
- iPhone 16 Pro 512GB: $2,499
- iPhone 16 Pro 1TB: $2,849
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be available from 10:00 pm AEST this Friday, 13 September before officially releasing a week later on the 20th of September.
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