iPhone 16 Review: Little improvements equal a lot

The latest iPhone 16 models are now in stores and the question, as always, is “do I upgrade?”

This year, the changes might seem subtle, but they add up to some big improvements across both models.

If you don’t want to read any further, the bottom line is that the base model iPhone 16 will be a great upgrade if you have any previous iPhone model and want the upcoming AI features.

If you’re eyeing an iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max, this will be a fantastic upgrade unless you have the iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max. In that case, I’d skip it.

And now, on to the details.

I know, every year, there are new iPhones and there’s that pull to upgrade, but you wonder if it’s worth it.

I’ve used these phones for a week and I can describe them in one word: refined.

Apple doesn’t make a lot of huge changes from year to year but this year in particular there are various pain points improved: battery life, screens, wireless charging and cameras are all slightly improved across the board.

Then you have some big changes – like the Action Button now across the entire lineup and the addition of the Camera Control button.

For starters, don’t get these phones if you ONLY want the Camera Control. It’s not worth it on its own. It’s fine for quickly launching the camera, but after that, it’s going to take some major getting used to.

It’s not the natural place I put my finger when taking a photo, so it’s not very good as a shutter button. And there’s no way I’m going to lightly press or tap or swipe or whatever to zoom or adjust settings. It’s just not happening.

And honestly, who’s adjusting camera settings that often anyway? Camera Control is great for launching the camera instantly and saving an icon space on your home screen because the camera icon no longer needs to be there.

As for the Action Button, I’m happy it’s made its way to all 16 models. It’s a neat, programmable button that replaces the singular function ring/silent switch. You can make this button pretty much do anything. The trick is remembering that it’s there and using it. Again, it’s not in the optimal position for activating.

I have mine set to trigger a recording of a voice memo that’s then instantly transcribed using AI and sent to my email inbox. Seriously, it’s a fantastic feature through an app called Whisper Memos. Check it out.

As for screen size, the base 16 models stay the same – 6.1 and 6.7 inches.

But the Pro models get a small boost in screen size – 6.3 and 6.9 inches. I’ve been carrying around the 6.9 inch Pro Max and it’s big, but you get used to it.

The other nice thing is that Apple basically created identical versions of these phones in two sizes. So you don’t have to sacrifice key features if you like to carry a smaller phone. It still has the same key specs as the larger version, except for screen size and battery.

That means you get the same 5x optical zoom on both the Pro and the Pro Max this year, as opposed to last year where the smaller version had less zoom (3x).

The 16 base models don’t have a dedicated zoom lens, but since the sensor is so large, you can zoom 2x without losing image quality.

Also, the Pro models have an improved wide-angle lens and better microphones, and they can capture video in crystal clear and smooth 4K 120 frames per second. All of these features are incredible for content creators or anyone who just loves to take a ton of photos and videos with their phone.

Both phones can take close-up macro shots, but the pro images will be more detailed.

Across the board, battery life is better, wireless charging is faster and the phones stay cooler.

I can attest to all of these things – they are noticeable daily improvements. I find that I need to charge less and the phone doesn’t heat up quite as much as before.

The odd thing about all of these phones is that the AI features just aren’t there yet. So Siri isn’t much smarter and notifications are still a mixed bag. But iOS 18 software is much more customizable and the AI stuff is coming very soon. If you’re adventurous, you can even download the beta version of it right now in just a few clicks.

So, again, the iPhone 16 base models are excellent this year (minus the still-slow screen refresh rate, but if you don’t know what that means you won’t care) and the Pro models are just about firing on all cylinders this time around.

If you’re on the fence about an upgrade, I think the small improvements and promise of AI is a good reason to get one of the new models.

But if you’re happy with your current phone, your photos, videos and battery life are fine and you don’t care about AI summarizing your texts or helping you write your emails, you can easily wait until next year.