iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max hands-on: don’t call it a shutter button

I just spent a few minutes with the new iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, which feature bigger displays with thinner bezels, revamped cameras, and Apple’s new Camera Control button, which is pretty fascinating.

Let’s start with Camera Control, which is a physical button — it depresses into the case ever so slightly, with additional haptic feedback from Apple’s Taptic Engine to make it feel like a chunkier click. You can just click away at it, and it’ll fire off photos from the 48MP main camera with zero shutter lag. I was not able to slow it down in my short demo time, but we’ll see how it goes in real life.

The button is also ultra sensitive, so pressing it ever-so-lightly brings up swipe-to-zoom controls, and double-pressing it lightly brings up additional controls you can swipe between, like lens selection, exposure, and the new photo styles available on the Pro. It took me a second to figure out how hard to press but it wasn’t hard to figure out.

The phones themselves are slightly taller and wider than the 15 Pro models, making room for larger screens: a 6.3-inch panel on the 16 Pro and a massive 6.9-inch display on the 16 Pro Max, emphasis on Max. It’s made possible partly by new thinner bezels, too.

The big news for the smaller phone is that the regular 16 Pro now comes with the 5x telephoto camera formerly reserved for the Pro Max. Apple has managed to wedge it in alongside the main and ultrawide cameras. That’ll be a welcome addition for anyone who wants a proper zoom lens without having to buy the biggest phone.

If you were hoping for some more vibrant colors on the Pro phones, well, you’ll have to keep waiting. The best Apple has done this year is a darker gold called “desert titanium.” The other color options are familiar restrained neutrals.