Apple's iPhone 16 Launch: A good year for the iPhone
Long list of AI features, though many won't be available at launch.
Key Takeaways:
Heavy focus on Apple Intelligence to enhance productivity.
The rumors were wrong: Apple Intelligence does not require a subscription.
The A18 chip, with a 2x faster Neural Engine, powers the new features.
Pricing starts at $799 for iPhone 16 and $999 for iPhone 16 Pro.
As expected, Apple’s iPhone 16 series brought AI front and center, with significant upgrades to both hardware and software. Powered by the A18 chip, the new iPhones promise faster performance, smarter features, and enhanced cameras. The new AI-driven Apple Intelligence features promise to make productivity easier on the iPhone with new generative AI writing tools and notifications summarizations, but the roll-out of Apple Intelligence will happen over time, and will start only with English language capabilities.
iPhone 16: The Apple Intelligence entry point
Key Takeaways:
iPhone 16 starts at $799; iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899.
48MP main camera.
New customizable Action Button and Camera Control for quick access to features.
It’s a good year to buy the entry-level iPhone
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will ship in several new colors, including ultramarine, teal, and pink, along with the traditional white and black.
Starting at $799 and $899, both models come with a durable ceramic shield that’s 50% stronger than previous versions. The displays—6.1 inches for the iPhone 16 and 6.7 inches for the Plus—reach up to 2000nits, providing exceptional brightness and clarity even in bright sunlight.
On the camera front, the iPhone 16 is equipped with a 48MP main camera that uses computational photography to offer an effective equivalent of a 2x telephone lens. The 12MP ultrawide camera with macro photography is still included, despite rumors that it might be removed.
Two new buttons add to the user experience. The Camera Button allows for instant access to the camera, while the Action Button can be customized to quickly launch shortcuts or apps. Both buttons can be integrated by third-party apps for custom features.
The new A18 chip powers the new iPhone 16 models, and it’s quite similar to the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro models. The A18 has a six-core CPU (two performance and four efficiency cores), a Neural Engine with up to 35 TOPS of AI performance, and a 5-core GPU. By comparison, the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro models has just one extra GPU core and some unique media encoding hardware: the CPU and NPU are identical between the two.
iPhone 16 Pro: Yet again, the focus is on the camera
Key Takeaways:
iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999, and Pro Max starts at $1199 with 256GB of storage.
Features A18 Pro chip for advanced media and gaming capabilities.
48MP fusion main camera, 5x telephoto and 48MP ultra wide cameras, and cinematic slow-motion video.
The iPhone 16 Pro comes with a 6.3-inch display, while the Pro Max boasts a massive 6.9-inch screen, making it the largest iPhone ever. Both models feature a Grade 5 Titanium exterior with a new “desert gold” finish, alongside the traditional black, white, and silver options. Yet again, those who want an iPhone with a vibrant color must stick to the base model (or just buy a case).
As mentioned, the new A18 Pro chip is similar to the base A18. As with the prior A17, the biggest upgrade is the A18 Pro’s advanced hardware media encoding features which allows for ProRes and faster USB speeds for file transfers. The A18 Pro has one more GPU core than the A18, but CPU and Neural Engine specifications are equivalent.
The iPhone 16 Pro’s camera is the highlight, with the 48MP fusion camera offering zero shutter lag. There’s also a 48MP ultra wide camera (up from 12MP on the base iPhone 16) for wide angle and macro shots, and a dedicated 12MP 5x telephoto camera for zoom and portrait photography. Users can also capture 4K video at 120FPS with cinematic slow-motion and apply real-time filters as they shoot.
For those who rely on their iPhone for creative work, the Pro models offer additional media controls, including two-stage shutter focus and an expanded viewfinder with grid and social media preview modes.
Apple Intelligence: It looks promising, but features will roll out over time
Key Takeaways:
AI-powered Apple Intelligence features help summarize emails and prioritize notifications.
Visual Intelligence interprets photos and adds context, launching later this year.
Siri now integrates generative AI for smarter responses and text generation.
Apple Intelligence took lead on Apple’s pitch for the iPhone as a productivity tool. This AI-driven suite leverages the power of the A18 chip to offer more intuitive functionality. For instance, Apple Intelligence can summarize emails, help prioritize notifications, and even remember key details from previous interactions with your iPhone. It can also search through photos and videos for specific moments and generate personalized slideshows on demand.
Siri will be smarter, too. Now integrating generative AI, Siri can write and rewrite texts, respond to image-based input, and provide context-aware guidance across apps and settings. You can type to Siri instead of talking, making Siri far easier to use in situations where you can’t, or don’t want to, use voice input.
Apple also highlighted Visual Intelligence features. Take a picture of a flier, and your iPhone can automatically add the event to your calendar. Visual Intelligence also removes unwanted objects from photos or reduces background noise in videos (though, notably, Apple made no mention of the ability to add new content to your photos, as can Google’s Pixel 9).
While Apple Intelligence features look solid, there’s a lot of caveats. Not all features will be available at launch and many have only a vague launch date, such as “later this year.” The launch is focused on English, too, with support for additional languages in 2025. It’s plausible other languages won’t see most features arrive until close to the launch of next year’s iPhone, which is disappointing.
Apple Intelligence vs. Microsoft Recall
Key takeaways:
Microsoft Recall and Apple Intelligence have similar capabilities
However, Apple’s past implantation of security and privacy features give users more reason to trust Apple Intelligence.
Here’s a point I found interesting: based off Apple’s description of how Apple Intelligence works, it’s not dissimilar to Microsoft’s controversial (and delayed) Recall feature for Windows 11.
For those who haven’t heard: Microsoft Recall was supposed to be part of the AI-driven Windows Copilot Plus PC launch. The feature would take occasional screenshots of your desktop and then store that data for later retrieval. It would effectively create a searchable history of your entire usage history, making it possible to find anything you’d accomplished on your Windows PC through natural language search.
That could be useful, but it also could be a privacy nightmare, and it didn’t take long for the backlash to appear. Microsoft quickly recalled Recall, and it still lacks a release date (it’s now slated to come to Windows Insider preview builds in October).
But Apple Intelligence seems to have similar capabilities. Apple mentioned it can pick up a contextual information, like past text conversations, and make that information searchable, or to provide contextual suggestions.
Will Apple see the same backlash? I doubt it. Apple, unlike Microsoft, has a strong track record of implementing security and privacy. Microsoft Recall, on the other hand, was revealed to store data in plain text. It’s possible someone will discover a security flaw in Apple Intelligence, and if that happens, I expect a full-blown scandal. But I’m far less leery about Apple’s implementation.
Productivity take: A good year for the iPhone
Key takeaways:
New iPhone camera, action button offer extra functionality
Apple Intelligence is promising (and only available on new models, or iPhone 15 Pro)
iPhone 16 remains best for most people, with iPhone 16 Pro focused on photographers and videographers
2024 looks like a promising year for the iPhone, especially for users focused on productivity. The new camera and action buttons appear to be genuinely useful, and they are likely to appeal most to power users who want to customize their experience. I also expect that productivity-focused apps, like Notion or Obsidian, will find ways to leverage these new buttons.
The AI-driven intelligence features also seem legitimately helpful. While they won’t completely change how you use your phone, tools like AI-powered summarizations and notification prioritization will make it easier to quickly sift through emails, notifications, and other information, helping you focus on what's relevant and ignore what isn’t. Additionally, I suspect many users will appreciate the generative text features that can draft entire emails if desired. Personally, as a writer, I prefer composing my own messages, but I recognize that most people don't find the same enjoyment in the process.
That said, Apple isn’t drastically overhauling the iPhone’s user experience, and many of the improvements might feel subtle or even invisible to those who don’t take a closer look. This is some ways a positive—features should always be intuitive and approachable for users who don’t want to dig too deeply into settings. It's also worth noting that the rumors Apple would charge a subscription fee for its intelligence features appear to be inaccurate; Apple didn’t announce a subscription fee for Apple Intelligence.
This year, as in 2023, the Phone 16 Pro remains primarily relevant to professional photographers and videographers. The cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro are still significantly superior to those on the base iPhone, and the Pro’s advanced media encoding features, like support for shooting in ProRes, are crucial for professionals.
Beyond photography, the iPhone Pro models don’t seem to offer much in terms of added productivity benefits for everyday users. There's no evidence that the iPhone 16 Pro models will be faster or more capable in handling general tasks compared to the standard iPhone 16. Both the standard and Pro models come with the new camera and action buttons, so if you’re looking for a solid phone for productivity at a reasonable price, the iPhone 16 Plus, with its 6.7-inch display, is probably your best option.
iPhone 16 pre-order Information
The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus start at $799 and $899, respectively, both featuring 128GB of storage. The iPhone 16 Pro begins at $999 with 128GB, while the Pro Max starts at $1199 with 256GB. Pre-orders are open on 9/13.