After a month of testing, I’ve become enamored with the iPhone 16 Pro. The phone is an elevated experience in many small ways, like how Apple managed to expand the display to 6.3 inches in the same-size frame as last year’s iPhone 15 Pro. Or how it gets a 5x telephoto zoom lens too, which isn’t restricted to just the Pro Max this year. But one feature blew me away — and no, it isn’t Apple Intelligence.
It’s the superior battery life that truly makes the iPhone 16 Pro feel like a standout phone. It turns out that not having to recharge your phone frequently feels like luxury. And since we don’t know how much Apple Intelligence will drain the battery, lasting later in the day could change from an impressive nice-to-have into necessity.
The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have more battery life than last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. And even though Apple didn’t elaborate on how much larger the batteries were, in my initial review I noted multiple instances where the iPhone 16 Pro got through a long day on a single charge. My initial impressions were validated when I got to run CNET’s arsenal of battery tests, which both the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max aced.
Even without its marque feature, Apple Intelligence, the iPhone 16 Pro is outstanding. Beyond the battery life, there’s a lot to like from the A18 Pro chip’s blazing fast performance to small details like thinner screen bezels and all the goodies iOS 18 brings — it feels ridiculous to praise the ability to move apps anywhere on the home screen. But there are still some iPhone 16 Pro features that feel incomplete. Apple Intelligence is absent out of the box but will launch in part next week. The new Camera Control button isn’t great for dialing in photos, and it’s still missing features like visual intelligence, which is expected to arrive in December.
But all the ways the iPhone 16 Pro shines are far brighter than any frustrations I have with software releases and updates. If you’re on an iPhone 12 Pro or older, you should definitely consider upgrading to the iPhone 16 Pro or 16 Pro Max.
The iPhone 16 Pro has great battery life
The iPhone 16 Pro’s battery life is great even if it’s not dramatically better than the iPhone 15 Pro, which already was one of the best phones you could buy for battery life. And the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are among the longest-lasting phones we’ve tested this year.
Lower numbers indicate better performance.
Not only has the battery reliably gotten me through a day of real-world use, but the iPhone 16 Pro did fantastic in our CNET battery tests. In a 45-minute battery drain test, during which I play games, stream videos, scroll social media and take a video call, the iPhone 16 Pro (and the entire 16 series) performed fantastic. I mean, look at the iPhone 16 Plus’s score above.
Lower numbers indicate better performance.
The 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max scored even better than previous iPhone Pro models in the same test. The difference between 16 Pro and 14 Pro models is wild and shows how much improvement Apple has made to the battery in the past two years.
Lower numbers indicate better performance.
In our 3-hour streaming video tests, both phones did well and are nearly dead even when compared with other phones, like the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 Ultra. Of course, the outlier here is the OnePlus 12, which dropped only 5% over 3 hours in terms of charging.
Higher percents indicate better performance
For our 30-minute wired charging test, I used a 67-watt charger and replenished the battery from empty to 56% for the iPhone 16 Pro. The Pro Max similarly charged from 0% to 57% during the same time period. Apple doesn’t disclose the maximum supported charging speed, but it encourages users to power up their phones with its 20-watt charger. Some publications and tech YouTubers claim the phones can support 45-watt wired charging.
Higher percents indicate better performance.
One of the nice surprises about the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max is that they support 25-watt MagSafe wireless charging, although you need a 30-watt power adapter. In our 30-minute wireless charging test, the iPhone 16 Pro Max gained 39% and the smaller iPhone 16 Pro 50%. I should note that there are Android phones like the OnePlus 12 that support 50-watt wireless charging.
iPhone 16 Pro underrated features
The iPhone 15 Pro’s screen (left) and iPhone 16 Pro’s display are set to their lowest brightness.
Apple packed the iPhone 16 Pro with a bunch of major features, like new cameras, larger screens and bigger batteries, but I want to shout out three underrated ones. First, the iPhone 16 Pro’s display brightness can get very dim — as low as 1Hz. How dim is that? Well, last year’s iPhone 15 Pro went down to only 2Hz. That difference doesn’t seem huge but is noticeable in everyday use. If you read in bed (like me) or in a dark environment such as a late-night flight, there’s a lot less glare.
Second, there are the speakers, which are fantastic on both phones. Videos not only sound loud but have a much richer quality and even more bass than the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. I don’t know if these are the best speakers on any phone, but they’re definitely the best ones on an iPhone.
Lastly, the screens got bigger without the phone getting larger. The 16 Pro’s screen is 6.3 inches, compared with the 15 Pro’s 6.1-inch display. And the 16 Pro Max’s screen is 6.9 inches instead of the 6.7-inch display on the 15 Pro Max. The iPhone 16 Pro’s addition of screen real estate really goes a long way for me, making it more enjoyable to watch videos, read stories and scroll social media. And a month in, I’m happier carrying around the smaller 16 Pro and don’t miss the larger Pro Max screen (or the phone’s weight).
iPhone 16 Pro and Apple intelligence
Apple intelligence, which is part of the iOS 18.1 beta, will drop at the end of October. We’ll have a lot more to say about it then, but I’ve been running an early preview version of Apple intelligence since I got the phones in September. So far, the summarize tools are the most useful parts of Apple Intelligence, and they show up in a few different ways. I can see summaries for text threads, notifications and email messages, but summarizing online stories is where I find the most satisfaction.
If you see a clickbait-y headline in your news feed that promises to tell you the meaning of life, or how to cook the best chicken, you can use the summarize button to avoid all the ads, the pop ups, the newsletter invites, the bulked up introduction with Amazon links, and get right to the point. And turns out the meaning of life is to always brine chicken before you cook it — or just buy an air fryer.
Is it worth buying an iPhone 16 Pro for Apple intelligence’s summarize tool? No, but I like the direction Apple is headed, and I look forward to seeing more Apple Intelligence on my iPhone soon.
iPhone 16 Pro Camera Control key
Perhaps one of the biggest additions to the entire iPhone 16 line is the new Camera Control button, which can be pressed, tapped or swiped. The button can open the camera, take a photo or scroll through a tiny pop-up menu of camera settings. You can also slide your finger across the button to zoom the camera in and out, which is one of its more novel uses.
I like the button in theory, but I don’t think the execution is ideal.
The button’s placement is odd; it’s not in the best spot to function as a true shutter button and gets buried in the palm of my hand when I hold the phone vertically. Opening the camera by tapping the button is a nice shortcut, but I can already do that with other buttons on the phone. If you’re trying to take a photo quickly and make adjustments to the exposure or zoom, the onscreen buttons and controls are simply easier to use and faster.
It feels to me like Apple wanted this to be the visual intelligence button that will let you point your iPhone’s camera at something and get more info on it or start a search. But clearly that feature wasn’t ready at launch. And it would be odd if Apple had launched a phone with a new button that didn’t do anything. The camera controls seem like they were meant to be a nice add-on for the button, not the main attraction.
Apple released the developer beta of iOS 18.2, which includes visual intelligence, on Wednesday. I’m excited to try it out and see if that changes my mind about the new button.
iPhone 16 Pro new cameras
During my time with the iPhone 16 Pro, photographer friends and creative types frequently asked me whether the cameras were new. And the answer really depends on the model.
For the iPhone 16 Pro, all three cameras are new in some way (lens, sensor or both). For the 16 Pro Max, the ultrawide camera and the sensor on the main camera are new. The telephoto is exactly the same as the one on the 15 Pro Max.
Both the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max have the same cameras, so you don’t have to worry about choosing between a 3x or 5x telephoto lens like with the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Here are some images from the iPhone 16 Pro.
iPhone 16 Pro 5x telephoto camera
iPhone 16 Pro main camera
iPhone 16 Pro 5x telephoto camera in night mode
iPhone 16 Pro main camera Stark B&W Photographic Style
iPhone 16 Pro main camera
When I compare photos that I took with the iPhone 16 Pro with those from the iPhone 15 Pro, they look identical at first glance. When I zoom in closely, images from the 16 Pro don’t look as oversharpened as ones from the 15 Pro, and people’s complexions look more natural in 16 Pro photos with even skin tones. But you’ll notice a bigger difference in camera quality if you’re comparing the iPhone 16’s camera with an older phone like the iPhone 12’s.
Can you notice the differences between the iPhone 16 Pro’s image (left) and the 15 Pro’s photo?
What difference do you notice?
Watch this: iPhone 16 Pro 4K 120fps Slow Motion Video Test
In my original iPhone 16 Pro review, I emphasized how much I like the new 4K 120 frames per second slow-motion video recording option. I still think it’s one of the best new iPhone features in years. Even after a month, I use it quite a bit.
I even dabbled with the ProRes version, which provides more detail and better dynamic range (although the files are much larger and may require an external SSD). For everyday stuff, I love using slow-mo — it really does make pretty much anything look more compelling.
The iPhone 16 Pro and iOS 18
A new iPhone is only as good as its software. While Apple Intelligence may get all the hype, I find iOS 18 to be wonderful for plenty of other reasons. There are so many useful and intuitive features like being able to add new tap back reactions, including emojis, to a conversation, the new Passwords app and the wide beam flashlight.
Perhaps one of the truly life-changing features is the ability to send iMessages and SMS messages via satellite to friends and loved ones when you don’t have a cell signal or Wi-Fi.
I wasn’t a fan of the new Photos app at first because it involved learning a new layout. But now that I’ve been using it regularly, it’s grown on me because I can find a photo that I’m looking for much faster.
I turned the video player on the right side of the article into a disappearing cloud of particles with the hide distractions tool.
One of my favorite iOS 18 tools is the ability to hide distractions using the Reader tool in Safari, which makes it possible to remove ads, pop ups and videos on webpages. There is an animation that shows the ad, or whatever you chose to hide, vanishing into particles like you’re Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Snap, and that ad is gone. Snap, and that video is gone.
Should you buy an iPhone 16 Pro?
My recommendations for who should buy an iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max haven’t changed from my review. If you have an iPhone 12 Pro or older, upgrade if you can afford it. It’s going to feel new in every way. Otherwise, if you have a 13 Pro or 14 Pro that’s in good condition, you can afford to hold onto your device for now. We’ll have to wait to see whether that changes when Apple Intelligence arrives.
