Apple has upgraded the iPhone 16 Professional by including the 5x zoom digital camera from the large Professional Max line, making measurement its major differentiator and turning the smaller “professional” into an prompt candidate for one of the best small smartphone going.
The 16 Professional prices the identical – £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,799) – as final 12 months’s mannequin, and sits between the £1,199 16 Professional Max and the vanilla iPhone 16, which begins at £799. That additionally places it in direct competitors with Google’s £999 Pixel 9 Professional, which has the same-size display screen.
At first look, the 16 Professional appears to be like similar to final 12 months’s 15 Professional, however the display screen is 0.2in bigger, measuring 6.3in on the diagonal. The slimmer bezels across the show have absorbed a few of that progress, however the cellphone remains to be just a little larger and 12g heavier, making it roughly the identical measurement as its predecessor in a skinny case.
The slick and crisp show is among the greatest in the marketplace, trying notably good for images and video, although it doesn’t fairly hit the best peak brightnesses provided by rivals when outdoor. The glass overlaying it’s 50% more durable than earlier iPhones, in line with Apple, however the 16 Professional will nonetheless seemingly want a case to guard it from drops.
A brand new digital camera management button has been added to the aspect, which you press, swipe and click on to do various things equivalent to shortly opening the digital camera. That brings the whole variety of buttons to 5, together with the motion button added final 12 months.
The 16 Professional runs iOS 18, which provides loads of customisation options for the house display screen, management centre, updates to the Images, Notes and Maps apps, a brand new password supervisor and RCS help for the messages app.
However the much-advertised Apple Intelligence options, equivalent to a wiser Siri, notification summaries, varied AI writing instruments, emoji and picture mills will not be but accessible. They are going to begin rolling out in beta with an iOS 18.1 replace in October within the US and December for the UK, Australia and different non-US English nations, whereas the remainder of Europe is out of luck for the foreseeable future.
Specs
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Display screen: 6.3in Tremendous Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)
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Processor: Apple A18 Professional
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RAM: 8GB
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Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB
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Working system: iOS 17
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Digicam: 48MP major, 48MP UW and 12MP 5x zoom, 12MP front-facing digital camera
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Connectivity: 5G, wifi 7, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, Thread, USB-C, Satellite tv for pc, UWB and GNSS
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Water resistance: IP68 (6 metres for 30 minutes)
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Dimensions: 149.6 x 71.5 x 8.25mm
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Weight: 199g
New A18 Professional chip is quicker and extra environment friendly
The 16 Professional has a brand new chip that’s about 10-15% faster with 20% sooner graphics. It feels fast in use and can keep quick for years to return. It is usually about 20% extra environment friendly staying cooler when taking part in high-end video games.
Battery life is strong for this measurement of cellphone and lasts about 38 to 40 hours between expenses on mixture of 5G and wifi, and actively utilizing the display screen for greater than 5 hours. That’s about the identical as its predecessor and means charging it each different day or in a single day for heavy use days.
Sustainability
Apple says the battery ought to final in extra of 1,000 full-charge cycles, with no less than 80% of its authentic capability, and will be changed for £109. Out-of-warranty display screen repairs value £349. The 16 Professional has restore guides accessible and was awarded seven out of 10 for repairability by the specialists iFixit.
The 16 Professional accommodates greater than 25% recycled materials together with aluminium, cobalt, copper, gold, lithium, plastic, uncommon earth components, metal, tin and tungsten. The corporate breaks down the cellphone’s environmental influence in its report. Apple presents trade-in and free recycling schemes, together with for non-Apple merchandise.
Digicam
The digital camera will get a giant improve for the 16 Professional gaining parity with the Professional Max line, together with the 5x optical zoom digital camera added to the 15 Professional Max final 12 months and the brand new devoted digital camera management button.
The button shortly opens the digital camera when the cellphone’s display screen is on. A double light-press brings up a menu to modify between adjusting the publicity, depth, zoom, cameras, kinds or tone with swipes, earlier than sliding your finger throughout the button to make the changes. Clicking totally down on the button takes a photograph. It’s actually useful for shortly launching the digital camera and taking pictures images, however utilizing the extra superior instruments felt gradual and took apply to get proper.
The primary 48-megapixel digital camera captures nice pictures and now shoots at full decision with none delay. The ultrawide digital camera has been upgraded from 12MP to 48MP this 12 months, which typically improves large angle pictures however offers an even bigger increase to macrophotography for bigger and extra detailed shut up pictures.
The prolonged optical zoom from the 5x telephoto digital camera is the most important improve, nevertheless, considerably closing the gap to things with significant magnification. Digital zoom on high stretches to 25x magnification, with nonetheless good outcomes as much as round 10-15x.
Apple has additionally upgraded its photographic kinds function to regulate the color, tone and palette of images as you seize them. Varied presets can be found to alter the temper, equivalent to classic or vibrant, or regulate the undertones to make issues look hotter or cooler, enhance distinction and depth to shadows, or make different tweaks.
Any of the kinds will be modified utilizing a digital D-pad and an depth slider. It’s laborious to be exact, however you may get actually inventive, equivalent to replicating the look of specific movie cameras or creating very dramatic appears to be like. You possibly can set a brand new one as default utilizing a brief guided tutorial and alter the one which’s used for every photograph after the very fact within the images app.
Different new enjoyable options embody spatial or 3D images, which will be considered on headsets such because the Imaginative and prescient Professional. Video shot at 120 frames a second in 4K will be become cinematic gradual movement after the very fact. The brand new audio combine function for video can reduce out background noise or make it sound like every individual in entrance of the digital camera has a person mic, which is totally spectacular.
Total, the digital camera shoots predictably good pictures in a spread of circumstances. The photographic kinds function is nice for individuals who wish to get inventive with out having to develop pictures on a pc after the very fact. The added 5x telephoto digital camera on the 16 Professional is a killer function that retains it as much as par with Google’s Pixel 9 Professional. However an entire lack of AI options is noticeable, notably in contrast with Google’s extraordinarily helpful “greatest take” and comparable instruments.
Value
The iPhone 16 Professional prices from £999 (€1,199/$999/A$1,799) with 128GB of storage.
For comparability, the iPhone 16 prices £799, the iPhone 16 Professional Max prices £1,199, the Google Pixel 9 Professional prices £999, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely prices £1,249 and the Fairphone 5 prices £499.
Verdict
The iPhone 16 Professional strikes one of the best steadiness of measurement and functionality with a big-enough display screen and all of the high-end trimmings squeezed into a comparatively small body.
The addition of the 5x optical zoom brings Apple’s smaller Professional as much as parity with its monster 16 Professional Max, so the selection for iPhone consumers is now merely about measurement and worth, not functionality. The sooner chip and digital camera upgrades, such because the enjoyable photographic kinds, are welcome.
The brand new digital camera management button is a blended bag: very useful for shortly launching the digital camera however fiddly to make use of to regulate settings and troublesome to press laborious sufficient to seize a picture with out shaking the cellphone. It wants some work to be nice and isn’t ideally positioned for the left-handed.
Apple’s much-advertised AI options will not be accessible but, and for the primary time in a protracted whereas Apple has actual competitors from Google’s wonderful Pixel 9 Professional for one of the best smaller cellphone accessible.
It doesn’t come low cost at £200 greater than the common iPhone 16, however the 16 Professional is Apple’s greatest cellphone and no less than it prices £200 lower than the 16 Professional Max.
Professionals: comparatively small and simple to carry, nice cameras together with 5x optical zoom, nice display screen, USB-C, motion and digital camera management buttons, good battery life, high efficiency, lengthy software program help, Face ID.
Cons: costly, digital camera management a bit difficult, getting larger and heavier, samey design as predecessors.
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