iPhone 16, 16 Plus announced with A18 chip, Camera Control & more

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Apple has just concluded its Glowtime event, announcing a slew of new exciting products, including the iPhone 16 series, Watch Series 10, AirPods 4, and updates to Watch Ultra 2, AirPods 2, and AirPods Max.

In this article, we’ll be discussing the base iPhone 16 and the Plus model in detail. Let’s dive right into it as we have a lot to unpack.

Two New Buttons

Starting with the design, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus now come with two extra buttons. The first is the Camera Control Button, which allows users to access the iPhone’s camera instantly. Since it’s also touch-sensitive, users can slide their fingers to control settings such as zoom, depth of field, and exposure.

iPhone 16 Camera Control Button

The second button, although not new to iPhones, is the Action button. Apple first introduced this programmable button last year, but it was only available in the Pro models.

Back to Vertical Camera Arrangements

Another noticeable design change comes at the back, where Apple has gone with a vertical camera arrangement instead of a diagonal one. This makes the new base iPhones capable of taking spatial photos and videos for Apple Vision Pro.

New Diagonal Camera Arrangement on iPhone 16

Talking about camera hardware, there’s an updated 12MP ultra-wide camera with a brighter f/2.2 lens, capturing up to 2.6 time more light and autofocus for auto-focus for macro photography. The 48MP wide-angle camera has remained unchanged.

A18 Chi

Inside, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are powered by the new A18 chip. It’s a new 3nm chip with 2 performance and 4 performance cores, which is different from the A18 Pro on the Pro models. Compared to the A16 on the vanilla iPhone 15, the new chip is 30% faster in CPU and 40% faster in GPU tasks. It also has a 16-core Neural Engine, which is two times faster than the previous generation.

It powers all the new Apple Intelligence features on the new iPhones. This includes the new Visual Intelligence, which can be launched with the Camera Control button. Users can use it for a quick image search.

Visual Intelligence on iPhone 16

The Same-old Super Retina XDA Display

The iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus differ only in the screen size. The latter has a 6.1-inch screen, whereas the former has a 6.7-inch screen. That said, both are Super Retina XDR panels with 1 nits to 2000 nits brightness and 50% tougher Ceramic Shield protection.

There’s no Pro Motion for the vanilla iPhones either, as they still operate at 60Hz.

Battery, Software, and More

Apple says the base iPhone models now have bigger batteries without mentioning their capacities. This together with the power efficiency of A18 chip and battery optimization feature of iOS 18 is said to offer bigger battery boost to the models.

With the new iOS software, you will be able to use satellite connectivity for normal communication, not just for emergencies. It also adds a Live Video feature to the Emergency SOS.

Pricing and Availability

The iPhone 16 starts at $799, whereas the Plus starts at $900 for the base 128GB storage variant. They will go on sale from September 30; pre-orders will be live on September 13.

iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus New Design and Color Options

You will be able to choose from five color options, Ultramarine, Teal, Pink,White and Black.

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