This was the day after Apple launched the iPhone 16, and although I published my experience with the iPhone 16 Pro right after the event, I didn’t have a lot of time with the base model until today. With that extra time, I’ve been able to learn more about the differences between the standard iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Pro, and honestly I was pleasantly surprised that there aren’t many differences between them.
The most obvious way to tell the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro apart is in their color selection. The entry-level series has a pleasant, vibrant range of colors this year, with the teal, pink, and blue options really catching my attention. These colors are saturated and punchy compared to the pale pastel shades of recent years. I particularly like how deep the “ultramarine” blue color is — photos don’t do any of these finishes justice.
The entire iPhone 16 series has new camera controls, meaning you can use a hardware switch to launch the Camera app, and then change settings like zoom, depth, and tone. Having played with both of them, I can confirm they’re equally clicky and satisfying to use. Unlike last year, where only the Pro model had an action button, the iPhone 16 has the same controls, so you’re not losing a dedicated key by choosing a cheaper model.
You also get the ability to record spatial video and audio thanks to the iPhone 16’s updated cameras. In addition to a new ultrawide camera with support for autofocus and macro shots, the sensors have been re-aligned and are now stacked vertically on top of one another.
Most interestingly, the iPhone 16 will also support the new Audio Mix feature that lets you more closely control voices and sounds in your footage after capture. It would be easy to assume that the “four new studio-quality mics” on the iPhone 16 Pro are behind the audio mix, but it seems it’s just the ability to record spatial audio that enables the new feature. With that you can go into the iPhone 16’s video editing interface, tap the tab for Audio Mix, and choose from “In-Frame,” “Cinematic,” and “Studio” options.
The first option isolates sound from subjects in the scene and cuts out background noise, while Studio mimics the acoustic environment of a recording studio, including damp walls. Cinematic, meanwhile, brings all sounds together front and center of the space.
I was able to get a demo of the Audio Mix feature, and was really impressed that the iPhone 16 was able to isolate the sound of people speaking on an echoey outdoor deck in Apple’s new Observatory space.
Not only did switching between different mixes effectively change the sound of different sources of sound, but it was also nice to know that you could adjust the volume of specific streams in each profile.
This is something I’d like to explore more to better understand, but for now I’m pretty thrilled at the prospect of using the iPhone 16 for future Apple event videos.
One disappointing exception from the iPhone 16 is the multi-track recording feature coming to the iPhone 16 Pro. That Voice Memos update is only going to be available on the Pro model.
In fact, here are the main upgrades if you’re ready to go Pro: ProMotion screens with higher refresh rates and Always On Display, plus better camera hardware with a 48-megapixel ultrawide lens and a 5x telephoto option.
The premium handset also features 4K120p high-quality slo-mo footage and support for professional formats like ProRaw. The Pro also has a bigger A18 Pro chip than the iPhone 16’s A18, and the difference is mostly in GPU performance, so you’ll likely get better gaming times on the more premium model.
Other differences are fairly minor, such as the titanium build and faster USB speeds in the Pro. However, in general, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus make very few compromises for cost savings, and you get more fun colors, too. They seem like more of an improvement over their predecessors, which is a welcome change after years of incremental changes.