Apple iPhone 16 series: Everything we know so far and what we want to see

And there’s not a chance Apple will not launch new iPhones in 2024. After all, the iPhone is not only Apple’s single biggest selling product, it is the cornerstone of nearly every other part of Apple’s business. There are very few things in this world that you can rely on but, apart from the sun coming up every single day, a yearly iPhone upgrade is about as close to a sure thing as it gets.

A better question: will these be the 2025 iPhone 16? This is considerably less certain – but we’re sure that’s what it will be. Apple has skipped three digits in it’s yearly iPhone iterations so rarely, and the last time we saw an ‘S’ series iPhone was the well-regarded XS and XS Max back in 2018 – almost six whole years ago. Since then, it’s been a brand-new three-digit number each year, so we’re putting the iPhone 16 on this year’s release with a very high level of confidence.

• Apple iPhone 13: September 14, 2021
• Apple iPhone 14: September 7, 2022
• Apple iPhone 15: September 12, 2023

New iPhones have been released in September every year since the iPhone 5, except for the iPhone SE models and the one-off outlier that was the pandemic-delayed iPhone 12 series, which was actually revealed in October. And so, if all goes according to plan and manufacturing is not compromised by eleventh-hour mishaps, the iPhone 16 line will come out like clockwork in September 2024. Of course, it’s way too early to predict anything more precise than this – not even a leaked ‘specific date’ for any of the iPhones in the 16 series. We’ll continue to update this article as such information emerges.

What rumored specs and features could the iPhone 16 series have?

Apple doesn’t release a completely new version of iPhone every year, but it usually does introduce a big surprise. Here’s what we expect to see later this year in the iPhone 16 series.

Many 16 family (consisting of the non-Pro iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16 Plus). Remember, Apple has a long track record of bringing Pro technology to more affordable base iPhone models — that’s been the norm for years now. The Dynamic Island is a good indication of it: if you thought the iPhone 14 saw the end of the days of having a physical mute switch on an iPhone, think again. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max introduced the Dynamic Island, reserved strictly for Pro iPhones at the time. When Apple announced that the iPhone 15 series was also going to see the Dynamic Island, it confirmed that the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus were also going to bring the Pro feature to non-Pro iPhones. Chances are, if you had hoped the iPhone 16 (2024) lineup would bring back the good old physical mute switch, it probably won’t. The switch is gone for good this time.

Apple could equip the iPhone 16 series with yet another new button.

A second new button? It sounds absurd, yet if rumours are anything to go by, Apple will outfit the iPhone 16 series with yet a third button. The Cupertino company would reportedly call it the ‘Capture Button’ and install it on the right side of the phone. Apple’s own developers reportedly refer to it internally as such, according to a report by MacRumours in late August, and the frequent Apple leaker Mark Gurman in August and September reaffirmed the capture button, describing it as a hardware button. According to a report in The Information in September, it will respond to both ‘pressure’ and ‘touch’. The report adds that the button will let you lightly press so that you could simply focus, whereas fully pressing the capture button will take an image or start recording video. ‘You’ll also be able to swipe your finger to the left or right on the button to zoom in and out,’ according to the report.

In summary, iPhone 16 pro and pro max will have five buttons – power, two volume buttons, action button and the new capture button. The button is in testing across all four phones in the iPhone 16 series, so this may not be a Pro exclusive feature.

As for the base iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus designs, we’ll wager that Apple will continue with the same screen sizes used last year. We already anticipate the introduction of high refresh rate screens on the base iPhones only in 2025, and some reports suggest Apple will continue stiffing us on the cheapest iPhones for 2024, unfortunately leaving us with 60Hz displays on the budget devices, which is extremely disappointing given you can now buy a budget Android phone with a 90Hz display for less than $400 these days.

The overall footprint of the new 2024 iPhones could also be larger than ever

All that time with Citizen’s Berezin might have made him gain cravings for bigger watches. On the Pro models, Gurman and Young agree that Apple will increase the size of its two highest-end iPhone 16 models by ‘a couple of tenths of an inch diagonally’. The new display sizes will be 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches on the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, respectively – this Pro Max will have the biggest screen of any iPhone (until the 2024 iPhone, of course). But don’t get too attached to that name. Citing unnamed sources, the tech website 9to5Mac says that the top-of-the-line iPhone will switch to having ‘Ultra’ branding in 2024, which puts us back in 2023, so you know what to do with that rumour.

Turning to the displays, the iPhone 16 Pro models are liable to get M14 OLED panels from Samsung Display, according to ET News (via Ph android). That should mean brighter panels that also last longer, and could be more energy-efficient.

An iPhone 16 Pro rumour from Ice Universe (via MacRumors) says that its bezels would finally be thinner than the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s. Factoring in the phone’s rumoured 6.13-inch display, that means they would be thinner than 1.52mm. Apple reportedly plans to achieve this with ever-evolving BRS (Border Reduction Structure) technology. A newer rumour claims the iPhone 16 Pro Max (or Ultra) might also feature insanely thin bezels: practically non-existent, almost cranked all the way down to zero. According to leaker Ice Universe, who might be the source of this leak, it would ‘probably end up being the world’s closest smartphone to a borderless sci-fi form factor’, subtly name-dropping future-vision movies.

We’ve also seen a handful of live dummy units crop up, giving us a clear preview of what the line-up might look like. The leaker MajinBu reshared comparison pics of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro next to the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, and the only true size difference between the Pro iPhone is evident year-on-year.

The independent leaker known as Sonny Dickson posted dummy units of the full iPhone 16 series, confirming the fact that not only did the screen sizes vary between the two iPhones, but also the vertically stacked set of cameras, the Action button, and Capture button that could be found on all four phones.

Dickson subsequently posted prototypes of the series in improved quality (dummies of which you can find at the top of this article), which highlight a clear redesign of the camera module of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus – and also just how much larger the Pro Max (or Ultra) is.

As far as the colours of the series go, the renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told The Elec that he expects most of the colours that are currently in the iPhone 15 to make a comeback onto the iPhone 16. Kuo expects the iPhone 16 Pro models to replace the iPhone 15 Pro’s ‘Blue Titanium’ colour with a possible rose shade, and the iPhone 16 could swap out yellow for white.

The latest leaks from Sonny Dickson spur-of-the-moment Instagram postings give us a guesstimate on the colour scheme of this year’s iPhone 16. Here, he’s posting side-by-side pictures of the new iPhone 16 and 16 Pro dummy units that he claims appear more refined than previous ones he’s leaked, hinting they could be what the final product.

Even among the colours slated for the non-Pro iPhone 16, a sumptuous green and an enticing blue stand alongside Apple’s familiar pink/rose gold option. Even the classics, black and white, appear more vivid than usual, as if taking a cue from the iPhone X.

In terms of the colors of the Pro iPhones, we seem to have white and natural titanium returning, and then deep black, which is, if these last two leaks are accurate, a departure from the muted colors Apple favors for its Pro iPhones. Two rather white Pro iPhones and the rumored black Pro iPhone. Image courtesy of 91mobilesDickson’s leak included just three iPhone 16 Pro phones in its depiction, so, most likely, the fourth color will resemble one of the Gold/Rose Gold/Purple hues that has appeared in the past.

Bear in mind, however, that these dummy units do not accurately reflect the finished look, but they do at least reflect the palette we might expect.

Nonetheless, there are already several rumours about the iPhone 16 camera spec: Apple made use of its new tetraprism zoom lens in the iPhone 15 Pro Max in 2023, and the Apple analyst and rumour mill stalwart Ming-Chi Kuo claims that this new system could extend to both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max; however, The Information maintains that the tetraprism zoom lens could also appear in the cheaper versions.

On the other hand, the Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu suggests that Apple will add a 48MP ultrawide shooter to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max (Kuo repeats this, with more details). Kuo suggests that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max could jump to a 48MP 1/2.6-inch sensor with 0.7µm pixel size and 6P lens assembly for its rear ultrawide camera. Output would be 12MP, so with pixel binning, effective pixel size would be 1.4µm. If this is true, resolution should be high, especially when compared to the 12MP ultrawide sensor used in the current generation of iPhone models with 1µm pixel size.

And this rumour is slightly supported by the Weibo tipster OvO Baby Sauce OvO, who suggests not only an ultrawide bump to 48MP, but also that the Pro Max’s main camera will be based on a more advanced custom 48MP Sony IMX903 sensor.

Other expected specs and features

Based on Apple’s past two decades of practices, iPhone 16 and 16 Plus would receive the A17 Pro chip Apple already uses in the iPhone 15 Pro phones, and the iPhone 16 Pro range would enjoy a new A18 chip.

But this year, Jeff Pu, according to MacRumors, says that ‘all four new iPhone 16 series models may be equipped with A18 series chip’ while also claiming the chips will be built on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process and not the first-generation 3nm process used on the A17 Pro chip.

More recently, a code found in the Apple backend by MacRumors appears to corroborate this, with the bloody fingerprints of four iPhone 16 models in another version of the A18 family chips. The subsequent internal model numbers (‘iPhone17,2’, ‘iPhone17,3’, etc) refer to the new iPhones, and this time they start with ‘iPhone17’, signifying that the flagship chip would be unified across the lineup.

All that said, there could be differences between the processors that Apple uses in the non-Pro and the Pro versions of the iPhone 16 – even for phones in the same generation. An iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus could all be given the A18 chip, while an iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max might have an A18 Pro chip with more or better GPU cores.

We’re willing to bet that all iPhone 16 models will see new chips, because iOS 18 will be all about the Apple Intelligence features – most of them will be local and will thus depend on dedicated neural processing units (NP17 Pro already has one of these, so we’re guessing Apple will fully weaponise the iPhone this year and buyers of even the modest iPhone 16 models will get something better.

Secondly, elsewhere in the line up, the battery capacity of the at least base iPhone 16 is set to increase.
We can clearly see the capacity of the iPhone 16 battery (as per leaked images) ticks up by about 200mAh than that of the iPhone 15.
In addition, we see the battery is encased in metal, which could be a step to address overheating issues users faced on the iPhone 15 series:

During this time, also I believe that the storage tiers of the iPhone 16 series will be the same with iPhone 15 series, but some RAM shifting might happen.Pu believes that the base iPhone 16 should finally come in at 8GB of RAM – an upgrade over the 6GB of RAM in the base iPhone 15. The iPhone 15 Pro models already have 8GB of RAM, so Apple should keep it the same for the iPhone 16 Pro models.

The base iPhone 16 could also make the jump to Wi-Fi 6E, finally.

On the other hand, the iPhone 16 Pro could see the upgrade to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem, Pu said. As for the base iPhone 16 model, it could continue using the Qualcomm X70 modem just as found in iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models.

We can also expect to see generative AI being incorporated into Apple’s products in 2024. The company is reportedly adding AI features to its phones in an agreement with OpenAI (the company behind ChatGPT), and we know that deal is basically done. Apple is also rumoured to have started working with Google to put Gemini features on iPhones, too. With all the AI smarts on show in both the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24 series, it seems a near certainty that Apple will be forced to respond in the iPhone 16 series with some AI smarts of its own. We just don’t know what that will entail.

When the iPhone 15 series was first released this year, it suffered from overheating issues. This time, according to The Information, Apple learned its lesson and fitted the devices with a larger graphite sheet installed inside the chassis to prevent this problem from cropping up again in later models.

• iPhone 15: Starts at $799
• iPhone 15 Plus: Starts at $899
• iPhone 15 Pro: Starts at $999
• iPhone 15 Pro Max: Starts at $1,199

Now in 2023, Apple raised the iPhone 14 Pro Max price by $100 compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max. In 2022, the entry-level 128GB iPhone 14 Pro Max cost $1,099. In 2023, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is much different with a big bump up, and it starts at $1,199 for a 256GB model. We think that it that the iPhone 16 Pro Max is going to start at $1,199 and have a higher base tier of storage than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

As for the rest of the lineup, it’s hard to say whether or not Apple might choose to keep its prices stable, or potentially raise them. I certainly don’t expect huge upgrades, so the iPhone 16 series could also start at the same point: $799. We have further to go before we can get a better sense around pricing, potentially later this year. For now, however: it’s probably better to expect that things will stay put. You can be certain that Apple isn’t going to drop a single price.

If you want to buy, like, right now, a flagship iPhone, go ahead and do so. The iPhone 15 series is not going to be dramatically older than it is today when the iPhone 16 series launches this coming September. And, at least for the time being, there are some pretty darn great Android alternatives if you want to cross to the other team.

On the Android side, there are equally nice options: the Pixel 8 ($699 at Amazon) would serve as a good Android alternative to the iPhone 15, while an iPhone 15 Plus will best served by the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus ($1119.99 at Amazon) or the even more powerful, and less expensive, the OnePlus 12 ($899.99 at Amazon). And an iPhone Pro model will be served well by the Pixel 8 Pro ($999 at Amazon) or the Galaxy S24 Ultra ($1419.99 at Amazon).