Abstract

• The iPhone 16 Professional and the iPhone 16 Professional Max are the best possible fashions cash should buy. They provide all of the top-tier {hardware} and software program smarts, however in addition they carry a hefty price ticket.
• Whereas the iPhone 16 Plus provides distinctive battery life for a non-Professional iPhone, the iPhone 16 provides the perfect worth in your cash in 2025, because of Apple Intelligence.
• When you’re looking out for the perfect funds iPhones, you may select from the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 16e.

Yearly, followers and Apple fans eagerly await the brand new iPhones. This yr, it will likely be the iPhone 17 that breaks cowl, possible in September. However what in case you want a brand new iPhone proper now, in the midst of the corporate’s product cycle? Let’s discover out which iPhone mannequin fits you finest.

Greatest Specs: iPhone 16 Professional or iPhone 16 Professional Max

Since their launch in September 2024, the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max stay the perfect, most feature-loaded iPhones that cash should buy.

From a premium titanium exterior body to a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate display, the cutting-edge A18 Professional chip, a triple-camera setup that gives 5x optical zoom, and batteries that final a complete day of heavy utilization, the Professional fashions have the perfect {hardware} on an iPhone thus far.

Of the 2 telephones, the iPhone 16 Pro is the smaller, compact handset that simply suits in smaller arms and pockets whereas providing all of the top-tier specs. It is usually the cheapest of the Pro iPhones. Conversely, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is the top-of-the-line flagship, that includes a bigger display, a much bigger battery, and a better price ticket.

With the iPhone 16 Professional, you get a 6.3-inch Super Retina XDR ProMotion display with a Dynamic Island, the A18 Professional chip with a six-core CPU and a six-core GPU, a 48MP + 48MP + 12MP digicam configuration (similar as that on the Professional Max), a USB 3 (10 Gbps) port, and a battery that gives as much as 27 hours of video playback.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max, with its bigger and heavier chassis (28 grams), includes a 6.9-inch Tremendous Retina XDR ProMotion display. I’ve held the handset in particular person, and it looks like a mini-tablet, to be trustworthy, versus the tiny iPhone 16 I use daily.

The larger chassis makes room for a battery that gives as much as 33 hours of video playback. Irrespective of which telephone you select, you continue to get fast wired charging (with a 20W adapter or greater), 25W MagSafe wireless charging (with a 30W adapter or greater), and assist for Qi2 wireless charging (as much as 15W) equipment.

With the perfect specs, the Professional iPhones additionally present the best software experience. Apple’s newest handsets ship with iOS 18, which helps all AI smarts obtainable as a part of Apple Intelligence. These embrace options resembling Writing Tools, Picture Playground, and Siri with ChatGPT integration, amongst others.

The baseline iPhone 16 Pro comes with 128GB of storage for $999, which will fill up within a few months of regular usage; you may finally want to seek out methods to liberate storage in your iPhone. Then again, the baseline iPhone 16 Pro Max comes with 256GB of storage for $1,199, which is $200 greater than the Professional.

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  Apple iPhone 16 Professional
  

  A model of Apple’s latest iPhone with a bigger display that includes a digicam button, a programmable motion button, and synthetic intelligence options.

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  Apple iPhone 16 Professional Max
  

  The iPhone 16 Professional Max is a battery powerhouse. It provides unparalleled longevity amongst iPhones and outperforms most of its rivals.

Whether or not it is the baseline variant or the Professional Max, iPhones supply a superb audio expertise with stereo audio system. Nevertheless, the screen type and features are crucial in determining the general multimedia expertise.

If you would like the best possible show on an iPhone, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is the way in which to go.

It includes a gigantic 6.9-inch LTPO Tremendous Retina XDR OLED screen that produces vibrant colors, helps a variable refresh fee of 1-120Hz, has a pixel density of 460 ppi, and reaches a peak brightness of 2000 nits.

The OLED panel additionally provides a superb contrast ratio, offering a excessive dynamic vary with assist for HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats. You additionally get options like always-on display, True Tone, and third-generation Ceramic Shield safety.

Nevertheless, getting the perfect show {hardware} on an iPhone prices $1,199. When you’re okay with that, the iPhone 16 Professional Max is the way in which to go. If not, Apple has an alternative choice in retailer for you. It is not as fancy, but it surely surely has a big enough screen in your OTT classes.

I am speaking concerning the iPhone 16 Plus, which includes a 6.7-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED show. Regardless of that includes an OLED panel, the phone doesn’t support a higher refresh rate (it is locked at 60Hz).

Nonetheless, it may possibly nonetheless obtain a peak brightness of 2000 nits and comes with HDR and Dolby Imaginative and prescient certifications for dealing with excessive dynamic vary content material.

Greatest iPhone for Images and Videography: iPhone 16 Professional or Professional Max

Beforehand, the iPhone 15 Professional Max held the title of the perfect iPhone for pictures, because the iPhone 15 Pro lacked a 5x optical zoom digicam. Nevertheless, that is not the case with the iPhone 16 collection.

The iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max share the identical camera setup, which is the perfect on an iPhone. The handsets have a 48MP (f/1.78, 24mm) main digicam, a 48MP (f/2.2, 13mm) ultrawide camera with 120-degree discipline of view (an improve over the iPhone 15 Professional fashions), and a 12MP (f/2.8, 120mm) sensor with a 5x optical zoom lens.

The first digicam permits you to seize photographs at 1x, 1.2x, 1.5x, and 2x (at 12MP), making the iPhone 16 Professional fashions nice for on a regular basis taking pictures, portraits, and quite a lot of topics with totally different focal lengths. The ultrawide sensor allows you to seize detailed landscapes (at 0.5x) and macro pictures.

Then there’s the telephoto digicam (5x), which helps you to zoom in on distant objects. It is useful for photographing cityscapes, wildlife, sports activities occasions, live shows, and extra.

Relating to movies, the first sensor can document 4K Dolby Vision footage at 120 fps, 4K ProRes video at 120 fps (with exterior storage), 4K Cinematic videos at 30 fps, and ultra-stabilized movies in 2.8K Motion Mode at 60 fps.

As well as, you may document Spatial Videos at 1080p in 30 fps, with sensor-shift stabilization, 4 studio-quality microphones, wind noise discount, and the Audio Mix feature.

The iPhone 16 lineup additionally provides a new Camera Control button, which gives fast entry to the Digital camera app, together with camera-related settings resembling publicity, depth, zoom, and pictures kinds. It additionally locks AE/AF and captures an image with a single click on.

Take a look at extra variations between the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max here.

These iPhones Provide the Longest Battery Life

Regardless that all of the fashions within the iPhone 16 lineup supply excellent battery life, two stand out as lasting longer than the others, together with some rivals from different manufacturers: the iPhone 16 Professional Max and the iPhone 16 Plus.

The iPhone 16 Professional Max provides the perfect battery lifetime of any iPhone. Apple claims that the handset can present as much as 33/29 hours of offline/streamed video playback, the very best within the iPhone 16 lineup. In truth, the telephone outlasts the Galaxy S25 Extremely in PhoneArena‘s battery life benchmark take a look at.

Coming in second is the iPhone 16 Plus, which provides as much as 27/24 hours of offline/streamed video playback. Although the telephone may be very totally different from the iPhone 16 Professional Max, it nonetheless does a superb job of keeping battery anxiety at bay.

Whereas these are the perfect iPhones for extended hours of streaming movies, scrolling on social media, or taking part in video video games, there’s one other mannequin that deserves a point out on this part, and that is the iPhone 16e.

The iPhone 16e options “probably the most power-efficient mannequin ever on an iPhone,” which leads to offline/streamed video playback of as much as 26/21 hours, respectively. The handset’s claimed numbers are higher than those of the baseline iPhone 16.

Greatest Worth iPhone: iPhone 16

Initially, I deliberate to incorporate the iPhone 15 right here. Nevertheless, after reviewing the spec sheets a number of instances, I’ve determined to ditch the 2023 baseline iPhone in favor of the vanilla iPhone 16.

The iPhone 16 provides a way more highly effective and environment friendly A18 chip that gives sufficient performance headroom for the years to come. Due to its uncooked processing energy, the chip unlocks all the most recent Apple Intelligence options.

Regardless of having an identical digicam setup to its predecessor, the iPhone 16 consists of an ultra-wide digicam with autofocus, enabling macro photography. The latest-generation Photographic Styles present granular management over the tones and colours in an image.

The iPhone 16 gives as much as 22 hours of offline video playback, two hours greater than the iPhone 15. It additionally helps sooner MagSafe charging as much as 25W (with a 30W or greater adapter) in comparison with 15W on the iPhone 15. In my view, the iPhone 16 is definitely worth the $799 Apple asks for it ($100 greater than the baseline iPhone 15).

Greatest Finances iPhone: iPhone 16e or iPhone 15

This yr, there are two candidates for the perfect funds iPhone.

If you would like a robust chipset, all the brand new Apple Intelligence options, and distinctive battery life, go together with the iPhone 16e.

The spiritual successor to the iPhone SE collection provides all of the important options, together with an OLED show, a 48MP main digicam that helps 4K Dolby Imaginative and prescient recording, 26 hours of offline video playback, Qi wireless charging, Emergency SOS by way of satellite tv for pc, and Crash Detection.

The entry-level iPhone 16e, with 128GB of storage, costs $599, making it probably the most reasonably priced mannequin within the present lineup. However whether or not it is the correct mannequin for you will depend on how badly you need these Apple Intelligence options.

When you do not care concerning the AI smarts and like a brighter display with Dynamic Island, a dual-camera setup, and MagSafe wi-fi charging, the $699 iPhone 15 might be the correct choice.

The iPhone 15 additionally options a complicated Portrait mode, which lets you apply a background blur to the image after capturing it. One other function that ideas the size in favor of final yr’s iPhone is Precision Finding by way of the Find My network.

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When you’re additionally planning to get an iPad, try our detailed comparison between the iPad 11th Gen and the Galaxy Tab S10 FE. On the lookout for an iPad with extra processing energy? The M3 iPad Air and the M4 iPad Pro are wonderful gadgets of their respective segments.

New to Apple? Be taught extra about the cost of setting up a functional Apple ecosystem in 2025.