iPhone 16 Professional vs iPhone 16: All of the variations

Intro

If, like me, you discover the large ones too large, effectively, learn on. On this article, we focus solely on the smaller fashions, exploring all of the variations between the premium iPhone 16 Professional and the extra reasonably priced iPhone 16.

Selecting between these two is just not simple, however this 12 months, the variations are larger than normal – the iPhone 16 Professional has a barely larger display, a devoted 5X telephoto digicam and longer battery life. And the iPhone 16… effectively, it has fairly a couple of upgrades, however sadly it nonetheless runs at 60Hz and has no ProMotion. Disappointing, to say the least.

However these are removed from the one variations, so let’s examine in case you ought to get the iPhone 16 or go all out with the iPhone 16 Professional.

Design and Show High quality

The iPhone 16 Professional is now larger, however not by a lot

For years, the common iPhone and the Professional mannequin have been roughly the identical good and compact dimension, at about 6.1 inches. However this 12 months, for the primary time, now we have a much bigger, 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional mannequin, whereas the common model sticks with the smaller, 6.1-inch dimension from the previous.

Compact cellphone lovers is perhaps troubled by this now larger Professional mannequin, nevertheless it’s not an enormous enhance in dimension. The Professional mannequin now will get thinner bezels too, which assist shrink the size a bit.

The remainder is acquainted stuff: a triple digicam on the Professional, and a twin digicam on the vanilla mannequin (however now in a pill-shaped island).

There’s additionally a divide in supplies. The iPhone 16 Professional makes use of a flowery titanium body, whereas the iPhone 16 makes use of aluminum. Each units include a frosted glass again, however the common 16 mannequin has far more vibrant coloration choices.

All 4 iPhone 16 fashions get a few new buttons.

The Motion Button is above the quantity keys on the left, and a brand new Digicam Management now seems under the ability button on the precise (the mmWave antenna on US fashions is moved to the underside left, in case you might be questioning). 

Having extra bodily keys is nice! You already know the way the Motion Button works from the 15 Professional collection, however the Digicam Management is model new. It’s mentioned to behave like a digicam shutter key: press it frivolously to focus, press all of it the way in which to take an image. And since it is a capacitive button, you can even use it as a form of a trackpad to zoom out and in, or plenty of different predefined capabilities.

You get a USB-C port on the underside on each the Professional and the common mannequin, however the Professional helps quicker USB 3 switch speeds, whereas the common model solely helps USB 2 speeds. IP68 water and mud safety is identical on each.

Subsequent up, screens. A barely larger, 6.3-inch show on the iPhone 16 Professional provides you extra space to work with, whereas the iPhone 16 has a 6.1-inch display.

Sadly, the large improve everybody hoped for on the common iPhone 16 mannequin didn’t occur but once more. Sure, we’re speaking about ProMotion, which continues to be solely out there on the iPhone 16 Professional units. It is simply irritating having a 60Hz vanilla iPhone 16 in 2024/2025, and that cellphone prices $800!

A minimum of there are some smaller display updates which have made their technique to each the iPhone 16 and 16 Professional. First is they’ll go down to simply 1 nit, dimmer than earlier than, which makes themy extra comfy to make use of at evening.

And each additionally get a brand new Ceramic Protect cowl that Apple says is harder than the glass on some other smartphone.

Efficiency and Software program

To Professional or to simp

Apple is able to soar head first into AI with the iPhone 16 household and you understand that requires a bit extra firepower.

Each the iPhone 16 and the 16 Professional arrive with new 3nm chipsets, however barely completely different ones. The iPhone 16 Professional will get the A18 Professional, whereas the iPhone 16 has an A18 chip, no Professional.

What’s the distinction? Effectively, most is definitely the identical, each use second-gen 3nm manufacturing expertise, probably the most superior of any cellphone at their launch. The CPU appears to even be the identical with 2 efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores on each. There’s a distinction in graphics, although, because the Professional makes use of a 6-core GPU, whereas the vanilla model has a 5-core GPU.

The common iPhone 16 can also be closing the hole in RAM, as now each the 16 and 16 Professional have 8GB of RAM on board. That has rather a lot to do with AI options requiring extra RAM and we now know for positive that each one 4 new iPhone 16 help the identical AI magic.

On the subject of storage, you might have a base mannequin with 128GB storage on each. The Professional, nevertheless, is accessible in an insane 1TB choice, whereas the vanilla iPhone 16 maxes out at 512GB of storage.

Digicam

Zoom, zoom, zoom

Aside from ProMotion, digicam high quality has been the opposite noticeable distinction between a Professional and non-Professional iPhones.

And this 12 months, that distinction is rising because the iPhone 16 Professional will get not solely a extra succesful, 5X zoom digicam, but in addition a model new 48MP ultra-wide shooter with higher low-light efficiency. ProRes video, recording to an SSD and some different energy person options additionally stay out there solely on the Professional mannequin.

The common iPhone 16, nevertheless, nonetheless has a 48MP major digicam that matches the one on the 16 Professional.

iPhone 16 Professional vs iPhone 16 Digicam Variations:

iPhone 16 Professional	iPhone 16
48MP major digicam 1/1.28″ sensor f/1.78 aperture 24mm lens	48MP major digicam 1/1.56″ sensor f/1.6 aperture 26mm lens
48MP ultra-wide digicam f/2.2 13mm lens	12MP ultra-wide digicam f/2.2 13mm lens
12MP 5X zoom digicam f/2.8 120mm lens	No zoom digicam in any respect
4K120 gradual movement video	4K120 gradual movement video
Studio-quality four-mic array Audio Combine characteristic	Common mics Audio Combine characteristic

And this 12 months, the iPhone 16 additionally will get Spatial Video help, which was beforehand a Professional mannequin characteristic. Spatial Video is mainly 3D video that appears extremely actual on the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional and different AR/VR headsets. Not many individuals personal such a headset to get pleasure from this format nevertheless it’s good to have that choice.

Audio Combine permits you get crisper and extra remoted voices in video

When it comes to video options, nevertheless, the large one is tremendous crisp 4K120 gradual movement video, out there solely on the 16 Professional.

Each fashions, nevertheless, get the brand new Audio Combine characteristic the place you may make voices stand out and isolate them from background noise in movies.

All iPhone 16 fashions get the identical AI-powered picture and video enhancing options. With iOS 18.1 in October, Apple is including Clear As much as Pictures which lets you take away an object, very similar to the Magic Eraser on Pixel telephones. You can even blur somebody’s face simply with this characteristic once you simply draw on high of it.

Audio High quality and Haptics

On the subject of audio high quality, Apple says loudspeakers have improved in a significant approach on the Professional fashions, which is nice information.

You additionally get 4 new “studio high quality” mics on the 16 Professional, which will probably be tremendous cool for recording voice notes and movies. The vanilla iPhone 16 sticks with the acquainted common mics.

We do not count on any distinction between the iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 on the subject of haptics: each may have the identical Taptic Engine inside in any case.

Battery Life and Charging

The Professional has longer battery life

We do not know the precise battery dimension of the iPhone 16 Professional and the 16 mannequin, however Apple provides us official battery life estimates, and the 16 Professional lasts longer.

It’s rated for 27 hours of video playback in comparison with 22 hours on the common mannequin.

And for audio playback, the 16 Professional will get 85 hours versus 80 hours on the iPhone 16.

Beneath, you could find rumored battery sizes, which aren’t official. We may have the official numbers after the primary teardowns in a couple of days and can replace you with that.

	iPhone 15	iPhone 16	Change
[non-Pro]	3,349 mAh	3,561 mAh	+6%
Professional	3,274 mAh	3,577 mAh	+9.2%

We have been hoping to see quicker charging with the iPhone 16 collection, however we solely get that partially.

Wired charging speeds haven’t modified, so the iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 are nonetheless rated to cost at as much as 20W through a wire. Not tremendous quick, to say the least.

Nonetheless, MagSafe wi-fi charging is now quicker than earlier than at 25W, so now we have the humorous state of affairs of getting quicker wi-fi charging than wired cost. We now have not seen this occur on some other cellphone.

It’s good to have the brand new 25W MagSafe charging puck and pair it with at the least a 30W charging brick to get the total advantage of this quicker wi-fi top-up speeds. With all these circumstances met, it is best to get a 50% top-up in half-hour, whereas beforehand a 30-minute cost gave you round 35% cost again.

Specs Comparability

And right here is an outline of the iPhone 16 Professional vs iPhone 16 specs:

Which one do you have to purchase?

So… which one do you have to go for?

Let’s begin with value. A base 128GB iPhone 16 prices $800, whereas the identical storage 16 Professional will set you again $1,000, so now we have a value distinction of $200.

These $200 {dollars} purchase you a barely larger display on the Professional mannequin, barely longer battery life, a 5X zoom digicam and easy 120Hz ProMotion show.

A bunch of different options are additionally solely out there on the Professional model: 4K120 gradual movement video, quick USB 3 knowledge switch, recording ProRes and ProRaw codecs, and a greater GPU for gaming.

The hole between the Professional and the common mannequin has gotten larger this 12 months, and we predict it makes extra sense to spend a bit additional and get the fancier iPhone 16 Professional.

What do you assume? Do you miss any specific options on the common iPhone 16 probably the most?