iPhones , in my opinion , are n’t really design to be upgraded every year . Obviously , Apple is happy for hard-core fans and the uber - moneyed ( and my Quaker Lewis ) to splash the hard currency whenever a newfangled model is announced , but the charge per unit of spec gibbousness and fresh feature lends itself to a detectable betterment in the user experience only if you await two or three generation between upgrades .
And so , when I upgraded from the iPhone 15 Plus to the 16 Plus last month , I was n’t expecting any huge changes . And for the most part , I was proper .
As I explained in myupgrade thoughtsarticle , the design is slimly nicer but basically the same ; the Action button has n’t made much of a difference so far ; Camera Control does n’t feel like much of an rise ; and the supernumerary processing baron is n’t detectable in literal - world use . As for Apple Intelligence , it’sfinally come , but it ’s neglect features and still needs a ton of time before it can be a serious contender to Gemini and other rival AIs .
But there is one really meaning rising slope I ’ve noticed , and it has to do with the television camera . Not Camera Control or Visual Intelligence — the literal camera .
Things that have stayed the same
Now , most of the sentence , and in most contexts and shoot condition , your photos will look the same . That seduce sense since the main lense remain 48MP and f/1.6 . ( The ultra - wide electron lens has been encounter from f/2.4 to f/2.2 so we might carry slightly well performance there , but it ’s still 12MP . )
As you could see in this shot , color reproduction , and vibrancy are essentially identical across the two devices .
Here ’s a dead reckoning of a less coloured object so you’re able to focus on the lucidness and level of contingent .
What about more challenging inject conditions ? Again , we should expect the two devices to handle complex or hard firing with roughly the same assuredness since they both feature Smart HDR 5 . The 16 Plus has a faster mainframe which could in theory think more computational mogul being enforce to this process , but I could n’t see any difference when shooting trees silhouette against the sun :
And what about the front - face television camera ? Is that any different ? Not really . In both cases , we ’re working with a 12MP , f/1.9 lens .
Macro perspective
Here ’s where photography has transfer dramatically : macro execution is miles ahead .
Get up close and the iPhone 16 Plus flick to a macro picture taking mode ( you’re able to severalize this has been engaged because a little blossom ikon appears in the bottom turning point ) , bring the study into sharp focus . It ’s incredibly impressive .
It ’s good for nature picture taking . It ’s also very ready to hand if you paint little poser and take picture of them for societal medium .
Honestly , it ’s rare to get such satisfyingly different trial picture when compare two telephone set . And to see this across a exclusive genesis is almost unheard of .
So there you go . The rising slope from iPhone 15 ( or in my case 15 Plus ) to iPhone 16 ( or 16 Plus ) is in the main an experience defined by sight of small tweaks and venial iterative improvements . But the new macro instruction mode has an enormous impact on confining - up photography , and if that ’s a priority for you this is a purchase well deserving making .
And if you ’re interested in iPhonography , you might be interested in our pathfinder to thebest iPhone television camera .
Apple iPhone 16 Plus
