Which iPhone 16 model to buy? A guide before you decide

Your feed is brimming with stories and reels about Apple’s new products and updates. On every tech news portal, you find the coverage of the Apple Glowtime event. After spending hours and hours scrolling through the amazing lineup, you are obsessed with the new iPhone 16. You are set to upgrade to the iPhone 16. But here comes the dilemma. Among the four, which iPhone 16 model to buy?

We thought of helping you with a comprehensive comparison of the similarities and differences between these four iPhone models. So, that you can easily decide on which iPhone 16 model to choose.

Which iPhone 16 model to buy? Making the right choice

In the squad, we have the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. All of them are available for preorder now and they will officially hit store shelves on September 20. They start at $829 unlocked and go up to $1,199. You may check Apple’s official website for products if you have any doubts regarding the pricing and availability.

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are in a way identical. The only significant difference is in the screen size and the battery life. The same applies to the latter two (iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max) which are identical too. Precisely, you are deciding within each grouping, whether to go with the small phone or the big one.

If you are an iPhone user, you’ll know by now that bigger iPhones tend to have the best battery life. Though it is not approved by the users, Apple officials have stated that among the new iPhone 16 lineup, the iPhone 16 Pro Max delivers the best battery life. (The claim is yet to be tested, let’s see!) What we intend to say is that, if battery is your preference, you can go for the iPhone 16 Pro Max or the iPhone 16 Plus. They’re the big fish in the pool!

Camera, Action!

The one thing we noted in all these models is that they feature the new Camera Control button. With this button, you can open the camera and click a photo. If you are pressing gently on it, it will show different camera modes. If you slide your finger left or right across the button’s surface, you can explore the zoom levels and more. Not just that, you can use the Camera Control button to trigger Visual Intelligence (a feature resembling Google Lens).

Another similarity is the Action button. This button comes as a substitute for the Mute switch. It is configurable too which implies that you can replicate the Mute switch functionality or use it for activities like triggering a shortcut or turning a flashlight. How cool!

The redesigned Photographic Styles and the Apple Intelligence are also available in the iPhone 16 range. The photographic styles are like filters, but they don’t change the look of the whole image. Instead, these Styles maintain skin tones and adjust shadows and highlights. This can be considered a tight slap on Google Pixel phones’ one-size-fits-all approach.

Now to the Apple Intelligence. This feature comes not just in the iPhone 16 range but also in the iPhone 15 Pro and the iPhone 15 Pro Max. That said, you need not go for an upgrade if you are looking for Apple Intelligence.

Audio Mix

There is a video feature in every iPhone 16 model. This feature is called the Audio Mix. Audio Mix gives you the power to change the way your videos sound while you are editing them. This is done by choosing a sound profile. In-frame, Studio and Cinematic are the different profiles used for editing the video sounds. Even if this feature is available in all iPhone 16 models, it works better on the iPhone 16 Pro models (they come with upgraded microphones). So yeah, if you are someone who likes to edit video sounds, you can choose any of the pro models.

Now, take a look at the key specs of the four iPhone 16 models.

iPhone 16 ($829):

• 6.1-inch screen.
• Powered by the A18 processor.
• The USB-C port supports USB 2 data speeds (up to 480 Mbps).
  

iPhone 16 Plus ($929):

• 6.7-inch screen.
• Better battery (At least lasts more than a day on a single charge)

iPhone 16 Pro ($999):

• 6.3-inch screen.
• Titanium build (More durable than the aluminum in the iPhone 16 models)
• The screen can refresh 120 times per second.
• Features the A18 Pro chipset.
  

iPhone 16 Pro Max ($1,199):

• 6.9-inch screen.
• The best battery life.
• 48-megapixel Fusion camera.
• Night mode portrait photos.
• Captures ProRes video.

Also Read: Apple Glowtime Event: A recap into the things you might have missed