The 2024 edition of the iPhone—the iPhone 16 line—was released on Friday, September 20. I picked up my iPhone 16 Pro Max from my local Apple Store that morning, and I've been using it throughout the day, every day, for over a week. This new iPhone is nice to use because of two changes that Apple has made only on rare occasions in the history of iPhone: a larger screen and a new external button. Plus, this new iPhone is ready for Apple Intelligence when it launches next month—a point that Apple emphasizes in its ads, but I am skeptical of how useful it will be, at least at first. Even so, whether you upgrade every year or do so every few years, this is a good year to get a new iPhone. I'm a big fan of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
I already provided my overview of all of the new features in the entire iPhone 16 line, so consider that prior post to be the first part of this review. In this second part, I address the new features that I've been enjoying the most. Some of those features are unique to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but others are present across the entire iPhone 16 line.
Larger screen.
The two Pro versions of the iPhone 16 line have a larger screen. This is something that Apple does not do very often.
The original iPhone was introduced in 2007. It had a button on the bottom of the front and a 3.5" screen. (All screen measurements in this post are diagonal, which is how Apple has always measured iPhone screen sizes.) The first screen size increase was in 2012 when Apple introduced the iPhone 5, a taller iPhone that allowed for a 4" screen. In 2014, Apple made the devices larger and changed the screen size again, not only on the iPhone 6 (4.7" screen) but also with the iPhone 6 Plus (5.5" screen). Indeed, the iPhone 6 Plus was notable because it was the first time that Apple introduced an iPhone in both a regular size and a larger size.
For three years, the largest iPhones had a 5.5" screen. Then Apple dramatically changed the look of the iPhone in 2017 by introducing the iPhone X, which removed the front button completely, resulting in the all-screen design that we still have today. The new design allowed the iPhone X to have a 5.8" screen, and there was no larger model of the iPhone X in 2017. The next year, Apple introduced not only the iPhone XS with that same 5.8" screen but also the first "Max" model of an iPhone, the iPhone XS Max with a 6.5" screen.
Two years later, in 2020, Apple introduced the iPhone 12 Pro line, which changed the design of the iPhone. The rounded edge was replaced with a flat edge, reminiscent of the iPhone 5 introduced in 2012. Another change in 2020 was to increase the screen size of the Pro line, with the iPhone 12 Pro screen increasing from 5.8" to 6.1" and the iPhone 12 Pro Max screen increasing from 6.5" to 6.7". Apple also introduced an option for those who want a smaller phone: the iPhone 12 mini (with a 5.4" screen). That mini size only lasted one more year with the iPhone 13 mini and hasn't been seen since then. However, the medium and large screen sizes of the the iPhone stayed the same in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Thus, if you wanted to get the largest possible screen on an iPhone, the significant changes in the past were:
- 3.5" — Original iPhone (2007)
- 4" — iPhone 5 (2012)
- 5.5" — iPhone 6 Plus (2014)
- 5.8" — iPhone X (2017)
- 6.5" — iPhone XS Max (2018)
- 6.7" — iPhone 12 Pro Max (2020)
As you can see, while it took Apple five years to increase the screen size for the first time, in recent years we have seen a larger screen every two or three years. Considering that it had been four years since Apple increased the screen size to 6.7" in 2020, perhaps it should not seem surprising that Apple increased the screen size again this year, although only on the Pro versions of the iPhone. The iPhone 16 Pro goes from the prior year's 6.1" to 6.3" and the larger Pro Max version of the iPhone goes from the prior 6.7" to 6.9". This year, just like in 2020, Apple has made the bezel even thinner, which means that the screen can be noticeably larger but the size of the iPhone's case is only slightly larger in your hand.
There isn't much bezel left to make much thinner, and if you make the case much bigger it is going to start to feel like an iPad instead of an iPhone. Thus, a part of me wonders if this is it. Is 6.9" the largest screen that Apple will ever make for an iPhone? If we let history serve as a guide, I guess we will find out around 2028.
For now, we have a huge 6.9" screen, and it is glorious. To state the obvious, you can see even more. In some apps, you see the same thing that you would see on prior iPhones but it is enlarged, making it easier to see small details. Looking at pictures and videos is a perfect example of this, and websites are also much easier to navigate in Safari when you have a little more space to work with. If your vision isn't quite as good as it used to be, when things are bigger they are easier to read and appreciate. In other apps, the larger interface means that you see more content, such as perhaps an extra row in the Mail app allowing you to see one more email in the Inbox before you need to scroll to see more. To be sure, a 0.2" size increase is only a minor change, but it is noticeable. I'm sure that in the coming days and weeks, this larger size will become the new normal for me and I won't think much of it until I see someone else using an older iPhone, which will likely seem too small to me.
Larger displays typically mean that the overall size of the iPhone itself is larger. Last year was my first year with a "Max" version of an iPhone, and it took me some time to get used to that larger size in my hand. Some tasks that I could previously do with one hand instead required using both hands. I'm happy to report that because the change in the width of the iPhone's case this year is very small—3.02" on the iPhone 15 Pro Max versus 3.06" on the iPhone 16 Pro Max—it does not feel more awkward to hold the slightly larger iPhone 16 Pro Max. The height difference is also minimal—6.29" on the iPhone 15 Pro Max versus 6.42" on the iPhone 16 Pro Max—so I can still carry around my iPhone in a shirt pocket. Just like last year, it sticks out a little bit from the pocket, but not enough that it is going to fall out.
While the increase in size is the most noticeable, and the most noteworthy, difference with this year's display, there is another change. This year, the display can get darker–down to only 1 nit of light. This can be useful if you are sharing a bed and don't want a bright display to wake up your companion (although at its very darkest level, I find that even in a dark room it can be tough to read the display).
But the big news on the display this year is the size, not the 1 nit of light. Apple found a way to let you see more without the downside of a phone size that is too big for your hand. If you want to use an iPhone with only one hand, you may be happier with the regular size, but that has been true for a decade, ever since Apple introduced the first large iPhone, the iPhone 6 Plus. For the people who have already decided that they prefer a large iPhone, now there is more to love.
It is not often that we see Apple introduce the display size. And who knows, maybe this is as big as it can get. But I'm glad that Apple made the change this year. The larger display is great on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And while I have not used an iPhone 16 Pro, I suspect that people will appreciate having a larger display on that model as well.
Camera Control. The second big change this year is the new Camera Control, which was added to all four models of the iPhone 16. Having a dedicated hardware button for nothing but taking pictures is a great idea. I've been using the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro to launch my camera for the past year, and I've been using the volume button to snap pictures for as long as I can remember. With the iPhone 16 Pro Max, you can press the Camera Control to launch the camera app no matter what mode the iPhone is in, and that same Camera Control lets you adjust settings and take a picture.
What makes the Camera Control so powerful is that it has two kinds of interfaces. First, it is a physical button, so you can depress the button to take a picture with a satisfying click. (Or, you can hold down the button to take video for as long as you continue to press down.) Second, it is touch sensitive, like a trackpad, so you can tap on it without pressing the button to make camera adjustments.
The available camera adjustments are displayed just below the Camer Control itself. One set of options is to change the zoom level.
In this mode, you can swipe your finger back and forth across the Camera Control to zoom in and out. It is similar to what you have been able to do in the past by pinching the screen, but this time you can do it while your iPhone is in the position to take a picture, so when you get to the zoom level you want, just press the Camera Control to instantly take the picture without having to move your hands.
A related mode is the Cameras mode:
I like the Cameras mode even better than the Zoom mode because you slide your finger to switch between the different lenses. It is like Zoom, but it snaps to .5, 1x, 2x, or 5x.
For example, I can use the .5x lens to get the widest possible view, which lets me show the glass atrium in front of the Apple Store near New Orleans:
Or I can choose the 2x camera to select the special mode where the iPhone uses the 1x lens but doubles the pixels to create the best possible 2x picture.
Or I can select the 5x mode to get the closest look at that Apple in front of the store:
I like using the Cameras mode to get the best possible shot using the best lens for the job. Afterwards, I use the Crop function, where I can take my time and make the adjustments to get the final picture that I want to keep.
In the future, Apple will add another mode in which you can choose an object to keep in focus even with somehing else in the center of the picture, which is the way that a half-press on a shutter button works on DSLR cameras.
The Camera Control is really nice. First, it reduces the time between when I want to take a picture and when I actually take a picture, helping to reduce the chance that I miss the special moment. That has been my favorite improvement so far. Second, it seems natural to have the most useful controls right there under my finger so that I can see the picture that will be taken on the screen while I use the Camera Control to make adjustments. In fact, to make this process even better, Apple removes all of the on-screen controls when you are using Camera Control so that you can just focus on the image on the display, a feature that Apple calls Clean Preview. But if you don't like this new feature, you can turn it off by opening the Settings app and going to Camera -> Camera Control -> Clean Preview.
Having a Camera Control is something very new. I still sometimes find myself sometimes using the old methods to launch the camera—muscle memory takes time to change—but every day, I'm getting more and more used to it. I'm sure that Camera Control will soon become second nature. Considering how important the iPhone is to me as a camera, I love that Apple added this feature.
48MP Ultra Wide
The .5 lens on the iPhone, which Apple calls Ultra Wide but which I always call the wide angle lens, is great when you want to capture a full scene, such as the glass ceiling in front of the Apple Store. But in the past, a downside of using that lens was that the quality of the picture was lower because it was a 12 mega-pixel (MP) lens.
This year, Apple is using a 48MP lens, the same as the standard lens. This allows you to get greater details in wide angle pictures. Additionally, because wide-angle lenses are used for macrophotography (getting really close to an object), you can get better pictures when you are really close to an object. I think that the difference is noticeable. Here is a macro picture of a flower taken with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, with my iPhone incredibly close to the small flower:
Here is the same flower taken with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, again taken incredibly close to the small flower:
And in this last picture, I've zoomed and cropped both, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max lens on the left and the iPhone 16 Pro Max lens on the right:
Although I think that the difference in the two lenses is noticeable, you should consider that Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac believes that the difference has as much to do with Apple doing more noise reduction on the iPhone 16 Pro Max lens. His post has some pictures to support his theory. Whatever it is that Apple is doing, I do think that the end result is a letter better.
In addition to using the Ultra Wide lens for wide-angle pictures and macro pictures, the iPhone can also use the Ultra Wide lens with the Wide lens (the regular one) with one lens acting like a left eye and the other lens acting like a right eye to take Spatial Videos. Apple introduced this feature with the iPhone 15 Pro, and I like being able to take 3D videos now so that in the future, when devices like the Apple Vision Pro are more common, I'll have more 3D memories from today. My hope was that the improved Ultra Wide lens would result in even better Spatial images and videos, such as perhaps 4K spatial videos. But no, spatial videos are still limited to 1080p, and if the 48MP lens results in a better picture from one of the two lenses, I'm not noticing it. Oh well. Maybe next year.
Audio Mix
There are also significant audio improvements this year when you take videos. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max have four microphones that allow for better-quality audio recordings, including spatial audio. The new iPhone can also reduce wind noise, although I haven't had the opportunity to try that yet.
Another feature is called Audio Mix, and this one is cool. When you take a video, the four microphones record sound from all around you. When you play back the video, the standard mix is what you are used to hearing from prior iPhones. But if you change to In-Frame mix, the video plays the voice of people who are in-frame but noises from elsewhere, including background noises, are greatly reduced. If you want even more of that, change to Studio mix, and Apple dampens background noise to create an effect that is somewhat similar to recording audio in a sound studio. It's not perfect, but it is very different from the Standard Mix. It is similar to using noise canceling headphones so that the sound of the outside world is greatly reduced and you can focus on one thing. On the other hand, if you want to hear all of the noises from around you but have them consolidated toward the front of the screen, the way that they are for movies, you can choose Cinematic mix.
This is going to be a really nice feature to have going forward. I wish I could use this feature on the iPhone to go-back and re-edit the sound mix one some of the videos that I've taken when my prior iPhones. Alas, that is not possible, but it is nice to know that I have this option going forward.
Battery life
The iPhone 16 Pro Max has the best battery life of any iPhone ever made. Apple says that it can play video for a staggering 33 hours in a row. I haven't tested the battery life, but Tom Pritchard of Tom's Guide has. Tom's Guide has a standard battery test that it does with all smartphones in which it surfs the web over 5G at 150 nits of screen brightness. The result for the iPhone 16 Pro Max was impressive:
The iPhone 16 Pro Max managed to hit 18 hours and 6 minutes during our testing. Not only does that mean it has the best battery life of any iPhone Apple’s ever released, it also beats out almost every other phone we’ve tested. In fact, it was so good that we’re actually running the test again to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.
All that I can say is that in my last week with the iPhone 16 Pro Max, I haven't even come close to running out of battery life during any day. Part of that is just because I have a new iPhone; new iPhones always have great battery life. But it is nice knowing that when I have one of those super long days where I won't have an opportunity to recharge my iPhone, I'll have more battery power than I've ever had before.
If you do need to replace the battery in an iPhone 16, it will be easier than before because Apple is using a special electrically-released adhesive to hold the battery in place. As Donald Papp of Hackaday explains, a repair shop can apply "a voltage (a 9 V battery will do the job) between the aluminum frame of the phone and a special tab on the battery. In about a minute the battery will come away with no force, and residue-free." Interesting.
Ready for Apple Intelligence
Apple is emphasizing in its advertisements that all four models of the iPhone 16 are ready for Apple Intelligence, a series of AI features that will be added to iOS starting in October, with additional features added over time. The main reason that these new models are ready is that they contain 8GB of RAM. The two iPhone 15 Pro models introduced a year ago also have 8GB of RAM, and that is why Apple says that those two models are ready for Apple Intelligence but not the non-Pro iPhone 15 models.
I cannot review Apple Intelligence because I haven't tried it yet, but I've been reading the review of people use the beta, and I have some doubts. John Gruber of Daring Fireball says:
Also, none of the Apple Intelligence features currently in iOS 18.1 are game-changing. The Clean Up feature in Photos is pretty good, and when it doesn’t produce good results, you can simply revert to the original. The AI-generated summaries of messages, notifications, and emails in Mail are at times apt, but at others not so much. I haven’t tried the Rewrite tool because I’m, let’s face it, pretty confident in my own writing ability. But, after my own final editing pass, I ran this entire review through the Proofread feature, and it correctly flagged seven mistakes I missed, and an eighth that I had marked, but had forgotten to fix. Most of its suggestions that I have chosen to ignore were, by the book, legitimate. (E.g., it suggested replacing the jargon-y lede with the standard spelling lead. It also flagged my stubborn capitalization of “MacOS”.) It took 1 minute, 45 seconds to complete the proofreading pass of the 7,200+ words in Apple Notes on the iPhone 16 Pro.
Siri will also be smarter with Apple Intelligence, with the ability to help you find information on your iPhone no matter where it is located, and much more.
The improved Siri and Clean Up feature in Photos both seem useful. On the other hand, I have questions about how useful the writing features will be.
Having said that, I have no doubt that AI on the iPhone has lots of potential for the long term. With the new iPhone 16, or with the Pro models of last year's iPhone 15, you can start to experience it as it unfolds.
Conclusion
If taking pictures and videos is not important to you, then the other improvements in the iPhone 16 Pro Max may seem relatively minor: the screen is a little bigger, the battery lasts longer, and you get to see the first implementations of Apple Intelligence. But if you are like me and you enjoy taking pictures and videos, doing so is easier than ever thanks to the Camera Control, those pictures and videos look even more dynamic on the larger screen, and you can adjust the audio in ways that you never before could thanks to the four microphones and the Audio Mix feature. Those are great new features, especially considering that one of them—the larger screen—only occurs every few years and may not occur much more in the future.
If you are in the market for a new iPhone, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is a great device. It's been fun to use over the past week, and I look forward to seeing what more it can do.
