Next week, Apple will unveil the iPhone 16 series at an event dubbed “It’s Glowtime.” Here’s what we think we know about the new models. We’ll focus on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus here, with the two Pros covered in a separate article.
The launch
Apple has officially confirmed that the iPhone 16 series will be unveiled on September 9 (Monday). The event will start at 5pm UTC.
The biggest question is when the phones will be available – according to Mark Gurman, all four iPhone 16 models are on track for early pre-order (right after the event) and a September 20 launch.
There are reports that Apple Intelligence is being delayed and won't be available on launch day. Instead, it's expected to arrive as an update in October. However, this delay won't affect the launch of the iPhone 16.
The design
There hasn't been a significant evolution in the design of the regular iPhones since the iPhone 11, unless you consider the arrival of the Dynamic Island “significant.” The overall look of the 16 series will remain the same, but models have been photographed showing off some changes.
The rectangular camera island will be squashed horizontally, aligning the two cameras vertically. This also moves the LED flash out of the island and to the rear.
Apple iPhone 16 models
The models also reveal (all?) the launch colors. These should be more saturated than the Pro models, which traditionally only get the lightest hues.
Action and capture buttons
The side views of the mannequins show the tentatively named Action and Capture buttons, which will trigger custom actions and act as a camera shutter button, respectively. This does mean, however, that the alert slider will be removed.
All four iPhone 16 models will have an Action button
And a capture button
Apparently, the Capture button will look more like a capacitive touchpad than a physical button, allowing for swipe gestures – this could be used to control zoom, for example.
Identical (or almost) displays
The iPhone 16 will have a 6.1-inch display, the iPhone 16 Plus will have a larger 6.7-inch display, just like last year. However, both models will be smaller than the respective Pro variants, which will have diagonals of 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches. The bezels will be thinner, so we can expect slightly smaller dimensions on the vanilla and Plus models (the Pros will grow by a few millimeters).
The screens will be the same, except for slightly thinner bezels.
All four models will use the large Dynamic Island hole in the display, and that's unlikely to change for vanilla models next year (the Pros might start moving the hardware under the display).
And no, there won't be any ProMotion, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus' displays will run at 60Hz like they did in the Middle Ages. That's something that could change for the vanilla pair in 2025, if you can hold out that long.
Apple A18 Chipsets and AI for All
We've already mentioned that Apple Intelligence will be delayed, but most importantly, it will finally come to the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. The 15 and 15 Plus are missing out due to their older chipsets (A16) and limited RAM capacities (6GB).
That won't be the case for the 16 series, though. Apple, like every other tech company these days, sees AI as the next big thing. That means the new phones will have a fast enough NPU for fast on-device processing and enough RAM to hold the relatively large AI models.
That doesn’t mean Apple is going to go wild with RAM capacities, at least not yet. This year, the vanilla and Plus models are expected to come with 8GB of RAM, with next year’s successors likely to go up to 12GB (or not). Google increased the RAM capacity on the Pixel 9 series, but reserved some of it so that the AI model could always stay loaded in memory, ready to react at a moment’s notice. Whether Apple will do the same remains to be seen.
Non-Pro phones might have fewer GPU cores, but that shouldn't affect AI performance. And with their 60Hz displays, extra GPU power isn't necessary anyway.
The same cameras (roughly)
As we've already seen, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus will have dual cameras, which comes as no surprise. Rumors suggest that both phones will use the exact same 48MP main camera as on their 15 series predecessors. The 12MP jump on the 14 series and older models was quite significant, and we can't expect a similar improvement every year.
As for the ultra-wide camera, it will be virtually identical, save for an improved lens: it will have a brighter f/2.2 aperture (compared to f/2.4) for better low-light performance. Better yet, it will have autofocus, allowing it to take macro photos.
We've heard rumors of other changes, such as JPEG XL support in the camera app (as an alternative to HEIC). And we've already mentioned the Capture button above.
What comes next?
A quick look at what analysts are predicting for 2025. This could be the end of the big Plus series, which would make way for the iPhone 17 Slim. This one will have a slightly smaller 6.6-inch screen, according to analyst Jeff Pu, which will further distinguish it from the Pro Max model (6.9 inches).
The iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Slim will both retain the Dynamic Island, but will feature an upgraded 24MP selfie camera. The Pros are expected to have a smaller Island, so there will be a noticeable difference between the vanilla and Pro models. At least the vanilla pair should finally get high refresh rate displays.
Regardless, there are a lot of rumors floating around about the iPhone 17 generation right now, and their plausibility is pretty questionable. For example, we’ve heard that the iPhone 17 Slim will only have a single rear camera but will be more expensive than the 17 Pro Max. One or both of these claims might not be true. Still, we thought it was important to mention these things to put into context what the iPhone 16 series will represent in terms of upgrades.
Also to consider is the iPhone SE 4, which will complete Apple's transition to OLED. The new SE will likely arrive in the first quarter of 2025.