Like every year, Apple unveils its new flagship smartphone. We were able to try the iPhone 16 on the sidelines of its release and loved it, but it lacks a crucial function.
Apple is regularly under fire from the user community each year. Specifically, the firm is often accused of releasing too many new iPhones that do not have any real new features. A criticism that is strangely not found more than that on other brands whose versions are difficult to differentiate, and which often turns out to be exaggerated. Except for this year ?
We were able to try out the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro when they were officially released and, unsurprisingly, these new smartphones are excellent… But also frustrating. Here is our review of the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.
Editor's note: this review was conducted entirely using a copy loaned by the brand. The latter had no say in our test before publication.
Let's get straight to the point: the design of the iPhone 16 is beautiful. While it doesn't change too much from previous years, we do see a new camera layout, now placed vertically. A fairly minor change, but one that offers The iPhone 16 has two significant advantages: filming space videos and standing out a little from the design of the last generations.
The design of the iPhone 16 is evolving a little this year. © Linternaute/Julian Madiot
This year the iPhone 16 also gains a little in dimensions with 0.2 inches difference compared to the old iPhone 15. A change that remains however quite difficult to notice unless you are really used to the previous generation. The iPhone 16 range therefore consists of the following dimensions:
We are therefore faced with very, very large phones for the Plus and Pro Max models. During our weeks of testing, we mainly used an iPhone 16 Plus and an iPhone 16 Pro and the experience is radically different. On the large format, it is quite difficult to access the upper edges of the screen when the phone is held in one hand. Aside from this minor difficulty, the iPhone 16 remains very pleasant to use and handle on a daily basis. The aluminum edges are a sure value for the handling of iPhones and always add a little “premium” side to the device.
The biggest concern regarding the design of the iPhone 16 comes mainly from… Its new camera module. By placing the iPhone in flat on a table, the latter will lean a lot if you try to place your finger on it. The fault of the camera module which unbalances the whole thing. This is why we recommend that you, as every year, equip yourself with a protective case for your iPhone.
The colors of the iPhone 16 Pro are more sober than the classic and Plus versions. © Linternaute/Julian Madiot
Côté colors, Apple equips its iPhone 16 with four colors: “ultramarine blue”, “teal green”, “pink”, “white” and “black”. For the purposes of our tests, we were able to get our hands on blue and pink models that are very pretty and pleasing to the eye. The iPhone 16 Pro, for their part, are equipped with more sober colors, including the new “titanium sand”.
The iPhone 16 range also gets a brand new button called “Camera Control”. The latter has a haptic control that, when pressed, triggers the camera or another photo-style application of your choice such as Snapchat or Instagram. By pressing the button without pressing it, it is possible to navigate through the camera options including depth, zoom or exposure management. Very nice options that are reminiscent of Sony's Xperia smartphones, even if the “Camera Control” requires a little time to adapt to be mastered.
The new “Camera Control” button is interesting, but requires a little time to get used to. © Linternaute/Julian Madiot
For once, the iPhone 16 screens have charmed us as much as they have surprised us. We are therefore faced with a Super Retina OLED panel of a quality as sublime as for the previous generations. The colors are vivid and the blacks deep, which is excellent for viewing content, especially videos on YouTube, Netflix, Twitch or any other application.
The brightness of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro is capable of going up to 2000 nits. A respectable score that allows Apple phones to have good readability for your content even when you are in direct sunlight. While some competing smartphones (like the recent Xiaomi 14T) do better, the iPhone 16 screen remains very pleasant to use on a daily basis, in the sun or in the dark.
The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are once again equipped with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. This allows for very nice fluidity within your applications or when you browse the web or in a dynamic video game.
The iPhone 16 screens are very pleasant to use, but the classic and Plus models only have a 60 Hz refresh rate. © Linternaute/Julian Madiot As a reminder, the refresh rate of a smartphone screen is fairly equivalent to the FPS (frames per second) on a computer screen. The higher this rate, the smoother the images in your applications and games will be. An adaptive refresh rate allows you to automatically adjust this rate based on the content displayed. to save the device's battery (a screensaver, which does not need animations, will often run at 1 Hz to avoid consuming too much).
But since we have to get to the bottom of it, we need to talk about the refresh rate of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus. The latter remain stuck at 60 Hz, which is a shame since there are a plethora of smartphones in 2024 that are less expensive than the iPhone 16 and capable of displaying a rate of 120 Hz. Apple can and must do better on this point for the next generations.
Apple has always managed to offer phones with excellent performance. The iPhone 16 is no exception to the rule thanks to the new in-house A18 chip (and A18 Pro for the iPhone 16 Pro). The latter therefore replaces the A17 Pro which already had very good performance.
We were able to test the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro on several games and applications that are quite demanding in resources. Titles like “Genshin Impact” or “Honkai Star Rail” automatically launch with the graphics set to “high” while remaining at a display frequency of 30 FPS. Settings that are already very honorable but that we wanted to push to the maximum for our tests.
The iPhone 16 perfectly manages video games. © Linternaute/Julian Madiot
Unsurprisingly, everything runs perfectly and the animations are fluid. We did not notice no slowdowns or freezes of the iPhone 16 during our tests.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000When it was released, the iPhone 15 was the subject of much controversy following several cases of overheating of the device. A heating that we had not observed during our test at the time, but which we obviously verified this year. During many downloads or games where the iPhone 16 is used a lot, the phone still tends to heat up a lot. Apple seems to have worked better on heat dissipation since the latter is not concentrated in a single point, but distributed over the entire back of the device. This helps to reduce the feeling of heat and above all to be able to continue using the iPhone 16 without feeling pain.
One of the strengths of the iPhone compared to its Android competitors is the software experience. iOS is a platform recognized and mastered for its finishes and connectivity with other devices from the firm. On this point, it is difficult to criticize the iPhone 16. The OS is still a real pleasure to use on a daily basis with multiple very practical options, especially when using other devices from the firm.
But here's the thing, the iPhone 16 was marketed as an iPhone built entirely around the firm's artificial intelligence: Apple Intelligence. Unfortunately for the manufacturer, this solution is absent from the iPhone 16 at its release and will be released “in 2025” in Europe. This means that the iPhone 16 does not have Apple Intelligence at the time of writing and that this AI solution will take several months to arrive due to European re-regulations. A complicated situation for Apple, but also for iPhone 16 owners who could just wait quietly for the arrival of the firm's AI (or even the iPhone 17) to make the purchase.
For the photo part of the iPhone 16, we are not going to go into much detail. These are the same sensors as last year on the iPhone 15 with a 48 Mpx main lens and a 12 Mpx ultra wide angle. The results are therefore very similar from one year to the next and therefore remain very good with a high level of detail. Colorimetry is also well managed and the iPhone 16 manages to capture enough light to keep your scenes readable and pleasant to the eye. Portrait mode also does very well to delineate small details like hair and apply a Gaussian blur in the background.
The iPhone 16 also does a pretty good job of capturing low-light shots. The camera's sensors manage to capture enough detail and light to make your scenes readable and reduce any digital noise. However, the iPhone 16 tends to deliver fairly realistic shots. and we are therefore far from the warm and rich color photos that we could find on Google phones. This may please or not, everyone has their own opinion, but it is clear that the iPhone is closer to the colors that we observe on a daily basis.
Zoom-wise, this is where the iPhone 16 shows its biggest weaknesses in terms of photos. The classic iPhone 16 is however capable of zooming in x2 with a quality that is always very correct. This year, there is no difference between the iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 16 Pro Max, both of which have a 5x zoom directly integrated into a shortcut command. Unfortunately, the zoom of the iPhone 16 quickly shows its limits as it as we approach the limit of x25 which is barely usable for posting on networks as the blur is present.
A small new feature this year: the iPhone 16 has a very practical macro mode for taking some nice shots of very close-up subjects. This mode, until now reserved for Pro models, is now available across the entire range, and allows you to take some beautiful little photographs.
Also note the addition of photographic styles which allow you to slightly modify the tones and colorimetry of one of your shots before even taking it. A new feature rather nice, but takes time to fully master.
In terms of battery life, we compared the iPhone 16 Plus to last year's iPhone 15 Plus, as well as the Pro models. Regarding the Plus models, we didn't particularly see any improvements in this segment. Our iPhone 16 Plus was able to last us a day and a half with fairly standard use. Unplugged in the morning around 8am, our iPhone 16 Pro displayed, for its part, around 40% battery in the evening around 6-7pm. We will therefore always advise charging overnight. The most demanding users will therefore have to turn more towards the Plus or Pro Max models to benefit from a little battery capacity.
Charging doesn't really change this year on the iPhone 16 range. It is still possible to charge 50% of the iPhone 16 in just under 30 minutes if you use a wired charger. However, this charge tends to reduce its speed beyond 50%, so expect a little over an hour to fill up the iPhone 16. A rather honest score, but it would be time to speed up the pace compared to the Android competition.
The real novelty comes from wireless charging, which now goes up to 25W max. A fairly high capacity and we doubt that many homes have such a wireless charging station, but we are clearly not going to spit on it! This will allow you to recharge the battery of your iPhone 16 much faster if you leave it on a MagSafe stand.
We were able to use the iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro as our primary phones for several days to make calls via the Phone, Facetime, Messenger, and WhatsApp apps. Unsurprisingly, our conversations came across clearly and clearly to us or the people we were talking to, even when surrounded by lots of background noise. The iPhone is still a great phone for communications.
On the connectivity side, Apple has added the Wi-Fi 7 standard to its new iPhone 16 and 16 Pro while the previous iPhone 15 already had very good throughput with the Wi-Fi 6/6E bands. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi 7 is still too little deployed in France for us to be able to test it, but the first feedback from the specialist press seems doubtful on the subject. However, we did not experience any bugs or slowdowns during our tests of the iPhone 16 with a Wi-Fi connection, whether for downloading, streaming or online video games.
What a strange test this year of these new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro! Let's not beat around the bush: these new smartphones launched by Apple are still as excellent year after year. The iPhone still benefits above all from its iOS operating system which is still as pleasant to use and stable despite many operations. Owners of multiple Apple devices will always be in heaven when pairing them together. The iPhone 16 is also still capable of taking very nice photographs as long as you don't rely too much on its zoom, but it's really on its video part that Apple's phone shines the most. Also worth mentioning are the new A18 and A18 Pro chips that deliver excellent performance.
Unfortunately, the lack of Apple Intelligence is creating some frustration in Europe and we are obviously looking forward to testing this AI solution when it becomes available here. We also regret the frozen screen at 60 Hz on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, which should definitely evolve for the next generations. Finally, we would have appreciated some additional efforts on the charging and autonomy of the device, which are a little lacking compared to the competition on the Android side.
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