Review: Apple iPhone 16 Pro - The Best from Apple

If you want the best in terms of iPhone, these are the ones to choose, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Compared to the base models in the iPhone 16 series, these mainly offer better zoom cameras, a better screen with faster refresh, always-on display, and a titanium frame.

One more new button

Completely new in this phone, and in the rest of the iPhone 16 series, is the camera control which is a physical touch button on the side. I accidentally hit this button several times when I first got the phone, just by picking it up, but after setting it so that a double press instead of a single press would start the camera, I avoided that problem. Once the camera is on, I can use this button to choose different modes directly by clicking and swiping. It takes a while to get used to, but it can be a way to manage settings more easily without having to change grip.

Last year, the action button was introduced in the iPhone Pro models, replacing the silent mode switch and known in English as the action button. It is still present here in the iPhone 16 Pro and functions as a shortcut to features you choose yourself. This can include activating the flashlight, switching to the focus mode "Do Not Disturb," finding your Apple Watch, or any of a long list of other functions. You can still choose "Silent Mode" if you want, or have the button do nothing at all.

More durable and slightly larger

Looking at the exterior, the iPhone 16 Pro is made with a more durable screen glass, 50 percent tougher than the ceramic shield introduced in the iPhone 12 four years ago. The frame is made of titanium with an inner structure of aluminum. The charging port is now USB-C in iPhones, and Apple boasts that the battery life in the iPhone 16 Pro is better than ever. However, there is still room for improvement. Initially, when I use the phone and have just transferred apps, photos, and everything else from an older iPhone, it naturally takes a lot of system capacity to handle it. Therefore, I wait a week before I systematically evaluate the battery life. With sparse use, the phone lasts from half past six in the morning to half past six in the evening before it needs charging. It is thus difficult to get a full day's battery life without recharging during the day.

In half an hour, I then charge the battery from 0 to 45 percent with Apple's charger, and in an hour, the battery capacity reaches up to 79 percent. This is an improvement compared to previous years, but still far behind many phones on the Android side. Like most manufacturers today, Apple does not include a charger in the package, so if you don't already have a suitable USB-C charger with sufficient capacity, you will have to buy one yourself.

With the screen in the iPhone 16 Pro, it becomes clear that what Apple offers is a combination of hardware and what the software makes possible. The screen is bright and sharp and has support for the fast refresh rate introduced a few years ago. This allows the screen image to be updated up to 120 times per second, making animations and scrolling in apps smooth without stuttering or showing signs of motion blur. This also means that we have support for an active lock screen, so that you can see the time, notifications, and other information on the screen even when it is inactive without the battery being unnecessarily drained. This is because the screen refresh rate then drops to as little as one update per second.

The screen size in the iPhone 16 Pro is slightly larger than last year's 15 Pro, but like so much else, it's something you really only notice when you place the two phones next to each other and nothing that fundamentally changes the experience. If you're coming from an older iPhone, the dynamic island at the top of the screen, where, for example, the music playing, ongoing navigation, or the taxi you're waiting for can be displayed, gives you an overview without having to switch between multiple apps.

Not always obvious and simple

Today, the iPhone and its iOS 18 are packed with features. Many years of updates have turned the once streamlined system where Apple decided and limited much into a very customizable and sometimes even cluttered system. This is not a major problem for those who are used to it, but there are certainly examples where the interface could be simpler. One example is the new control center, which has been divided into several screens. The idea with the control center is that you should have quick and easy access to a few of the most common settings. Silence the sound, increase screen brightness, set an alarm, or activate airplane mode.

You swipe down from the upper right part of the screen and now swipe several more times to get to the next screen. Here, however, I have to be precise and hit the right spot with my finger because the first screen is crammed with controls, and it often happens that instead of swiping to the next screen, I accidentally hit a control, so for example, I max out the volume or mistakenly activate a function.

Another example is the ability to scroll to the top of a webpage from the bottom with a swipe by tapping the top edge of the screen. Since the dynamic island took its place at the top of the screen, there is very little space left to tap, and it happens that I instead hit the dynamic island, especially if it is active and I am, for example, playing music, causing it to expand and do something I did not intend to cause.

What we miss out on

If you've been following the mobile news flow in recent years, you know that there are a number of features in the iPhone that we in Sweden miss out on. Recently, much has been about AI and Apple Intelligence, which Apple calls the possibilities to, for example, summarize notifications, emails, web pages, and messages, process images with AI, generate emojis, get an improved voice assistant, and so on. None of this is available to us in Sweden, because Apple has chosen to exclude EU countries when these news are released, and moreover, Apple's AI is still only available in English where it is released. The news where IOS 18 interacts with a Mac and lets you see the phone's notifications on the computer screen or mirror the screen image to the computer is also something we miss out on. The same goes for the ability to record calls, and in recent years Apple has launched several services via satellite, both iMessage and emergency calls when you don't have regular coverage via the mobile network. None of this is yet available in Sweden, and we don't know when any of this will come, if it even does.

Often good cameras

The smart AI features that come to iPhones' cameras in the USA are not available to us for now, but the cameras themselves are of course here to take pictures and videos, and now both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max have optical zoom with 5x magnification. For several years, the Pro models of iPhone have established themselves among the best mobile cameras, and even though this year's phones do not introduce anything revolutionary compared to last year's, we get both a set of new features and are convinced that iPhone maintains its position as one of the best camera phones. Looking at competitors on the Android side, the iPhone 16 Pro does not reach as extreme zoom as the best there, and we also do not get the fine natural depth of field that mobile cameras with larger one-inch sensors provide, but otherwise, the iPhone 16 Pro meets most needs. The images from the camera have good color reproduction, and even in the dark, the images provide a nice dynamic where neither the bright nor dark parts of the image lose detail or color reproduction. Portraits have a nice depth with a blurred background, and even though it does not reach what some other mobile or system cameras can do, the impression is good. The wide-angle camera has slightly poorer capabilities to take pictures in low light but also works as a macro camera for close-ups, in daylight then. If you come from a simpler, sufficiently older iPhone, it is primarily night photos and zoom that you will notice if you choose to upgrade.

An alternative

Apple does not sell any previous Pro models at a discounted price, but you can find last year's Pro for just over 10,000 used and refurbished.

Camera example:

Zoom and low-light photos are what have improved the most compared to previous years' iPhones.