iPhone 16 Professional improve: When you have a 3 year-old iPhone, listed below are all the brand new options you will get

In my iPhone critiques, I attempt to remember the fact that most iPhone upgraders are coming from a telephone that is at the least three years outdated. With that in thoughts, I’ve put collectively a listing of a very powerful upgrades you will discover in your new iPhone 16 Professional (or Max) if you happen to’re coming from the 2021 iPhone Professional or earlier. 

Spoiler: You are most likely going to be fairly comfortable.

Additionally: We have used each iPhone 16 mannequin and here is our greatest shopping for recommendation for 2024

What’s it like upgrading from iPhone 13 Professional?

In the event you’re coming from an iPhone 13 Professional or earlier then you’re in for lots of great new capabilities if you change to an iPhone 16 Professional or Professional Max. Here’s a record of a number of the greatest options you may count on if you happen to improve.

• Longer battery life for 5 hours hours of further utilization time — in comparison with the iPhone 13 Professional fashions
• Apple Intelligence options will run on this telephone when launched in iOS 18.1 and past 
• Digicam Management for fast digicam entry and shortly altering settings for images and movies
• 5x tetraprism telephoto to get crisp images and movies of issues farther away
• 48 megapixel images for extra detailed photographs and the power to crop in farther 
• 4K120 video permits you to shoot Hollywood-like cinematic gradual movement video clips
• USB-C charging with a extra common cable that connects to many different sorts of gadgets
• Wi-Fi 7 connectivity will provide you with a lot quicker add and obtain speeds when you have a gigabit connection at house and a Wi-Fi 7 router 
• At all times-on show for getting the time and fundamental information if you’re not utilizing the telephone
• Brighter show for higher use open air (2000 nits peak brightness on iPhone 16 Professional versus 1200 nits peak brightness on iPhone 13 Professional)
• Dynamic Island brings a helpful new notification system
• Standby Mode to see helpful widgets when your telephone is docked
• Motion button to get quick entry to your common favourite apps for options
• Motion mode movies for taking pictures easy movies that appear like drone photographs
• Emergency SOS by way of satellite tv for pc to contact emergency companies when you do not have a mobile sign
• Crash Detection for alerting emergency companies and your contacts if you happen to’re in an accident

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My 3 favourite iPhone 16 Professional options

I spent a number of hours with Apple’s new flagship iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max on September 9 within the Steve Jobs Theater and shortly fashioned some first impressions. I am additionally now doing extension testing on each the iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max for extra in-depth protection on ZDNET.

Additionally: iPhone 16 hands-on: So filled with options, I did not envy the Professional fashions

And whereas the very first thing plenty of patrons could discover is the yr’s new telephone colour — it is Desert Titanium this yr, which is definitely only a shade of gold — the factor that almost all of us barely take note of is the most recent advances within the mind that powers the iPhone. It is all the time the case that it unlocks new capabilities, however this yr, that feels more true than ever with the brand new A18 Professional. Or at the least it powers my favourite new characteristic — and a bunch of others that show how ridiculously highly effective this machine is.

And sure, I will give up speaking about chips and get to my three favourite options.

1. Digicam Management 

The brand new Digicam Management permits customers to do extra with the iPhone digicam and do it shortly. This new key sits on the precise facet of the telephone beneath the facility button, however it’s fabricated from darker steel and sits extra flush to the facet of the telephone. 

It is also touch-sensitive, which is a feat of engineering. One press opens the digicam app. A second press takes a photograph. Press and maintain and it begins recording video. A light-weight press and a swipe to 1 facet or the opposite allows you to zoom out and in. A double mild press and a swipe to both facet lets you choose completely different settings from zoom to depth of discipline to the brand new photograph kinds to a number of different choices.

Additionally: iPhone 16 Professional vs. iPhone 15 Professional: Must you improve?

If it sounds somewhat sophisticated, it isn’t. You may shortly get the hold of it. I attempted it and it is goes to be tremendous useful for individuals who take a ton of images with the iPhone — and let’s be sincere, there are plenty of us as a result of the iPhone is essentially the most used digicam on the earth. The Digicam Management button offers the iPhone a characteristic no different telephone on the earth has proper now. The Sony Xperia 1 V comes the closest with its devoted shutter button, however it does not do practically as a lot.

Individuals are going to like this characteristic.

2. Measurement and end

Each of the professional iPhones received larger screens and thinner bezels this yr, which makes them somewhat taller than final yr’s professional fashions. The Professional expands from 6.1 inches to six.3 and the Max grows from 6.7 inches to six.9. Each ZDNET critiques editor Kerry Wan and I seen it instantly within the iPhone 16 demo space — and we felt comfortable about it as a result of we each are inclined to choose the marginally taller and thinner type components of most Android gadgets because it makes them somewhat simpler to function with one hand.

Additionally: Apple simply gave me a compelling motive to purchase the smaller iPhone 16 Professional over the Max this yr

Nevertheless, there was one other new bodily attribute of the iPhone 16 Professional fashions that received me simply as excited. The titanium sides have a brand new end that feels far more grippy. The truth is, it is so grippy that I am tempted to do the unthinkable and take a look at utilizing it with no case. I am additionally tempted to make the smaller 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Professional, relatively than the Max, my day by day driver — particularly because the smaller professional mannequin now has the identical digicam system because the bigger one.

3. Upgrades to video and audio recording

The opposite space the place the brand new A18 Professional chip actually exhibits its energy is within the new video and audio recording choices out there within the iPhone 16 Professional. First, now you can file in 4K at 120 frames per second, which supplies you the facility to do the type of tremendous gradual movement you solely see in large cinematic movies. Even simply a few years in the past, you’d have wanted an costly pro-level digicam and a desktop pc with a strong video card to shoot and edit pro-level 4K120 video. Now you are able to do it on an iPhone — and the footage Apple has proven to this point seems nearly indistinguishable from professional gear. 

Additionally: Each iPhone mannequin that will likely be up to date to Apple’s iOS 18 (and which of them will not)

Subsequent, Apple additionally upgraded the audio within the iPhone 16 Professional with what it calls “4 studio-quality mics” which can be paired with software program and AI to do some loopy issues I have not seen on a smartphone earlier than. With the brand new Audio Combine software program, now you can edit audio instantly on the iPhone 16 Professional, which separates foreground and background sounds and allows you to choose from a number of sound profiles, together with a Studio profile that routinely dampens background sounds and a Cinematic profile that makes it sound like a film edit. 

It could additionally now seize Spatial Audio encompass sound throughout video recording (which you may as well edit in Audio Combine). And the Voice Memos app goes to make use of these upgrades for an replace later this yr that may allow you to layer two completely different tracks. These audio options are an important instance of the place Apple is placing AI to make use of in sensible, behind-the-scenes methods which can be going to be much more approachable than typing in a chatbot. 

Extra to come back

Apple referred to as the brand new A18 Professional chip as highly effective as high-end desktop PCs, which feels like hyperbole, however the above options are convincing sufficient to make me suppose it might be at the least as highly effective as high-end desktops from a few years in the past. We’re operating the iPhone 16 fashions by means of benchmarks and placing the telephones by means of some real-world situations to measure and evaluate the efficiency.

Additionally: Each iPhone 16 mannequin in contrast: Which new iPhone do you have to purchase?

Apple additionally claims the brand new A18 Professional chip is way more energy environment friendly and can end result within the iPhone 16 Professional Max having the longest battery lifetime of any iPhone but. We’ll additionally problem that declare with our personal battery assessments.

The digicam system upgrades to a 48 megapixel sensor for the ultrawide digicam, which ought to lead to higher macro images and various different enhancements. We’ll be testing that as nicely in a brand new set of ZDNET smartphone digicam assessments. 

The AI options that Apple talked about this summer season at WWDC, together with the newly upgraded Siri, will not arrive till the iOS 18.1 replace — and even then, they will nonetheless be in beta and a number of the options will not come till iOS 18.2 or later. However when the AI options do lastly arrive, Apple’s new flagship supercomputer in your pocket seems like it will have the oomph to run them with out breaking a sweat.