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My Take-Away From the iPhone Event: This isn't a "Pro year"

A friend of mine had to buy a new iPhone a couple of months ago – and I liked his phrasing while asking me for advice: Is this a “Pro year”? Now, to some, the things you always get with a Pro phone are so important that every year is a Pro year. But I’m discussing how much you get for your money with the upgrade – because this will vary from year to year.

To be clear: I don't think most people should buy new phones more often than every 3-5 years. But as that interval will hit many people every year, it's still always valuable to analyse this year's phones.

However, I'll be holding on to my precious 13 Mini for at least another year! 💪🏻

So, while we haven’t seen any reviews of this year’s models, to me, it seems like last year was a “Pro year”, while this year isn’t. Let’s find out why.

These are things that are the same – things you’d get for the upgrade last year, and still get this one:

Both from 15 to 15 Pro and from 16 to 16 Pro:

  • ProMotion display (high/variable refresh-rate)
  • Always-On display
  • Added Telephoto camera
  • Night mode portraits
  • Support for Apple ProRAW
  • Faster USB-C speeds
  • Aluminium → Titanium (With increase weight as well, though.)
  • LiDAR Scanner
All iPhone 16 colours – black, white, pink, green and blue
The iPhone 16 colours. One thing I don't touch on in this post is that the regular version gets all the fun colours!

Going from 16 to 16 Pro

In addition, the aforementioned stuff, this year you also get:

  • Increased screen size, from 6.1" to 6,3" / 6.7" to 6.9", and smaller bezel (A negative for me, but not for most, I assume!)
  • 22 hours to 27 hours battery life (video playback), helped by the larger size
  • Substantial upgrade to the Ultra-Wide camera
  • Support for 4K video at 120 fps
  • Added four-mic array (and access to some finesse regarding this)
The 16 Pro colours. Black, gray, light gray, gold-ish brown.
The iPhone 16 Pro colours. Boring, but still pretty nice, IMO. I like that the black is pretty black, the natural titanium will probably patina pretty nicely, and that the Desert Titanium will look great with brown leather.

If someone asked me for advice, I’d simplify it down to this:

  • Screen size, and the associated effect on weight and battery life (Interesting that they now have options in 6.1", 6.3", 6.7" and 6.9".)
  • Screen tech (Always-On and ProMotion)
  • Better cameras

However, last year there was more:

Going from 15 to 15 Pro

In addition to the stuff mentioned up top, last year you also got:

  • Action button
  • A16 → A17 Pro chip (a more substantial bump)
  • 6 GB → 8 GB RAM
  • Apple Intelligence (due to the last two items)
  • 20 hours to 23 hours battery life (video playback)
  • Better Ultra-Wide camera (But not as large an improvement as this year.)
  • Support for Macro photography
  • Support for spatial video
  • Thread radio

Now, I don’t care much about Apple Intelligence (as English isn’t my primary language) or spatial video – but their inclusion makes the 15 Pro more future-proof. And the more substantial increase in performance and the extra button is something everyone can appreciate.

So, my temporary conclusion, also based on all the changes outlined in this blog post, is that going from the regular model to the Pro one is less worth it than it was last year – and that paying a bit more for an iPhone 16, compared to buying last year’s iPhone 15, is well worth it.1

In general, this year’s iPhones aren’t that exciting – they’ve looked like this for a while now. At the same time, the design is well-refined, and I really like that they’ve added two more buttons since the phone I currently have!

  1. But things are more complicated if you add buying last year’s models used/refurbed into the mix! ↩︎