Although the iPhone 16 series isn’t slated to come until late 2024, leakers have been revealing early details regarding the normal iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max (which may end up Apple called the iPhone 16 Ultra).
Apple officially revealed the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max in September 2023, so while we’re still more than a year away from seeing the company’s 2024 iPhones, we now know what to anticipate from the iPhone 16 and its siblings.
Below is our comprehensive guide to all the latest iPhone 16 news, rumors, and predictions. We’ll be updating this post as new information becomes available, so come back often for the most up-to-date iPhone 16 information.
SPECULATIONS ABOUT THE RELEASE DATE OF THE IPHONE 16
- Launch is expected in the first half of September 2024.
- The shipping date will most likely be a week or two later.
It goes without saying, but because Apple has only recently announced the iPhone 15 line, we don’t know when the iPhone 16 line will be available. Having said that, we can make some educated guesses based on historical Apple behavior.
If Apple follows precedent, we can expect the iPhone 16 to be announced during the 2024 edition of its annual September launch event. We won’t know the exact date of that event until August 2024, but we can use the dates of previous Apple events to determine when next year’s Apple event will take place, and hence when the iPhone 16 will be available.
Apple usually chooses the first or second week of September for its yearly iPhone releases, and usually chooses a Tuesday, while the corporation occasionally chooses a Wednesday. Apple’s September event in 2023 (read: iPhone 15) took place on September 12, with all four iPhone 15 variants announced at the time coming on sale just over a week later, on September 15.
That indicates the iPhone 16 will most likely be released on September 3 or 10 in 2024 (both dates are Tuesdays), however September 4 and 11 are other possibilities. The iPhone 16, like the iPhone 15, will most likely begin shipping a week after pre-orders go live.
PREDICTIONS FOR THE PRICE OF THE IPHONE 16
- Prices for the iPhone 16 are being disputed by sources.
For obvious reasons, we won’t discover official iPhone 16 pricing until September of next year, and experts are divided on whether Apple will raise or lower prices next year.
Apple’s normal iPhone 15 model currently starts at $799 / ₹ 79,900 / AU$1,499, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,199 / ₹ 1,59,900 / AU$2,099. These data could be replicated by the iPhone 16 line in 2024, much like the iPhone 15 line did for the iPhone 14 line in terms of pricing.
However, other analysts believe that the iPhone 16 will be less expensive than the iPhone 15. This is because Apple is rumored to be switching the process it employs to manufacture iPhone chipsets in 2024, which could effect iPhone prices for end users.
On the other hand, due to rising production costs, the iPhone 16 may be more expensive than the iPhone 15. According to a recent Nikkei Asia article, the iPhone 15 Pro Max costs Apple $558 to build, a 12% increase over the similar production cost of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
It’s also worth noting that Apple could release its first Ultra-branded iPhone in 2024. Initially, speculations said that an iPhone 15 Ultra will replace the iPhone 15 Pro Max this year, but that did not occur, and analysts now expect that an iPhone 16 Ultra would emerge next year.
IPHONE 16 SCREEN SIZE OPTIONS
- Pro models have larger panels and a new aspect ratio.
- The standard model is expected to stay at 6.1 inches.
In terms of screen size, we’ve heard that the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max may be the largest iPhones yet.
According to serial Apple leaker Ross Young, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Ultra (or iPhone 16 Pro Max, as it may be dubbed) would have 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch screens, respectively, as well as a new 19.6:9 aspect ratio. As a result, they would be the highest and narrowest iPhones ever.
A second rumor confirms the 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch screen sizes, while a third leak indicates the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max screens would be 0.2 inches larger than its predecessors. The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max have 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screens, respectively, and all iPhone 15 models have an aspect ratio of 19.5:9.
The mock-ups below, made by 9to5Mac, show how much taller and thinner the iPhone 16 Ultra will be compared to the corresponding model in the iPhone 15 series.
Aside from size, the iPhone 16 series may offer brighter screens than its predecessors, at least when viewed from the front. Apple is apparently contemplating adding technology that would enable this while still being more power efficient, perhaps improving battery life.
However, this would raise the phone’s production costs and, according to reports, make the screen appear less brilliant when viewed from the side, so it wouldn’t be a full upgrade.
RUMORS ABOUT THE DESIGN OF THE IPHONE 16
- The standard iPhone 16 is said to have an iPhone 11-style camera arrangement.
- Face ID components could be concealed beneath the screen.
- Each model might have a new ‘Capture’ button.
So yet, we haven’t heard many iPhone 16 design speculations, although there are a few forecasts floating around.
The first relates to how the Face ID components are arranged on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and South Korean outlet The Elec, both phones’ Face ID components will be buried beneath the screen, similar to how many of the top Android phones currently include under-display fingerprint scanners. This will not totally eliminate the selfie camera cut-out, as the sensor will reportedly remain visible, but it may allow Apple to decrease its size to a small punch-hole module.
According to the Elec, this design modification is really a stopgap for Apple, whose ultimate goal is to build a completely unbroken, cut-out-free iPhone display.
The second iPhone 16 design rumor exclusively pertains to the basic iPhone 16. According to Twitter leaker @URedditor, the iPhone 16 will include a vertical camera orientation rather than the diagonal setup that has been utilized on every iPhone since the iPhone 13. According to @URedditor, “this will make the device instantly recognizable as the latest model” in 2024.
The basic iPhone 15 retains the same camera configuration as the iPhone 14, albeit with the addition of a 48MP main lens, so it stands to reason that Apple may shake up the appearance of the iPhone 16 by, well, going back to what it knows.
The iPhone 15 Pro was said to have capacitive volume and power buttons early in the iPhone 15 rumor cycle. Then, in April 2023, Apple reportedly reversed its intention to put capacitive buttons on the iPhone 15 Pro, citing a lack of time to develop the haptic engines needed to power them. Now, it appears that these capacitive buttons will make their debut in the iPhone 16 range, but as a totally new button rather than modified volume and power buttons.
However, we’ve now heard a second source mention this mysterious new iPhone 16 button, and they’ve added that the Action button will also be capacitive.
RUMORS ABOUT THE IPHONE 16 CAMERA
- Periscope lens for both Pro models rumored
- ‘Super-telephoto’ periscope lens for Pro Max
- 48MP ultra-wide camera also rumored.
In terms of cameras, the normal iPhone 16 could use the same 48MP primary and 12MP ultra-wide dual-sensor configuration as the iPhone 15, according to early rumors.
As is customary, the more significant camera upgrades will most likely be reserved for the iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, and/or iPhone 16 Ultra. Indeed, the iPhone 16 Pro could be the first mid-sized iPhone to include a periscope zoom lens, which is presently reserved for the iPhone 15 Pro Max in 2023.
We’ve heard this story before, with analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicting as recently as September 2023 that the iPhone 16 Pro will inherit the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s ‘tetraprism’ periscope camera technology, and analyst Jeff Pu asserting the same about the iPhone 16 Pro in October.
The ultra-wide configuration on Apple’s current best iPhones is far from poor – the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max shoot dependably bright and colorful wide-angle images. However, the iPhone 16 Pro’s anticipated 48MP ultra-wide lens should gather even more light, leading in even better low-light images.
Indeed, both the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max already have a 48MP main camera that uses “pixel binning” technology to combine data from four pixels into one “super pixel” for improved low-light image capture, and this technology is expected to make its way into the iPhone 16 Pro’s rumored 48MP ultra-wide lens.
POSSIBLE IPHONE 16 FEATURES
- A17 Pro chipset is most likely for the iPhone 16
- A18 Pro/Bionic chipset is most likely for Pro versions.
- Overall battery efficiency has been improved.
We haven’t heard anything about the CPUs that will be utilized in the iPhone 16 line, except from the fact that Apple intends to alter its chipset production process in 2024, but we can make some reasonably certain predictions based on past Apple behavior.
Given that the standard iPhone 15 received the A16 Bionic chipset from the iPhone 14 Pro, and that both the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max received Apple’s shiny new A17 Pro chipset, we’re fairly confident that the standard iPhone 16 will receive the A17 Pro from the iPhone 15 Pro, while the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max will receive an as-yet unnamed A18 Pro/Bionic.
According to one leak, all four iPhone 16 variants will have 8GB of RAM. That would be an improvement for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, but there would be no change for the Pro models.
According to one source, the iPhone 16 Pro versions may feature Wi-Fi 7 and contain a new 5G modem, which would offer faster Wi-Fi and 5G speeds than the ordinary iPhone 16 models.
In theory, stacked batteries can be more densely packaged and have a better energy density than existing mobile batteries, thus we expect the iPhone 16 series to outperform the iPhone 15 line in terms of battery life.
In terms of actual battery capacity, the iPhone 15 line is said to have the following power pack sizes (Apple has yet to confirm these figures):
- iPhone 15: 3,877mAh (compared to 3,279mAh in the iPhone 14)
- iPhone 15 Plus: 4,912mAh (compared to 4,325mAh on the iPhone 14 Plus)
- iPhone 15 Pro: 3,650mAh (compared to 3,200mAh on the iPhone 14 Pro)
- iPhone 15 Pro Max: 4,852mAh (compared to 4,323mAh on the iPhone 14 Pro Max).
According to logic, next year’s identical iPhone 16 models will have comparable battery capacity, and we expect Apple to include reverse wireless charging technology across the whole iPhone 16 line.
Oh, and much like the iPhone 15 series, every iPhone 16 model will use a USB-C port rather than a Lightning port, according to new EU laws that take effect in 2024.
We also expect AI to play a significant role in the functioning of the iPhone 16 (particularly when compared to previous-generation iPhones), and some level of Apple Vision Pro integration appears to be unavoidable. However, we haven’t heard anything about either subject.
Finally, Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro models may have Wi-Fi 7 capability, which would provide quicker speeds, lower latency, and more dependable connectivity.
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