ICYMI: The iPhone 16 is Here… and It’s Mid

That’s what kids call mediocre these days.

Apple launched the new iPhones about a few weeks ago. We are aware we’re a bit late on this news but on the bright side, we can now add our tidbits after finding various articles on how it performed in its home market, the United States, as well as reviews of it. Before we proceed to that, let’s see what’s with this new iPhone.

The main feature of this is, not surprisingly, AI. Not “artificial intelligence” but “Apple Intelligence” which was slated to launch alongside iOS 18 according to the latest WWDC. Another is that the iPhone 16 Pro has that long-awaited action button, designed originally as a shutter that you can use to zoom in and out. Not an innovative feature considering Sony had the same idea in 2014.

Wait… Apple Intelligence has been delayed in several markets, including Europe? That’s quite a shame. Supposedly, consumers can experience Apple Intelligence during the global rollout of iOS 18. However, this has been delayed because the company still needs more time to polish these features up, including the “smarter Siri”. This means only a handful of AI features will be available to users, making the iPhone 16 series pretty much “vaporware” because its main feature is not yet implemented. It’s probably the most barebones iPhone we’ve seen, and this is hyped a lot, including rumors of a new design ala iPhone X for the base iPhone 16.

iPhone 16: Camera Mode!

The new iPhone 16 comes with a new metallic unibody design. Unlike previous iPhones which used last year’s chipset, the iPhone 16 uses the new A18 Bionic to support its supposed AI features. The previous chipset, A16 Bionic, lacks the support Apple needs. The new phones also have that action button at the bottom, like Android’s assistive touch buttons. No, sadly, it does not function as a fingerprint sensor. Missed opportunity right there.

The main difference between the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus lies in their display size. A traditional move by Apple. The iPhone 16 has a 6.1″ slightly-lower-than-1.5K resolution (2556x1179px) Super Retina XDR OLED display with a 60Hz refresh rate. And here we are with literally every other Android at its price range going as high as 144Hz. Traditions work, we guess. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Plus uses a 6.7″ finally-actual-1.5K (2796x1290px) OLED display. Both phones are IP68 certified so they can survive in certain watery or dusty situations. It just won’t survive sea water because salt can corrode and kill the electronic parts inside.

The iPhone 16 comes in five colours. These are Ultramarine, Teal, Pink, White, and Black. It has a titanium body like the iPhone 15 Pro series. It appears that Apple’s partnership with RED has ended as the RED version is nowhere to be seen.

Let’s talk about that action button a bit more. Because it functions as a camera shutter, you can use it to open the camera app and take a shot. Not only that but if you press it once gently, you can open zoom controls. Open twice and you can find options to adjust different camera settings such as aperture, exposure, and focus.

The new iPhone 16 features a new ultrawide camera so you can really see things at a wider, farther distance. Apple has really advanced since the iPhone 15 Pro because even the iPhone 16 uses a 48MP primary camera made by Sony. The other camera is a 12MP ultrawide. Megapixels aside, even with only two cameras, you can take great pictures because Apple engineered its camera algorithms (ahem we mean “AI”) to be as realistic as possible. The selfie sensor is the same last time, a 12MP camera but Apple does not really talk about it much.

The new A18 bionic is a chip designed for one main purpose: To support Apple Intelligence for years to come. The chip uses a hexacore CPU, barely eight cores as opposed to the MediaTek Dimensity 9300 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This CPU is comprised of 2 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. Plus, it also comes with a quincore GPU and a 16-core neural engine. It is manufactured on a 3nm process like last year.

It’s odd that Apple compared the new A18 chip to the older A16 as opposed to the A17 Bionic that the iPhone 15 Pro has. This suggests that the new chip does not have much of a performance difference against the A17 Bionic. Truly, its main purpose is just to support Apple Intelligence, and we better wait until next year for anything interesting that happens.

Apple promised a bigger, longer-lasting battery. Judging by the reviews we’ve seen online, Apple delivered on that promise. According to Tom’s Guide, the iPhone 16 has a 3,561mAh battery, and the iPhone 16 Plus has a larger 4,674mAh battery. The main reason why the numbers seem odd is because Apple never mentions the estimated battery size of its iPhones on its launches and website. All they mention is the benchmark on how long the battery is theoretically, supposed to last.

In Tom’s Guide testing, the iPhone 16 lasted a whopping 12 hours and 43 minutes while the iPhone 16 Plus lasted about 16 hours. That is not impressive from our point of view because we tested phones of a lower price point, using Android, that last longer, such as the Vivo V30e, lasting about 20 hours. Different markets have different needs, and they haven’t seen the taste of Tecno, Infinix, or any BBK brand aside from OnePlus. Though, the new iPhones last longer than the previous iPhone 15 and 15 Plus, which is where Apple is probably looking at.

You scrolled all the way down here to look for the price. Our article is lengthy we know but it’s important for you to know what we think of the new iPhones even if we don’t have it yet. Enough of that. The iPhone 16 costs PHP 54,990 while the iPhone 16 Plus costs PHP 62,990. This is just the starting price. Both phones have 6GB RAM and the only thing you can choose is the storage. The 128GB version of the iPhone 16 (yes, in a 2024 flagship, we can’t believe it either) is available for the aforementioned price, the 256GB option at PHP 61,990, and the 512GB option at PHP 73,990.

The iPhone 16 Plus, with its 128GB version, is available at the aforementioned price. The 256GB version is priced at PHP 69,990, and the 512GB version is priced at PHP 81,990. Yes, it’s more expensive to purchase the iPhones here in the Philippines than it is in the US. For starters, the iPhone 16 in the US costs USD 799 (~PHP 44.8K).

SPECS:

• iPhone 16: 6.1″ FullHD+ (2556x1179px) Super Retina XDR OLED, 60Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision
  • iPhone 16 Plus: 6.1″ 1.5K (2796x1290px) Super Retina XDR OLED, 60Hz refresh rate, Dolby Vision
    • IP68 water/dust resistance
• Apple A18 Bionic (3nm) designed for Apple Intelligence
• CAMERAS:
  • 48MP “Fusion” (Primary), f/1.6, OIS (Sensor-Shift stabilization), with 12MP 2x telephoto
  • 12MP (Ultrawide), f/2.2, 120° FOV, 4x optical zoom
  • Action Button
• iOS 18 with Apple Intelligence
• iPhone 16: 3561mAh battery
  • iPhone 16 Plus: 4674mAh battery
  • 20W fast charging, Qi and Qi2 Wireless Charging
  • 25W MagSafe wireless charging
• USB-C, Stereo Speakers, FaceID
• 5G services, e-SIM Slot (US only), 4G LTE, Bluetooth, iBeacon Microlocation
• Ultramarine, Teal, Pink, Black. White
• PRICE:
  • iPhone 16:
    • 128GB: PHP 54,990
    • 256GB: PHP 61,990
    • 512GB: PHP 73,990
  • iPhone 16 Plus
    • 128GB: PHP 62,990
    • 256GB: PHP 69,990
    • 512GB: PHP 81,990

These phones are not yet available in the Philippines through its partners such as Power Mac Center, Digital Walker, and Beyond the Box. We need to wait until the middle of October for that.

iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max: Filters!

We pretty much discussed everything that these four phones have to offer but there are a few things we also didn’t. Apple Intelligence and the third camera, the dedicated 12MP telephoto. Also, Apple decided to up the stakes by increasing the resolution of the ultrawide to 48MP.

Like last year, the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are all about titanium. The entire body is made with this glossy and matte metallic finish. There are four colors (or shades rather) of titanium to choose from: Black, White, Natural, and Desert Titanium. Yes, it launches with iOS 18 with Apple Intelligence and new customizable features. It’s like Apple is becoming Android and Android is becoming Apple, slowly, bit-by-bit.

The iPhone 16 Pro features a 6.3″ 1.5K (2622x1206px) Super Retina XDR OLED display with 120Hz “ProMotion” refresh rate. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max features a 6.9″ almost 4K (2868x1320px) Super Retina XDR OLED display also with 120Hz refresh rate. The battery size also differs. 3582mAh for the iPhone 16 Pro and 4685mAh for the Pro Max, according to Tom’s Guide.

The phone also uses a more powerful A18 Pro chipset. It is manufactured similarly, based on a 3nm TSMC process. What’s the difference? The GPU has one more core! Yep, so revolutionary.

SPECS:

• iPhone 16 Pro: 6.3″ 1.5K (2662xx1206px) Super Retina XDR OLED, 120Hz “ProMotion” refresh rate, Dolby Vision
  • iPhone 16 Pro Max: 6.9″ 1.5K (2868x1320px) Super Retina XDR OLED, 120Hz “ProMotion” refresh rate, Dolby Vision
    • IP68 water/dust resistance
• Apple A18 Pro (3nm) designed for Apple Intelligence
• CAMERAS:
  • 48MP “Fusion” (Primary), f/1.6, OIS (Sensor-Shift stabilization)
  • 48MP (Ultrawide), f/2.2, 120° FOV
  • 12MP (Telephoto), f/2.8, 120mm, 10x optical zoom, OIS (3D Sensor-Shift Stabilization)
  • Action Button/Camera Control
• iOS 18 with Apple Intelligence
• iPhone 16 Pro: 3582mAh battery
  • iPhone 16 Pro Max: 4685mAh battery
  • 20W fast charging, Qi and Qi2 Wireless Charging
  • 25W MagSafe wireless charging
• USB-C, Stereo Speakers, FaceID
• 5G services, e-SIM Slot (US only), 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, iBeacon Microlocation
• Black Titanium, White Titanium, Natural Titanium, Desert Titanium
• PRICE:
  • iPhone 16 Pro:
    • 128GB: PHP 69,990
    • 256GB: PHP 76,990
    • 512GB: PHP 88,990
    • 1TB: PHP 100,990
  • iPhone 16 Pro Max
    • 256GB: PHP 84,990
    • 512GB: PHP 96,990
    • 1TB: PHP 108,990

Apple Intelligence: Repackaged Algorithms

Now, let’s discuss Apple Intelligence since we mentioned it multiple times in this article. So, what really is it? If you haven’t heard yet, Apple collaborated with OpenAI to develop these new AI tools for their new iPhones. It includes everything you know from OpenAI and ChatGPT. These include Writing Tools that help you pretend that you are an actual writer or author, an image generator so that you can pretend to be an artist (that Crushed! advertisement did not age so well now, did it?), and even make your own custom emojis with it, like a shrimp with a cowboy hat, if you’re that one quirky friend.

Apple Intelligence also has a feature similar to Google Lens. Take a picture of an object and your phone will tell you what object it is. Perfect if you want to know what dog breed a stranger or friend has. This means it can also do live translation and you better hope it is as accurate as it is realistic. Siri is also supposedly smarter here, smarter than Gemini at least. So now, you can talk to Siri just as you would with a chatbot.

Finally, Apple Intelligence is privacy-focused. Well… we won’t elaborate on that. Go figure that out yourself.

Apple Intelligence will be available on both the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, and the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Max starting September. It’s nearly October now and we haven’t heard much of it. Apple still needs time to polish it.

PRICING:

The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max are available at the following prices:

iPhone 16 Pro:

• 128GB: PHP 69,990
• 256GB: PHP 76,990
• 512GB: PHP 88,990
• 1TB: PHP 100,990

iPhone 16 Pro Max:

• 256GB: PHP 84,990
• 512GB: PHP 96,990
• 1TB: PHP 108,990

As you can see, the prices are not so far apart from the original iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max price. Even so, it’s quite a hefty price tag, but at least not as hefty as the Huawei Mate XT Ultimate. The phones will be available in the Philippines starting October at your favourite authorized stores like Beyond the Box, The Loop, Power Mac Center, and Digital Walker.