We Go WAY Beyond the Keynote: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Impressions

The PetaPixel team just flew down to Cupertino for the launch of the new iPhone 16 series and we have some thoughts about the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake have thoughts!

0:00 - Intro
1:25 - Cameras2:34 - Battery Life
2:59 - Screens
3:21 - Camera Control
4:51 - Video upgrades
6:06 - Video Disappointment
6:44 - Where’s the AI?
7:40 - The wrap

[adamharika]

IMO, on a photography focal length continuity perspective, instead of upgrading the ultra wide to 48mp they should put that sensor on the telephoto. They can cover 13mm to 24mm focal length with croping 12mp ultrawide. 24mm to 5x zoom with croping 48mp main cam and the 5x telephoto can reach longer if it was croping 48mp instead of 12mp. I guess I will need to wait till next year to replace my 13pro and that is only if they put 3x48mp on all the cam. Just like most of android phone flagship nowadays

[GemmaHentsch]

Honestly i still wish there was a mini pro, it’s the perfect size for me.

But the move to the 5x lens makes it less likely for me to want the 16 over the 15.

[kefkafloyd]

One nice thing about Blackmagic camera app is that its 2x crop on the main camera (its 48mm setting) isn't interpolated. It's a windowed capture of the sensor. Would be interested in how the 120fps looks from that.

[SW-tech]

Nicely targeted topics and no waffle, thanks so much.

[jprototype]

I like that Apple is focusing the AI in useful ways without obliterating your photographs in to just straight generative AI art. It feels like the Pixel line took it all a step too far with being just shy of generating the image all together as opposed to capturing it.

[mygad]

Cool. I didn't expect you guys to be reviewing this but here you are answering all my questions about the camera in the latest iPhone.

[GrainOnTheGo]

Seem like I’ll be waiting till the iPhone 17, since my 15 Pro isn’t really all that different. Glad that the charging change is here to stay.

[nathanaeldavenport]

Regarding peak brightness: with the 15 Pro Max, not once have I ever wished I had more brightness, even on a bright day outside. What I do wish is that it generated less heat, and didn’t drain my battery as quickly.

It’s well understood by now that Apple doesn’t compete on specs for their own sake. Seems like an odd criticism for criticism’s sake… like saying a 240Hz refresh rate is better than 120Hz, or having a 500+ DPI phone screen is better than 423 DPI. Because at a certain point… the job is done.

[REXDAKEX]

Still on an iPhone 11 Pro and would love to upgrade for a better camera. So disappointed that they didn’t improve the 5x zoom lens when they’re already behind Samsung and Google in that area.

[ericaceous]

The GH7 video looks bloody good here - the light helped no doubt as well, but the segments with Chris outside look fantastic.

[fjzingo]

Great three new lenses to capture photos of receipts for my company....

[jimmieyoung]

Explain why you're presenting this 12mp sensor as it would be defined in a camera terms as a '48mp' sensor in Apple iPhone terms?

[scrollop]

Do they still oversharpen videos and photos and you can't reduce this? This is a deal breaker.

[WhittyPics]

Tony Northup put out a video that says that 48 megapixel really isn't 48 Megapixel

[mdhazeldine]

This doesn't seem like much of an upgrade. The biggest disappointment for me is that the telephoto lens is still on 12mp, compared to the 48mp on the Pixel 9 Pro. That's going to make a big difference when zooming in.

[chengong]

What about the sharpening? Have they removed the stupid sharpening?

[BlindMango]

Your chapter time tags are messed up, 2:34 Battery Life should be on a new line in the description box

[USSam]

I think swapping the 3x telephoto with a 5x is a really poor choice. Why not give the 3x also a 48MP sensor and play the same game as with the wide angle, using the center 12MP for a 6x photo?

[everydayisextra]

Thanks for being this fast and yet so thorough touching all the same issues that I was able to identify after watching the keynote and then comparing the specs with my 15 Pro Max. You basically confirmed what I somehow hoped I might have misunderstood the first time, so after the initial excitement for most of the new camera features the Debbie Downer effect set in.

Without going any further into the details, I think anyone with an iPhone 14 Pro or older and some creative energy will want to upgrade to the new 16 series. But for me, I’ll be rather focusing on series 17 unless there’s something lukrativ coming up in the next 12 months that quantifies the costly upgrade. I seriously wish Apple would stay away from this kind of misleading marketing that ends up in a feeling of over promising and under delivering when they for example loudly announce a 4K/120p but then stay very quiet about the fact that it only works with one of the three lenses as Jordan mentions. Not the first time that something like this brings up the question in my mind if Steve Jobs would have green lit such move?

[Aggielife]

As far as the size, people forget the iPhone 11 Pro Max was 6.5 inches. The iPhone 12 went to 6.7 and it was like nobody noticed. At that time, they didn’t shrink the bezels so the phone simply got larger. Now all of a sudden we got this uproar in phone size when most of that was the shrinkage of the bezel🤦🏽‍♂️.