At a time when we are grappling with fears around generative artificial intelligence, Apple has delivered not just a new series of iPhones but, more importantly, reassurance that privacy comes first.

There is nothing predictable about the new iPhone 16 series. Sure, the design roughly follows a tried-and-tested template but the introduction of Apple Intelligence will bring about a difference in the way you use the iPhone than, say, your colleague or spouse.

There are four new iPhones — iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. All of them are driven by Apple Intelligence, a suite of features that offers Apple’s play on artificial intelligence. Instead of promising the sun, moon and stars that several Android brands are doing, Apple’s approach is meaningful and personalised. The AI Apple is offering is across devices and at the system level.

The new phones are coming when users are holding on to their smartphones longer. But there are enough meaningful features to persuade people to upgrade.

The goal of Apple Intelligence is to make people do something useful and that will make more users go: “I need a new iPhone.”

Coming at a staggered pace, Apple Intelligence features include the ability to summarise pesky notifications (yes, tackling notifications is a great use case of AI), proofread notes and messages, offering meaningful changes to whatever we want to email, making the camera identify specific types of flowers, plants or dog breeds, and Siri’s ability to field some requests related to personal information on the phone, like pulling details from a text message about a family member’s flight and checking airline information for real-time arrival details.

The iPhone 16 comes in five colour options, with more saturated tones for the pink, teal, and blue options than seen on prior models

By contrast, last month Google revealed a Pixel phone that can edit people into photographs that can play havoc with what we believe is the importance of photographs. Apple’s cautious approach will ensure it doesn’t suffer the misfires Google already has experienced like a chatbot telling users to eat rocks.

Let’s talk about iPhone 16

Among the four new iPhone 16s, two are “entry-level” models. They come with a faster processor, a more powerful camera and the Action Button that can be programmed to automatically retrieve capabilities like the phone’s flashlight. The higher models are the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.

To power Apple Intelligence, all the phones come with powerful processors. The base iPhone 16 model features the A18 chip, while the iPhone 16 Pro features an A18 Pro chip. Wall Street is, of course, enthusiastic about the artificially intelligent phones, with analysts predicting the features could help Apple sell a record 240 million iPhones next year, a 12 per cent increase from this year.
Besides the new A18 chip with 3nm process there is increased battery life, Wi-Fi 7, improved thermal design for gaming with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and a new physical Camera Control button below the power button.

The new A18 chip has six performance cores and four efficiency cores. It’s 30 per cent faster than the iPhone 15’s CPU and can use 30 per cent less power, and its GPU is 40 per cent faster while using 35 per cent less power. The A18 will also offer great gaming performance, allowing the iPhone 16 to be compatible with AAA games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Resident Evil 4.

Diving into cameras, the iPhone 16’s dual setup of a 48MP main camera and new autofocusing ultra-wide camera offers the “equivalent” of four lenses by way of a 2x crop mode and macro mode.

iPhone 16 will come with a 6.1-inch screen while the larger iPhone 16 Plus gets a 6.7-inch display and the screens can reach 2,000 nits of peak brightness and go as dim as one nit.

Going Pro

Powering the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max is the A18 Pro chip, with a 16-core neural engine that has 15 per cent faster performance than the iPhone 15 Pro. It also has improved graphics performance because of a six-core GPU that’s 20 per cent faster than the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro.

On the Pro models, the upgraded camera system introduces a new 48MP Fusion camera with a faster, more efficient quad-pixel sensor and Apple Camera Interface, unlocking 4K120 fps video recording in Dolby Vision — the highest resolution and frame-rate combination ever available on iPhone, and a smartphone first.

The new 48MP ultra-wide camera features a quad-pixel sensor with autofocus, so users can take higher-resolution 48MP ProRAW and HEIF images when capturing uniquely framed, wider-angle shots or getting close to their subjects with macro photography. The 5x telephoto camera now comes on both iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, besides both models are now capable of taking spatial photos in addition to videos to help users relive memories on Apple Vision Pro.

Siddharth and Aditi Rao Hydari with Apple CEO Tim Cook in Apple Park, Cupertino

Not enough? Users can capture 4K120 fps in slo-mo or video mode, and adjust the playback speed after capture in the Photos app, including a quarter-speed playback, a new half-speed option for a dreamy effect, and a fifth-speed option that corresponds to 24 fps. When combined with the new image signal processor (ISP) of A18 Pro, users can do frame-by-frame cinema-quality colour grading for 4K120 fps in Dolby Vision.

And here’s another big update: The Pro models come with four new studio-quality mics that maintain true-to-life recorded sounds, and video can now be captured in Spatial Audio for immersive listening with AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, or a surround sound system.

Welcome Camera Control

The phones come with a new button called Camera Control and it will encourage you to take more photos. Pressing the button for the first time will open the camera app. You press it to take a photo and press and hold to start a video recording. Since the button is touch-sensitive, you can also control zoom by sliding your finger across. Press the camera control lightly twice to bring up other controls, such as depth of field. More on this button in a future article.

(The reporter is in Cupertino on an invitation from Apple)

Pricing and availability

l iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be available in black titanium, natural titanium, white titanium, and desert titanium, in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage capacities. iPhone 16 Pro starts at ₹119,900 and iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at ₹144,900.

l iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be available in ultramarine, teal, pink, white, and black in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage capacities. iPhone 16 starts at ₹79,900 and iPhone 16 Plus starts at ₹89,900.

l Pre-order begins at 5 am PDT on September 13 with availability beginning September 20.

l Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features rolling out in the months to come.

l In addition to an iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max Clear Case, available for ₹4,900, a Silicone Case with MagSafe will be available for ₹4,900 in black, denim, fuchsia, lake green, plum, star fruit, stone grey, and ultramarine.