The iPhone Plus is the least favourite iPhone on the market for being too near the Professional price-wise, however with much less options and the notoriously crippled OLED at 60Hz refresh price. Nonetheless, its skinny and light-weight design and superb battery life has made sense to some patrons and they’d most likely wish to understand how the brand new Apple iPhone 16 Plus compares to the earlier iPhone 15 Plus.
Desk of Contents:
For starters, you possibly can evaluate the entire specs sheets or straight proceed with our editor’s evaluation within the following textual content.
To sum issues up, the iPhone 16 Plus arrives with a brand new chip with the promise of AI capabilities down the road, an improved display glass, expanded digicam capabilities, and sooner wi-fi charging. There’s additionally the added Motion key and the brand new Digital camera management. However all this suits on a specs web page – let’s have a look at how completely different the 2 units actually are in real-world use.
Measurement comparability
The iPhone 16 Plus has an similar footprint to the iPhone 15 Plus, which has hardly stunning. Each telephones measure 160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm. The iPhone 16 Plus is 2g lighter than the iPhone 15 Plus at 199g.
One distinction is that the brand new iPhone 16 Plus ought to have improved sturdiness in response to Apple. It encompasses a new era of Ceramic Defend entrance, which is meant to be 50% harder than the earlier one on the iPhone 15 Plus.
There are additionally two new buttons on the iPhone 16 Plus that are lacking on the iPhone 15 – the Motion key was an unique to iPhone Professional’s and there may be additionally the brand new Digital camera Management right here.
Show comparability
The iPhone 16 Plus has the identical show as on the iPhone 15 Plus – a 6.7-inch Tremendous Retina XDR OLED with wonderful HDR capabilities and excessive decision, however a regular refresh price of 60Hz. Each panels are marketed as able to 1,000 nits of typical and as much as 2,000 nits of most brightness.
Properly, as per our show measurements, the iPhone 16 Plus display is brighter than the iPhone 15 Plus – it gives 180nits extra in Auto Brightness (1823 vs 1642), and 70nits extra in handbook mode (891 vs 820). Not that huge of a distinction, however nonetheless.
Battery life
The iPhone 16 Plus boasts an even bigger battery than its predecessor – 4,674 mAh from 4.383 mAh. This can be a slightly modest improve of round 7%, however we’ll take it.
The extra important change, nevertheless, comes from the improved effectivity of the brand new Apple A18 chipset and doubtless some under-the-hood enhancements in iOS 18.
Consequently, the brand new iPhone 16 Plus achieved a record-breaking Lively Use Rating of 18:49h. It is a chart-topping battery endurance and it exhibits the brand new Plus mannequin gives 10 extra hours on voice calls, 2.5h extra internet time, and 1 extra hour of video streaming when in comparison with the iPhone 15 Plus. It is most likely protected to say that it is the iPhone with the most effective battery life thus far.
Charging velocity
The iPhone 16 Plus helps quick wired charging, although Apple by no means reveals the utmost energy score. The corporate quotes a 50% cost in 30 min when utilizing a 20W USB-PD charger.
There’s additionally help for quick wi-fi charging for as much as 25W through the brand new MagSafe charger when plugged right into a 30W+ energy adapter. You probably have a suitable Qi2 charger, then the iPhone 16 Plus will max out at 15W. In the meantime, the iPhone 15 Plus MagSafe wi-fi charging maxes out at 15W.
We carried out our charging assessments with a 45W PD charger to present the iPhones the most effective likelihood. Each telephones took about the identical time to cost. An hour on that charger refilled 85% of the iPhones batteries’ and the final 15% took over half-hour.
Speaker check
The iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 15 Plus function similar stereo audio system. They’re of the hybrid selection the place the earpiece is among the audio system. The opposite speaker is on the backside of the telephones, subsequent to the USB-C port.
The iPhone 16 Plus scored a Very Good mark on our loudness check, whereas the iPhone 15 – a Good mark. The distinction will be heard through our audio playback instrument, although you should have laborious time doing so in actual life.
Efficiency
This 12 months’s huge improve for the iPhone 16 Plus is the Apple A18 chipset, which is 2 generations forward of what the iPhone 15 Plus had – the A16. This can be a second-gen 3nm chip that’s each extra highly effective and extra environment friendly.
The Apple A18 has a sooner six-core processor, higher 5-core GPU with help for improved {hardware} raytracing. It additionally comes with extra RAM, now 8GB.
The A18 CPU is marketed to be 30% sooner than the iPhone 15 Plus CPU and 60% sooner than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU needs to be 40% sooner than the iPhone 15 Plus and twice as quick because the iPhone 12.
Benchmark efficiency
In our assessments the brand new Apple A18 CPU contained in the iPhone 16 Plus does rating about 20% greater than the A16 contained in the iPhone 15 Plus. There’s additionally between 30% and 60% bounce in GPU efficiency relying on the 3D check.
The A18 chip has a brand new NPU, which scores about twice as excessive the NPU contained in the iPhone 15 Plus.
The brand new iPhone chip permits all these high-end video games that had been incompatible with the iPhone 15 Plus to run fairly effectively on the iPhone 16 Plus and that’s most likely essentially the most notable improve, if you’re a gamer that’s.
Due to the brand new chipset, you’d additionally get entry to the Apple Intelligence function as soon as they’re launched – so long as you reside in a supported area (exterior the European Union and China).
Digital camera comparability
The iPhone 16 Plus virtually borrows its foremost digicam setup from the iPhone 15 Plus. It’s fairly potent – a 48MP sensor with 1/1.56″ dimension, 1.0µm particular person pixels and sensor-shift OIS. There’s a vibrant f/1.6 lens in entrance of it. The identical goes for the selfie digicam – the 12MP shooter has already confirmed its salt and is supplied with part detection autofocus as effectively.
The one improve is the brand new ultrawide digicam. It’s nonetheless a 12MP unit. Nevertheless, this 12 months, there’s a brighter lens with an f/2.2 aperture. Plus, most likely better of all, it now has autofocus, which permits it to double as a macro digicam for close-ups.
In fact, there may be additionally the brand new Digital camera Management. It’s an precise bodily button with actual journey when pressed. It additionally integrates a capacitive sensor that permits for contact and swipe interactions in addition to a high-precision pressure sensor that detects mild presses.
Picture high quality
There’s hardly any enchancment within the daylight photograph high quality, regardless what Apple could attempt to persuade you. The iPhone 16 Plus captures the identical images because the iPhone 15 Plus. They’re detailed, with pure colours, low noise, and nice dynamic vary. The foliage rendition shouldn’t be our favourite – particularly if you happen to shoot within the default 12MP.
The samples beneath have been taken on the similar places however at completely different occasions.
iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie
iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie
The iPhone 16 Plus can now additionally take macro images with its new ultrawide digicam.
iPhone 16 Plus – macro with UW digicam
The images from the principle cameras we took in low-light circumstances, each in 1x and 2x modes, are largely similar. The digicam app didn’t go for Evening Mode on the iPhone 15 Plus, however nonetheless, the standard stays comparable.
The brighter aperture on the ultrawide digicam does have an impact at night time and the ultrawide images from the iPhone 16 Plus are brighter, with extra element and fewer noise.
Video high quality
New video choices have been added to the iPhone 16 Plus – studio-grade microphones for higher audio high quality, plus capabilities for spatial video and audio recording.
Apart from that, the video high quality stays the identical throughout all cameras.
The daylight movies from all three cameras are wonderful throughout the board, together with stabilization.
Beneath we’ve got a couple of framegrabs from the movies taken by the 2 telephones at every focal size so it is simpler to check them.
iPhone 16 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie
iPhone 15 Plus: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie
The low-light movies from the ultrawide digicam at the moment are higher – they’re higher uncovered, with extra element and fewer noise.
Verdict
The iPhone 16 Plus is a wonderful premium smartphone with flagship-grade options and it delivers in all areas that matter – design, display, battery life, audio system, efficiency, and digicam.
The iPhone 16 Plus is the sooner cellphone of the 2 with a greater ultrawide digicam and sooner wi-fi charging. The battery life has gotten higher, too, and the sturdiness has been improved if we consider Apple. You now additionally get the Motion key and the Digital camera management.
Though it supplies roughly the identical consumer expertise, the iPhone 16 Plus is objectively the higher cellphone in comparison with the iPhone 15 Plus.
Nevertheless, the iPhone 15 Plus is about €250 cheaper than the 16 Plus nnow and it carries a lot of the identical qualities. Selecting between the 2 would rely in your funds and whether or not you worth the additional options that the iPhone 16 Plus can present.
- The extra sturdy display glass.
- The longer battery life.
- The sooner wi-fi charging.
- The sooner efficiency, particularly gaming.
- The higher ultrawide digicam.
- Apple Intelligence help.
Get the Apple iPhone 16 Plus for: