There are only some hours left till “It’s Glowtime”, so let’s do a recap of what to anticipate. In case you missed it, we already coated the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus rumors and leaks, right here we’ll go over every part we (assume) we all know in regards to the two Professional fashions.
The occasion begins at 5 PM UTC and we could have protection of all the brand new launches. Till then, here’s a recap of every part that occurred in the previous few months.
The launch
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16 Professional and iPhone 16 Professional Max will begin tomorrow if not later at the moment. We’re most likely two weeks of pre-orders, so the primary shipments and in-store availability needs to be on September 20 (Apple all the time picks a Friday).
Apple Intelligence, the foremost improve for iOS 18, has missed the deadline and will arrive later as a part of iOS 18.1. This is the reason Apple has two beta branches being examined concurrently. Apple apparently didn’t wish to delay the iPhone launch till Intelligence was prepared, however we count on that it will likely be a significant a part of the presentation.
The design
This part can be transient – we’ve seen pictures of iPhone 16 Professional Max dummies and if not for the new shade (Gold, not Brown), we’d have been fooled into believing that these have been simply iPhone 15 Professional Maxes. Talking of colours, there are Titanium Black and Titanium White, in fact, in addition to Titanium Silver and Titanium Gold. There was a rumor of a Rose possibility, however there isn’t a photographic proof of such a hue. If you’d like colours, you’d might wish to get an iPhone 16 or 16 Plus as a substitute.
iPhone 16 Professional Max dummies in White, Black Silver and Gold
The Gold shade mannequin additionally appeared in a brief unboxing video the place it’s labeled “Desert Titanium” (the hue was apparently impressed by the sands of the Sahara desert). This video presents the briefest glimpse of the entrance of the telephone – nicely, the entrance of the retail field, which has a picture of the entrance of the telephone – which reveals that nothing a lot has modified. The Dynamic Island is in place, apparently no smaller than final 12 months.
Dimension comparability between the 4 iPhone 16 fashions
Apple did tweak the design barely, however it’s not instantly apparent. The iPhone 16 Professional Max will allegedly have the world’s thinnest bezels, besides, the telephone can be barely bigger. The rationale why will turn out to be apparent once we get to the show part.
| Dimensions | iPhone 15 Professional | iPhone 16 Professional | iPhone 15 Professional Max | iPhone 16 Professional Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 146.6mm | 149.6mm | 159.9mm | 163.0mm |
| Width | 70.6mm | 71.5mm | 76.7mm | 77.6mm |
| Thickness | 8.25mm | 8.25mm | 8.25mm | 8.26mm |
| Weight | 187g | 194g | 221g | 225g |
Bigger shows
Each iPhone Execs retain exclusivity on the ProMotion panels, i.e. if you would like 120Hz LTPO, you get a Professional mannequin. The 2 vanilla telephones will hold utilizing outdated 60Hz tech for yet one more 12 months. However this 12 months the 2 pairs will diverge even additional as they’ll not provide the identical display sizes.
iPhone 16 Professional Max retail bundle
The iPhone 16 Professional will go as much as a 6.3” show, whereas the vanilla 16 will stick to six.1”. The iPhone 16 Professional Max would be the largest iPhone but with a 6.9” show – up from the 6.7” of the earlier Professional Max and the upcoming Plus. The resolutions will most likely be bumped up barely to maintain the pixel density the identical as earlier than.
Within the earlier part we talked about that the bezels can be thinner to offset a number of the development from the bigger shows – not sufficient to thoroughly cancel it out however nonetheless. The iPhone Professional bezels will shrink from 1.71mm to 1.2mm in comparison with final 12 months’s mannequin, whereas the Professional Max bezels will go from 1.55mm to 1.15mm.
Right here’s a mockup that Ice Universe made to indicate off the distinction:
iPhone 16 Professional Max (left) vs. iPhone 15 Professional Max (proper) bezels
We’re undecided why there are so few leaked pictures (or movies) that present the entrance of the iPhone Execs, however it’s clear that any main adjustments across the Dynamic Island must wait till subsequent 12 months (it should allegedly get narrower).
Motion and Seize buttons
Facet views of dummies present the tentatively named Motion and Seize buttons, which can set off customized actions and can act as a digicam shutter key, respectively. This does imply that the Alert Slider can be eliminated, nevertheless.
All 4 iPhone 16 fashions could have an Motion button
And a seize button
Apparently, the Seize button can be extra of a capacitive trackpad than a bodily button, permitting swiping gestures – this may very well be used to regulate zoom, for instance.
Apple A18 chipset and AI for all
Final 12 months the 2 Professional telephones have been powered by the Apple A17 Professional chipset, whereas the 2 vanilla fashions needed to reuse the A16 from the 12 months earlier than. This and the smaller quantity of RAM implies that the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus won’t get Apple Intelligence.
Once more, we suspect this can be a significant a part of the presentation later at the moment and a significant a part of the advertising for the brand new 16-series, so all 4 fashions must have it.
Which means all 4 iPhone 16 fashions will run an Apple A18 chipset. They will not be an identical, the Professional fashions might have extra GPU cores, for instance. The NPUs will possible be an identical in order that on-device AI duties really feel equally snappy.
They might have the identical quantity of RAM too, 8GB. We’ve seen leaks that declare this capability for the 2 vanilla fashions and no credible rumors that the Execs are getting 12GB. 12GB might need to attend for the 17-series and even then it could be reserved for the iPhone 17 Professional Max. AI fashions want loads of RAM to run and Google has even reserved a portion of the additional RAM on the Pixel 9 telephones to maintain the mannequin loaded always. We’ll see how Apple approaches this drawback.
5x tele digicam for the iPhone 16 Professional, minor upgrades
Very like ProMotion, telephoto cameras are unique to iPhone Execs. This would be the case for this era as nicely, however at the least the 2 Execs can be introduced nearer collectively. Beforehand, solely the Professional Max had the lengthy 5x tele lens.
Now, each Professional and Professional Max could have a 5x telephoto digicam – the identical one as final 12 months, apparently, with a 12MP sensor and an f/2.8 aperture. The principle digicam will stay unchanged as nicely, a 48MP sensor with 0.7µm pixels (and binning to 1.4µm). It is going to provide a 48MP ProRaw mode, there’s discuss of JPEG-XL (as various to HEIF) and a brand new video mode – 3K at 120fps with Dolby Imaginative and prescient.
Apple iPhone 16 Professional Max
The extremely extensive digicam could have the identical 12MP sensor however is getting a brand new lens on the vanilla fashions – it should have a wider f/2.2 aperture (up from f/2.4) and it’ll have autofocus, identical to on the Professional fashions.
We already talked about the Seize button above. Because it’s a capacitive button, it should help swipes (e.g. for zooming out and in) and it will likely be stress delicate too, so there can be a digital half-press for focusing.
Batteries and charging
Apple, like Samsung and Google, simply isn’t a fan of quick charging for telephones. Each the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max charged at a sedate 27W over USB-C and 15W over MagSafe. This 12 months’s fashions will improve the facility limits noticeably, although nothing too loopy.
The iPhone 16 Professional and Professional Max telephones will reportedly help 40W wired and 20W MagSafe charging. Okay, that doesn’t sound like a lot, however this represents a rise of 48% and 33%, respectively. That’s greater than the Pixel 9 Professional XL improve (23% wired, no improve for Qi charging), Samsung didn’t change the cost charges for its flagships in any respect (and it hasn’t shortly).
For the reason that two Professional telephones are bigger, we count on to see bigger batteries too, proper? Properly, sure, however solely simply – the desk beneath has a comparability with the earlier fashions and reveals solely minor enhancements.
| Capability | Wired charging | MagSafe charging | |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone 15 Professional | 3,274mAh | 27W | 15W |
| iPhone 16 Professional | 3,355mAh | 40W | 20W |
| iPhone 15 Professional Max | 4,441mAh | 27W | 15W |
| iPhone 16 Professional Max | 4,676mAh | 40W | 20W |
Elevated manufacturing, Execs from India
Chances are you’ll or might not care about this one, however it’s value mentioning. Apple is anticipated to proceed to increase its manufacturing base in India and this 12 months, for the primary time, Professional fashions can be constructed within the nation. Beforehand, the Indian factories solely made vanilla iPhones. As early as subsequent 12 months, India is anticipated to account for as a lot as 25% of the entire iPhone manufacturing.
This transfer will assist increase gross sales within the nation but additionally the entire manufacturing volumes too – Apple allegedly plans to produce extra iPhones this 12 months, principally specializing in the iPhone 16 Professional and 16 Professional Max. The purpose is round 90.1 million whole, up from 86.2 million final 12 months. The non-Professional duo will apparently account for round 33% of manufacturing with the remainder going to the Execs.
The expectations are for the iPhone 16 Professional Max alone to make up 37% of the entire (33.2 million items, up from 24.2 million for the earlier Professional Max), whereas the 16 Professional ought to make up 30% of the combo with 26.6 million items (up from 21.8 million for the 15 Professional).
What comes subsequent
Since we all know most of you don’t improve your telephone yearly, it’s vital to say what is going to come subsequent – in fact, that is simply pure hypothesis, however some may determine to carry on for one more 12 months.
The iPhone 17 Professional Max might get a 48MP periscope digicam for superior zooming. This leak was from late 2023, although, so plans might have modified since then – it additionally mentions that the iPhone 16 Professional telephones could have 48MP extremely extensive cameras and that isn’t taking place. All 4 iPhone 17 fashions are anticipated to have 24MP selfie cameras, up from the present 12MP.
As talked about above, the iPhone 17 Professional Max might get 12GB of RAM (however not the smaller 17 Professional). The Professional fashions may also get an unique chipset, the very first chip from TSMC’s 2nm foundry.
