Mario Bautista
Reviews of new iPhones can, with a bit of exaggeration, be described as an age-old autumn tradition, and this year is of course no exception in this regard. My review of the iPhone 16 is finally finished after about two weeks of intensive use of this phone, and I believe that if you are still thinking about purchasing this new product, you will find all the answers to your possible questions in the lines below. If this were not the case, I will try to answer everything in the discussion under this article.
Before I get into the evaluation of the phone, it’s a good idea to get a “paper” look at the phone right away. I specifically had the teal version for the test, but ultramarine (blue), pink, white and black are also available, and the phone can be purchased with 128GB, 256GB and 512GB of storage. The novelty can be purchased from 23 CZK, with the fact that if its 990″ display is not enough for you, you can go for the Plus model starting at a price of 6,1 CZK, which shares practically all technical specifications with its smaller brother, that is, of course, except for the battery capacity and display diagonals.
He likes the look
Of course, design is an extremely subjective matter, so please take the following lines as words based on my personal preferences. But I have to say for myself that the appearance of the basic “sixteens” is really sensational. Specifically, the blue-green variant arrived for testing, while I also have the blue Plus version available, and I went to the store to view the other color variants as well. While some call them failures, I could choose. But more important than the colors is the camera redesign, which I now find far more successful than the one that Apple used for iPhones 14 and 15 – that is, with a diagonal arrangement of lenses. I don’t know why, but this arrangement never really suited me and that’s why this year Apple returned to the two lenses nicely below each other (obviously due to the deployment of support for shooting 3D video and photos), I really appreciated it. The phone looks really fresh and overall nice thanks to this upgrade.
The second “major” change is the placement of a new Camera Control button in the aluminum frame of the phone, thanks to which the novelty can be distinguished from older generations not only from the back, but also from the side. But of course we will focus on this element in more detail in the next part of the review. I must not forget the action button on the other side of the frame, with which one, however Apple it already came last year with the iPhone 15 Pro and which therefore makes no sense to analyze any further. It’s just there, you can set a number of actions on it, so it’s pretty cool.
Many may have been surprised that Apple it did not go the way of increasing the diagonal for the entire 16 series, but did so only for the iPhone Pro series. The basic models thus remained at 6,1″, respectively 6,7″, which, however, does not bother me at all, since the extra 0,2″ in the Pro model, which I use as a personal and work phone, is not noticeable at all. And if someone already perceives this upgrade, it seems to me that it is rather negative. At least on social networks, I quite often read that the increase was harmful, because the phones are suddenly much harder to hold. On the part of Apple, everything is well managed tactically, as this year it offers four size variants of the new iPhones, from which almost everyone can choose.
It has performance to give away, the display, on the other hand, needs to be improved
If in something Apple quite pulled out, then it is undoubtedly the performance of this model. Thanks to the new A18 chip, which has a 6-core CPU and a 5-core GPU, in the end you won’t have to deal with its lack at all, or at least you shouldn’t. And honestly, I really can’t imagine a situation where your phone would lack performance. After all, even the most demanding applications, which are currently AAA games such as Assassin’s Creed Mirage or Resident Evil, manage to launch very decently. Of course, you can’t expect a console experience from it à la Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 (Pro), but graphically the games look nice, they don’t crash and overall they are very playable. And thanks to 8GB of RAM memory, it is also guaranteed that your iPhone will keep a lot of other applications running in the background without any problem, without the need to close them, so that you can launch them in the blink of an eye, so to speak. In this regard, I would not be afraid to say that in terms of performance, the new iPhone 16 does not even compete with the 16 Pro series, which you can also see in the screenshots from Geekbench below.
So far, the iPhone 16 looks like an almost perfect phone, right? Unfortunately, it has one major flaw that I simply cannot forgive Apple for. I’m specifically referring to the display, which is nice to look at, but only until you start scrolling on it or generally consuming moving content. Its 60Hz refresh rate is simply not enough nowadays, when we have iPhone Pros, MacBooks Pros, iPads Pros or even televisions or monitors with 120Hz displays. Of course, if you still use 60Hz everywhere and have not yet encountered a display with a higher refresh rate, you will not complain much. But if, like me, you’re looking at something with a higher refresh rate, the iPhone 60’s 16Hz will almost feel like a broken phone.
I’m really sorry. After all, we are talking about a really beautiful phone with super technical specifications and, most importantly, a price tag starting at 23 CZK. That’s why I can’t understand how he can Apple allowing such a bad panel to be put into it. I can forgive the absence of always-on or anything else here, but still having only a 2024Hz display in 60, when the significantly cheaper competition offers 120Hz seems really awkward to me. After all, even the “stupid” 90Hz would ultimately increase user comfort and make the “sixteens” significantly more interesting.
And what is the worst? For me, it is probably clear to most of us that we are no longer talking about the problematic production of 120Hz panels or their high price. Apple The 120Hz display is practically 100% not wanted on the basic iPhone 16, just so that these phones don’t cannibalize the Pro series, since a 120Hz display would suddenly be enough for many more users than it is now. After all, I would go to it without hesitation, but because I’m used to 120Hz, I don’t want to watch 60Hz again. So I am quite sorry for Apple’s calculation in this regard, and I wonder if a company of its size needs something like that. So, of course, financially, this strategy makes perfect sense, and in business, finances come first. But sometimes it might be good to break this mindset a little.
The camera is the ceiling, the new button can attract attention
If he is in something Apple very strong in the long term, then it’s iPhone photography and the new iPhone 16 proves that. Although it’s not the best you can reach for if you want to take photos on a phone, you can definitely go for “sixteens” thanks to the new 48MPx Fusion camera in in combination with the 12 MPx ultra-wide-angle camera to take really beautiful pictures. Fusion, a wide-angle lens with a different name, supports the same as last year a double zoom in optical quality, when it de facto cuts a 48MP photo from a 12MP photo to a smaller photo as a zoom. The ultra-wide-angle lens features a new macro mode, thanks to which it is possible to take close-up photos of absolutely miniature objects, i.e. the structure of larger ones. So you can easily take a picture of the hairy back of a bee, the pistil in a flower or the structure of a seashell from your vacation. By the way, take a look at the photos below.
Since I am by no means a professional photographer and I don’t want to fit into the role of someone who can evaluate a phone’s camera in a more comprehensive way, I will describe it in the following lines as a completely ordinary person who simply wants to take a picture from time to time. As a result, this is exactly how the majority of us use the iPhone, and I think that’s how they try to use it as well Apple develop. And he’s really good at it. Thanks to the support of machine learning and AI in post-processing, taking photos on the iPhone is getting easier and easier, and it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo, which is great for everyone. Last year, I thought that the photos were embellished excessively, which resulted in the resulting image looking better than the reality. But this year Apple in my opinion, he took a little less in this direction and brought the images a little closer to reality, which may not be so pleasing in the end. Whether it is the right direction or not, of course, everyone has to evaluate for themselves, because everyone likes something different. You can take a look at the iPhone 16 photos below.
Considering the specifications of the photo system, it is clear to everyone that the Fusion camera is the one with which you have the most fun, as it is the most versatile and you will therefore take the most photos with it. It is able to take photos even in poor lighting conditions or in the dark, and the photos are still quite good. And thanks to the new anti-reflective layer on the lenses, the novelty can deal with, for example, the reflections of lamp light better than ever before, which I quite appreciate. The ultra-wide-angle camera is also great, but it will more or less only do its job in really good light. With regard to its aperture of f/2,2, it must be taken into account that as soon as there is a lack of light, the photos are dark and noise creeps in, just like in previous years.
Hand in hand with the camera is the new Camera Control button, which is located on the side of the device – specifically on the side with the Power Button. That describes it Apple in the words: “Camera control represents an easier way to quickly access photography tools. By moving your finger, you can fine-tune the exposure or depth of field, switch between lenses or zoom in with the digital zoom – exactly according to your wishes.” But the reality is that even after a good two weeks of testing, I did not see any major improvement in taking pictures. Yes, it’s definitely nice to launch the camera via it after pressing, but that pretty much ends the fun. Not that the button per se works poorly, because it certainly doesn’t. On the contrary, its sensitivity and functions as such are definitely interesting. But it seems to me that Apple on the iPhone, he placed it quite badly, as it is not in the place where one naturally places one’s finger when taking landscape photos. Instead, it’s a bit higher, making it hard to reach and requiring you to change the way you hold your phone somewhat, which I find quite unfortunate.
I’ve actually tried to give Camera Control a chance on many occasions, but I haven’t really gotten the hang of it yet. The only thing that makes a lot of sense to me is smooth zooming, which is certainly easier via it than via the display. Just as I find it nice to change lenses or styles through it. However, taking pictures by pressing it is quite hardcore precisely because of the way the button is positioned. Personally, I’m not able to simply press it without moving the phone, so I still use it half-heartedly. I do set some of those things through it, but in the end I do the final capture of the photo through the software trigger on the display. On the one hand, I’m quite sad because I kind of expected everything to be more intuitive in this direction, but as long as it Apple betting this high will be quite unusable for me personally.
But let’s get back to the praise, because the new iPhone 16 definitely deserves it. Audio Mix is also great, which can enhance the voices in the video in post-production so that they sound better, clearer and more natural. In short and well, almost a filmmaking tool in your photo and video editor. I’m not a great videographer and I don’t have many videos on my phone, but when I tested this function, I was quite interested and I believe that it can stir the cards a lot in the future on various video platforms, because thanks to it, new and new recordings with high-quality capture will be created voice on videos. It’s a bit of a shame that only videos recorded on the iPhone 16 can be edited in this way, but one has to accept that.
The battery will last you plenty
Although the days when it was enough to charge a mobile phone once a week are long gone, Apple in recent years, it has proven that it is possible to get back to interesting battery life. Even this year, it increased the endurance of its iPhones year-on-year, and in the case of the basic iPhone 16 by a good 10%, which is two hours in numbers. In practice, this means that your phone will comfortably last a whole day and you will usually still have a solid reserve in the evening. For example, I receive a few hundred notifications per day via my phone, I talk for about 4 hours on the phone, write messages and emails, browse the Internet, use CarPlay and so on, and when I took the phone off the charger in the morning and put it back on it in the evening, I had a solid 20% reserve. With less active use, you will definitely get a comfortable two days, maybe even a really economical three days.
In connection with the battery, it is useful to briefly evaluate the phone’s work with waste heat, which is also at a better level between generations. Alone Apple bragged at the Keynote that he redesigned the internal design of the device to better dissipate heat and thus make the phone less hot, which I can confirm. It certainly cannot be said that the phone does not heat up at all, but it heats up more slowly and there is a greater chance that you will stop using it for a given task before the phone heats up to an uncomfortable level that would already limit you. In other words, if you play the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed Mirage, in the case of the iPhone 15 Pro, you will reach an uncomfortable temperature in about 10 minutes, according to my experience. It’s only about 16 to 3 minutes better with the iPhone 5, but every step forward counts in this direction after all. But don’t really expect miracles here.
iOS 18 suits him
I didn’t even want to write the following lines at first, because I’m personally quite annoyed by how Apple in recent years, he has been mixing software with hardware at his Keynotes, and in the end you almost don’t even know what is actually an exclusive hardware feature and what is a software feature that will also arrive on older devices. But here I have to do the same. iOS 18 because Apple really did well this year, and as I didn’t find anything too dizzying at first, even the mere possibility of recoloring icons through color filters, dark mode and the like, new options for widgets or the layout of the desktop, changing the buttons on the lock screen and the like gives the phone an overall flair. It’s right now iOS 18, which makes the iPhone 16 look really fresh and, dare I say it, even more fun year-on-year. In short, software and hardware go hand in hand here, and when one has the opportunity to discover new interesting functions “on both fronts”, it is simply a joy. And that for the uninitiated iOS 18 and the new iPhone 16 really works.
Resume or oh that display
To be honest, I have quite mixed feelings about the iPhone 16. In my eyes, this is an absolutely perfect phone for the masses, thanks to a high-quality camera with macro support, great battery life, an increase in performance or RAM memory, an action button, and so on. Of course, the better Ceramic Shield, faster MagSafe charging and Audio Mix will also be pleasing here. I’m even perfectly fine with the absence of the telephoto lens that I love so much on the iPhone Pro series. But if there’s something I really can’t forgive, it’s the 60Hz display. I just don’t want to look at this in 2024 and it’s actually the only reason that would personally deter me from buying it. If you too are used to looking at a smooth display of 120Hz and more, then the 60Hz iPhone 16 is forbidden for you as well as for me. But if not, then I think you will hardly find a better phone at this price. In my opinion, the iPhone 16 has made perhaps the biggest intergenerational leap between basic iPhones in recent years, and it lacks only one step forward to perfection, which it Apple no and not indulge.
iPhone 16 (Plus) & 16 Pro (Max) can be purchased here
The iPhone 16 (Pro) is the most advantageous at Mobil Emergency, where you get a 3-year warranty for free and buy it in installments without any increase.
