Apple iPhone 16 Pro review: most powerful iPhone yet continues Apple's streak of evolution over revolution

Made for ease of use over technological novelty, the iPhone 16 Pro still has plenty of grunt on the inside.

An iPhone 16 Pro on a wooden desk
(Image: © Future / Erlingur Einarsson)

Our Verdict

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro is the flagship phone for the world's biggest tech company, and it duly delivers in the categories we expect it to: power and ease of use. The new 48MP camera is also improved from last year in an attempt to keep up with the best in the field, while transferring from Android to iOS has been made more seamless. However, charging is still tortuously slow, the smaller model's screen, while slightly larger than last year, feels a little too small, and the overall lack of innovation makes me question whether this is a needed upgrade for iPhone 15 owners, or indeed whether you should be choosing the Pro over the regular iPhone 16...

For

  • New A18 Pro chip is powerful
  • Improved camera
  • Native creative apps still best on the market

Against

  • Charging still slow
  • Smaller model's screen feels too small
  • That's a lot of money for more storage, Apple

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As about one in five of us have an iPhone, the release of the iPhone 16 Pro is big news in the world of tech, especially for those of us who like our camera phones to be as shiny and snazzy as possible.

The iPhone may not be the clear leader among the best camera phones on the market any more, but the iPhone 16 Pro aims to reclaim that title and affirm its place as the phone of choice for creatives with an improved 48MP main camera on top of improved photo and video-editing suites, with the usual market-leading and rival-thrashing creative app selection still sporting the excellent iMovie, GarageBand and Freeform apps preloaded and free to use.

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Chipset:A18 Pro chip with unified graphic memory
Memory:8GB
OS:iOS 18
Screen:6.3in Super Retina XDR OLED
Resolution: 2622x1206 (460 PPI)
Refresh rate:Variable, 60-120Hz
Storage:128GB-1TB
Rear cameras:48MP Fusion camera, 48MP Ultrawide, 12MP Telephoto
Front camera:12MP
Connectivity:Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (supports DP),
Battery:3582mAh
Dimensions: 149.6 x 71.5 x 8.3 mm
Weight:199g
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iPhone 16 Pro: Benchmark scores
Geekbench 6Row 0 - Cell 1
CPU single-core:3,321
CPU multi-core:8,122
GPU Metal::32,969
The Verdict
8

out of 10

Apple iPhone 16 Pro

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro is the flagship phone for the world's biggest tech company, and it duly delivers in the categories we expect it to: power and ease of use. The new 48MP camera is also improved from last year in an attempt to keep up with the best in the field, while transferring from Android to iOS has been made more seamless. However, charging is still tortuously slow, the smaller model's screen, while slightly larger than last year, feels a little too small, and the overall lack of innovation makes me question whether this is a needed upgrade for iPhone 15 owners, or indeed whether you should be choosing the Pro over the regular iPhone 16...

Erlingur Einarsson
Tech Reviews Editor

Erlingur is the Tech Reviews Editor on Creative Bloq. Having worked on magazines devoted to Photoshop, films, history, and science for over 15 years, as well as working on Digital Camera World and Top Ten Reviews in more recent times, Erlingur has developed a passion for finding tech that helps people do their job, whatever it may be. He loves putting things to the test and seeing if they're all hyped up to be, to make sure people are getting what they're promised. Still can't get his wifi-only printer to connect to his computer. 

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