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iPhone 16 Pro Review: Not much new, but everything is better
Mar 11, 2025
Review on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/reviews/iphone-16-pro-review More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:26 Design 2:57 Desert Titanium 3:49 Size & Weight 4:33 Camera Control 6:43 Cameras 11:42 Apple Intelligence 15:13 Old New Features 20:31 Speed, Battery Life, Charging 21:54 iPhone 16 or 16 Pro? Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
the iPhone 16 Pro is a much refined
0:02
iPhone all the features that make it pro
0:05
have been improved but a lot of people
0:07
are being swayed back down to the
0:09
entrylevel iPhone 16 because of the
0:12
bright fun colors this year more than
0:15
ever the pro phone is for those who need
0:18
that last 10% the uncompromising best of
0:20
the best if you can live with a gray
0:25
phone let's start with the design as
0:27
someone who upgrades every 3 to four
0:29
years this is the first time Apple
0:31
hasn't substantially rethought the
0:33
design between two of my personal phones
0:36
and yet these phones still feel
0:37
completely different in the hand it
0:39
still has flat sides tall skinny buttons
0:43
round speaker holes a multi-layer camera
0:46
Mesa and a frosted glass back but a lot
0:48
of the proportions and details have
0:50
changed the edges are flat but the
0:52
corners are slightly rounder so it's
0:55
much more comfortable to hold the screen
0:57
bezel is significantly thinner the
0:59
corner radius is larger the notch is now
1:01
a more attractive Dynamic Island the
1:04
titanium frame has a soft matte texture
1:07
rather than a polished finish the metal
1:09
and the glass blend together it doesn't
1:12
show fingerprints quite as easily but it
1:14
does still smudge especially on the
1:16
black on the inside the entire structure
1:18
of the phone has actually been
1:20
completely redesigned making this phone
1:22
far more repairable last year's models
1:25
had some heat problems and this phone
1:28
has a much better thermal design
1:30
it gets a little warm if you spend a lot
1:32
of time in the camera but it never gets
1:33
hot but the elephant in the room is the
1:36
significantly larger camera bump as
1:38
someone who holds their phone in their
1:40
left hand the camera bump sits right
1:42
where my index finger naturally wants to
1:45
rest I have to scrunch up my finger or
1:47
adjust the angle to get it out of the
1:49
way it's like when my dog wants to sleep
1:51
right on the corner of the bed I can
1:53
scrunch up my legs or sleep at an angle
1:56
but at some point I just have to ask her
1:58
to move I tried asking my camera bump to
2:01
scram and lay down in its bed but uh it
2:04
isn't as well trained this over lining
2:06
is that Apple literally cannot make the
2:08
camera bump any bigger than this it
2:11
would start to interfere with the entire
2:13
world of magsafe accessories Apple can't
2:16
rearrange the cameras horizontally
2:18
across the top like Google does either
2:20
because then you wouldn't be able to
2:21
hold the phone horizontally to record
2:23
spatial video now I don't really know
2:26
why the lar sensor has to be on the
2:29
first floor of the camera bump it could
2:31
just be flush with the back of the phone
2:33
it wouldn't look as good but then it
2:35
would be out of the way at least there
2:37
are a few minor Design Elements I still
2:39
missed from my iPhone 4 and iPhone 5S
2:42
the round volume buttons stuck out
2:44
farther and were easier to distinguish
2:46
blindly in my pocket and most of all I
2:48
miss the contrast of the black glass and
2:51
silver metal in my opinion that's the
2:53
most iconic Apple color scheme I wish
2:55
that were a color they brought back
2:57
speaking of color the fashionable new
2:58
Option this year is the return of gold
3:01
now called desert titanium it replaces
3:04
blue to join black white and gray
3:07
however it's not very gold Desert
3:10
titanium is closer to Starlight than
3:13
gold to borrow Apple's own terminology
3:16
the metal side rails have some warmth to
3:18
them but the glass back plate is a pale
3:21
off white in some indoor lighting it
3:23
actually shows a hint of pink personally
3:25
I was roting for the earlier rumor of
3:27
bronze or even a richer gold color if
3:30
you set it screen up on a dark wooden
3:33
table it brings out some of those Hues
3:35
in the metal frame but the glass on the
3:37
back is so pale it's closer to White
3:40
than gold all of the YouTubers and
3:41
bloggers are going to order desert
3:43
Titanium because it's the new color but
3:45
I think a lot of people checking this
3:46
out in the stores will be a little
3:48
disappointed the standard phone size
3:49
goes on cycles of getting bigger screens
3:52
and Slimmer bezels it's a tug OFW that
3:55
the bigger screens team is winning
3:58
between the iPhone 10 and the iPhone 14
4:00
pro it steadily grew 18% heavier the
4:05
iPhone 15 Pro shed a lot of size and
4:07
weight but just like how over 95% of
4:10
diets fail the iPhone 16 Pro rebounded
4:14
and gained back 60% of the weight it had
4:17
lost the iPhone 16 Pro is now virtually
4:20
the same width a little taller and
4:22
noticeably heavier than my former iPhone
4:24
12 Pro it's treading dangerously close
4:27
to the size and weight of my least
4:29
favorite iPhone ever the iPhone 7 plus
4:33
now let's talk about the camera control
4:35
the iPhone has a new button that opens
4:37
the camera and controls various camera
4:39
functions in my opinion they put this in
4:42
the perfect spot in my left hand it sits
4:44
right below my ring finger and in my
4:47
right hand I can easily slide my thumb
4:49
down to click it apple has a perfect
4:51
track record when it comes to pressure
4:53
sensitive and haptic technology the 3D
4:56
touch display was fantastic even though
4:58
it eventually proved incompatible with
5:00
their display designs the fake clicking
5:02
home button was an absolute Delight even
5:06
though Apple eventually removed the home
5:08
button from their designs and the magic
5:10
Trackpad continues to be the gold
5:13
standard the camera control is the first
5:15
time Apple has combined haptic feedback
5:17
and pressure sensitivity on top of a
5:20
real clicking button at first I expected
5:22
it to feel more like a real camera with
5:24
like two strong physical clicks and so
5:27
the first time I tried to activate the
5:29
on screen controls I accidentally took
5:32
eight pictures in a row instead you just
5:34
need to apply a little bit of pressure
5:36
to activate the onscreen menu first it
5:38
opens to a zoom control a quick swipe
5:41
will always bump up by an optical zoom
5:44
level but if you move slowly it'll let
5:46
you zoom in precise increments double
5:49
half click to switch between other
5:51
adjustable settings like exposure focal
5:53
depth Styles and tone of course if you
5:56
can't be bothered to figure out that
5:58
interface you don't have to you can just
6:00
use it as a button that clicks to open
6:02
the camera and clicks to take a picture
6:04
in my opinion the weirdest thing about
6:06
the camera control is that it's
6:08
completely flush with the side of the
6:10
phone it screws over case manufacturers
6:13
who either have to add giant holes in
6:15
the side of their cases or add
6:17
additional cost to their designs with a
6:19
capacitive sensor area if it protruded a
6:22
little bit it would be easier to design
6:24
a case that protects the edge of the
6:25
phone sits flush and still has access to
6:28
the camera control at no additional cost
6:31
and for those of us who like to use our
6:33
phones without a case a protruding
6:35
camera control would make it feel more
6:36
like a real camera shutter button and
6:39
it's not like it would lead to any more
6:40
accidental pressing than any other
6:42
button now let's talk about the new
6:44
features with the cameras themselves
6:46
starting with photographic Styles
6:49
photographic Styles give you the ability
6:51
to reprocess a picture using an entirely
6:54
different color palette it's kind of
6:56
like how different camera film stock can
6:59
have different properties for Light
7:01
Shadows and colors except you have the
7:03
ability to change it after the photo has
7:05
been taken applying a photographic style
7:08
to a picture can turn an ordinary
7:11
looking picture from huh nice picture to
7:14
ooh that's a nice picture it's much
7:17
better than using a filter because it's
7:19
non-destructive and can use the extra
7:21
information that the camera captures
7:24
like in this picture here applying the
7:26
sepia filter to this picture of my dog
7:27
Indie can bring out and lighten the dark
7:31
areas of the image like on her nose for
7:33
anyone who complains that iPhone
7:35
pictures are too drab too gray or too
7:38
boring this feature is for you you can
7:41
set your favorite photographic style as
7:43
your default if you want all of your
7:45
pictures to look more saturated more
7:47
vintage or less processed and again you
7:50
can always change it after the fact if
7:52
you want to go back now bear with me for
7:54
a moment as I talk about something a
7:56
little nerdy here over the last few
7:58
years the minimum Focus distance of the
8:01
main lens has nearly doubled the minimum
8:04
Focus distance is a measure of how close
8:07
you can get a camera before it can't
8:09
focus anymore and starts to get blurry I
8:12
set up this test and on my iPhone 12 Pro
8:15
I found the minimum Focus distance is
8:17
about 8.7 CM on my iPhone 16 Pro I was
8:22
astonished that it was
8:25
16.7 CM but the iPhone has three cameras
8:29
on the back and wants to be clever if
8:31
you ever get too close for the main 1X
8:34
lens it switches to the 0.5x lens and
8:38
crops it inward hoping you won't notice
8:41
but it was really obvious on the earlier
8:43
phones because the ultra wide lens was
8:47
kind of crappy the new Ultra wide lens
8:49
on the iPhone 16 Pro is much better it's
8:52
higher resolution and it has a much
8:53
bigger sensor so it's not as obvious but
8:57
if you're really paying attention you're
8:59
taking a picture just below the minimum
9:02
Focus distance and you're in a dark
9:04
poorly lit room you can see the switch
9:08
if you have an eye for such a thing the
9:09
ultrawide camera truly sings when you
9:12
let it do what it's supposed to do take
9:14
incredible macro shots and wide
9:17
Landscapes the macro shots are
9:19
incredible you can just keep getting
9:22
closer and closer and so much closer
9:26
than you thought was possible but it
9:28
somehow still captures these beautiful
9:31
shallow depth of field images the 48
9:33
megapixel ultrawide landscape images are
9:36
beautiful you can capture huge Vistas
9:39
but the 8,000 by 6,000 pixel resolution
9:42
means you can zoom in and crop to your
9:44
heart's content the larger sensor also
9:47
means it'll do much better in low light
9:49
the camera won't have to activate night
9:50
mode or do as much processing for noise
9:53
reduction slow motion video has a big
9:55
upgrade this year with 120 FPS video in
10:00
4k you have three different speeds you
10:02
can slow down to 50% 25% and 20% but
10:07
more important to me than 4K 120 are the
10:09
improvements they made to 4K 60 video
10:13
recording before the camera system only
10:15
had the bandwidth to capture 4K 60 video
10:18
from one lens at a time once I started
10:21
recording I couldn't switch to the 0.5x
10:24
or to the 2x lenses that limitation is
10:27
no more you can freely switch between
10:30
all three lenses additional microphones
10:33
significantly reduce wind noise and
10:36
enable new audio mixing features audio
10:39
quality doesn't make headlines but these
10:41
are both great improvements that will
10:43
upgrade all of your videos from here on
10:46
out it's classic apple you'll hear
10:49
spatial audio recording if you play back
10:51
your video using airpods a surround
10:54
sound system or in a Vision Pro and you
10:57
can adjust the audio mix you can bring
10:59
up dialogue turn down background noise
11:02
using Apple's presets now the names for
11:05
these presets are kind of inscrutable to
11:08
me standard inframe studio and
11:12
cinematic I don't know here's what they
11:14
actually mean of course the biggest news
11:16
on the smaller phone is old news on the
11:19
pro Max the 5x telephoto Zoom this gives
11:23
you an incredible amount of optical
11:25
reach it's a welcome change for those of
11:28
us who don't like being forced to choose
11:30
between camera and comfort unfortunately
11:33
the sensor inside this lens is now
11:36
several years old at this point it would
11:38
do really well with that 48 megapixel
11:41
makeover now let's talk about Apple
11:43
intelligence I've been using Apple
11:44
Intelligence on my Mac for a few months
11:46
now but this is my first time using it
11:48
on my phone which is how a majority of
11:50
people are going to experience it it's
11:53
available right now in the 18.1 beta if
11:56
you're brave and it will be available in
11:58
October if you're patient although
12:01
visual intelligence the feature
12:03
exclusive to the iPhone 16 line is not
12:05
yet available for testing writing tools
12:07
are available in most apps this set of
12:10
features lets you proofread change the
12:12
tone of rewrite or summarize any block
12:15
of text I probably won't be using this
12:18
very often considering I'm already a
12:21
professional writer but you know not
12:22
everybody has the same skill set if
12:24
you're not very good at reading and
12:25
writing or you're still learning English
12:28
these tools will your ability what I
12:31
find useful is the ability to reformat
12:33
any piece of text into a bulleted list
12:36
or a table no matter your writing skill
12:39
reformatting a document is a universal
12:43
pain in the ass summaries if you get a
12:45
whole bunch of notifications at once
12:48
instead of seeing them one after another
12:49
in a giant list you'll instead see a
12:52
summary of the entire lot and these have
12:55
about a 90% hit rate if you get a bunch
12:58
of text messages that once it can
12:59
usually parse the conversation pretty
13:01
well but occasionally it's missing that
13:04
one piece of context and comes up with
13:06
total nonsense it's kind of hilarious
13:09
honestly they're really useful in mail
13:12
where instead of seeing the first two
13:14
lines of text in an email which are
13:16
usually useless it gives you a one
13:19
sentence summary of the entire message
13:22
these are also really great for two-step
13:24
verification codes where it always puts
13:26
the six-digit number in the notific
13:29
ification Banner thank God image cleanup
13:32
this is a new tool that will
13:34
intelligently paint over objects in a
13:37
photo it works best if the thing you're
13:39
erasing is isolated it doesn't overlap
13:42
with anything else important in the
13:44
image and it's surrounded by a pattern
13:46
it can easily replicate a smoke detector
13:49
on a ceiling a calendar on a wall an
13:52
object sitting in grass or on the
13:55
surface of a table but it'll try to fill
13:57
in whatever you ask it to it just might
14:01
not do a very good job a car on a busy
14:03
City street it'll struggle to replicate
14:06
the signs and buildings behind it the
14:09
giant Central object in a photo it'll
14:12
struggle to fill in one thing it won't
14:15
do is replace someone's face if you
14:18
Circle someone's face it'll pixelate the
14:21
results but honestly that could be
14:23
considered a feature if you want to post
14:25
a picture of the internet with someone
14:26
who doesn't want to show their face on
14:28
social media
14:29
it's a quick way to anonymize them
14:32
there's also the new Siri now this is
14:35
not the allegedly smart version of Siri
14:38
that will be able to take complex
14:40
questions instructions see your screen
14:43
and do things for you inside apps this
14:46
version of Siri will better understand
14:48
you if you stumble or trip up over your
14:50
words and in my testing Siri is a little
14:54
more reliable but I think it's a mistake
14:56
that apple is rolling out the new visual
14:58
look and design for Siri before the real
15:02
smart Siri ships next spring people will
15:05
see the new design realize it isn't that
15:08
much better and write it off before they
15:11
try the real thing next year moving on
15:13
let's play a little bit of katchup
15:15
because very few people actually upgrade
15:17
their phone every single year these are
15:20
the features that they've added over the
15:22
last four years that I've tried
15:24
incidentally in Apple Stores or on other
15:26
people's phones but are new to me
15:28
personally coming from an iPhone 12 Pro
15:31
as my daily the dynamic Island so the
15:33
notch in the top of the screen is now a
15:35
floating cutout that can expand to show
15:37
things happening in the background like
15:39
a phone call playing music or podcasts a
15:42
timer navigation and more it's sort of
15:46
like the iPhone equivalent of the Mac
15:48
menu bar or the Windows system tray and
15:51
it's
15:52
fantastic my only quibble is that I wish
15:54
the actions for tap and long press were
15:58
reversed so that a tap would expand the
16:00
menu and a long press or a second tap
16:03
would switch to the app doing it this
16:06
way would encourage multitasking without
16:08
completely switching contexts promotion
16:12
this is the high refresh rate display it
16:15
can go at 120 HZ while you're going
16:17
around the user interface for smoother
16:19
scrolling while you're watching a video
16:21
it can match the frame rate of the
16:23
content at 60 50 30 29 25 or 24 frames
16:27
per second or while you're completely
16:30
static while you're texting or reading
16:31
an article it can dip all the way down
16:34
to 1 Hertz some people love it some
16:37
people hate it some people literally
16:40
cannot tell the difference personally
16:42
I'm in the love it category I think it's
16:44
fantastic it's as big of a leap for me
16:47
as when I got my first Retina Display
16:49
and now I want my Mac to run at 120 HZ
16:52
as well the always on display when you
16:55
hit the side button the display doesn't
16:57
turn completely off
16:59
it still locks the phone but it also
17:02
shows you your notifications and your
17:04
wallpaper the display only turns
17:07
completely off when you put it in your
17:09
pocket or face down on a table I'm
17:11
trying to get used to it but I honestly
17:13
find it a little bit unnerving I'm
17:16
deeply afraid of display burning having
17:18
grown up in the CRT computer monitor era
17:21
and I also want the best battery life
17:23
possible I'll keep it enabled for
17:25
another week or two but I kind of want
17:27
to turn it off even if you have the
17:29
always on lock screen turned off standby
17:32
still displays always on and I think
17:34
that's a good balance the action button
17:37
this replaces the ring mute switch with
17:39
a customizable button I have mine set up
17:42
to run a shortcut that adds something to
17:44
my shopping list because I always all
17:46
the time say ooh I should add that to my
17:49
shopping list and I literally never do
17:53
until now at least how useful you find
17:55
the action button depends on which size
17:57
of phone you have and how you hold it I
17:59
have the smaller phone and hold it in my
18:01
left hand so it's always easily
18:03
reachable with my thumb the lightning
18:05
Port has been swapped for a USBC Port
18:09
this will probably have a smaller impact
18:10
on my life than most people I don't have
18:13
a Macbook iPad or Nintendo switch so I
18:15
don't have a bunch of USBC Chargers just
18:18
lying around my house and I already
18:20
charge my phone pretty much exclusively
18:22
by mag safe the one and only time I plug
18:24
my phone in is for recording these
18:26
videos or making screenshots or screen
18:28
recordings on my Mac so the one and only
18:31
lightning cable in my life was swapped
18:34
out for a USBC cable and that's pretty
18:37
much it honestly it might have a net
18:39
negative impact on my life because when
18:41
my phone inevitably gets filled with
18:43
dust because I have two big hairy fuzzy
18:46
dogs the USBC Port will be harder to
18:49
clean than the lightning Port I used to
18:51
have big improvements to portrait mode
18:53
you can now convert a regular photo into
18:56
a portrait mode photo after the photo
18:58
has been taken and even adjust the focal
19:01
point as well both of these are huge
19:04
improvements portrait mode is no longer
19:06
a separate mode you have to go into
19:09
really since you can apply it at any
19:11
time cinematic mode this is like
19:13
portrait mode artificial blur but for
19:16
video and just how it took portrait mode
19:18
a few years to actually start looking
19:20
good cinematic mode has come Leaps and
19:23
Bounds since it was first introduced on
19:25
the iPhone 13 Pro and you can now shoot
19:28
in four 4K though still only at 24 or 30
19:32
FPS action mode stabilizes a video if
19:35
you're running or shooting a moving
19:37
Target I tested this by running around
19:39
wildly in my backyard making absolutely
19:43
no effort to hold the camera steady and
19:45
it came out looking like a smooth
19:48
swooping sort of drone shot if the Drone
19:51
were only flying about 4T off the ground
19:54
that is spatial video considering all
19:57
the other improvements to the sensor and
19:59
the image signal processor this year I
20:01
expected the iPhone 16 Pro to be able to
20:03
record spatial video in at least a
20:05
higher resolution or a higher frame rate
20:08
but no unfortunately it's still limited
20:11
to 1080p30 as one of the few people who
20:14
actually owns a Vision Pro this is
20:17
disappointing to say the least I think
20:19
my desire for 4K 60 video will Triumph
20:23
my desire for spatial video recording
20:25
especially because spatial video looks
20:27
much better when recorded on a visual
20:28
Pro than on an iPhone anyways now let's
20:31
talk about speed battery life and
20:33
charging the a18 pro chip is Fast and
20:37
the battery lasts all day this hasn't
20:39
really been a problem for a number of
20:41
years now but I feel obligated to
20:43
mention it anyways remember when iPhone
20:45
reviews used to include a section on
20:47
call Quality like how loud the speaker
20:49
was if there were any dropped calls and
20:52
the actual Clarity of the Audio I feel
20:55
like this section is heading in the same
20:56
direction it's fast that's all you you
20:58
really need to know on Sunday I had a
21:00
day out and about 15 hours and 15
21:03
minutes between taking it off the
21:05
charger in the morning and putting it on
21:07
the charger in the evening the screen
21:09
was on and the phone was being used for
21:11
about half that time so just over 7
21:13
hours of active usage an hour and a half
21:16
of that was navigation in Apple maps in
21:19
the car with the screen on and I ended
21:22
the day still with 28% charge left
21:26
though for some people my unusually
21:28
active day is their average if you're a
21:30
bigger battery drain than I am you'll
21:32
appreciate the new 45 wat wired charging
21:36
speeds for incredibly fast charging
21:38
times make sure you get yourself a hefty
21:41
charging brick it also supports 25 wat
21:44
charging via magsafe if you use Apple's
21:47
new magsafe charging puck with a wire it
21:50
might be a while for thirdparty
21:51
manufacturers to update their charging
21:53
stands so in conclusion iPhone 16 or
21:57
iPhone 16 Pro
21:59
now more than ever the pro phone is a
22:01
truly professional phone with a Pro
22:03
Camera Pro display and pro Graphics now
22:07
the regular iPhone 16 is a great phone
22:08
that's good enough for nearly everybody
22:10
and it comes in bold fun colors that you
22:12
will appreciate every single time you
22:14
look at your phone but if you can
22:17
appreciate the technical advantages of
22:18
the iPhone 16 Pro you will love it it is
22:21
the best iPhone ever remember to like
22:24
And subscribe I'm deerin Jones with Cult
22:27
of Mac
22:28
[Music]
#Camera & Photo Equipment
#Online Video