iPhone 16 vs iPhone 15: All the biggest upgrades

About “iPhone 16 vs iPhone 15″…. If you’ve resisted the urge to upgrade to the iPhone 15 and have been waiting for the all-new iPhone 16, you might be wondering if your patience will be rewarded.

While it goes to reason that each year’s iPhone is an advance over the previous one, certain new generations receive far more incremental updates than others. Is it one of those years? At first glance, it appears that it may not, as the iPhone 16 gains more RAM, Action and Camera Control buttons, and access to Apple Intelligence when it comes.

Our iPhone 16 review covers everything the new phone has to offer. But if you only want the highlights, here’s everything you need to know about the iPhone 16 vs iPhone 15, including all of the major upgrades available this year.

iPhone 16 vs iPhone 15

Specs

Price and availability

The basic iPhone has stayed priced at $799 since 2020’s iPhone 12 (albeit the cheaper $699 5.4-inch iPhone mini has been taken out in favor of the $899 6.7-inch Plus). That hasn’t changed this year, and the 128GB iPhone 16 will still cost $799 — with prices climbing for the 256GB and 512GB storage options.

All iPhone 16 phones are set to be released on September 20, while the iPhone 15 is currently available. To top it off, the phone has received a minor price reduction. The iPhone 15 was originally priced at $799, but after the release of the iPhone 16, the price has reduced to $699 for a 128GB variant.

Design and display

There are no substantial changes to the iPhone 16’s display. It has the same 6.1-inch OLED display and, regrettably, is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate for another year. Both phones have the same brightness settings, 1,600 nits at peak and 2,000 outdoors, as well as the Dynamic Island cutout.

The phone’s design has changed, however. The most prominent feature is the Action button, which replaces the phone’s physical mute switch on the top left side. This customizable switch can be used to turn on and off the ringer, but it can also be configured to activate shortcuts or turn on the flashlight.

We also have a new vertical camera configuration on the back that allows for spatial audio recording, as well as the Camera Control button on the phone’s bottom right side. This button opens the camera, initiates the shutter, and allows you to control the numerous on-screen functions and menus. Apple claims that when Visual Intelligence is introduced, it will serve as a conduit.

Both phones use a USB-C connector for data and charging, but the technical specifications remain same from last year.

Colors have changed dramatically with the iPhone 16, with much more vibrant alternatives. They include black, white, ultramarine (blue), teal, and pink. Meanwhile, iPhone 15 is available in blue, pink, yellow, green, and black. Aside from black, which is identical, all of these hues appear slightly washed out when compared to contemporary models.

Performance

Since the iPhone 14, Apple has offered the Pro models quicker processors, while the entry-level iPhones use year-old circuits. They’re still among the fastest phones available, just not as fast as the Pro models.

That has not changed with the iPhone 16. Apple, however, has chosen an A18 chipset above last year’s A17 Pro. It’s not quite as powerful as the A18 Pro found in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it’s far faster than the A16 Bionic that powers the iPhone 15.

As you can see, the A18 chip completely smashes the A16 Bionic in both single and multi-core tests, with scores of 3,301 and 8,033. It’s not surprising, given that the A16 Bionic is already two years old and was constructed on the larger 4nm technology. The A18 is newer and 3nm, resulting in a smaller chip with improved performance and energy efficiency.

Apple claims that the A18 CPU is 30% quicker than the A16, which appears to match Geekbench results. This gives us confidence in Apple’s assertion that the GPU is 40% quicker and 35% more efficient.

All of this means you can now play AAA games on the iPhone 16, which was previously only available on the iPhone 15 Pro. This includes hardware-accelerated ray tracking as well.

The iPhone 16 also has an additional 2GB of RAM, bringing the total to 8GB, which will enable Apple Intelligence (when it is released). In addition, Wi-Fi 7 functionality is available for individuals who have access to next-generation wireless routers.

Cameras

There have been no substantial hardware changes to the cameras. Both phones feature a 48MP main camera lens, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and a 12MP selfie camera on the front.

However, Apple has made certain tweaks to the main camera and rebranded it as the 48MP “Fusion camera”. However, the key feature claimed by the Fusion camera is a 2x telephoto zoom effect, which is already available on the iPhone 15.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if the software alters the ultimate output. So we’ll have to do some comparisons of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16’s images before we can make a solid decision on whether the new device is an upgrade or not.

Software

It’s no secret that the iPhone 16 will run iOS 18, which has now been formally released to the public. The majority of the software will remain the same, but the iPhone 16 will have access to the entire suite of Apple Intelligence technologies, including the Visual Intelligence AI vision.

There are many excellent new capabilities in Apple Intelligence, but the on-device AI requires 8GB of RAM to function effectively. That implies the iPhone 15 is unable to run any Apple Intelligence functions. They include a smarter Siri, AI summaries in a variety of apps, AI image production, native ChatGPT support, and other features.

That gives the iPhone 16 a clear advantage once iOS 18.1 actually launches. We don’t know when that will be, but the public beta will arrive sometime in October.

Battery

Apple has made big promises regarding the iPhone 16’s battery life. The theory is that a larger battery and increased energy efficiency will allow the phone to be used for much longer periods of time without being recharged. But is it successful on that front? Absolutely.

We still don’t know how big the iPhone 16 battery is in milliamp hours. Nonetheless, our tests reveal a significant boost in overall battery life.

The iPhone 16 lasted 12 hours and 43 minutes during the test, which included continuous web browsing over a mobile connection and a screen brightness of 150 nits. Under the same conditions, the iPhone 15 lasted only 11 hours and 5 minutes, which is better than average but still falls well behind its successor.

Our testing also revealed that speculations about 45W charging on the iPhone 16 may have been overblown. In fact, we didn’t achieve speeds more than 20W, which is what the iPhone 15 is capable of. That means the recharge time is just slightly different, with the iPhone 16 restoring 57% of its power in 30 minutes vs the iPhone 15’s 53%.

Conclusion

While the enhancements to the iPhone 16 will not be groundbreaking (with the possible exception of AI integration), they appear to be a good set of advancements. Especially if you dislike using the touchscreen to control your phone’s cameras.

The fact that Apple has kept the price the same for the fourth year in a row puts the iPhone 16 in a very strong position. According to reports, demand for the phone is softer than the previous year, but this may alter in the coming months and weeks—especially after Apple Intelligence becomes available to the public.