Today, many foreign publications have published reviews of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max smartphones, in which they talked about hardware changes in the new products, battery life, camera updates and a new button for controlling the camera, as well as many other details. Our own reviews of the iPhone 16 series will appear later, so here we will present interesting points from foreign reviews.
Image source: Apple
The CNN observer noted the new 48-megapixel wide-angle camera in the iPhone 16 Pro, thanks to which close-up photos can now be as clear as pictures taken by the main module. “I had a hard time noticing a difference in the photos, although I can say the iPhone 16 Pro’s photos are a little brighter than last year’s [iPhone 15 Pro] and have more detail,” the reviewer says. It is also noted that the new camera provides more detail in macro photographs – objects in pictures taken on the iPhone 16 Pro are sharper than on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
The Verge’s review also notes “good news” for users about changes to the iPhone 16 Pro’s camera, but here the writer focused on the updated Photo Styles feature, which makes it easy to customize “how the camera handles colors, skin tones, and shadows, even after how you took the photo.”
All styles now offer three new settings: “color,” which is essentially saturation, “palette,” which is the range of colors applied, and most importantly, “tone,” which lets you add shadows to your photos. According to the reviewer, the tone control allowed him to achieve much more realistic color rendition of iPhone photos.
Of course, reviewers did not ignore the new Camera Control touch button for controlling camera functions, located on the right side of the smartphone. For example, Engadget noted “a few problems” with the new button, including its awkward placement: “The button is a little further from the base of the phone than I’d like, so I have to reach out to press it with my fingers, regardless of whether I’m in landscape or portrait mode.” I’m filming.” The reviewer noted that sometimes it is not so easy to press a button or swipe a finger over it, and suggests that it requires changing the grip of the smartphone when shooting.
The reviewer also noted that the sensor of this button does not perform well. “Not only was it difficult to scroll through the various settings when holding the device with one hand, but it also reacted to accidental touches and gestures. Sometimes the phone would slide into my palm and change the exposure or zoom level, which completely ruined the experience,” write Engadget. It should be noted that in the settings you can change the sensitivity or disable the button altogether.
However, when you hold the smartphone with both hands, working with the button becomes convenient. It’s convenient to zoom in and out of objects, recompose the frame and adjust the exposure. The button is especially convenient when recording video, since slowly zooming in or out of the subject occurs more smoothly than when using the on-screen slider. The button also turned out to be useful when you need to take a photo of something quickly and easily.
CNET praised the iPhone 16 Pro’s ability to record slow-motion video in 4K at 120 frames per second. “And the results are outstanding, which is why this feature is so important. Previous slow-motion videos shot on an iPhone could look good if there was a lot of light. But their quality was lower than HD resolution, and the image quality was significantly inferior to conventional 4K 30 frames per second video recording. The new iPhone 16 Pro slow-motion video features high detail, good dynamic range and accurate colors, putting it on par with regular iPhone video quality.”
Reviewers also paid attention to the battery life of the iPhone 16 Pro, because Apple promised excellent battery life for the new products. Wired writes that the iPhone 16 Pro Max easily beats the iPhone 16 Pro in terms of battery life—at the end of the day, the larger smartphone often had more than 30% charge left. The iPhone 16 Pro’s battery dropped to 15% in a day.
Mashable noted that the iPhone 16 Pro lasted 18 hours and 17 minutes on a single charge in their TikTok video test. By comparison, last year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max lasted 14 hours and 53 minutes in the same test. The iPhone 16 Pro Max showed an even more impressive result – in the same test with TikTok, the smartphone lasted 25 hours and 17 minutes.
Finally, reviewers noted the larger screens of smartphones, and in the case of the iPhone 16 Pro Max this is rather a minus. Wired writes the following about this: “Pro models are larger than before. I initially thought of this as a slight increase in screen size due to thinner bezels around the screen, but it’s more than that. They are slightly taller than previous iPhone models. This isn’t such a big problem with the iPhone 16 Pro, but the iPhone 16 Pro Max was already big. Now it’s even harder to reach the top of the phone with your thumb extended. I don’t think the physical increase in size was necessary.”