Apple iPhone 16 vs iPhone 15

The iPhone 16 series is now available. It’s only natural to wonder how much is new Apple iPhone 16 is better than the previous one iPhone 15. And most importantly, is it worth upgrading?

Table of contents:

For starters, you can compare full spec sheets or continue directly with our editor’s review in the following text.

To summarize, the iPhone 16 comes with a new chip that promises AI capabilities across the board, an improved display glass, expanded camera capabilities, and faster wireless charging. There’s also the added action key and the new camera controls. But all this fits on a spec page – let’s see how different the two devices are in the real world.

Size comparison

The iPhone 16 has an identical footprint to the iPhone 15, which isn’t surprising. Both phones measure 147.6 x 71.6 x 7.8 mm. At 170 grams, the iPhone 16 is 1 gram lighter than the iPhone 15.

Firstly, according to Apple, the new iPhone 16 should have improved durability. It features a new generation Ceramic Shield front, which should be 50% stronger than the previous one on the iPhone 15.

There are also two new buttons on the iPhone 16 that are missing on the iPhone 15 – the action key was previously exclusive to iPhone Pros and there’s the new camera controls here too.

Show comparison

The iPhone 16 has the same display as on the iPhone 15: a 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED with excellent HDR capabilities and high resolution, but a standard refresh rate of 60 Hz. Both panels are advertised as being able to offer a typical brightness of 1,000 nits and a maximum brightness of up to 2,000 nits.

According to our screen measurements, there is a small difference of 50 nits between the two panels. The two screens are equally bright in every respect.

Battery life

The iPhone 16 has a 3,500 mAh battery. Specifically, it has a capacity of exactly 3,561 mAh. The battery is slightly larger than last year’s iPhone 15. It’s a small increase, but we accept it.

The most significant change, however, comes from the improved efficiency of the new Apple A18 chipset and likely some under-the-hood improvements in iOS 18.

As a result, the new iPhone 16 scored a great Active Use Score – a noticeable improvement over the iPhone 15. The iPhone 16 offers an additional 7 hours of talk time, approximately 4 hours of additional web browsing, and an additional 1.5 hours of video streaming.

Charging speed

The iPhone 16 supports fast wired charging, although Apple never reveals the maximum power. The company quotes a 50% charge in 30 minutes when using a 20W USB-PD charger.

There’s also support for fast wireless charging up to 25W via the new MagSafe charger when connected to a power adapter over 30W. If you have a compatible Qi2 charger, the iPhone 16 will max out at 15W. Meanwhile, it’ll reach wireless charging of the iPhone 15 MagSafe maximum 15 W.

We conducted our charging tests with a 45W PD charger to give the iPhones the best chance. Both phones took about the same time to charge. An hour on that charger topped up 85% of their iPhones, and the last 15% lasted almost another hour, even without the Optimized Battery Charging option.

Speaker test

The iPhone 16 and iPhone 15 have identical stereo speakers. They are of the hybrid variety where the earpiece is one of the speakers. The other speaker is located on the bottom of the phones, next to the USB-C port.

The iPhone 16 scored a Very Good rating on our loudness test, while the iPhone 15 received a Good rating. However, the difference is marginal and both setups sound the same.

Performance

This year’s big upgrade for the iPhone 16 is the Apple A18 chipset, which is two generations ahead of what the iPhone 15 has: the A16. This is a second-generation 3nm chip that is both more powerful and more efficient.

The Apple A18 has a faster six-core processor, better 5-core GPU with support for improved hardware ray tracing. It also comes with more RAM, now 8GB.

The A18 CPU is advertised as 30% faster than the iPhone 15 CPU and 60% faster than the iPhone 12 CPU. The GPU should be 40% faster than the iPhone 15 and twice as fast as the iPhone 12.

Benchmark performance

In our tests, the new Apple A18 CPU in the iPhone 16 scores about 20% more than the A16 in the iPhone 15. There’s also a jump between 30% and 60% in GPU performance, depending on the 3D test.

The A18 chip has a new NPU, which scores about twice as high as the NPU in the iPhone 15.

Thanks to the new iPhone chip, all those high-end games that were incompatible with the iPhone 15 can run quite well on the iPhone 16 and that’s probably the most noticeable upgrade, if you’re a gamer.

Thanks to the new chipset, you’ll also get access to the Apple Intelligence feature when it’s released, as long as you live in a supported region (outside the European Union and China).

Camera comparison

The iPhone 16 practically borrows its main camera setup from the iPhone 15. It’s quite powerful: a 48 MP sensor with a size of 1/1.56″, 1.0 µm individual pixels and sensor-shift OIS. There’s a bright f/1.6 lens for The same applies to the selfie camera: the 12 MP shooter has already proven its worth and is also equipped with phase detection autofocus.

The only upgrade is the new ultra-wide camera. It’s still a 12 MP unit. This year, however, there is a brighter lens with an aperture of f/2.2. Plus, probably best of all, it now has autofocus, allowing it to double as a macro camera for close-ups.

Of course there is also the new Camera Control. It’s a real physical button with real movement when pressed. It also integrates a capacitive sensor that allows touch and swipe interactions, as well as a high-precision force sensor that detects light pressure.

Image quality

There is hardly any improvement in photo quality in daylight, no matter how Apple tries to convince you. The iPhone 16 takes the same photos as the iPhone 15. They are detailed, with natural colors, low noise and a large dynamic range. The leaf view isn’t our favorite, especially if you’re shooting in the standard 12MP.

The samples below were taken at the same locations but at different times.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

iPhone 15: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

The iPhone 16 can now also take macro photos with its new ultrawide camera.

iPhone 16 – macro with UW camera

The photos we took in low light from the main cameras, in both 1x and 2x mode, are largely identical. The camera app did not opt ​​for Night mode on the iPhone 15, but nevertheless the quality remains comparable.

The brighter aperture on the ultrawide camera does have an effect at night, and the iPhone 16’s ultrawide photos are clearer, with more detail and less noise.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

iPhone 15: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

Video quality

New video options have been added to iPhone 16: studio-quality microphones for better audio quality, plus spatial video and audio recording capabilities.

Furthermore, the video quality remains the same on all cameras.

The daylight videos from all three cameras are excellent across the board, including stabilization.

Below are a few frame grabs of the videos taken by the two phones at each focal length to make it easier to compare them.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

iPhone 15: 0.5x • 1x • 2x • selfie

The ultra-wide camera’s low-light videos are now better: they are better exposed, with more detail and less noise.

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

iPhone 16: 0.5x • 1x • 2x

Pronunciation

The Apple iPhone 16 starts at €949 and it’s a great compact premium phone – it delivers in all the areas that matter: design, screen, battery life, speakers, performance and camera.

The iPhone 16 is the faster phone of the two with a better ultrawide camera and faster wireless charging. Battery life has also improved and durability has improved if Apple is to be believed. You now also get the Action key and Camera controls.

While it offers roughly the same user experience, the iPhone 16 is objectively the better phone compared to the iPhone 15.

However, the iPhone 15 is now around €200 cheaper and has many of the same qualities. The choice between the two depends on your budget and whether you value the extra features the iPhone 16 can offer.