Apple unveils iPhone 16 series, largest Apple Watch and upgraded AirPods

BY ANDREW UTTERBACK / Multimedia Journalist

Apple released the iPhone 16 series at their “Glowtime” event this week alongside new Apple Watches and AirPods. This event was obviously Apple Intelligence themed, with an entire portion recapping what was announced (software wise) at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) back in June. While much of the event was hyping the promise of future features, we did get plenty of new hardware or at least new colors. 

Starting with the iPhone 16, the non-pro models see an upgraded design, with a dual camera bump that is vertically arranged. Sort of remnant of the iPhone 12. That bump houses an upgraded 48MP main camera and 12MP ultrawide. The larger main sensor, like last year’s 15 model, allows for an optical 2x crop of your photos which is equivalent to having a 2x telephoto camera. 

The base model iPhone gets two new buttons this year as well. The first is the Action Button from last year’s pro iPhone models, which serves as a programmable shortcut button replacing the mute switch. The second is the new Camera Control button which is located well below the power button, right where your right index finger would rest on an actual camera shutter button. A single press will launch the camera app, another press will take a photo, and a long press will start recording video. While setting up a shot, sliding your finger across the button allows you to switch between cameras, adjust focus or access other often used camera controls. 

The displays on the iPhone 16 are mostly untouched from last year. Still 2000 nits of brightness, still OLED, still 60hz, but still solid. 

Powering the iPhone 16 is the new 3nm A18 chip. A18 brings hardware accelerated ray tracing, smaller, faster, more efficient transistors and is built specifically for faster AI performance. This also enables even more AAA titles to be played on iPhone 16.

All of the iPhone 16 models get the Apple Intelligence AI features that were unveiled at WWDC. This includes artificial intelligence powered writing tools that can summarize, re-word, or spell/grammar check your work. It also brings generative AI for custom emojis, notification and email summaries and promises immense Siri improvement via context aware AI that can access more of what you have on your phone. 

Released alongside the iPhone 16 is a Visual Intelligence feature that allows you to point your iPhone at the world around you and receive on screen feedback relevant to whatever you’re looking at. For example, in the keynote there was a video of someone holding their phone up to a dog and Visual Intelligence quickly identified the breed of dog. 

The iPhone 16 starts at the same $799 and the iPhone 16 Plus at $899. 

The iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are fairly minor upgrades from the 15 Pro/Pro Max. They boast larger screen sizes: 6.3 inches and 6.9 up from 6.1 and 6.7. This is more of a result of the smaller bezels (Apple says they are the smallest bezels in an Apple Product), rather than the phone being that much larger. 

We get the A18 Pro chip which builds on the base iPhone 16’s performance even more, making it what Apple says is the “fastest chip in any smartphone”. The Neural Engine, CPU, and GPU all see low double digit increases over A17 Pro and Apple says this will result in 15% faster Apple Intelligence performance. 

The cameras on the 16 Pros feature slight year-over-year improvements. The 6.3 inch Pro now gets the 5x telephoto introduced on the 15 Pro Max last year and both phones have an upgraded 48MP main camera and a new 48MP ultra wide camera. Slo-mo video can now be shot at 4k 120fps and users can now change the frame rate of the video in post. 

The Pro models get the new Camera Control button on the bottom right, now feature four “studio quality” microphones for better audio while recording, plus noise reduction and editing modes that can also be adjusted in the photos app after shooting. The voice memos app also takes advantage of this new feature and lets users record a track over a separate track without the need for headphones. 

The 16 Pro Max also has what Apple says is the longest iPhone battery life, rated at thirty-three hours of video playback. 

The iPhone 16 Pro will start at $999 and the 16 Pro Max at $1199. 

Apple also updated the Apple Watch with the new Series 10. The 10th generation watch now features the biggest display on an Apple Watch. The screen is even larger than the Apple Watch Ultra’s, with wider corners than the Series 9 and glass that extends further down the watch. It features a new “wide angle OLED” display that brings higher brightness and better visibility when viewing off axis. (For example, reading the time when your wrist is down) 

The ticking second hand is now visible when the always on display is resting, media can now be played through the speakers of the watch, and the antenna is now built into the bottom housing which eliminates the red circle on the digital crown. The larger screen also allows for an extra line of text to be shown on screen for even better visibility. 

The Series 10 is 10% lighter than its predecessor and is the thinnest Apple Watch ever at 9.7 mm. It also marks the return of the “Jet Black” colorway seen on the iPhone 7 back in 2016. 

It inherits the depth app and water sensors from the Ultra and now can detect signs of sleep apnea using the accelerometer to help measure breathing disturbances. This feature is pending FDA approval, but will provide users with a detailed report of their sleeping patterns in the encrypted health app. 

You can also now charge your Series 10 up to 80% battery in just 30 minutes and Apple claims 18 hours of battery life. 

Apple Watch Series 10 in aluminum starts at $399 for the 42mm, $429 for the 46mm, and the new polished titanium finish starts at $699. 

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 received a very minor update: a new color. A long awaited black titanium colorway is finally available for the Ultra, but a third generation of the outdoor/sport focused smartwatch is on hold for now. 

There  have been updates to the AirPods lineup. AirPods 4 improve on the in-ear “one-size-fits all” shape and Apple says they are the most comfortable version of this popular design. 

The new AirPods feature improved sound quality, Apple’s H2 chip, and Find My support. 

For the first time, AirPods come in 2 models. The base is $129 and has everything mentioned above and the second is $179 and has noise cancelation and transparency mode for the first time in non-pro AirPods. It will definitely be interesting to see how good the noise canceling is considering this in ear shape has very little passive isolation compared to the AirPods Pro. 

Finally, AirPods Max get a very minor update with a USB-C port and new colors. Quite disappointing for those expecting an upgrade to the now almost four year old headphones. 

Lots of focus on Apple Intelligence which means that many of the features talked about may not even ship with these phones. iOS 18.1 brings Apple Intelligence to the new iPhone models and last year’s 15 Pro and Pro Max and that software version is still in beta as of now. 

It remains to be seen how well it works and whether or not “regular” iPhone users will take advantage of all of this AI horsepower, but even for the less tech enthused, there is a good amount to be excited about.